San Marino

[Bilo]

30 minutes ago, Graceroad said:

Can't believe I have to explain this but of course India are higher in the world rankings SM play against England France Spain  Italy  Germany etc  India play against Sri Lanka Pakistan Bangladesh  so of course they win a few matches it's like having Shepshed above Leicester in the rankings because they've  got more points this season.

I love how you're trying to be condescending when you were so spectacularly wrong. Peak Dunning-Kruger. 😂

[Bilo]

15 hours ago, Wymsey said:

Am a bit surprised that the football quality is poor over there - especially as you sometimes see locals wearing top club shirts over there on the streets via television over the years.

 

There's big potential for Indian football, given they seem to be a good number of football fans watching the PL etc, but for some reason there seems to be little investment/ambition into the sport in the country.

There was a great mini documentary about it. It honestly isn't for lack of interest and they even tried an Indian Super League, but it hasn't helped.

 

https://youtu.be/gqwRUiQh9V0?si=RwcDnSVFDJeSdzm0

[Graceroad]

40 minutes ago, Bilo said:

I love how you're trying to be condescending when you were so spectacularly wrong. Peak Dunning-Kruger. 😂

Explain how I was spectaculary wrong. I gave you basic facts SM play against the World's  best sides on a regular basis  India play  against no-one stronger then occasionally  Australia so of course they are going  to win matches against the likes of Sri Lanka which means they will be higher in the world  rankings 

[Bilo]

12 minutes ago, Graceroad said:

Explain how I was spectaculary wrong. I gave you basic facts SM play against the World's  best sides on a regular basis  India play  against no-one stronger then occasionally  Australia so of course they are going  to win matches against the likes of Sri Lanka which means they will be higher in the world  rankings 

People said the same about St Kitts & Nevis when they organised two friendlies against San Marino in Serravalle.

 

"San Marino will get a result this time."

"St. Kitts only ever play against island nations, so they're overrated by FIFA."

 

The scores of the two friendlies were 3-1 to St Kitts and a 0-0 draw across four days.

 

India are a good twenty-odd places above St Kitts in the world rankings and regularly play teams like Japan, South Korea and Iran. They would bag a very comfortable win.

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, Graceroad said:

Explain how I was spectaculary wrong. I gave you basic facts SM play against the World's  best sides on a regular basis  India play  against no-one stronger then occasionally  Australia so of course they are going  to win matches against the likes of Sri Lanka which means they will be higher in the world  rankings 

It's much of a muchness.

 

San Marino play Nations League against fellow minnows and their friendlies have been against St Kitts & Nevis, Seychelles, St Lucia, Estonia, Cyprus and Moldova. Their most recent qualifying group wasn't that strong (a two year occasion isn't that regular) - Denmark highest seed - Australia beat Denmark at the most recent World Cup. 

 

India's games follow a similar pattern really. 

 

By comparison, India have recently won a Nations League style tournament whereas San Marino fail in it. That's why the difference. 

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 09:39 by CosbehFox

[Graceroad]

3 hours ago, Bilo said:

People said the same about St Kitts & Nevis when they organised two friendlies against San Marino in Serravalle.

 

"San Marino will get a result this time."

"St. Kitts only ever play against island nations, so they're overrated by FIFA."

 

The scores of the two friendlies were 3-1 to St Kitts and a 0-0 draw across four days.

 

India are a good twenty-odd places above St Kitts in the world rankings and regularly play teams like Japan, South Korea and Iran. They would bag a very comfortable win.

Yes I'm aware of those games and you are correct about the results. However i watched extended highlights on YT of both matches and SM should have won both they missed countless chances should still be on YT if you don't believe  

[Graceroad]

39 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

It's much of a muchness.

 

San Marino play Nations League against fellow minnows and their friendlies have been against St Kitts & Nevis, Seychelles, St Lucia, Estonia, Cyprus and Moldova. Their most recent qualifying group wasn't that strong (a two year occasion isn't that regular) - Denmark highest seed - Australia beat Denmark at the most recent World Cup. 

 

India's games follow a similar pattern really. 

 

By comparison, India have recently won a Nations League style tournament whereas San Marino fail in it. That's why the difference. 

