Just wondered if many people were planning to head out to Chungshan Soccer Stadium for tomorrow’s big game? Kick-off is 3:00pm.
Will Taiwan employ the same stultifying boring tactics it used in its last home game against Uzbekistan? Will the world’s nerdiest looking cheerleaders lead us in shouting, “Nice, nice keeper!” whenever Taiwan’s keeper makes a save?
Like I said … just wondering?
Cheers
Absolutely! There will be many guys I know going down to the stadium to watch it! I allow the office to work at skeleton staff to give them the chance to see it, doubt that many of them actually take up the offer! Heard the rumour that David James :fume: is keeping for Taiwan and Fred Smith will stand between the posts of the Iraqi goal!
Come on the Republic of Taiwan!
Cheers!
[quote=“Taverncaptain”]Absolutely! There will be many guys I know going down to the stadium to watch it! I allow the office to work at skeleton staff to give them the chance to see it, doubt that many of them actually take up the offer! Heard the rumour that David James :fume: is keeping for Taiwan and Fred Smith will stand between the posts of the Iraqi goal!
Come on the Republic of Taiwan!
Cheers![/quote]
Go - TAIWAN
actually i’m thinking of supporting iraq. we all know taiwan is hopeless in all senses of the word when it comes to footy; at least iraq have overcome great obstacles and some pretty nasty coaching techniques to get back on the world stage…BTW ISNT IT 3.30 kick off?
Kick off is 3pm (so uncle Sepp fixed it)!Come on Taiwan!Come on the Faroe Islands, Come on Switzerland, Come on England!
I’d love to be able to sneak away from the office to see it – especially as I haven’t had the chance to go to anything like a real football match since the 1980s.
Surely it will be the mismatch of all mismatches, won’t it? The Iraqis ought to be able to put at least five past a team like Taiwan, without breaking into a sweat.
If Taiwan took its football seriously and were intent on becoming a significant force in Asian footie, as I wish they would, then I’d certainly be rooting for them. But as the powers-that-be and general public don’t seem to give a hoot about this glorious game, I’d rather see the more deserving Iraqis get a result that will bring real joy and solace to their supporters back in their war-ravaged and long-suffering country.
The way England played against Austria last Saturday does put them pretty much on a par with Taiwan and the Faroe Islands, I’m afraid. And the way that Beckham has been playing, he’d be hard put to earn a place in either of those teams – unless Sven-Goran was managing them, of course.
Okay the result was Taiwan 1 and Iraq 4. Must say that Taiwan played a decent game of football! Goalkeeper was the weakest link! Great atmosphere!
Have to agree with the assessment of Taiwan’s goalkeeper. The Taipei Animals keeper was asked repeatedly about his availability to play for Taiwan in the near future.
Very small crowd, but the people that go really want to see Taiwan do well. They’re real supporters. When Taiwan scored a very scrappy goal that made it 3-1 the crowd had a great time.
All in all, a lot more fun than an afternoon at work.
Cheers
Oh no, not the Animals Keeper, please! Taipei Dragons keeper would be by far the better option, both on an off the pitch or and this is personal and goes against the forum rules. The B52 keeper.
Cheers!
Michel
Benny Hill would be a better goalie than that excuse for humanity slipping and sliding about in the Taiwan goal. What’s his name ? Butterfingers Chen ? And how come he can’t kick the ball ? Can’t be bothered I presume.
Weren’t Taiwan hilarious ? Nonchalantly jogging from one end of the pitch to the other, when they moved at all. No 9 was my favourite at that.
Nice formation too. One striker and five defenders. Not that anyone stuck to the formation, of course. Someone should teach the rules of football to the coach. Mind you finding 11 Taiwanese guys who could be bothered to play football is no mean feat.
