[Qualification to Euro 2016-08/10/15] Albania - Serbia

[Plako]

Like Cana said the result of this game doesn't matter on its own, as long as we make it to Euros. If there was a women's ping pong match between the two countries, it'd still be politicized. It doesn't mean it's worth anything. The Armenia match might be more important than this.

Cana has to be diplomatic, he's not gonna come out say lets f*** the Serbs up. Also he is our captain so I like him to be level headed and think of what's best for the team. Fans on the other hand are allowed to be emotional in these matters because our only involvement in this match is emotional by nature. If I had to take a simple rational approach to things I'd have said this match means absolutely nothing because we have a million bigger problems in Albania to fix before we win this football match, like running water, electricity, unemployment, education, domestic abuse, etc etc. Or I could go even further and take a nihilistic approach and say what is the point of 11 men chasing a ball, it's fucking stupid. But most people don't function like that. We are emotional beings, we can't rationalize every aspect of our existence.

Also, we are men and violent by nature. Prior to WWII nations fought brutal wars amongst each other and nowadays most of the clashes between nations have been replaced by clashes in sports. Most of us view this as a clash between the Serb and Albanian nations, a sort of replacement for an actual war between the two peoples, which I much prefer over an actual war.

Here's a quote about Germany from  Wim van Hanegem a Dutch midfielder 30 years after WWII ended: "I didn't give a damn about the score. 1–0 was enough, as long as we could humiliate them. I hate them. They murdered my family. My father, my sister, two of my brothers. Each time I faced Germany I was angst-filled."  Read a bit more about Dutch-German rivalry and tell me if you see any parallels between Serbs and Albanians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany%E ... ll_rivalry

Basically it boils down to this: I hate Serbia and Greece with a passion. You don't and that's your prerogative but please spare me this is just another match.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

Basically it boils down to this: I hate Serbia and Greece with a passion. You don't and that's your prerogative but please spare me this is just another match.

Sure there are idiots in both those countries, but in reality Albanians have done more harm to ourselves than anyone else has done. Look at our politicians sipping on fine wine on the backs of impoverished families. Do we start hating ourselves too? That's why I really don't get the point of just lumping people's character together based on nationality. But it's not even about that. My point is there is no traditional sporting rivalry between Serbia and Albania, like there is with Man U and Liverpool, Inter and Milan, Germany and Italy, etc... It's just one instance of a sporting event being used a proxy for political issues. For some people to say this is the biggest game in our history, is just plainly retarded in my point of view, but each to his own I guess.

[vata10]

Basically it boils down to this: I hate Serbia and Greece with a passion. You don't and that's your prerogative but please spare me this is just another match.

Sure there are idiots in both those countries, but in reality Albanians have done more harm to ourselves than anyone else has done. Look at our politicians sipping on fine wine on the backs of impoverished families. Do we start hating ourselves too? That's why I really don't get the point of just lumping people's character together based on nationality. But it's not even about that. My point is there is no traditional sporting rivalry between Serbia and Albania, like there is with Man U and Liverpool, Inter and Milan, Germany and Italy, etc... It's just one instance of a sporting event being used a proxy for political issues. For some people to say this is the biggest game in our history, is just plainly retarded in my point of view, but each to his own I guess.

It is. Albania has never been at this stage, a win for us and a loss for Denmark.vs Por and that is that... order your tickets. Very unlikely though.

[vata10]

Basically it boils down to this: I hate Serbia and Greece with a passion. You don't and that's your prerogative but please spare me this is just another match.

Sure there are idiots in both those countries, but in reality Albanians have done more harm to ourselves than anyone else has done. Look at our politicians sipping on fine wine on the backs of impoverished families. Do we start hating ourselves too? That's why I really don't get the point of just lumping people's character together based on nationality. But it's not even about that. My point is there is no traditional sporting rivalry between Serbia and Albania, like there is with Man U and Liverpool, Inter and Milan, Germany and Italy, etc... It's just one instance of a sporting event being used a proxy for political issues. For some people to say this is the biggest game in our history, is just plainly retarded in my point of view, but each to his own I guess.

It is. Albania has never been at this stage, a win for us and a loss for Denmark.vs Por and that is that... order your tickets. Very unlikely though.

[Albanian Damien]

Basically it boils down to this: I hate Serbia and Greece with a passion. You don't and that's your prerogative but please spare me this is just another match.

