Is anyone enjoying the Nations League?

Markolan

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Tried to watch some games in the last 10 days just to choose which NT to support in Qatar but I've seen horrible football all around..

Spain is so boring every time. France awful without Mbappè. England games: snoozefest. Germany: very disappointing. Belgium: finished as top NT.. Even Portugal should play much better. Gonna root for Argentina and USA at this point..
 

Paul_Scholes18

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Markolan said:
Tried to watch some games in the last 10 days just to choose which NT to support in Qatar but I've seen horrible football all around..

Spain is so boring every time. France awful without Mbappè. England games: snoozefest. Germany: very disappointing. Belgium: finished as top NT.. Even Portugal should play much better. Gonna root for Argentina and USA at this point..
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Yeah without Sweden I do not know who to support. I have many Danish friends so would be happy for them in a way, but at the same time they are rivals to Sweden so not too happy if they win it. Although it is not the same as with club sides.

Always with a soft spot for England, but they are boring and do not have that many United players for sure. If Rashford and Sancho has played well enough to get in the squad it is more fun.

It will be many tight games so probably going to enjoy some bad pens etc.

I have good football friends from Poland and Belgium so will support them as well despite Poland knocking us out.
 

bosnian_red

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So weird and dumb that there's been like 4 games per national team after the season finished, with them all being essentially friendlies. It's crazy that they just keep adding matches to the calendar with nothing stopping it.
 

Cheimoon

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I actually like the concept. The tiered groups mean that group stages are over pretty quickly and teams only get to play opponents on their own level - so no embarrassing matches between the big ones and the dwarf states, and the latter don't just always hopelessly lose.

Of course, it's entirely meaningless right now, but I think they should use this to replace the qualification stages for the Euros and World Cup. Everyone in the top tier groups gets sent to the WC, and the EC is reduced to knockout matches between the winners of those groups. Boom: international matches are far reduced in number, and no more pointless matches.

Some say the likes of Andorra should be able to play the likes of Germany sometimes. I don't see why, but if so, we could use some of the dates what have now come available to also have an FA cup style tournament consisting of single-game knock-out from the first round.

There you go. Everything fixed. World peace!
Pretzels81 said:
No.

Feck FIFA.
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A fine sentiment in general, but unfortunately, FIFA isn't involved here.
 

Fortitude

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Not a single interest.

The players will suffer the fallout throughout the season and into the World Cup, and to do this in a World Cup year is outrageous in itself.
 

tentan

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I like it. It's better than those pointless friendlies against second tier nations. There's a trophy at the end, so it makes sense really.
 

Nicolarra90

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Tyrion said:
It's just going to get worse. It's a game of Buckaroo were they just keep adding games. FIFA wants a bigger world cup and world club cup and UEFA wants a bigger Champions League. There doesn't seem to be any competition that's going to actually reduce its game load.
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Well most teams have over 20-25 players registered but only 15 or less regularly play so they will have to rotate the full team more frequently.
That will benefit the top teams specially millionaire ones but it has always been that way.
 

Bondi77

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I always love it when England win and the other big teams lose no matter what the competition.
 

tentan

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bosnian_red said:
So weird and dumb that there's been like 4 games per national team after the season finished, with them all being essentially friendlies. It's crazy that they just keep adding matches to the calendar with nothing stopping it.
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The reason for that is because of the world cup later this year. Some of those 4 matches would've been played in November if the WC was in the summer, so they have get it out of the way now.
 

Reapersoul20

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It's a waste of limited player availability and I detest it. I've watched a few games but it pisses me off that players time is being spent on this tin-pot tournament when there's already such a cramped schedule.

Even some kind of backdoor tournament into the WC with the shit nations would be far more craic than this, and give other nations an actual break.
 

HTG

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Haven’t seen a single game yet and don’t really understand what it even is.
 

DRJosh

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The Nations League was great in tempering my expectations of what we can expect from England. My wife's English, so England will be my second team apart from Australia.
 

VanDeBank

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The games with the strongest XI line ups, yes. Definitely more enjoyable than the friendlies back in the day.

I dont mind the lack of intercontinental games. For every Argentina we faced there were 5 countries that played diabolical football.
 

massi83

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Pogue Mahone said:
I mean, it’s better to have football to watch than no football at all. Marginally. But I can’t make myself give even the teeniest shite about any of it. It’s complicated, over long and boring. And an absolute travesty that we’re enduring this bollox instead of what we should be doing this summer, watching a World Cup.

But maybe it’s just me? Are some of ye loving all the ‘ball you’ve been watching these last few weeks?
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Yes. I think it is a great competion for other countries than the top-8ish. I never expected biggest teams to play full strength and they probably should rotate a bit more.

How is it complicated?

I think football is far too elitist (as is this forum) and everything is seen through the top 0,1% of players and teams.

UEFA is an absolutely terrible organisation (although pretty much all the best club teams are equally immoral) but nations league and conference league have been great success stories so far.

Maybe you would enjoy it more if Ireland weren't so bad :wenger:

4 games now is a bit much, but that is only a consequence of the WC and won't happen again.
 

Chicharo

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It seemed like a good idea when it started, but now I see that even the teams don't give a shit. Look at the lineups, neither of them play their best players at the same time, lots of rotation, plus the season just ended, the timing couldn't be any worse
 

tomaldinho1

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Basa1987 said:
Mate, I live in Texas. Kick-offs before 8 PM would mean either killing the players or games played at snail's pace.

