Albanian National Team [General topic]

[Aurora Bulkualis]

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.

And yet it was Asani and Daku who qualified us this edition. Both have played in Superliga. Funny how that works.

[Pjetër]

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.

Somehow ONE lucky goal in Bekim Balaj's life means he is stronger mentally than someone like Armando Broja who has scored back to back clutch goals in qualifying.

You comparing Michael Jordan to Balaj mentality wise is wild. I think I'll just bow out of this conversation at this point. I'm starting to realize why I don't post that much on here anymore or just engage with people online in general.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

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.

Somehow ONE lucky goal in Bekim Balaj's life means he is stronger mentally than someone like Armando Broja who has scored back to back clutch goals in qualifying.

You comparing Michael Jordan to Balaj mentality wise is wild. I think I'll just bow out of this conversation at this point. I'm starting to realize why I don't post that much on here anymore or just engage with people online in general.

Isn't it embarrassing that Broja still hasn't scored against a team as big as Balaj by the age Balaj was then??? Broja has more talent in his pinky than Balaj in his body, and he still hasn't scored against a "big team".

I'll give Broja the benefit of the doubt, but so far he's been shit against big teams in terms of goals. England, Italy, Spain. Nothing so far.

[artan]

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.

Somehow ONE lucky goal in Bekim Balaj's life means he is stronger mentally than someone like Armando Broja who has scored back to back clutch goals in qualifying.

You comparing Michael Jordan to Balaj mentality wise is wild. I think I'll just bow out of this conversation at this point. I'm starting to realize why I don't post that much on here anymore or just engage with people online in general.

Isn't it embarrassing that Broja still hasn't scored against a team as big as Balaj by the age Balaj was then??? Broja has more talent in his pinky than Balaj in his body, and he still hasn't scored against a "big team".

I'll give Broja the benefit of the doubt, but so far he's been shit against big teams in terms of goals. England, Italy, Spain. Nothing so far.

Do you know what luck is? Balaj got lucky against Portugal. It happens, the same way Arton Shaqiri scored against England for Macedonia way back. Same way Eder scores in the final to beat France and no one obviously thinks Eder is any good.

You’re using a lucky goal scored 10 years to prove a point that domestic players have better mentality when they clearly don’t.

[Dallku]

Albania products just lack the professionalism/tactical aspect of the game

But someone like Odise Roshi has a 10x stronger mentality than most of these scared back passing merchants we have today. Yes he wasn't talented/professional enough to make it to a top league but it wasn't because he was a pussy either. When he saw a fullback 1v1 he attacked him 90% of the time.

That's what causes upsets. That's why Albania beat France and Portugal with Roshi as the main man... That's why these south American teams are so good. They just don't care and attack.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

Somehow ONE lucky goal in Bekim Balaj's life means he is stronger mentally than someone like Armando Broja who has scored back to back clutch goals in qualifying.

You comparing Michael Jordan to Balaj mentality wise is wild. I think I'll just bow out of this conversation at this point. I'm starting to realize why I don't post that much on here anymore or just engage with people online in general.

Isn't it embarrassing that Broja still hasn't scored against a team as big as Balaj by the age Balaj was then??? Broja has more talent in his pinky than Balaj in his body, and he still hasn't scored against a "big team".

I'll give Broja the benefit of the doubt, but so far he's been shit against big teams in terms of goals. England, Italy, Spain. Nothing so far.

Do you know what luck is? Balaj got lucky against Portugal. It happens, the same way Arton Shaqiri scored against England for Macedonia way back. Same way Eder scores in the final to beat France and no one obviously thinks Eder is any good.

You’re using a lucky goal scored 10 years to prove a point that domestic players have better mentality when they clearly don’t.

I gave you a list of key games in our NT's history.... All local players. Are they all lucky?

Tare = Scored Against Germany
Bogdani = Scored Against Portugal and France
Balaj = Scored Against Portugal

I can go on and on... The only one I haven't seen be a pussy from diaspora is Bajrami.

[artan]

Isn't it embarrassing that Broja still hasn't scored against a team as big as Balaj by the age Balaj was then??? Broja has more talent in his pinky than Balaj in his body, and he still hasn't scored against a "big team".

I'll give Broja the benefit of the doubt, but so far he's been shit against big teams in terms of goals. England, Italy, Spain. Nothing so far.

Do you know what luck is? Balaj got lucky against Portugal. It happens, the same way Arton Shaqiri scored against England for Macedonia way back. Same way Eder scores in the final to beat France and no one obviously thinks Eder is any good.

You’re using a lucky goal scored 10 years to prove a point that domestic players have better mentality when they clearly don’t.

I gave you a list of key games in our NT's history.... All local players. Are they all lucky?

Tare = Scored Against Germany
Bogdani = Scored Against Portugal and France
Balaj = Scored Against Portugal

I can go on and on... The only one I haven't seen be a pussy from diaspora is Bajrami.

I'll one up you on that, Panajot Pano's goal against Denmark in 1963 a 1-0 victory.. Now that's a goal of true class and quality! Or sokol kushta's goal against Spain in a 1-5 loss in 1993.. That was pure mentality.

I think you're right. It's unfortunate with all the strong mentality and fearlessness they had that they couldn't finish above last place in their qualification groups.

[Shpati]

What are we considering a "big team"?

2024 qualifiers, there was no "big team" to go against. Just Poland and Czech.

And Broja was injured.

Not sure what we are even trying to measure here.

[Princ]

Little brother syndrome..

A decade ago, Albania gave problems to Portugal, France, Denmark, Serbia, Norway, but just could not beat Switzerland.

Why?

Our players looked up to and idolized those guys!

Albanians today are reserves to Italians where they play, just as the players back then were second choice to the Swiss guys. There is a special dynamic at play here..

Just as Switzerland was our kryptonite in the De Biasi era, Italy is our kryptonite now! You could see it coming from a mile away! I called it way before the start of the tourney. Bad matchup! Simple as..

Important thing is that the boys are improving so the results will come! Just give it a bit of time!

[Princ]

Remember the story Panorama came out with that Broja didn’t want to come on as sub against Hungary until Roshi talked to him and convinced him to play?

Posters on here said it was fabricated at the time.

AB basically confirmed it himself. Watch at 26:40..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Assji6SY1 ... IGtsYW4%3D

AB also explains how he told the team to just meet him in England when we played at Wembley then was surprised to find himself in the stands!