Favourite soccer team

[netzerkaiser]

Guys, who is your favourite team, & why? So many people here from all over world, Brazil etc, would be great to know.

For me in England, Sheffield United. I just love the red / white battle Trafalgar colours.

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Internationally, six teams:

Italy in 1930's:

Uruguay in 1950, David beats Goliath:

Hungary in 1950's:

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Brazil 1970:

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Netherlands in 1970's:

Italy 1982:

From Italy, love AC Milan:

From South America, love Botafogo, so many great players:

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Love to hear what you think...

[error01x]

Brazil 1970 and 2002

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[viewer2]

France 1998 and Belgian Red Devils 2018.

[xxxVIPERxxx]

My favourite football team, the Invincibles at Arsenal back in the early 2000s.

[plajvaz]

- Yugoslavia and Cameroon in WC1990
- Romania and Bulgaria in WC1994
- Croatia in WC1998

[netzerkaiser]

Thank you. Some really nice & romantic selections there!

[Celticwarrior]

- Yugoslavia and Cameroon in WC1990
- Romania and Bulgaria in WC1994
- Croatia in WC1998

Nice choices,you from the Balkans?

[Celticwarrior]

My favorite club teams are AC Milan,Barcelona,Celtic,Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool
Internationally are Hungary 1950s,Brazil 1970,Netherlands 1970s and 1988,Czech Republic 1996,Croatia 1998 and 2018,Belgium 2018,France 1998,Yugoslavia 1990

[plajvaz]

Nice choices,you from the Balkans?

Thanks! Yes, I am from the Balkans.

[Starrio]

I guess I can choose 3

(1) Brazil 2002 is definitely the best one. It is hands down the best team of all time.

I also like the (2) Germany 2014 team with Klose, Boateng, Reus, Hummels, Khedira, Lahm, Draxler, Muller, Podolski, Schurrle, Mertesacker, Schweinsteiger, Neuer, Kroos, and Gotze.

That's the team that defeated Brazil 7 to 1 in their own home, and in their own World Cup, and made this funny celebration after defeating Argentina:

https://youtu.be/BaizGvZSPyM

Also there is a team from Real Madrid they used to call (3) The Galactics that had Casillas as the goalkeeper, Helguera, Salgado, and Sergio Ramos on the defense, Roberto Carlos was the lateral flyer, and the rest of the team was Raul, Michael Owen, David Beckham, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, and Ronaldo.

You can't go wrong with that:

https://youtu.be/TgFj4lxtvNg

In terms of regular squads:

For England I like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea. I guess Manchester City is not bad since they have De Bruyne.

For Spain I do like Real Madrid, and I do dislike Barcelona, but I admire many Barcelona players, and I also like Valencia, Atletico Madrid, and Cadiz.

For Italy I like the Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina, and Parma.

For France I like Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, Lyon, Marseille, and maybe Nantes too.

For Germany I like Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke 04, Stuttgart, and maybe Welder Bremen.

For Portugal I like Benfica, Sporting, and Porto.

For Netherlands I like Ajax, and PSV.

From the rest of the world I like Galatasaray, Olympiacos, Boca Juniors, Santos, River Plate, Panathinaikos, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dynamo Kiev, and Celtic.

By the way, Argentina national team from recent years isn't bad as long as both Messi and Di Maria are on the field, but it can always go wrong in many ways.

Uruguay also has had good players just like Netherlands, but they always fall short.

The teams that surprised me the most however were France 1998 that I watched as a kid, and Spain 2010 that also won, but to be fair they all had very good players.

I respect Italy 2006 with Cannavaro, but I'm not a fan of France 2018, I would rather see any Yugoslavian country win at this point.

[netzerkaiser]

I guess I can choose 3

(1) Brazil 2002 is definitely the best one. It is hands down the best team of all time.

I also like the (2) Germany 2014 team with Klose, Boateng, Reus, Hummels, Khedira, Lahm, Draxler, Muller, Podolski, Schurrle, Mertesacker, Schweinsteiger, Neuer, Kroos, and Gotze.

