Following the game via ESPN’s gamecast, I’m glad to see that Greece lost. And I’m not the only one.
“Greece are just sitting in their own half knocking it left to right at the minutue, like they are running the clock down. We’re in the 38th minute!”
“If you are Greek I apologise, but your team is a disgrace. Come on Sweden!”
“This is ridiculous. Sweden are sitting in formation and the three Greek defenders knock it between themselves in their own half to a crescendo of boos from the Swedish fans. Amazing. Even for Greece.”
“I must say I’ve nothing against the Greek side at all. I even cheered them on four years ago when they employed similar tactics - albeit with a little more intent - but tonight they have been atrocious. Only worse than their performance has been their attitude. Stinky isn’t the word.”
“Justice, my friends, has been done. The only team on display interested in playing the beautiful game leads by two goals to nil. In your face Greece.”
Pretty funny when Sweden went ahead. Greece were like “what, we’ve got to attack now? But we never practised that.”
There was talk of other lesser footballing powers trying to do a Greece, using the ultra-negative Rehhagel approach. But the 2004 success (which was a triumph for them, let’s be fair) is looking more like a one-off. That side was actually pretty decent on the counter-attack. This one doesn’t look up to much, so we won’t have to sit through them grinding out results this time I don’t think. They pretty much have to win their next match, for a start.
Sweden thankfully proved to the Greeks that football should at least contain some attacking moves.
The Dutch player was not offside (PLEASE stop saying offsides - it shows you don’t know the rule at all!!). Think of it this way: had the Italian player been lying on the field of play, then offside would never have been in question. The fact that the player was just off the field of play changes nothing, so long as the referee has not given him permission to leave the field of play. Otherwise, you would simply see any number of defenders try this in desperate situations (caught flatfooted on your end line? Simply fall out of play with a simulated injury). It’s a harsh result, yes, but the alternatives are not pretty, either. And yes, most good referees would know this would be how to apply the law.
Not sure what I should apologize for. I didn’t use the “live thread” because I went to watch this match with a bunch of fellow Spaniards and didn’t get home until about two plus hours later – thought by then most people interested in the tournament would know the score. Hell there were a ton of articles on the 'net discussing the match already; including players/coaches views.
Really no point in posting in the “live” thread as it was long over.
But hey, if everyone agrees results should not be posted here no matter how late, I have no problem abiding.
In fact, that’s why I started the other thread…which has exactly zero responses.
Don’t mean to wreck the Tourney for anyone, but I’d appreciate some consensus on so-called spoilers.
Best,
Now, more than ever, RedFury.
Spain and Sweden to come out of group D in that order. And again, I want Romania in the quarters.
That’s some really weird speculation. Van Bronckhorst did play, and so did Van der Sar. It doesn’t make any sense to conjecture as to how the game would have ended with other players. Of course, if they put up a team of 10-year olds who’d never played football, they would’ve lost. Thing is, they didn’t. Instead, they put up two long-time Dutch internationals.
Apart from that, I think you’re exaggerating Van Bronckhorst’s contribution at the expense of that of others, such as Sneijder, Engelaar and Kuijt. Actually, it could just be the proud Dutchman in me talking but I’d say that the Dutch win was entirely deserved and completely in line with the power distribution throughout the game.
Well, he does have a point in that the OP started this thread to specifically solicit American opinions on the tournament in general (rather than specific matches), and has devolved into more general discussions about rules and wotnot. I was going to post to the other thread to try and get it rolling, but got distracted.
Perhaps if we just designate the other thread as the match discussion thread then people can just go to that one as soon as they’ve watched the match, whenever that may be? I’d think mentioning day-old matches in here would be fine, assuming both threads remain active. Sound reasonable?
We shall see young man. I do believe '64 won’t be the last time we top the Euros in my lifetime (short as it has come to be). And this year is as good or better than ever. I simply can’t figure why one of the two or three most successful NTs in world-wide junior competitions can’t take it to the next level – specially in light of the talent we have.
Best goalie, best midfield, best finishers. Now if we could only pull two honest to Og central defenders out of a hat (which Puyol was two/three years ago. Please, let’s not talk about Marchena), it’d be no contest.
What he said. It’s discussing Euro 2008 from a 'merkin perspective. If it was just a Euro 2008 thread I wouldn’t mind.
Upon reflection, there were too many emoticons in my post. I think :smack: would have sufficed. I would prefer if we followed **Dead Badger’s ** suggestion, though.