Btw, average for Dallas is 25C in summer? Are we talking about the same place?
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Happy to be corrected but that’s what a number of websites said the average was. I get it’s super humid so obviously that factors in as well. 8pm is also a very normal kick off time i.e. you don’t have to move the entire tournament to the winter!
 

Champ

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massi83 said:
Yes. I think it is a great competion for other countries than the top-8ish. I never expected biggest teams to play full strength and they probably should rotate a bit more.

How is it complicated?

I think football is far too elitist (as is this forum) and everything is seen through the top 0,1% of players and teams.

UEFA is an absolutely terrible organisation (although pretty much all the best club teams are equally immoral) but nations league and conference league have been great success stories so far.

Maybe you would enjoy it more if Ireland weren't so bad :wenger:

4 games now is a bit much, but that is only a consequence of the WC and won't happen again.
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I agree with this, football is elitist,

I'm enjoying in, not often you see three goals in a game, especially against close rivals.

But it does seem that the top countries and players don't really enjoy the games that much (listen to what KDB had to say) whereas the lesser teams enjoy it more as they are playing teams usually of a similar level and so the games are more competitive.
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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I preferred it when it was 3 teams per group, and so each team played 4 group games instead of 6.

I liked that system of the winners qualifying for the semi-finals, the 3rd placed team getting relegated, and the 2nd placed team ‘staying put’.

But anyway it beats friendlies, and it’s nice to see heavyweight teams facing each other home and away in competitive matches, and likewise ‘moderate teams’ and ‘minnows’ who are typically drawn in different qualification groups.
 

MackRobinson

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Basa1987 said:
Mate, I live in Texas. Kick-offs before 8 PM would mean either killing the players or games played at snail's pace.

Btw, average for Dallas is 25C in summer? Are we talking about the same place?
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If you are from Dallas you should know AT&T Stadium has a retractable roof and is air-conditioned. This is a non-issue.
 

Jev

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I don't care much for the format but I'm enjoying it due to the fact that Denmark are so awesome at the moment and I'm savoring every match.
 

Real Name

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It's a good concept on paper and better than friendlies but the schedule is awful, after a long season they had to play 4 games in 10 days, that's brutal, but that's Uefa for you.
 

Melbourne Red

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massi83 said:
Yes. I think it is a great competion for other countries than the top-8ish. I never expected biggest teams to play full strength and they probably should rotate a bit more.

How is it complicated?

I think football is far too elitist (as is this forum) and everything is seen through the top 0,1% of players and teams.

UEFA is an absolutely terrible organisation (although pretty much all the best club teams are equally immoral) but nations league and conference league have been great success stories so far.

Maybe you would enjoy it more if Ireland weren't so bad :wenger:

4 games now is a bit much, but that is only a consequence of the WC and won't happen again.
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This. Absolutely every word of this.
 

GifLord

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It's so stupid. At least when we had friendlies we didn't pretend we liked them.
 

TheLiverBird

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No interest this far

though admittedly I will no doubt take interest if we get to the final purely because wether we like it or not, it’s a potential first viewing of us lifting a trophy since 66

right now though, meh

Which I feel a little hypocritical about, hated meaningless friendlies and then Voila….Nations League where you compete for an actual trophy, and all I do or we do, is smear at it

what do folks want? No friendlies at all, and purely just Euro and World Cup tournaments? Nothing else?
 
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RoyH1

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Better than friendlies, but no substitute for what we should be having which is a proper WC instead of the plastic w we’re getting in November
 

Sandikan

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International football is running on fumes, no is just about justified by the world Cup and euros.
But unfortunately everything else is just rubbish, upsets the flow of the league games, or just fatigues players after a long season.

Any solution that involves more international football is bonkers.
 

Sandikan

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TheLiverBird said:
No interest this far

m though admittedly I will no doubt take interest if we get to the final purely because wether we like it or not, it’s a potential first viewing of us lifting a trophy since 66

right now though, meh

Which I feel a little hypocritical about, hated meaningless friendlies and then Voila….Nations League where you compete for an actual trophy, and all I do or we do, is smear at it

what do folks want? No friendlies at all, and purely just Euro and World Cup tournaments? Nothing else?
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Just the tournaments. But clearly that gives a big problem of how to qualify.

I'm sick of hearing Kane has scored another 2 pens and tap ins v some outfit with amateurs.
He'll end up with double the goals of the likes of Lineker, Rooney and Charlton and its farcical.
 

The Urban Goose

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The what?

England? Didn't know they were still going.

Haven't watched any international soccerball since 2008. Couldn't care less.
 

Gums

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I don‘t watch or care for them. I also dislike friendlies.

I don‘t even think national teams should get any prep time together, apart from a few days before the major tournaments (WC and the continental counterparts Euros, etc.).

I think I started disliking national teams when it went from being an honour to be called up after years of successful club football during your peak years as a footballer, to being called up after 3 good games in your first professional season.
I‘d rather see experienced seasoned pros competing for the big cups, than a team that has been put together by a manager based upon his preferred tactics, even if that would lead to unbalanced squads. I want to see the best footballers available for each country, not the most suitable for the manager’s tactic.
 
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