That's the team that defeated Brazil 7 to 1 in their own home, and in their own World Cup, and made this funny celebration after defeating Argentina:

https://youtu.be/BaizGvZSPyM

Also there is a team from Real Madrid they used to call (3) The Galactics that had Casillas as the goalkeeper, Helguera, Salgado, and Sergio Ramos on the defense, Roberto Carlos was the lateral flyer, and the rest of the team was Raul, Michael Owen, David Beckham, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, and Ronaldo.

You can't go wrong with that:

https://youtu.be/TgFj4lxtvNg

In terms of regular squads:

For England I like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea. I guess Manchester City is not bad since they have De Bruyne.

For Spain I do like Real Madrid, and I do dislike Barcelona, but I admire many Barcelona players, and I also like Valencia, Atletico Madrid, and Cadiz.

For Italy I like the Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina, and Parma.

For France I like Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, Lyon, Marseille, and maybe Nantes too.

For Germany I like Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke 04, Stuttgart, and maybe Welder Bremen.

For Portugal I like Benfica, Sporting, and Porto.

For Netherlands I like Ajax, and PSV.

From the rest of the world I like Galatasaray, Olympiacos, Boca Juniors, Santos, River Plate, Panathinaikos, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dynamo Kiev, and Celtic.

By the way, Argentina national team from recent years isn't bad as long as both Messi and Di Maria are on the field, but it can always go wrong in many ways.

Uruguay also has had good players just like Netherlands, but they always fall short.

The teams that surprised me the most however were France 1998 that I watched as a kid, and Spain 2010 that also won, but to be fair they all had very good players.

I respect Italy 2006 with Cannavaro, but I'm not a fan of France 2018, I would rather see any Yugoslavian country win at this point.

Great to see Americans digging soccer!

[Starrio]

Oh yes, it's the king sport, I played in my high school team in Rhode Island, and everyone there followed the sport too.

I like to see people mentioning the Croatia team from 1998, from what I understand they were all veterans that end up in that team because of political circumstances.

So they basically were put together from greatness, but without the background of other teams that come from old established countries, and even then they still made it all the way to third place.

France had Zidane and they were home, and Brazil was Brazil, so that's a tough call, but if Croatia had other circumstances I can definitely see that Croatia team winning because they were all badass legendary players from the great Yugoslavia.

[plajvaz]

@Starrio
Former Yugoslavian team from WC1990 (that was big Yugoslavia that consisted of 6 republic: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro) was great team. It was mix of great veteran players and young players that won Youth World Cup (for players younger than 21 years) three years before that (Chile 1987). Yugoslavia beat Spain in the eighths finals (2:0, both goals were great, scored by Dragan Stojkovic) and in the quarterfinals they played against Argentina (led by Maradona, Caniggia and Burruchaga). One Yugoslavian player got red card in 31st minute but even with 10 players Yugoslavia was not inferior to Argentina. It was 0:0 after regular time and two extra times. Finally Yugoslavia lost 3:2 on penalties, even though Yugoslavian goalkeeper saved Maradona's penalty.

Yugoslavia had even stronger team for Euro1992. They were first in their qualifying group and they were considered one of the favorites in the tournament. Unfortunatelly, Yugoslavia was banned from the final tournament (on 31 May 1992), after the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars. Denmark replaced Yugoslavia in the final tournament and eventually Denmark won that tournament.

Yugoslavia broke apart and all these magnificent players didn't get a chance to participate in WC1994 as well, because none of former Yugoslavian republics (and now separate independent countries) didn't participate in qualifications, due to mentioned war.

After that, Croatia participated in Euro1996 (and lost 2:1 to Germany in quarterfinals), but FR Yugoslavia (now consisted only of Serbia and Montenegro) still was not allowed to participate, because FR Yugoslavia was still placed under UN sanctions.

Finally, both FR Yugoslavia and Croatia qualified for WC1998 (Croatia won 3rd place and FR Yugoslavia lost 2:1 to Netherlands in eighths finals, after extra time). Both teams had great players that were key players in top european football teams. There were mostly the same players that won Youth World Cup in 1987 and that would probably dominate in Euro1992, WC1994 and Euro1996 if big former Yugoslavia didn't broke apart.

