In Defence of International Week

also the storylines that go into international fixtures add another dimension such as eto’o and adebayor playing it out on african soil to see who is the best african striker (sorry drogba, it’s not 2006 anymore), political rivals south korea and north korea fighting against each other to go top of their group, and whenever rivals become teammates or vice versa. i love international week.

Daryl, I like the post on http://www.bluechampions.com :

What good is a weekend without football?

Now you’ll tell me there was football this weekend. International football means nothing to me unless it is in proper stages of tournaments or there is something really really exciting happening there. For all this indifference towards international football and breaks, this time around I’ve welcomed this break. The reason is, Man Utd seem to be heading for a freefall if not in one already. Having lost in two successive games for the first time in many seasons, they must be itching to play again to get back to winning ways. Now they’re put on hold. All their rush of blood must take a break. That helps is in the bigger scheme of things.

Of course Chelsea lost as well. That was the most shitty thing to happen when Man Utd lost, but it did happen. Someone needs to put Man Utd on pressure. If it’s Liverpool, I’m fine with that. If Liverpool’s pressure on Man Utd helps us, we can slowly sneak back in. And then if it’s between Liverpool and us, no problems. Rafa’s decisions will put more pressure on Liverpool than Chelsea would ever be able to. Then the title is ours. I know we are not in the race and we need a miracle to even join the race, let alone win it. But what harm in just letting your imaginations run wild?

Posted from  United States

I think you should take off your rose tinted international spectacles.
Friendlies are meaningless, yet we have had to delay the league for half a week just because of them. My own club lost 2 strikers and a midfielder to injury from them. that’s 150k a week going to waste with no return whilst they are injured for a useless friendly.
I look forward to the day and it is coming , when the clubs decide to take a stand against FIFA and UEFA and make them pay the wages of players injured during rubbish internationals.
Also your comment about money is laughable. The only reason that we have friendlies is to generate cash for the associations and the governing bodies who can gleefully line their corupt pockets without having to pay the players.

there is no defense of international weeks, i could care less about internationals unless its a major tournament when the season is over. Before then, all internationals are good for is getting a couple of your key players at club level injured during the vital final weeks of the regular season, and thats UEFA and all footballing governing bodies faults. THere should be a ban on midseason friendlies and all qualifiers need to be worked out at another time not the final weeks of the regular season. I’m a scottish Arsenal fan, but i was more worried about Robin Van Persie than any thing happening to Scotland last weekend, and now he’s injured for an undisclosed time. I could care less about these games, instead of enjoying the games we wait with baited breathe for your club players to come back fit for the only thing important- club football.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Yea what’s not to love about the exciting double fixture between France and Lithuania? Useless games

Posted from  United States

Seriously, who gives a FIG which country can develop the best team? These silly exhibitions threaten the success of my club sides (Barca, ManU, AC Milan), which are what matter! My company is better than yours!

Posted from  United States

It is all fun an games until someone gets broken. Sure, the international games are interesting – I kinda like watching some of the more obscure ones. But they are also horribly nerve wracking. Inter already has one player down for the count – the Brazil and Argentina games will be torture for me today. One bad fall or tackle and Inter’s whole season can be undone.

Posted from  United States

I’m an Arsenal fan, and despite us constantly getting injuries, i am very proud we can constantly get so many of our players to play for their nations. Sagna was the best right back for Auxerre by a mile, only Arsenal made him the starter for France, and there is big pride seeing him in the French blue.

The same story for Alex Song, he was immense last year in the AFCON. I saw Adebayor boss Cameroon and show he has the ability to be as good as Eto’o, why is this not exciting?!! I enjoyed that match.

Personally, football is more exciting for me in the international game, especially qualifications, not so much friendlies, although dependent on which country you come from, friendlies are not a place to give players a chance, instead to build a unit to compete in a tournament, and this is why friendlies in the UK/Ireland are not as precious as in other countries. Don’t blame international football for coaches messing up the structure.

Posted from  United Kingdom

The interlull is actually a term coined by a different arsenal blog, arseblog, at http://www.oleole.com/blogs/arseblog so you know.

Daryl, I am with you.

‘But it’s worth remembering that – though far from perfect – international football is still the pinnacle of the beautiful game.’
True. As much as I am like many who look forward to club football, the international week is always a chance to find out where are the players of the club you support are doing. As a Manchester United supporter myself, I was actually pleased that Jonny Evans’s Northern Ireland beat Poland and he himself was singled out as among those who did well. Though the Northern Ireland win came at the expense of Artur Boruc’s howler. Of course Dimitar Berbatov was injured before he joined up with his Bulgaria team-mates but, injuries are part and parcel of football.