 

 

 

 

Not sure you can compare playing Cyprus and Moldova against playing Pakistan and Sri Lanka

[CosbehFox]

4 hours ago, Graceroad said:

Not sure you can compare playing Cyprus and Moldova against playing Pakistan and Sri Lanka

You can certainly compare St Lucia & Seychelles to those teams though. 

 

India's fixtures are predomintly against Middle East/Far East sides looking at their results 

Edited Monday at 15:19 by CosbehFox

[Bilo]

4 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

You can certainly compare St Lucia & Seychelles to those teams though. 

 

India's fixtures are predomintly against Middle East/Far East sides looking at their results 

 

 

 

 

I also suspect St Lucia and the Seychelles would pull similar results to San Marino against top European sides in competitive fixtures. India are somewhere between Estonia and Cyprus in the world rankings, and I suspect they'd perform similarly. Nowhere near the conversation for qualification, but they wouldn't be utterly humiliated. 

[CosbehFox]

Another point that has crossed my mind if you compare San Marino to Gibraltar. 

 

The Gibraltar team best players have never kept a place in a League 1 team (Tjay De Barr), their players then based in the UK are youngsters at clubs (including surprisingly one player at Man U) and then Braintree Town. Jack Sergeant was representing them whilst playing for Step 10 team. 

 

So you are probably looking at their level being Conf North/South - and they are far more successful with results than San Marino. 

Edited Monday at 15:35 by CosbehFox

[CosbehFox]

5 minutes ago, Bilo said:

I also suspect St Lucia and the Seychelles would pull similar results to San Marino against top European sides in competitive fixtures. India are somewhere between Estonia and Cyprus in the world rankings, and I suspect they'd perform similarly. Nowhere near the conversation for qualification, but they wouldn't be utterly humiliated. 

They regularly lose by a couple to Australia or Qatar. They played Bayern Munich in 2012 and lost 4-0. Drew 0-0 with a full West Brom team in 2000. 

[Graceroad]

25 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

They regularly lose by a couple to Australia or Qatar. They played Bayern Munich in 2012 and lost 4-0. Drew 0-0 with a full West Brom team in 2000. 

Notice you failed to mention SM pushed Denmark and Finland close last year both games finishing 2_1. Regarding Gibraltar  they have played SM twice before winning one 1_0 SM missed a penalty  and the other finished 0 _0 I expect another close game when they play each other next month

[Bilo]

35 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

They regularly lose by a couple to Australia or Qatar. They played Bayern Munich in 2012 and lost 4-0. Drew 0-0 with a full West Brom team in 2000. 

I think of the FIFA rankings as analogous to the English football pyramid. If we say Argentina are Manchester City at Number 1, with us currently on par with Switzerland in 15th, then India at 124th are broadly equivalent to a National League North side trying for promotion to the National League. 

 

If that NLN side plays anyone in the top two divisions, that is to say the top 44 going down to Slovakia, they will pretty much always lose but would give a pretty decent account of themselves. With San Marino being seventy odd places below even that, you're getting into very regional or even county leagues. The kinds of results that San Marino get against the top 20 are pretty similar to those you'd expect Friar Lane and Epworth to get against a Premier League team.

Edited Monday at 16:05 by Bilo

[Graceroad]

2 minutes ago, Bilo said:

I think of the FIFA rankings as analogous to the English football pyramid. If we say Argentina are Manchester City at Number 1, with us currently on par with Switzerland in 15th, then India at 124th are broadly equivalent to a National League North side trying for promotion to the National League. 

 

If that NLN side plays anyone in the top two divisions, that is to say the top 44 going down to Slovakia, they will pretty much always lose but would give a pretty decent account of themselves. With San Marino being seventy odd places below even that, you're getting into very regional or even county leagues. The kinds of results that San Marino get against the top 20 are pretty similar to those you'd expect Friar Lane and Epworth to get against a Premier League team.

You think a full strength Denmark side would only beat Friar Lane 2_1 LOL

[Bilo]

7 minutes ago, Graceroad said:

You think a full strength Denmark side would only beat Friar Lane 2_1 LOL

It isn't my fault you don't have an argument, bud.

 

A 10-0-0 formation against a decent Championship side, which Denmark would be in my analogy, and it's not out of the question that they keep the score down. Such results are the exception as they usually ship at least five against decent sides, but you knew that.

[Graceroad]

13 hours ago, Bilo said:

It isn't my fault you don't have an argument, bud.