[netzerkaiser]

@Starrio
Former Yugoslavian team from WC1990 (that was big Yugoslavia that consisted of 6 republic: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro) was great team. It was mix of great veteran players and young players that won Youth World Cup (for players younger than 21 years) three years before that (Chile 1987). Yugoslavia beat Spain in the eighths finals (2:0, both goals were great, scored by Dragan Stojkovic) and in the quarterfinals they played against Argentina (led by Maradona, Caniggia and Burruchaga). One Yugoslavian player got red card in 31st minute but even with 10 players Yugoslavia was not inferior to Argentina. It was 0:0 after regular time and two extra times. Finally Yugoslavia lost 3:2 on penalties, even though Yugoslavian goalkeeper saved Maradona's penalty.

Yugoslavia had even stronger team for Euro1992. They were first in their qualifying group and they were considered one of the favorites in the tournament. Unfortunatelly, Yugoslavia was banned from the final tournament (on 31 May 1992), after the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars. Denmark replaced Yugoslavia in the final tournament and eventually Denmark won that tournament.

Yugoslavia broke apart and all these magnificent players didn't get a chance to participate in WC1994 as well, because none of former Yugoslavian republics (and now separate independent countries) didn't participate in qualifications, due to mentioned war.

After that, Croatia participated in Euro1996 (and lost 2:1 to Germany in quarterfinals), but FR Yugoslavia (now consisted only of Serbia and Montenegro) still was not allowed to participate, because FR Yugoslavia was still placed under UN sanctions.

Finally, both FR Yugoslavia and Croatia qualified for WC1998 (Croatia won 3rd place and FR Yugoslavia lost 2:1 to Netherlands in eighths finals, after extra time). Both teams had great players that were key players in top european football teams. There were mostly the same players that won Youth World Cup in 1987 and that would probably dominate in Euro1992, WC1994 and Euro1996 if big former Yugoslavia didn't broke apart.

Fantastic knowledge here. It seems Yugoslavia were unlucky in 1950 & 1962 also. One thing that puzzles me is that Croatia, in past 30 years have produced on the whole,significantly more world class players than Serbia. Any insights Plajvas?

I also think FIFA didn't want a small homogenous little country to win WC in 2018... FIFA are as corrupt as they come. Any doubts over that were settled in my mind when Italy & Spain were cheated against in South Korea's favour in 2002.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70YBjA0bLFM

Seeing is believing. Either of these teams would've given Brazil a run for their money, I feel.

[Celticwarrior]

Nice choices,you from the Balkans?

Thanks! Yes, I am from the Balkans.

Which country? I am from Croatia

[Starrio]

Thank you for sharing all that knowledge. I had no idea all of that went down before that World Cup 1998 team.

It makes sense why Yugoslavian countries are always strong in the World Cup, it seems they all come from the same background, and this is why we saw Croatia on the final this time.

I think Hungary is the other team that's strong from Eastern Europe. I believe they have the most goals in a single game on a World Cup match, and that's not easy to do.

[Iddaoeeok]

Thank you for sharing all that knowledge. I had no idea all of that went down before that World Cup 1998 team.

It makes sense why Yugoslavian countries are always strong in the World Cup, it seems they all come from the same background, and this is why we saw Croatia on the final this time.

I think Hungary is the other team that's strong from Eastern Europe. I believe they have the most goals in a single game on a World Cup match, and that's not easy to do.

Hungary were the best team in the world in the mid-50s but they've been mediocre for a long long time. Czech Republic actually have a much better record in tournament football. A bit like porn in some ways!

