…scoring brilliant goals 
Well my 1-1 prediction is wrong after 25 mins… Damn.
Germany 1 - 0 Portugal on goal by Scheinsteiger.
OMG, now 2 - 0!!!
Germany 1 - 0 Portugal on goal by Scheinsteiger.
OMG, now 2 - 0!!!
Methinks I’d rather be watching this match than being at work.
2-1 Germany.
A good first half. Despite all the attacking I don’t think Portugal have played a single decent pass into the box…
Yep, this is a really good game. Portugal have come back so well. Reminds of another Euro match when they came back from 2-0 down against a white-shirted northern European country…
Yeah, but Germany aren’t no England… 
This tournament has been such high quality that I’m slightly relieved we didn’t qualify
Hmm, Germany are getting little dirty…
I think those first two goals of the first half by Germany were more a matter of Portugal playing sloppy uninspired defense. 'twas a pretty good game tho.
Cracking match, but not everything the scoreline made out, I’d say. Some fairly shameful gamesmanship by Germany towards the end (Ballack, I’m looking at you), and as noted by NurseCarmen, two of the German goals weren’t exactly classics of the genre, being more down to shoddy defence at the set-piece by Portugal. Not to say that Germany weren’t good value for their win, of course, but Ricardo’s pathetic capitulation for Klose’s goal was eye-wateringly embarrassing. Beautiful move for Schweinsteiger’s opener, though.
I agree with Usram, anyway; this has been an outstanding tournament thus far, and watching the Russians the other night one wondered what on earth all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over England’s elimination was about. Croatia and Russia have been as good as anyone, in a field where that’s really saying something.
Gamesmanship is entirely acceptable when you’re playing Portugal. As players such as Ronaldo have said, they actually coach young players in diving technique in Portugal. So if their national team find themselves on the wrong end of a bit of dishonest play sometimes, well boo fucking hoo.
Eh, I don’t see that Portugal are any worse than the others. Ronaldo’s not nearly as bad a diver as he was, and is less bad than a lot of 'em. Granted, his pouting when he’s been fouled makes his face as punchable as any I’ve seen, but what really pisses me off is when players pretend to be injured to force the other side to put the ball out of play from an attacking position. Hence my scorn for Ballack lying around to cheat Portugal out of a decent forward movement.
Let’s face it, they’re all a bunch of whining wasters, but it’s the way they’ve comprehensively traduced what used to be a nice, sporting gesture that really makes me spit nails.
Yes, it’s sad that what was once a very important sporting gesture is now being seriously rethought on the basis that, if play were to continue, they’d get their fucking arses off the ground and play on like they damn well should.
A very enjoyable game to watch, all the more so for the fact that Portugal managed to scrape on back near the end. I have to say, though, that, with the exception of the last 15 min. of the first half, Portugal looked like they never quite had it figured how to attack Germany. A lot of what they tried after the third goal for Germany was pretty desperate, and without much tactical merit. When Deco is taking shots from 30 metres, well, let’s just say, he’s no Podolski.
You do realize this is looking now a lot like Germany v Italy in the final. :mad:
Hmm, well there’s no actual rule about putting the ball out of play, just a “gentlemen’s agreement”, which is the worst kind of rule, being open to the kind of abuse that we see now. The options appear to be (a) upgrade the gentlemen’s agreement to a law (sounds complicated, and probably still open to abuse) or (b) discourage the gentlemen’s agreement and rely on existing laws that already allow the referee to stop play in the event of a serious injury. Obviously, I favour (b).
Re the diving, they have been promising to “crack down on simulation” since the days when players wore black boots and indecently short shorts. Nothing ever happens though.
Jesus, yes, Podolski’s rising shot from range was a scorcher; a foot to the left and you’re looking at the goal of the tournament. Ricardo was absolutely nowhere (although that was kind of a theme of the match if we’re honest). Fantastic technique. Crazy to think he could hardly get a game at Bayern last season.
But yeah, Portugal’s invention seemed to run out 6 yards short of the box throughout the match. Lovely backheel flick from Ronaldo set up their most incisive move of the match, but the bobbling ball he put across the area to finish it wasn’t up to snuff. He was threatening to really boss the match at one point, but didn’t quite have the freedom to operate how he does for Man U. A sniff of how his imminent Madrid career will develop, perhaps?
Edit: oh yes, I’m quite aware there’s no rule - it wouldn’t have been a sporting gesture if it were. They did actually try and cut down on this sort of bullshit a season or so ago by putting the onus on the ref to stop play for “injured” players, but in the absence of such a stoppage it still seems that the team in possession feel obliged to put the ball out. Germany’s return of the ball was also despicable - Portugal put the ball out while forward in numbers; Germany kicked it to Portugal’s corner for a goal kick. A travesty, but par for the course these days.
Well, in fairness to Ricardo, we know exactly where he was on the third goal; it just wasn’t where he needed to be.
At least he doesn’t go walkabout after balls to the corner of the goal area… :eek: :smack:
About gentlemen’s agreements, a few years ago in an MLS game, a player was injured and the ball was played out. Instead of giving the ball back to the team that had possession, the team took an attacking throw in and the forward quickly scored on an out of position keeper. The ref called it back for unsporting conduct.
Regarding diving and simulation, couldn’t they just have a board review tape and hand out suspensions after the fact? It would hardly take any time and games would be so much better without that crap.
I’m not sure I agree about it looking like an Italy-Germany final. Germany yes, but Italy has a long way to go and they haven’t looked outstanding to me.
Germany looked anything but impressive on the way to the knockout stage. Italy looked just fine against France. Of course, there ARE the Netherlands in the way… :eek: