The Football Thread - 17/18 Season

[pastro243]

Slimebeast said:

pastro243 said:

A few things

- As a chilean I can tell you that we can't produce much elite players. Our current team is a "golden generation" that is made mostly of U20 2005 and 2007 generation, same team that was youngest in southafrica 2010 and one of the oldest in Copa Centenario 2016. From those we have our true world class players that are Vidal and Sánchez and then come the likes of Bravo, Medel and Aránguiz. After that we haven't been able to produce much more. 

- I think Colombia have a way bigger pool of talent than Chile actually. I think our first 11 is better but they have a better squad and more talented players overall.

- Argentina, Uruguay and Chile are not comparable IMO. Population wise, Argentina are 40 million, Chile 17 and Uruguay 3. Talent wise, what Argentina produces is massive, and Uruguay for it's size could be considered the very best. Economy wise Argentina is a mess, Chile and Uruguay are more centered. 

- In terms of CONMEBOL, I think you can divide in the best that are still Argentina and Brazil, then come the good that are Chile, Uruguay and Colombia, the mid Ecuador and Paraguay and the lower Peru, Venezuela and Bolivia. Mexico and USA also have the problem that their competition sucks, Concacaf sucks and Copa Centenario showed it, they should do what Australia did and get out if they want to get better. 

Oh, a golden generation you say. I asked myself that back in 2010 and 2014 World cups, is this a temporary success for Chile for maybe 6 or 7 years or did they really take the next step and became an elite football nation for the rest of my lifetime?

How popular is your domestic football league?

It's something strange, most people follow domestic league and champions have big celebrations but we don't have high attendances to stadiums. This is mostly because 2 or 3 teams gather most fans (like half of the country must be from Colo Colo, 25% of U de Chile and a lot less from U. Católica) and the rest are mid/small teams from other cities (small compared to Santiago) and colonies (Italian or Spaniard). Most people have a club they follow though.

Chile has always been able to produce high technical level players and play skillfull/pretty football but we never won anything. To put in perspective, Chile had never won anything before Copa América 2015. We had 4 Copa finals, a 3rd place in world cup 62 and some world class players every now and then like Zamorano, Salas and Elias Figueroa. Even with that, we are 4th in conmebol in historic world cup performances after Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay(20 overall I think) but medals and trophies never came up until now.