[Celticwarrior]

That's because ex-Yugoslav countries have a strong talent base,I mean football is a religion to people in ex-Yugoslavia and besides club football is shit due to weak domestic leagues when it comes to national teams ex-Yugoslav countries always find themselves playing in the Euros or the World Cup.Croatia missed only one World Cup (2010 in South Africa) and one Euro (2000 in Belgium/Netherlands) so Croatia is by far the most successful national team in ex-Yugoslavia,Serbia hasn't appeared in the Euros since 2000 but they are regulars in the World Cup (they missed the 2002 World Cup in Japan/South Korea but appeared ever since).Slovenia had some little success with appearing in three major tournaments (Euro 2000,World Cup 2002 and 2010),Macedonia has only appeared in the Euros this summer,Bosnia-Herzegovina has a World Cup appearance from 2014 while Montenegro and Kosovo are still waiting for their first major tournament appearances.But you can always count on Croatia to appear on major tournament,in Russia we went almost to the end but lost to France in the final,but it was our best ever result,we topped the 1998 bronze generation.

[netzerkaiser]

Thank you for sharing all that knowledge. I had no idea all of that went down before that World Cup 1998 team.

It makes sense why Yugoslavian countries are always strong in the World Cup, it seems they all come from the same background, and this is why we saw Croatia on the final this time.

I think Hungary is the other team that's strong from Eastern Europe. I believe they have the most goals in a single game on a World Cup match, and that's not easy to do.

Hungary were the best team in the world in the mid-50s but they've been mediocre for a long long time. Czech Republic actually have a much better record in tournament football. A bit like porn in some ways!

Yeah its sad. Like I say, I've visited rural Hungary a lot & you go through villages that have no real function anymore since collectivisation ended, & you see the sad old football pitch overgrown.

Didn't take you for a football man Iddaoeeok! Do you support a team or ar you nuetral? Me I just top the clock mid '90's. The ball so light now, wages obscene, you can't tackle... I always said if Messi was playing in mid 1980's he'd just be considered another fine player. To me he lacks acceleration to make him truly exciting. I don't even put him in top three Argentinians, I think this guy was better... great clip here of our own John Charles giving him clip round the ear!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6fq8S0rocI

And I don't think Messi could lace Baggios boots... crazy tackles, horrible injuries, heavier ball, always brave to play for less fashionable clubs, great acceleration, & seemed to be beautiful human being too... there were SO MANY great great players...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-7KMkza-8o

[plajvaz]

Which country? I am from Croatia

I am from Serbia.

Fantastic knowledge here. It seems Yugoslavia were unlucky in 1950 & 1962 also.

Thanks!
Yugoslavia was also very unlucky in the first World Cup in Uruguay 1930 (if that can be called "unlucky"). Yugoslavia was first in their group, ahead of Brazil. In the semifinals, Yugoslavia played with host Uruguay. Yugoslavia took a 1:0 lead, than Uruguay took a 2:1 lead. After that Yugoslavia had a regular goal disallowed by a controversial offside decision. And then Uruguay scored one of the most controversial goals in football history: the ball went out of play, but policeman that was standing near the line returned the ball straight back to the Uruguayan player who scored a goal. The referee didn't disallow that goal and Uruguay took a 3:1 lead. In the second halftime Uruguay scored three more goals for the final 6:1 win.
Third place play-off was not established until 1934, so the format of the 1930 World Cup is unique in not distinguishing between the third and fourth placed teams. At the end of the championship, the captains of the United States team and Yugoslavia team both received bronze medals. Much later (in 1986) FIFA recognized USA as third and Yugoslavia as fourth team, due to a better goal difference.

One thing that puzzles me is that Croatia, in past 30 years have produced on the whole,significantly more world class players than Serbia. Any insights Plajvas?