Whereever the Manchester United players may be in helping their country’s World Cup qualification or being in action for friendly matches, I do take an interest. Just like how Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand are doing for England as well. And if Michael Carrick gets to play. I was especially proud of how Carrick did back in last November in the friendly against Germany and all the more he was the only Manchester United player on the pitch in Berlin.

And on a personal note as for me coming from Singapore myself, though the furthest our national team got in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers is the third round in the Asian zone, it is an achievement for our football here. It was the furthest we had gone far in the history of our football scene and the newspapers were buzzing! I enjoyed the ride while it lasts. Back then when the draw was made in South Africa for the qualifiers, I get the goosebumps when my country’s name was mentioned. For my country to be mentioned alongside major footballing nations like England, Italy, France, Germany, Spain…I was like thinking at that time, ‘wow’. We may like our European football here (especially the Premier League) but, there was still a crowd watching our own national team in action during the qualifiers.

Posted from  Singapore

Daryl, the “interlull” was coined by arseblogger (one of the better known football bloggers in England), Travis lifted it from him.

I’m a gooner and int’ls are soundly hated by a LOT of gooners. It’s routine for Arsenal blogs all over the net to whine about internationals. Our club suffers a lot from these int’ls because the majority of our squad are called up. We’ve had 17 players called up during this 2-week int’l break. Three of our players are coming back injured just when we were building momentum for the business end of the season. It’s very rare to hear a gooner defend int’l breaks.

However, there are a few of us who still do like the int’l game to some extent. Those of us who do still watch these games argue that FIFA’s calendar for these int’l breaks is totally screwed up for club football and that there are better ways of scheduling these breaks. More importantly, there’s the larger argument of idiotic games like Italy v. Faroe Islands. Look at the comedy of Poland-San Marino at 10-0. Poland are hardly the cream of football, they’re not even going to the 2010 wc yet they smash San Marino with 10 unanswered goals. It’s a ludicrous waste of time, resources, money and clubs’ best players at the business end of the season to send their players out for absurd, wasteful int’l games against the likes of Liechtenstein.

There ARE things FIFA and UEFA could do to limit the constant tension between club v. country — like doing something about wasteful, idiotic games against the above-mentioned minnows, reworking the int’l calendar, etc. But that would mean less money going into FIFA coffers.

The wc is already watered down with 32 countries (and the Euros have been further watered down with 24 countries for the next tournament), several of whom offer very litte in the way of exciting, competitive football. It’s criminal that Africa gets only 5 spots at the wc when that continent has many more exciting, vibrant national teams than the abysmal CONCACAF, which also gets 5 seats. Certainly Europe gets far too many spots, esp. since some European teams who qualify for the wc are not at all worth watching.

I used to be a lot more excited by int’l football than I am today because the quality of the game on show was so much better. The quality has been in serious decline for years now. That said, it is still possible to watch some exciting football in these int’l games, and certain national teams still do provide good quality football.

And the simple fact is that there is no other event on planet earth that has the kind of global impact as the world cup — and that includes the champions league.

Posted from  United States

FootballLives, Song was not called up for Cameroon during this break. Which is strange decision, he’s always been called up for Cameroon, he’s one of their key players, and he’s not injured.

Posted from  United States

Gotta love these weeks most of the times. As a college kid here in the US without FSC (I have it at home, though). It is the only soccer outside of the MLS shown on ESPN2. Plus, I’m getting a real kick out of following the USMNT and their road to 2010, because it was the ‘06 WC that got me hooked on the sport.

Posted from  United States

Quickly scanning through some of these comments made me really want to vomit.

The only defense one could have for loving club football and hating on intl football might be that you’ve been supporting your club since you were 5, and you grew up within 30 minutes of the stadium, and your nation doesn’t have a shot at winning the WC. Otherwise, it is inexcusable.

Remember, it is only money and hot babes that footballers play for in club football; it is honour and pride and privilege that one plays for in international football.

That being said, if some of you simply got disillusioned with the structure of the qualifiers and the friendlies, then I dont know what to tell you. In the Asian zone, we have multiple rounds that are set up to avoid 10-0 thrashings if possible, so maybe go petition Blatter or something… And friendlies are necessary, just as club friendlies are “necessary”. Match fitness with a bit of money on the side…

sandrahn, Alex Song was not called up as he is serving a 3 match ban after he got sent off in a friendly last year, he willbe back in June, and yes he is one of Cameroon’s key players, the loss to Togo was mostly due to them not controlling the midfield and feeding Eto’o, something Song does.

Posted from  United Kingdom