under-rated national teams in fm08

what national teams do you think are under-rated?

for me its poland because in real life they are really good in all qualifing stages, just a bit rubbish in the actual tournaments, but in the game they never qualify for anything not even euro 2008, when in real life they topped their group ahead of portugal! and also i think their players are a bit under rated as in teams such as paraguay, mexico, czech reb, etc...

Paraguay and Czech Rep are strong in my game. Paraguay lost in the World Cup Final last time around in my current save.

I don't think Poland's players are underrated...Boruc rightly has high stats but how many other star players does the team have?

Some of the Czech players (Sivok, Jarolim, Grygera, Matejovsky) are slightly under rated IMO but I think a few of them are getting increases

as Blitzzzy rightly says, their best known player is probably Boruc, I understand what the orignal poster is trying to say though, maybe a good hard working teams that go out and leave everything on the pitch everytime is undervalued.

I would say Croatia. But also the United States. I know some of you will laugh at that, but I do think they do better in real life than they seem to in my game.

Nigeria, got soem great players like mikel, martins, Enyeama, yobo, taiwo, utaka, uche

CROATIA... VERY Underated... Croatia is for sure in top 10 world nations.

I don't think Poland's players are underrated...Boruc rightly has high stats but how many other star players does the team have?

IMO Boruc is over-rated, yes he is a good keeper but he has those games where he makes more blunders that a fast food restraunt does in a year.

Anyway I think maybe SI should introduce somthing like a TEAM COMPATABILITY rating. This would affect how well players play together. This would allow those smaller teams and nations who put blood and sweat onto the park more likley to beat those teams like England who are very good indavidually but poor when mixed together.

On the under-rated nations Northern Ireland is a call ill make.

All bar England.

In my game, Northern Ireland have just qualified for Euro 2012!

I led Scotland to the world cup final in 2010, with Steven Fletcher (20) being the star man

GREECE!!!

Very Very Underrated.

I'd agree with what some others have said - a lot of those teams whose players don't necessarily perform to the absolute highest standard for individual club sides, but who come together for their national team and play like a proper team, achieving far more than the sum of their parts.

Players like Milan Baros and Davor Suker of old have often been a disappointment at club level (I know Suker had some good seasons, but he also had lots of average ones), but when they put on the national shirt they are brilliant (less so Baros at the last tournament, but previously) and their team around them likewise.

Egypt is UNDERRATED in Africa. Egypt won the last 2 african nations cup, and yet, it less powerful than most of top African teams.

CROATIA... VERY Underated... Croatia is for sure in top 10 world nations.

Which is of course evidenced by the fact they didn't even make it out of the group stages of the last world cup

I find Ivory Coast are always too strong. They shoot up the rankings immediately every time I start a game and usually win the 2010 or 2014 World Cup, which I think is an unlikely event.

it was a pretty tough group they were in. Japan, Australia, Brazil and Croatia

Which is of course evidenced by the fact they didn't even make it out of the group stages of the last world cup

Which is ofcourse evidenced with the fact they've changed half of their team since that WC.

I'd say the Eastern European nations. Mostly Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia. They may not do much irl but the game goes through many seasons and I find it impossible that they would never do anything in 10 years time.

On the under-rated nations Northern Ireland is a call ill make.

2-0 away to Slovenia I think the game has it about right atm, the last qualifying campaign was a one off IMO. San Marino on Wednesday night and the awful stench of possible humiliation

Czech Rep are definitely under-rated in my game. However, Peru have just won the World Cup!! Barnsley forward Miguel Mossto is a world cup winner haha!!

I think the players have not been underrated in terms of individual abilitites in teams such as Poland, Greece etc....

The elements which bring success to these teams IRL is something like teamwork, team spirit, determination, which in FM fail to represent.

Another good example can be Germany. In fact they have been often doing well in tournaments IRL even their players are not having the best individual abilities. Their success are down to other elements such as pride, spirit, discipline etc... And these factors are almost non-exist in FM or play a very minor role.

Therefore national teams such as these are often doing not as good in FM compare to reality, although their players ability sounds right to me.

I would say Czech Republic as it comes to the top of mind...

I reckon the turk's are underrated, i mean

Tuncay Sanli is defiantly under rated also Adra Turan look at this video http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nUQHuqR9uYc

Macedonia Bluddy Pandev

Anyway I think maybe SI should introduce somthing like a TEAM COMPATABILITY rating. This would affect how well players play together. This would allow those smaller teams and nations who put blood and sweat onto the park more likley to beat those teams like England who are very good indavidually but poor when mixed together.

The problem is something like this.

If, in FM, I take over England and play a team like this:

James

Richards/Johnson

Terry

Ferdinand

Cole

Walcott/SWP

Gerrard/Lampard

Barry/Hargreaves/Carrick

Cole/Young

Owen

Heskey

Then I'm playing a team that should play well together, y'know? Not two little men up front and two attacking centre mids, which are England's main problems. Then the whole "England Compatibility 3= Make them lose" goes out the window.

Perhaps a better way is to introduce a "national team performance" attribute, with 10 being same as at club level, 1 being a lot worse than club level and 20 being a lot better. Rooney could have say 7, as could Gerrard, and Lampard could have something like 5. I don't want to go through the entire team and list what they'd have...

I agree Poland is very underrated in game, also in my games Russia tends to vastly under-perform given their talents. Greece is another one that I have yet to see perform very well.

I don't follow football outside of Europe, and the Americas very much but I read many news stories about Qatar but in game I don't recall ever seeing them doing well at all.

Denmark and Sweden being 2 others I usually see as group whipping boys in FM that shouldn't be.

In South America I always see Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela always seem to perform much better than they have compared to their real life counterparts.

Macedoina!!I mean all players beside Pandev are underrated.Macedoina beat Croatia 2-0 and now beat Scotland 1-0.

Saudi Arabia are always whipping boys when i play.

CROATIA... VERY Underated... Croatia is for sure in top 10 world nations.

i don't want to disappoint you but no croatia is not a top 10-er

Croatia is currently ranked 6th in the world:

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html

On my game Russia are underperformers, they never even made it to World Cup 2010, a competition Wales qualified for.

Also Poland, Greece and Romania seem to be underrated aswell on my save.

Even though Croatia lost to the might of England :S they are still a great side and for a small nation have some very great players!