Celticwarrior already provided great analysis. Serbian domestic league is weak, almost completely ruined and football organisations are corrupted. On the other side, Croatia have slightly stronger league, but more important fact is: Croatian players are much more motivated to play for national team in comparison to Serbian players. Croatian footballers put their hart on the field when they play for national team. Even when Serbia (or Union of Serbia and Montenegro) had great team, they somehow manage to fuck everyhing up in the final tournament. For example, Union of Serbia and Montenegro was one of the best teams in qualifying for World Cup 2006. They were first in their qualifying group, ahead of Spain, didn't lose any match, scoring 16 goals and receiving only 1 goal. But in final tournament, Union of Serbia and Montenegro was the last team in group stage, losing all three matches, scoring only 2 goals and receiving 10 goals. Similar stupidity Serbia repeated at next World Cup 2010.
With similar amount of talented players as Serbia, Croatia achieves much better results in football. I cannot say it is caused by differences in mentality (I believe there is no big differences in mentality between all ex-Yugoslav republics). For example, in basketball, the situation is quite opposite (Serbia usually wins a medal and Croatia usually fails in final tournaments, even if their team has almost the same quality as Serbian team).
Nevertheless, I believe if former "big" Yugoslavia still exist, it will be one of the most dominant forces in football, in basketball (I believe that Yugoslavian national team will be almost equal with USA dream team, especially the "doomed" generation from 1991 to 1996, but also team with currently active players from all six ex-Yu republics), as well as in almost all other collective sports (like volleyball, water polo and handball).

I think Hungary is the other team that's strong from Eastern Europe. I believe they have the most goals in a single game on a World Cup match, and that's not easy to do.

That is right. And Yugoslavia is a close second. Three biggest wins at World Cups are:
Hungary 10-1 El Salvador - 1982
Yugoslavia 9-0 Zaire - 1974
Hungary 9-0 South Korea - 1954

[Celticwarrior]

How can I contact you,plajvaz?

[Starrio]

That is right. And Yugoslavia is a close second. Three biggest wins at World Cups are:
Hungary 10-1 El Salvador - 1982
Yugoslavia 9-0 Zaire - 1974
Hungary 9-0 South Korea - 1954

Damn, they were total beasts.

[netzerkaiser]

How can I contact you,plajvaz?

To you Yugoslav lads:

The farcical thing about it was I spent time pondering over the steel beam that knocked Mitic out against Brazil in 1950, completely forgetting horrors of Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia, Jasenovac camp extermination, & Bleiburg repatriations revenge.

All that happened in 10 years previous to Mitic & his steel beam.

Its chilling really, how we prioritize things?

[Celticwarrior]

We Yugoslavs in general are in a complicated love-hate relationship,here in Croatia for example young folks love to listen to Serbian turbofolk music which was heavily propagated by Milosevic and his government in the 1990s in order to eliminate Rock music and other Western influences from Serbia,a lot of Serbs on the other hand have an appreciation towards our success in sports (especially in football) and often travel to Croatia for summer tourism.I myself have relatives in Bosnia which are Serbs so in my opinion it's a very complicated story about Croatian-Serbian relationships through history,we were together in Yugoslavia and Tito promoted "Brotherhood and Unity" of Yugoslav nations which meant the suppression of nationalism,so like I mentioned it's a complicated love-hate relationship.Both economies are in bad shape,corruption is everywhere,people are en masse leaving because they can't get good jobs and taxes are way too high (I lived in the Czech Republic for a year and they are at least 30 years ahead of ex-Yugoslav countries,it is way cheaper than in Croatia and the Czechs have a more liberal attitude towards sex compared to Croats which are even bigger conservatives than Poles).For me nationalism is pretty stupid,you can love the country you're residing without the hate.I consider people from all across ex-Yugoslavia my folk,I love to chat and meet with people from ex-Yugoslavia (while living in the Czech Republic I worked with guys from Serbia and Macedonia),we could have been something like Czechs and Slovaks if there wasn't for stupid people who wanted war and violence,consider where we ex-Yugoslavs are now and where the Czechs and Slovaks are in politics and economy,in sports we beat them easily (Croatia is a football powerhouse while Serbia has Djokovic and basketball).

