Agreed.
I’m cheering for England tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes!
I didn’t care too much who won today, but I’d have liked a more competitive match. This is the first time in a long time that I was unimpressed with Benzema, and Ribery wasn’t much better. Many times, it seemed like France was just getting some build-up play, and then one of those two would misplace a pass, put it out of play, take a bad shot, etc. Just really disappointing. One or both of them needed a good day in order for France to pull the upset.
The quarters have been a bit disappointing so far. First the borefest between the Czechs and the Portuguese; then the subpar game between Germany and Greece (which looked better because of the goals) and now this one sided monster between Spain and France.
At least the best teams won in all three games. Today was almost embarrassing; after 20 minutes the Spanish were done and started with the gallery play without trying to actually run up the score. The French seemed to be ok with this and just resigned, while hoping not to get beat too heavily; I expected more from them.
The Iberian semi is going to be interesting, with all the space in the back of the Spanish back four (with Nani and Cristiano Crybaby). I just hope Portugal will adopt a better approach than 2 years ago… and then lose…gotta have some crying Ronaldo pics.
Best game of the tournament is going to be Germany against whoever wins tomorrow.
Disagree on Ribery. I thought he worked his ass off, but he often seemed to be alone when he tried to penetrate. If I were him I’d slap somebody in the locker room. 
Did you miss my follow on post? 
I thought Ribery was excellent. His problem was that Benzema wasn’t doing anything to support him.
Not sure where you’re seeing “all the space” for the way VDB has us playing – double pivot – without a true CF, just means that we always have coverage in back. Every time Ramos or Pique go forward, it’s automatic switch with Busquet & Xabi. I mean, look at the stats, we have ONE goal against so far, so defensive balance is hardly a problem. Can we be beat? Of course, but it’ll take an almost perfect match from the other side – or a crumbling on ours.
On paper, sure looks it. Hope it lives up to the billing.
Here’s hoping England puts a hurt on Italy 2morrow!
Heck, yes!
Not me - the English already think so incredibly highly of their mediocre football team, regardless of how poorly it does. Even after missing the Eurocup four years ago, you still hear things like ‘we’re clearly contenders’ :rolleyes: and after the draw against France you had the pundits talking arrogantly as though making it to the quarter final was a mere formality because there was no threat that either Sweden or Ukraine could ever represent. :rolleyes::rolleyes: There’s nary a nation of football fans around with such an inflated and misplaced belief in the abilities of its side. For England to beat the Italians would truly be a tragedy.
All those rolleyes, and yet so utterly wrong.
Never in my lifetime has an England side been hyped so little. This is the first tournament in my living memory where the media haven’t proclaimed them as contenders, just the opposite in fact, everybody and their uncle in the English media and fan base seem at pains to shake their head and admit how limited the side is.
Sorry, but no, you don’t still hear things like “we’re clearly contenders”. You just made that up.
Are you Scottish in disguise? 
I didn’t make it up, but I can’t find where I saw it so I might as well have. Might actually have been The Sun :eek:, which might not count as media for you.
Still, while you’re right that the English side are less hyped-up now than before, I think they’re still overhyped. If there is a budding belief that England is not a contender, now is a great time to have that confirmed and it would be very sad to see that notion contradicted and have the pundit’s arrogance be bolstered.
ETA: not Scottish - just a sore Dutch loser 
Heh. The joke for England fans is that they sing “Are you Scotland in disguise?” when the opposition is really poor. I am Scottish. We are really poor.
In this case, I do feel for the English a bit. I mean, yes, they’ve over-hyped themselves in previous tournaments (or the English media has) and this time round they’ve been saying “actually, we’re not that good. Don’t think we’ll win.”
And of course, what happens is that people are saying “Oh, they’re just playing down expectations, but they really do think they will win.” Well, presumably that’s true to a certain extent - I suppose the players must at least be trying to win, and it doesn’t strike me as good psychology for them to be assuming it’s hopeless from the outset - but it’s a situation where they seem damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
My general position on England is somewhere between neutral and negative, but I wouldn’t say they’ve been hyped up this time around.
Quite, the general opinion is that we* could *beat Italy but we won’t beat Germany and that we over achieved in winning the group.
However, knockout football is a strange beast and any hype you year is merely hope over expectation.
I’m fed up with this “overhyped” rubbish, both from foreigners like Švejk and fans like Novelty Bubble (no offence intended to you though).
First off, England is not an awful team. England deserves to be in the quarter finals. That’s only top eight. Is anyone seriously going to try to say there are EIGHT teams better than England in Europe?
For the sake of argument let’s say Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and even France are better. That’s 6 teams. So who are the other two that push England out of the top eight? And even if England is #9 it’s the tiniest overachievement to end up in the top eight. The Dutch managed to knock themselves out so that makes room for #9.
England is currently ranked 6th in the world according to FIFA. That’s above Portugal, Italy and France. Also 6th in Elo rankings. OK, those rankings aren’t entirely accurate but they’re not wildly off.
And anyway, what’s wrong with supporting your team even if it does suck? Who doesn’t love to see some weak team scrape its way into the Euros or World Cup with fans going crazy for them, full of hope and delusion? Would you go to some happy Poles and sneer “Of course you’re not going to win it. You’re sooo deluded.”
Of course the odds aren’t on England’s side. But there’s nothing wrong with hoping for a bit of luck. It can happen. The best side does not always win. And it’s moronic to think it’s impossible for England to somehow find its way to winning the final. It’s unlikely, but if you think unlikely means impossible in the Euros you have a short memory.
None taken, but just to be absolutely clear. I’m saying that in the run up to these championships there really has been no hype at all. Just a realistic assessment that we have done well so far but against the objectively better teams we may struggle. We live in hope of course.
Yep but you said England “over achieved” by reaching the quarter finals. I think that’s understating the England team’s ability. I’ve heard that many times (including from Roy Hodgson) and it seems silly.
Well, Novelty Bobble actually said that it was winning the group that was over-achieving. I get that argument. Pre-tournament, on paper at least, the French were likely favourites to finish first.
OK yeah you’re right. But really I think it wouldn’t have seemed remarkable before the tournament for either France or England to top the group, and with what we know now about France’s performances anything less than topping it would have been pretty poor.
The lines (two nowadays) play very close together; that is the reason Spain can pressure and win back the ball so quickly when they lose it. Some pundits showed (with some awesome technology:)) how all 10 players were often on no more than 30 meters of the pitch; whenever they are attacking, this means the last line will be in the middle of the pitch.
Don’t get me wrong, this is exactly why the team is so strong and wins back the ball so quickly. But the few times the opposition has the chance to play a ball forward after winnig it… there is a lot of space between defenders and the goal (think about the two times Robben got one-on-one in Joburg for instance). Portugal has a couple of very quick wingers, while the Spanish defenders aren’t particularly quick (Ramos maybe)… especially if you think about Spain losing the ball in one of those moments when the fullbacks are moving up and you are effectively playing with 7 or 8 midfielders.
Spain still big favorites to win, but if you play far up the pitch, you’re gonna have space in your back;).