Don’t get me wrong - I thought the Oranje completely deserved the win. I just felt that the 3-nil score didn’t reflect how the match actually played out. Holland created more chances and certainly did a much better job of taking them. I think you’d have to say that the Italians deserved a goal, though.
I don’t think I’m exaggerating Van Bronckhorst’s contribution- he was in the right place at the right time on three or four sequences that decided the outcome of the match, and most players wouldn’t have been. Engelaar absolutely dominated play in the middle of the field, but he didn’t have a lot to do with Holland’s attacking play. Sneijder produced a superb finish - one of the ten best I’ve seen, perhaps - but I didn’t think he did much beyond that. I will freely admit that I can’t quantify Kuijt’s contribution because I don’t know who he is.
You could always try to coax Hierro out of retirement
Maybe not, but the point is that there’s barely a football match in history where you can’t point to the best players and say, “if they hadn’t been there, it would’ve all been different,” so this doesn’t really tell us much. They were there. And maybe they wouldn’t have looked so good without the Dirk Kuyts (or “Kuijt”, I presume) of this world working their balls off, um, off the ball. Kuyt was heavily involved in two of the goals and played the marvellous ball through to van Nistelrooy that set up the early “penalty claim” (I don’t think it was). And yet no-one would argue that Kuyt’s a freakishly talented player that the Dutch are just lucky to have. He likely wouldn’t even have started, had Robben been fit.
An Italy goal certainly wouldn’t have been out of place for the match, but there just doesn’t seem much point in debating what would’ve happened if you take away one side’s best players. Much like questions about how Man Utd’s season would’ve gone without Ronaldo, you can’t just subtract players like that. Ronaldo had Tevez and Rooney haring all over the place this year to provide him with the space and ball he used this season (to the point where Tevez started getting described as a “rich man’s Dirk Kuyt” in certain quarters). Van Bronckhorst may have been on the end of a bunch of plays, but that doesn’t necessarily make him the cornerstone of the performance. (Not that he wasn’t good, of course.)
On the Spain match, many of my fellow Liverpool supporters are banging on about how we should buy David Villa now. I disagree. For one, his price probably went up by £10m yesterday, and for another, he’ll steal all of beautiful beautiful Fernando’s goals. I’m not having it.
What pisses me off is that with all the dally dancing with Ronaldo, we’ve (Real) pretty much abandoned the pursuit of any other players. Hell just two months ago there were strong rumors that with Valencia’s horrendous season, Villa was more than willing to engage in talks with Mijatovic.
Personally, and as much as a I recognize Ronaldo is the new 'Galactico", I don’t want or think we need any more in our team – not the way our last experiment ended. We have great chemistry and a good foundation, just need to plug a hole here and there and get a couple of reliable subs; Villa would have been a great buy – hell, I think he still is. Even if we pay a premium should his play in the Euros hold, we’d still have tons of money left over as opposed to putting all of our eggs in the Ronaldo basket.
Really Not All That Bright, that hurt! Just thinking of Hierro on this team…is akin to a footy orgasm. Too bad he’s become a fat cat with the Spanish Federation. It’s all banquets and trips for him now. We do have a sub, Albiol, whom I’d much rather play than that puzt, Marchena.
Oh well.
No spoilers, but cracker of a match between Portugal and the Chezcs. Certainly worth a watch.
I was waiting for RNATB to post so I wouldn’t spoil anything.
Yesterday’s water polo match was fun to watch. I wasn’t pulling for either team so it was just a matter of sitting back and watching the sliiiiiiiiiiides. Never mind the dead ball goal. Sunday’s Turkey/Czech match should be interesting, but I think I’ll go with the Czechs.
Ribery wins worst haircut of Euro 2008. Jeebus. He looks like the special kid from down the block got a hold of Mom’s good scissors and cut his own hair.
I just don’t see it. Germany had absolutely no heart last match, and Croatia was all heart. If Croatia scores first, it’s them in a walk.
Oh crap, upon research, I see that Ribery was in an auto accident when he was two, and hair doesn’t grow on a portion of the right side of his head. But he’s making good money. At least buy some decent teeth.
Strong competition from Netherlands coach Marco van Basten, who has been sporting that weird serial killer/ trappist monk cut for some years. There’s just something very odd about his high hairline. The area around his ears and temples is entirely devoid of hair.