[netzerkaiser]

We Yugoslavs in general are in a complicated love-hate relationship,here in Croatia for example young folks love to listen to Serbian turbofolk music which was heavily propagated by Milosevic and his government in the 1990s in order to eliminate Rock music and other Western influences from Serbia,a lot of Serbs on the other hand have an appreciation towards our success in sports (especially in football) and often travel to Croatia for summer tourism.I myself have relatives in Bosnia which are Serbs so in my opinion it's a very complicated story about Croatian-Serbian relationships through history,we were together in Yugoslavia and Tito promoted "Brotherhood and Unity" of Yugoslav nations which meant the suppression of nationalism,so like I mentioned it's a complicated love-hate relationship.Both economies are in bad shape,corruption is everywhere,people are en masse leaving because they can't get good jobs and taxes are way too high (I lived in the Czech Republic for a year and they are at least 30 years ahead of ex-Yugoslav countries,it is way cheaper than in Croatia and the Czechs have a more liberal attitude towards sex compared to Croats which are even bigger conservatives than Poles).For me nationalism is pretty stupid,you can love the country you're residing without the hate.I consider people from all across ex-Yugoslavia my folk,I love to chat and meet with people from ex-Yugoslavia (while living in the Czech Republic I worked with guys from Serbia and Macedonia),we could have been something like Czechs and Slovaks if there wasn't for stupid people who wanted war and violence,consider where we ex-Yugoslavs are now and where the Czechs and Slovaks are in politics and economy,in sports we beat them easily (Croatia is a football powerhouse while Serbia has Djokovic and basketball).

Thanks.

How cool is this? I used to collect retro jerseys:

[Celticwarrior]

Nice shirts,if Yugoslavia somehow existed I could imagine that Adidas would be the kit supplier for the national team so we would see Modric,Džeko,Ivanovic and others in Yugoslav blue.

[netzerkaiser]

Nice shirts,if Yugoslavia somehow existed I could imagine that Adidas would be the kit supplier for the national team so we would see Modric,Džeko,Ivanovic and others in Yugoslav blue.

Thanks. These were of English retro company called Toffs.

[Starrio]

So what about Czechoslovakia? Were they as good as Yugoslavia and Hungary, or more like Russia?

[netzerkaiser]

So what about Czechoslovakia? Were they as good as Yugoslavia and Hungary, or more like Russia?

They have same pedigree as Yugoslavia and Hungary. They reached word cup final in '34 & '62, & won Euros in '76.

[beklof]

I don’t really have to think for a second. It’s Brazil 1970. I realized I’m not the only one here. That's great! Pelé was "executed" at the 1966 World Cup which was a shock to me. In addition Brazil remained in the qualification group (thus defending the world championship) which was an even bigger shock. Many thought (including in Brazil) that Pelé’s career at the top is over. But he returned better than ever to the Mexican World Cup and downright dominated them. He had lost a bit of his speed but replaced it with his tremendous genius. But it wasn’t just about Pelé but the whole Brazilian team was fantastic. Rivelino, Tostao, Jairzinho, Gerson, C.Alberto, etc. No football team in my lifetime has made as great and unforgettable an impact on me as that legendary Brazil World Cup team of 1970! I even remember many individual performances from those games as if they had happened yesterday.

[netzerkaiser]

I don’t really have to think for a second. It’s Brazil 1970. I realized I’m not the only one here. That's great! Pelé was "executed" at the 1966 World Cup which was a shock to me. In addition Brazil remained in the qualification group (thus defending the world championship) which was an even bigger shock. Many thought (including in Brazil) that Pelé’s career at the top is over. But he returned better than ever to the Mexican World Cup and downright dominated them. He had lost a bit of his speed but replaced it with his tremendous genius. But it wasn’t just about Pelé but the whole Brazilian team was fantastic. Rivelino, Tostao, Jairzinho, Gerson, C.Alberto, etc. No football team in my lifetime has made as great and unforgettable an impact on me as that legendary Brazil World Cup team of 1970! I even remember many individual performances from those games as if they had happened yesterday.

Glorious team, but you have to always remember one thing. If Brazil 1970 were playing England on a bitterly cold night in Sheffield in December 1969 or 1970 it'd be a different affair altogether.

The acclimatisation Northern Europeans had to make for high Mexican altitudes was enormous. So many of England 1970 squad died young of heart attacks etc, its eerie.