Still pretty embarrasing for a country of 23 million people. I suppose they figure “well if the Americans don’t do it, neither will we.”
i have to say i was pretty sickened by taiwans tactics. the midfield for much of the match refused to push up and support any breaks by the forwards or wings. which suggests a deliberate instruction by the coach. 6 at the back is pathetic especially when they aren’t even pciking up loose men. sad thing was the skill level (GK excepted) wasn’t bad at all and it could have been a fairly competitive match if they’d been up for it. after all they hit the cross bar and went close on a few occasions.
let’s hope those nasty israelis refuse transit to the airport for the 5 palestinians with the misfortune to live in disputed zones; may give taiwan a real chance in the next match (which is when?)
funny thing is it would only take one upset result (say 2-2) to get the media interested and the locals on board…if only da bear was coach…
I wonder if they could get away with playing some members of the women’s team in their next match? As Taiwan’s female footballers are much hotter than their male counterparts in every sense, it might just be enough to give them a chance of winning (especially if one of them could distract the opposition goalie with an artful adjustment of her shirt or shorts while her teammates are launching an attack).
Boring tactics and goofy goalie aside, it was still great fun. I have to say that the criticism levelled at the team is partly unjust.
Taiwan played to its strengths. They were also extremely unfit, so cautious counter-attacking was needed. Could you imagine what the score would have been had Taiwan counter-attacked in numbers, what with them struggling to get back to defend? What they set out to do, they did well!
And, Taiwan, given the few resources they have, showed remarkable pluck against a better team. Besides the scrappy goal, they had a good shot well saved and also managed to hit the woodwork with a stunning long-range shot.
Can’t wait for the Palestinian encounter. Palestine lost 3-0 to Uzbekistan. Taiwan, incidently, only lost 1-0 to the same outfit in their first qualifier. Should be a close thing.
[quote=“Alleycat”]Boring tactics and goofy goalie aside, it was still great fun. I have to say that the criticism levelled at the team is partly unjust.
Taiwan played to its strengths. They were also extremely unfit, so cautious counter-attacking was needed. Could you imagine what the score would have been had Taiwan counter-attacked in numbers, what with them struggling to get back to defend? What they set out to do, they did well!
And, Taiwan, given the few resources they have, showed remarkable pluck against a better team. Besides the scrappy goal, they had a good shot well saved and also managed to hit the woodwork with a stunning long-range shot.
Can’t wait for the Palestinian encounter. Palestine lost 3-0 to Uzbekistan. Taiwan, incidently, only lost 1-0 to the same outfit in their first qualifier. Should be a close thing.[/quote]
yesh well; the unfit thing is something a few people have mentioned to me. but why the fuck would our lads be unfit? is the first division not being played at the moment? i guess fair enough the iraqi lads are in good shape and fit as some fiddles but why couldn’t taiwan prepare a team and train it to match fitness? i’ve played against many taiwanese teams over the years and have never ended a game feeling the opposition were not in good condition (course this may well reflect the more portly foreign opposition but genearally taiwanese footy players are fit and pretty nippy with it)
The level of fitness is always relative to the opposition. Being fitter than we expat “businessmen” (as we are ever-so-politely described in local football circles) is not much help when faced with Iraqi players just coming off a pretty successful Olympic campaign.
The Taiwan team only had five days in camp before yesterday’s game, so not much chance to improve their fitness there.
Like Alleycat said, Team Taiwan played to their strengths and did that well enough. The team’s performance yesterday was way better than the one against the Uzbeks. Speaking of pluck, how many headers did the Iraqi’s win in the Taiwan penalty area? Just one, and that was right near the end of the game. Until then Taiwan’s central defenders had won everything in the air and done all that was asked of them on the ground. It was the outside defenders getting beaten on all the goals except the last.
By the way, the Taiwan News has been providing half-decent coverage of this world cup campaign. The latest article is in today’s paper. Definitely worth a look.
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Sports/2004/09/09/1094697009.htm
Cheers.
yes very good match report that. cheers, bsq. i had to laugh at the official crowd figure of 3000…WTF? were they counting passengers in passing planes as well?
anyway i stand corrected…if taiwan can improve fitness they have the foundation of a decent team. just got to get the midfield moving forward to support the strikers.
taiwan v palestine is oct. 13 at 4 pm
As Alleycat said, they set out to lose 4-1 and they did a bloddy good job. Really, the whole team just looked like it couldn’t be bothered. It was raining after all. You know how these young lads are about their hair in the rain. Must’ve driven them to distraction.
Just read on the FIFA pages that there was a professional soccer league started this year in Taiwan. Does anyone know where I can find some more information on this league? Like… what teams are there, where do they play, etc…?