 

A 10-0-0 formation against a decent Championship side, which Denmark would be in my analogy, and it's not out of the question that they keep the score down. Such results are the exception as they usually ship at least five against decent sides, but you knew that.

Disagree  that Denmark are only of championship level. If you look at SM results in the last 50 games it's rare that they concede  more then 5  and when they do its always a flurry of late goals  when they tire in the last 10 minutes Still find it laughable that you think India would beat them  but you are entitled  to your opinion 

[Bilo]

1 hour ago, Graceroad said:

Disagree  that Denmark are only of championship level. If you look at SM results in the last 50 games it's rare that they concede  more then 5  and when they do its always a flurry of late goals  when they tire in the last 10 minutes Still find it laughable that you think India would beat them  but you are entitled  to your opinion 

India are competitive against teams who are better than those who routinely beat San Marino. They're also 75 places above them in the world rankings, and the quality of teams both sides play is taken into account when calculating their points total. A 1-0 win against Liechtenstein or Gibraltar does not give the same boost that a 1-0 win against Spain or France does.

 

It's weird that you're so angry about the possibility that San Marino's world ranking isn't an accident and they are in fact a very poor side. 

[Graceroad]

2 hours ago, Bilo said:

India are competitive against teams who are better than those who routinely beat San Marino. They're also 75 places above them in the world rankings, and the quality of teams both sides play is taken into account when calculating their points total. A 1-0 win against Liechtenstein or Gibraltar does not give the same boost that a 1-0 win against Spain or France does.

 

It's weird that you're so angry about the possibility that San Marino's world ranking isn't an accident and they are in fact a very poor side. 

Of Course SM are a poor side never side otherwise. My point remains though that while San Marino play the heavyweights  of world football India play against Sri Lanka Pakistan Afghanistan Cambodia Nepal Hong Kong etc . All those sides are of a similar standard  so all pick  up wins which is why they are higher in the world rankings.

[RonnieTodger]

Lets hope Eddie Hearn can make San Marino vs India 

[Graceroad]

59 minutes ago, RonnieTodger said:

Lets hope Eddie Hearn can make San Marino vs India 

Count me in I would pay to watch that one

[dsr-burnley]

1 hour ago, Graceroad said:

Of Course SM are a poor side never side otherwise. My point remains though that while San Marino play the heavyweights  of world football India play against Sri Lanka Pakistan Afghanistan Cambodia Nepal Hong Kong etc . All those sides are of a similar standard  so all pick  up wins which is why they are higher in the world rankings.

The world rankings take into account the standard of the opposition.  A team that draws with Denmark, say, gets more credit than one than beats Bhutan.

[CosbehFox]

1 hour ago, Graceroad said:

Of Course SM are a poor side never side otherwise. My point remains though that while San Marino play the heavyweights  of world football India play against Sri Lanka Pakistan Afghanistan Cambodia Nepal Hong Kong etc . All those sides are of a similar standard  so all pick  up wins which is why they are higher in the world rankings.

In the last two years, they've played those sides 4 times out of 21 games. 

 

The strongest side San Marino played in that period was Denmark. San Marino in those two years have played Andorra,  Liechtenstein (2), Gibraltar (2), Moldova, St Kitts (2), Moldova, Cyprus, Slovakia, N.Ireland, Kazahnstan, Finland. Real heavyweights of world football. 

[Finnegan]

I love it when foxestalk throws up threads like this to remind you that people on the internet will argue about literally anything for the sake of it. 

 

[Facecloth]

4 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

I love it when foxestalk throws up threads like this to remind you that people on the internet will argue about literally anything for the sake of it. 

 

No we won't!

[Graceroad]

30 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

In the last two years, they've played those sides 4 times out of 21 games. 

 

The strongest side San Marino played in that period was Denmark. San Marino in those two years have played Andorra,  Liechtenstein (2), Gibraltar (2), Moldova, St Kitts (2), Moldova, Cyprus, Slovakia, N.Ireland, Kazahnstan, Finland. Real heavyweights of world football. 

But all those Countries  with the possible exception  of St Kitts who SM dominated  in both matches are stronger then the sides I mentioned. For the record india have also played against Cambodia  Bahrain Singapore  Vietnam and Myanmar in the last year hardly comparable  to Northern Ireland Slovakia and Cyprus