Sure there are idiots in both those countries, but in reality Albanians have done more harm to ourselves than anyone else has done. Look at our politicians sipping on fine wine on the backs of impoverished families. Do we start hating ourselves too? That's why I really don't get the point of just lumping people's character together based on nationality. But it's not even about that. My point is there is no traditional sporting rivalry between Serbia and Albania, like there is with Man U and Liverpool, Inter and Milan, Germany and Italy, etc... It's just one instance of a sporting event being used a proxy for political issues. For some people to say this is the biggest game in our history, is just plainly retarded in my point of view, but each to his own I guess.

It is. Albania has never been at this stage, a win for us and a loss for Denmark.vs Por and that is that... order your tickets. Very unlikely though.

Exactly. Ignoring everything else, this might be the game that has a chance guarantee our entrance to our first major tournament. How is this not the most significant game in our soccer history?

The fact that it's also vs Serbia, in Albania? This was an event hand crafted by the gods. Before the tournament, when a lot of us didn't have any high hopes we had one goal in mind:

At least beat the Serbs

It didn't matter if we came in dead last behind Armenia but at least beat those motherfuckers. Now not only do we have a chance to beat them, but doing so could possibly punch our ticket to Euro cup? This is by far the biggest game we're going to see us play for years.

The only people saying otherwise are probably already anticipating a loss and thinking the playoffs will be more significant. f*** that negativity though. If we had to play one game for all the marbles this is the one we would have wanted. Now lets hope our boys feel the same. I truly think we can eat these Serbs alive. I hope we got out there on the field and prove it.

[Plako]

Sure there are idiots in both those countries, but in reality Albanians have done more harm to ourselves than anyone else has done. Look at our politicians sipping on fine wine on the backs of impoverished families. Do we start hating ourselves too?

Not sure if you're aware pf this but it seems to me like you have already started. Albanians have done absolutely nothing, not sure how are you coming up with this stuff to be honest. We have yet to play our home game and to this day the only incident I remember during an ANT game was during the Ukraine game when someone hit a player with a lighter. We have been angels compared to the animals that you find in the stadia during the Serbia or Greece games.

My point is there is no traditional sporting rivalry between Serbia and Albania, like there is with Man U and Liverpool, Inter and Milan, Germany and Italy, etc... It's just one instance of a sporting event being used a proxy for political issues. For some people to say this is the biggest game in our history, is just plainly retarded in my point of view, but each to his own I guess.

So please tell me then who's our direct rival in football then since we have a 70-year history of playing international football? Is it Germany? Because off the top of my head they are the team we have probably played the most in the qualifiers.

[artan]

Plako and Damien explained it perfectly. Bulku just likes arguing for w/e reason. You can say water is a liquid and he'll argue you to death that it's actually a solid or something.

BTW, we were saying the match against Slovenia in September 2013 was our biggest match ever because we had two results against Norway... The fact that our NT has been incompetent for the past 60 years alone probably signifies this is our most important game. Here's hoping we have a few more this summer.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

As I mentioned, if this game is the one that gets us in EUROs by all means consider it the biggest. But we don't know the outcome of this or Denmark match, and if we lose, other games like us beating France, Russia, Greece, Portugal, are more important.

Plako, we have a 10x bigger sporting rivalry with Greece than we do with Serbia, especially during the early-mid 2000s. Us beating Greece the first game after they win EUROs was much more important history wise, than a game which might not guarantee anything in a shady part of Elbasan, against an opponent we still haven't played a full 90 minutes against.

[Plako]

Plako, we have a 10x bigger sporting rivalry with Greece than we do with Serbia, especially during the early-mid 2000s. Us beating Greece the first game after they win EUROs was much more important history wise, than a game which might not guarantee anything in a shady part of Elbasan, against an opponent we still haven't played a full 90 minutes against.

I agree with you that the Greece match is the most important match in our history but the Serbia match is up there and depending on the outcome of these two games (Portugal-Denmark being the other one) it has the potential to eclipse the Greece match and become the MOST important match in our history. And it is purely for political reasons as well. Our biggest club football triumph is Flamurtari eliminating Partizan Belgrade, and it is for a reason.

[Dallku]

This is what I would like to see

Berisha
Hysaj-Cana-Djimisiti-Agolli
-----Kace--Kukeli--Xhaka--
Roshi---------------Lenjani
----------Cikalleshi-----

Wouldn't care if Balaj played because Leshi is cursed when it comes to scoring and he's not doing anything at his club either.

I know Roshi too is not doing anything at his club but we don't have anyone better at that position, especially for the style played. I'm also starting to have 2nd thoughts on Lenjani. De Biasi needs to find some wingers.