Seaman will get the nod because he made a couple of vital stops, but he didn’t look at all convincing. He’s turning into a hairy version of Peter Shilton. The Nevilles were just average; Gary has no real replacement, but I’d like to see Gareth Barry given a go just for some “big match” experience. Gerrard for the same reason; get some high-pressure experience for the long-overdue step into Ince’s shoes. Shearer is out not because he’s played badly, but just because his physical style may be too easy for the Germans. I think the forwards need pace and trickery; hoofing the ball at Shearer will be bread-and-butter for the nine-foot-tall German defenders.
Coldfire, who would be your ideal starting XI from the Dutch squad?
Anyone else? Who would you be picking from the countries you support and why?
Bergkamp boring ? Surley that can’t be true. Actually, he is a little like Steve ‘Interesting’ Davis.
Mattk - i’d go along with most of your team even though it sounds a bit too radical all in one go. Can’t understand not picking Cambell though, he was about the good thing that came out of the second half and Keown just isn’t international class.
i was also surprised by Neville. P. - never liked him but thought it was the best i’d seen him play - but again, not international class.
Bring on the Barmby boy - should have done that instead of Wise when Macca went off. That was a large part of the reason why we lost all shape and purpose
London_Calling, I see your point, but the changes so far are so slow and piecemeal that nothing’s really changing. All of those lads have Under-21 and/or Premiership experience, so I’d be disappointed if they were awed by (gasp) Lothar Matthaus’ pace or (swoon) Oliver Bierhoff’s ball skills.
Campbell/Keown is a close call, but Keown seems to have a better mentality, concentrating on defending. Campbell always ends up trying to show off or charge upfield - great against, say, Luxembourg, suicidal against anyone else. I do rate him, though. Phil Neville I thought had a poor game - the odd cross didn’t make up for a generally poor defensive performance.
Probably the dullest game yet, but a surprise result nonetheless. Spain were tricky and threatened to run rings around a side that had (Erik Mykland apart) more in common with a basketball team than a football team.
Norway defended from start to finish, despite playing Solksjaer, Flo and Iversen as a front three, although they looked occasionally dangerous on the break. Spain started brightly (especially Etxeberria), but the longer the game went on the more desperate they looked.
The goal was completely down to the Spanish keeper, Molina. He came out too far and too late, and Steffen Iversen leapt like a salmon on heat to loop the ball into the net.
I hope Spain do better in the next match, because Norway are the visual equivalent of Valium.
hmmm…stayed up till 4am watching Spain vs Norway, expecting a little more from Solksjaer (cutie-hehe), oh well, i guess they were concentrating more on defending.
Fantastic match, probably the best yet. Slovenia could and should have won. Yugoslavia had the big-name players and the predators, but Slovenia looked their equal for the first hour. Once Mihajlovic was sent off, with Yugoslavia already trailing 3-0, I was sure it was all over. But then…
Slovenia crumbled. Completely. Like they expected to walk it. First Savo Milosevic, on as a sub, then Ljubinko Drulovic, then Milosevic again. Slovenia could have won it in injury time with a header cleared off the line. Yugoslavia looked rampant and walked through the Slovenian defence at ease, but their own wasn’t much better and the keeper didn’t live up to his reputation.
Well, i was with him in his train of thought until Enoch and Beaverbrook, then he somehow left me. I’ll put it down to too much Reindeer meat.
The Balkans Dust Up: WHAT an amazing match - this sort of thing does’t hapen in real life, does it ? Thought the game similar to England vs. Portugal in it’s openess (err, naivity). Seems like everyone is throwing caution - and tactics - to the wind. Don’t know what’s got into everyone, but i like it (to quote Dick Emery).
Please, please Coldie, predict a German win.
This is becoming a breathtaking Tournament. Can it continue ??
Hello, my name is Coldfire and I know f*ck all about football
Yup, those predictions I made this afternoon sucked donkey balls, to put it mildly.
Spain were even more naive than England were against Portugal. But at least we can give the English credit for losing to a team that actually plays football. God, how I hate the computer-orchestrated chickenshit defense-based Norwegian football. Three strikers, yet they play with 11 man behind the ball. Wankers!
Of course Molina messed up greatly with that goal. But the most horrifying part was that Spain kept on trying to force a breakthrough THROUGH THE CENTER (which was packed) and left the outsides unattended. It was like watching 8 year olds play. They can have all the talent and experience in the world, if they keep playing like that, they’re gonna be home in a week or two. Just like in every other European or World Cup that I can remember.
Slovenia made a HUGE impression on me, despite Yugoslavia slacking their way through the first half. Their players are much better technically than what I thought they would be. I mean, their top striker plays in Greece, for Gods sake. Who was expecting a team of THIS quality? Certainly not the Yugo squad, by the looks of it. No way did they deserve the draw, after being asleep for most of the match. But is WAS a night of surprises.
I honestly don’t know what to predict for Saturday, London_Calling. On quality, the English squad should win 3-0. But these are GERMANS. The good thing that comes to mind is that the English ARE capable of beating the Germans at their own game: that is, winning by sheer determination in the last 5 minutes.
Guess which Champions League match I am referring to
That Champions League game was the only time I’ve seen Germans so utterly distraught – terrible shame.
Okay, I’ve thought about this and it struck me that at least Coldie had the balls to actually make predictions. Everyone’s got perfect 20/20 vision in hindsight but he courted – and received – ridicule for chancing a view. Think we should all have the balls to do the same so here’s my prediction (and in this Tournament almost anything seems possible at the moment – and that’s just in the last 30 minutes of a game) for tonight’s episode:
Italy 2 Belgium 1
Read it and weep in the morning.