[Starrio]

Everyone knows 1966 world cup was arranged for England to win at home, but no body complained because we owe the sport to them, so it feels alright they at least got that in a very important conquering period for them. In 1966 they were still conquering the world with their music. They are the reason the whole world speaks English, and listen to music in English, and watches movies in English, and understand many cultural things that are notoriously English, just like soccer or "football" is an English sport loved and accepted worldwide.

[Starrio]

They have same pedigree as Yugoslavia and Hungary. They reached word cup final in '34 & '62, & won Euros in '76.

That's good to know. I was hoping for that.

[netzerkaiser]

They have same pedigree as Yugoslavia and Hungary. They reached word cup final in '34 & '62, & won Euros in '76.

That's good to know. I was hoping for that.

TBH Starrio, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia have all been mediocre since early 1960's. But their importance before that was great.

In recent decades, Bulgaria in '94 & Croatia since inception have been a joy, but sadly its been a largely peripheral affair.

I guess the big question is, why have Russia & Ukraine not done better? Surely limited life prospects & big population equals great teams & players?

[Starrio]

I consider Croatia also Yugoslavia, so they have done really good in my opinion, they were even in the last final.

I honestly don't know how any Eastern European country does good because with that amount of good looking women you would think people would spend their days having sex and nothing else.

[netzerkaiser]

I consider Croatia also Yugoslavia, so they have done really good in my opinion, they were even in the last final.

I honestly don't know how any Eastern European country does good because with that amount of good looking women you would think people would spend their days having sex and nothing else.

[YumYum74]

I am a season ticket holder of PSV Eindhoven, have been for over 25 years. Go to all games (Covid permitting), league, cup and European. In my younger years also traveled to European away games, had the privilege of being at Anfield once for a Champions League game and singing along with You'll Never Walk Alone. Great experience.


And to tie this thread to this forum a bit: players of Norwegian side SK Brann had an orgy at their stadium last week. One that's causing them lots of headaches...
https://www.newz.com/soccer-players-fil ... a-stadium/

[plajvaz]

How can I contact you,plajvaz?

It seems that private messages are not working... I don't have the idea, without exposing e-mail address publicly.

TBH Starrio, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia have all been mediocre since early 1960's. But their importance before that was great.
In recent decades, Bulgaria in '94 & Croatia since inception have been a joy, but sadly its been a largely peripheral affair.

I cannot agree with this statement. Only Hungary dropped out in the early 1960's and became mediocre team.
Yugoslavia won Youth World Cup in Chile 1987, had very good stint at WC1990 and they had one of the greatest teams for Euro1992, before country broke appart. After that, out of all the ex-Yu republics, Croatia had the best results (3rd at WC1998 and 2nd at WC2018) and Serbia was also regular participant in World Cups (missing only WC2002), but without success.
Regarding Czechoslovakia - Czech republic was 2nd at Euro1996. They have defeated Italy in their group, Portugal in quarterfinals and France in semifinals. They lost to Germany in finals when Oliver Bierhoff scored "golden goal" in extra time. Golden goal was a "sudden death" rule used by FIFA from 1996 to 2002 (if one team scores a goal in extra time, the match is stopped immediately and that team is declared the winner). That was a great generation of Czech players and they played very attractive football.
Bulgaria was 4th at WC1994, but Romania played maybe even better football at that World Cup. Just take a look at all those goals scored by Hagi and other Romanians, especially against Argentina.
Regarding Balkan countries, there is also Greece who surprisingly won Euro2006.

[Celticwarrior]

How can I contact you,plajvaz?

It seems that private messages are not working... I don't have the idea, without exposing e-mail address publicly.

Exactly that's kind of a problem since private messages are abolished and you pointed out at a problem with the e-mail address

[Starrio]

Someone mentioned Greece, and I have to share something that may sound funny, which is that I always considered Greece a Western Europe country even though is on the far East of the continent, and Poland an Eastern Europe country even though is on the West side of Europe.

I think it's because Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese use a lot of Greek in the language, and many Polish people look from Eastern Europe sometimes.