Portugal-Switzerland. I thought Ronaldo was sorta done when Ajax destroyed Juventus earlier this year, but holy cow he can still play. 3 goals.
I taped the game and will watch it later being a fan of quality soccer, but my gosh there are just way too many matches these days. If you are a star player for a good club team your season is already August to May or June, with preseason in July. If you are also on a top national squad you have the Euros and World Cup every two years, plus Confederations Cup, friendlies and now this. Great for the fan but must be horrible for the player!
I confess, even though England are in the Semi-finals I have no idea why we are there and what happens if we win.
But yeah, Ronaldo hat-trick, in other news the Pope is sympathetic to catholic dogma and bear uses it’s natural environment for defecation purposes.
Not really different than it ever has been. The “off” years (odd-numbered ones) are all about qualifying for either the World Cup or the European Championship. Soccer players really only get a short break during the summers, punctuated by call-ups for the national team. UEFA’s “Nations League” semi-finals and final is really just using a slot which the four teams would already have been playing a friendly and a European Championship qualifier during. Still, yes, the piper will have to be paid at some point.
Holland -England. Holland by far the better team, but if you can’t finish, and then give away a penalty - well, that’s not the way to win.
Hey, this reminds me. Remember a few years ago we got tons of “live stream spam” with thread titles like this? Now we don’t get any.
The Dutch better watch it. They’re starting to look like back in the 2010 WC finals- too many fouls.
No doubt we will also see the traditional Dutch refusal to change the game-plan after half-time. Suspect England has this won.
De Ligt is going to save some team a lot of money in transfer fees if he plays the second half like that.
Memphis DePaay is having a great game. Except… if you can’t score in a one-on-one with the keeper, twice, maybe you substitute him anyway.
Think he’ll be ok. He’s 19.
So,I think VAR screwed England.
Not a clear error. Same as in the WC Final, with Croatia and Persisic.
It is amazing. Memphis depay is easily one of the 3 best players in this game. But he cannot score. Not one-on-one, not at all.
Oh, he’s going to have a fantastic career, but supposedly his hangup with a Barca transfer is his agent kept demanding more money because the CL run. That error is a bit of a counter argument.
I’ll be interested in seeing xG numbers for this game. 26 shots is a ton.
He also scored the equalizer. And did some top-notch defending. His one mistake was a big one, but not representative of his game.
Yes, but international tournament football is probably the most high intensity level of the sport, compared to a friendly or a qualifier.
This “tournament” is not a real tournament. I doubt anyone on any of the teams really considers it all that important to win.
Yeah, I don’t know anyone that thinks it’s important. I am curious, though, if that’ll change as time goes on.
Watching England and Holland: Holland clearly thought it important, perhaps because it was a tournament they were finally in. About 70 minutes in, England clearly felt the same at that point, and we went from 70 minutes of entertaining and exciting soccer, to a cracker of a game for 50 minutes.
Tomorrow (Sunday) I don’t think either England or the Swiss will bestir themselves too much to decide who’s third - but I expect something between an intense game and a reprise of the battle of Nuremberg between the Dutch and Portugal.
Football players get zero sympathy from fans here over the number of games (e.g. pay me 100 grand a week and I’d be out there every day lad) but you are clearly correct, and actually it must hurt the game as a spectacle. Pure athletes like GT cyclists or track runners will train their condition to peak for literally 1 or 2 events per year, yet a top prem football player is expected to produce in 50 or 60 games a year.
Obv not a clear apples to apples comparison, as even a top tier football match is not a singular feat of athleticism, but the demand on players to deliver intense physical performance for 9 months of the year isn’t realistic and injury is inevitable.
Its not different from a leading NBA team where they might be required to play 110 games in an 8 month season.
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