Awesome soccer call.

[BSmack]

Doug Gottlieb, Dick Vitale. They are nobody compared to this guy. Pro Wrasslin announcers can believe this man's superhuman pipes.

[Dr_Phibes]

Truffaut calls bushit

[Dinsdale]

I was going to post this.

Awesome.

The backstory is that Iceland is the shittiest soccer team in the European group. The country has a population about half that of Portland, OR. Not the Portland Metro Area (2 million or so)... half the city proper (650K-ish).

I'd be freaking jacked the fuck up, too.

Think about your city (or less... use your imagination to envision an area of 325K people), and trying to field a team to compete against the bigboys of Europe in soccer.

[Carson]

The Netherlands didn't even make the tourney.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Awesome tournament. Apparently, the group stage means nothing, as everybody advances anyways.

Why not just have a barbeque on the pitch, invite the kids, kick the ball back and forth...the wives could trade muffin recipes...

[Screw_Michigan]

Awesome tournament. Apparently, the group stage means nothing, as everybody advances anyways.

The backstory is that Iceland is the shittiest soccer team in the European group

Except for Russia on both accounts.

But Marty is right, the fact that third place teams advance in this tournament is pathetic. Almost as pathetic as play-in games in the NCAA tournament.

[Screw_Michigan]

Awesome tournament. Apparently, the group stage means nothing, as everybody advances anyways.

Why not just have a barbeque on the pitch, invite the kids, kick the ball back and forth...the wives could trade muffin recipes...

Scrote could bring his handbag and compare it with the wives' bags.

[The Big Pickle]

Awesome if you're a FAGGOT!

TROTS
TROTS
TROTS
TROTS

[Nishlord]

This is better, even though it still hurts:

He's going to pass it to Diego, there's Maradona with it, two men on him, Maradona steps on the ball, there goes down the right flank the genius of world football, he leaves the wing and he's going to pass it to Burruchaga... Still Maradona! Genius! Genius! Genius! There, there, there, there, there, there! Goaaaaaaaal! Goaaaaaaal! I want to cry, oh holy God, long live football! What a goal! Diegoal! Maradona! It's to cry, excuse me! Maradona, in a memorable run, in the best play of all times! Little cosmic comet, which planet did you come from, to leave so many Englishmen behind, so that the country becomes a clenched fist crying for Argentina? Argentina 2, England 0! Diegoal, Diegoal, Diego Armando Maradona! Thank you, God, for football, for Maradona, for these tears, for this Argentina 2, England 0!

— Víctor Hugo Morales

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wVho3I0NtU

[Nishlord]

And this classic from a Norwegian commentator in 1981:

'Lord Nelson! Lord Beaverbrook! Sir Winston Churchill! Sir Anthony Eden! Clement Attlee! Henry Cooper! Lady Diana! Maggie Thatcher - can you hear me, Maggie Thatcher! Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqZTP8-8wIs

[Go Coogs']

I know I'm being a bit of a homer here, but Ian Darke's call on the stoppage time goal against Algeria was prefect.

[SunCoastSooner]

I was going to post this.

Awesome.

The backstory is that Iceland is the shittiest soccer team in the European group. The country has a population about half that of Portland, OR. Not the Portland Metro Area (2 million or so)... half the city proper (650K-ish).

I'd be freaking jacked the fuck up, too.

Think about your city (or less... use your imagination to envision an area of 325K people), and trying to field a team to compete against the bigboys of Europe in soccer.

Really an oversimplification of the Iceland situation and system.

I actually went to Iceland a little less than a year ago with a group of my colleagues to learn about the system there. Was an awesome experience. Iceland doesn't really have an economy to support real professional soccer as we'd know it in most developed countries but the nation as a whole is soccer crazed like no other place currently in the world, even Britain.

Iceland has 72 semi-pro to amateur clubs which play most of the year in indoor facilities they share with each other. They use the traditional Promotion/Relegation system as any real soccering country does. They've streamlined their youth development using the Dutch system. The vast majority of the players in Iceland who move on to larger European clubs initial transfers are made for free to their next club, relying that if they are sold on to another club they'll recover some expenses in solidarity payments and training compensation under FIFA guidelines. This makes their talented players a little bit more desirable in their first professional club transfer from Iceland and gets their best players more opportunities.

Iceland's youth national teams' players who aren't abroad already plying their trade professionally practice more with their national team than with local clubs when they break through to the NT system. They all grow up playing the same formations and using the same tactics. Iceland's NT system is setup to profit off of European advancement of individual talents while also allowing their most talented youth to grow up understanding what it means to play together with "one mind."

It's almost a system that couldn't be replicated in larger countries and unique to places like them and the Netherlands.

Just an FYI.

[SunCoastSooner]

Awesome tournament. Apparently, the group stage means nothing, as everybody advances anyways.

The backstory is that Iceland is the shittiest soccer team in the European group

Except for Russia on both accounts.

But Marty is right, the fact that third place teams advance in this tournament is pathetic. Almost as pathetic as play-in games in the NCAA tournament.

They're considering going to four groups of six in Euro 2020 because of exactly this. This six groups of four may be a one off in this format. May also be a trial run for what we could see if the World Cup expands to 40 nations which will likely involve eight groups of five instead of ten groups of four.

Just growing pains of an international tournament not unlike what the World Cup experienced in the 80s and 90s.

[SunCoastSooner]

Oh, also, outside of the top semi-pro league in the country there is no real freedom of movement for the players unless they go abroad. Adults, youth, all play for their local teams with no exceptions, kind of like little league baseball in America. Only clubs who are in top league are allowed to bring in players from outside their area and even then only on limited basis. Which means the same kids play together unless they go to the very top or breakthrough to the national team.