Are there anymore small teams left?
Posted on | September 11, 2008 | 2 Comments
This weeks World Cup qualifiers provided interesting matches for the football fans but also provided some stunning results, results that would have generated a lot of money if someone would bet on them.
The most stunning result was the defeat of Otmar Hitzfeld ‘s Switzerland team 2-1 against Luxembourg. Having lost to Luxembourg team in front of their own fans, with a goal scored in the 86 minute, Switzerland have seriously damaged their image and provided one of the top surprises in the World Cup qualifiers.This historic win for Luxembourg was the first one in a World Cup fixture since 1972.
Another surprisingly team was Lithuania. After an astonishing win 3-0 again top favorite Romania on Saturday evening, the Lithuanians did it again and defeated Karel Bruckner’s Austria ,after a conclusive 2-0 win. If the first result against Romania can be considered an accident ,after last win we can raise some questions about how we look at these so called “small teams”.
Another “surprisingly” thing would be in Romania’s “win” against the Faroe Islands where after opening the score Romania found itself being dominated by an amateur team , and almost was equalized in the 90 min if it wasn’t for Romania’s goalkeeper great intervention.
Having these in mind, I’m asking a question.Are there anymore any small teams left? Or is it just a mith and the football has evolved such that any results like the ones above shouldn’t be considered a surprise?
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2 Responses to “Are there anymore small teams left?”
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September 11th, 2008 @ 7:46 am
I´m sure there still are some small Teams, but i wouldn´t look for them in Europe. Football got quite athletic and organized and you don´t need the technique of Robinho anymore to score goals.(ask Luca Toni,Miro Klose,Drogba,Crouch…)
Part of those surpises seems to result of psychology. Playing against Luxembourg you wouldnt go in tha game and think “wow thats gonna be a fight” bigger teams just try to dominate smaller teams with their technique instead of their typical strong sides…
October 13th, 2008 @ 9:37 am
This is a strange article.While I agree the gap between the power teams (bra,arg,ita,fra,ger,eng,spa,por) and middle standard teams is closing.I wouldnt call austria,switzerland and romania big teams.switzerland and austria only qualified as hosts,and honestly they were extremely poor at best.romania were purely a poor team that went ultra defensive,they are NOT a big team.how you can say austria,switzerland and romania big teams really puts your knowledge into question