Albanian National Team [General topic]

[artan]

With Broja exception Albania never managed to recruit top diaspora players, even Bajrami who was one best players on this qualifying campaign wasn't good enough for Switzerland.

I would say Gymcity could play and maybe start for Switzerland and Asllani maybe with Italy.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro ... ng_Group_6

O wins -10 goal differential

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro ... ng_Group_1

O wins -15 goal differential. 2 goal scored in total by the team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_FIFA ... FA_Group_2

0 wins -12 goal differential.

Historically speaking the Albanian national team has been one of the worst in Europe. They could have given 40 spots to UEFA teams in the World Cup and Euros and Albania still wouldn't have come close to qualifying.

Edit: Wow going through the 1990 qualification it is even more embarrassing. Albania was the ONLY nation to finish with 0 points. Malta, Cyprus, and Luxembourg all at least managed to get 1 point. 1988 is dreadful too.

Albanian players were historically eating fasule breakfast, lunch and dinner and playing soccer with volleyballs. You're confusing individual quality with mentality.

No one said Albanian league players are better technically than diaspora. Albania sucks at sports development. We're talking about mentality.

[Pjetër]

How exactly is "mentality" measured?

If someone misses a sitter how do we determine whether or not it's because they are mentally weak and "intimidated" by their opponent or because they are a technically poor finisher? Or maybe it's just plain bad luck.

Was Raheem Sterling intimidated by Lyon in the Champions League?

[Aurora Bulkualis]

How exactly is "mentality" measured?

If someone misses a sitter how do we determine whether or not it's because they are mentally weak and "intimidated" by their opponent or because they are a technically poor finisher? Or maybe it's just plain bad luck.

Was Raheem Sterling intimidated by Lyon in the Champions League?

By looking at the most key matches in our history and seeing who showed up. 90% players who've played in Albania.

[Pjetër]

So would you say that Bekim Balaj is a mentally strong player? Are there other examples of his strong mentality besides his goal against Portugal?

Edit: I would also like to ask another question. Would you consider Thierry Henry to be a mentally weak player?

[Princ]

is never good for the NT simply due to mentally not being strong. Same with Hysaj.

It’s not a mental block with Hysaj, he’s just washed.

Used to be great for NT back in the day 2014-16.

Marvin Hagler bro..

[Aurora Bulkualis]

So would you say that Bekim Balaj is a mentally strong player? Are there other examples of his strong mentality besides his goal against Portugal?

Edit: I would also like to ask another question. Would you consider Thierry Henry to be a mentally weak player?

Balaj is just a shit player technically, but when he scored against Portugal he was 100% confident and acted like he's done that a million times.

Overall quality is just the average of all your games. Mentality is how you perform in key high pressure games RELATIVE to your overall quality.

[ZenMaster]

If you start playing football in inferior league as Albania, as youngster you constantly lose on international games, in youth national teams or with albanian club on european cups it's obvious that you get used of losing, you lose so often and so heavily so it doesn't even bother you, and against any decent opponent you will feel inferior.

[Pjetër]

So would you say that Bekim Balaj is a mentally strong player? Are there other examples of his strong mentality besides his goal against Portugal?

Edit: I would also like to ask another question. Would you consider Thierry Henry to be a mentally weak player?

Balaj is just a shit player technically, but when he scored against Portugal he was 100% confident and acted like he's done that a million times.

Overall quality is just the average of all your games. Mentality is how you perform in key high pressure games RELATIVE to your overall quality.

Balaj has performed dreadfully in every other high pressure situation he has been in though. As a matter of fact in a "key high pressure game" against Hungary it was Balaj being subbed off for the diaspora Broja that turned the game in Albania's favor after Broja's clutch goal (which he would go on to replicate a month later).

I would say that luck played a far bigger role in Balaj's goal than "mentality" did.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

So would you say that Bekim Balaj is a mentally strong player? Are there other examples of his strong mentality besides his goal against Portugal?

Edit: I would also like to ask another question. Would you consider Thierry Henry to be a mentally weak player?

Balaj is just a shit player technically, but when he scored against Portugal he was 100% confident and acted like he's done that a million times.

Overall quality is just the average of all your games. Mentality is how you perform in key high pressure games RELATIVE to your overall quality.

Balaj has performed dreadfully in every other high pressure situation he has been in though. As a matter of fact in a "key high pressure game" against Hungary it was Balaj being subbed off for the diaspora Broja that turned the game in Albania's favor after Broja's clutch goal (which he would go on to replicate a month later).

I would say that luck played a far bigger role in Balaj's goal than "mentality" did.

Balaj performs dreadfully in every game he plays. That's why your mentality is measured with respect to your own performance. Not sure why this is hard to understand.

Michael Jordan has a shitton of bad games too, but his mentality is measured by his peaks, not the years he lost or was out of finals.