[Euro 2012] Discussion thread.

[Israphel]

Originally Posted by Jacks:SmirkingRevenge

this is one of those rare times when the sports gods were fair and just.
you're right that Italy outplayed England at almost every end.

this is one of those matches though that illustrates why I still can't really take soccer seriously. what other sport has final scores of 0 to 0? I say it every time the topic comes up but I honestly believe that the game of soccer would be better enjoyed by all if they just made the pitch a little smaller.

would it be so bad if the field wasn't so utterly huge?
would people not have at least as much fun watching a match if a few more goals were scored?

Why does it matter if the scores are 0-0. The skill level in this game was particularly low, but to the supporters a 0-0 game can be among the most tense encounters imaginable as it can change with just the slightest error. For me, a game where a team quickly goes 2-0 up is considerably less interesting as the game becomes one sided as the tension is significantly reduced.
That you can't take it seriously just reflects on the fact that you like sports with more goals or scores, but for most football fans the enjoyment and tension don't come from the goals alone.
I mean, I'm a huge fan of cricket, where a game takes 5 days and is incomprehensible to anyone who has never played or watched it.
I guess another example would be grand tours in cycling (like the TdF) where people find it boring because they don't understand the tactics and psychology involved.
Changing a sport like football to suit audiences who want more goals would be a terrible, as the game in this form has been played and refined for over a hundred years.

If you like smaller pitches with fewer players then there's beach football or 5 a side, but in 11 a side football the size of the pitch is an essential part of the game as it demands tactical decisions as to how the space is going to used/defended/attacked, and allows for a wide range of different tactics.

[Israphel]

Originally Posted by Selerox

Extra time. Oh ****...

That was pretty dire wasn't it. I read somewhere that Milner completed 18 passes in the entire game. It would have been a crime if we'd gone through.
This is hardly a good Italian team either (Pirlo aside).

What concerns me more for the future is that Hodgson already seems to have his favorites, and rather than making decisions based on form and what's happening on the pitch, he sticks to reputation and substitutions that seem to have been pre-decided.
I mean, Rooney was terrible, but he left him on and took Welbeck off. England are getting overrun in the centre of midfield, so how on earth, bar long balls from defense, were England going to get the ball to the subs Carroll and Walcott?
Why not move Milner into the centre and tell him to stick to Pirlo. Milner isn't a creative player, and that's the kind of job that he CAN do. England then have 3 in the centre, so then remove Rooney and Young (who were doing nothing) and replace them with wide players Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott, who have got more possibilty of getting the ball played to them when England have a 3 man midfield and Pirlo has less time on the ball.
But it seems that Hodgson has his favorites.

Still, England's back 5 were absolutely superb. Welbeck looks comfortable at that level, and hopefully players like Wilshire, Cleverly, Rodwell and McEachran can step up and fill the creative void in the centre of midfield.
Still, I'm old enough to remember when people thought that Joe Cole and Carrick would do that.

Still, hopefully tonight will be a great game. There'll be a fantastic atmosphere here in Lisbon. Hopefully Spain won't do their usual suffocating the life out of the opposing team (and the game) with 100s of sideways passes.

[HugoMarques]

^ I thought Benfica was the only portuguese guy lurking around here besides me... Greetings Israphel!

Eu estava a torcer pela Grécia para que chegasse à final connosco pelo não só pelo Fernando Santos mas também para a desforra de 2004. Oh well... De qualquer maneira também temos contas a ajustar com a Alemanha.

O jogo de hoje vai ser muito sofrido, mas tenho confiança na nossa equipa. Eles têm crescido muito durante este Euro.

Vamos ver mas é se o Paulo Bento não continua a ser o especialista em segundos lugares como tem sido antes de chegara Seleccionador e leva Portugal à glória!


Adoro o resultado desta tradução para inglês

[Selerox]

Originally Posted by Israphel

That was pretty dire wasn't it. I read somewhere that Milner completed 18 passes in the entire game. It would have been a crime if we'd gone through.
This is hardly a good Italian team either (Pirlo aside).

What concerns me more for the future is that Hodgson already seems to have his favorites, and rather than making decisions based on form and what's happening on the pitch, he sticks to reputation and substitutions that seem to have been pre-decided.
I mean, Rooney was terrible, but he left him on and took Welbeck off. England are getting overrun in the centre of midfield, so how on earth, bar long balls from defense, were England going to get the ball to the subs Carroll and Walcott?
Why not move Milner into the centre and tell him to stick to Pirlo. Milner isn't a creative player, and that's the kind of job that he CAN do. England then have 3 in the centre, so then remove Rooney and Young (who were doing nothing) and replace them with wide players Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott, who have got more possibilty of getting the ball played to them when England have a 3 man midfield and Pirlo has less time on the ball.
But it seems that Hodgson has his favorites.

Still, England's back 5 were absolutely superb. Welbeck looks comfortable at that level, and hopefully players like Wilshire, Cleverly, Rodwell and McEachran can step up and fill the creative void in the centre of midfield.
Still, I'm old enough to remember when people thought that Joe Cole and Carrick would do that.

Aside from Joe Hart and the back four, there wasn't a single high point. In Hart we have a goalkeeper who doesn't make me crap myself every time the ball heads in his direction, and the defence did a superb job all night. Cole and Terry have been great throughout and Lescott's been far better than I thought he would be. Johnson's always struck me as potentially a weak link defensively, but he a decent job.

Rooney didn't show up. It's like they gave him a brain transplant with Emile Heskey as the donor. But even if he was playing up to scratch, it wouldn't have mattered because England's midfield didn't show up either, with the sole exception of Gerrard.

England have to do what Germany did a few years ago and rebuild the entire national team from the ground up. But you're right, we still keep seeing the same faces time and time again. The same faces who've done nothing for years.

We've not exactly got the world's hardest World Cup qualifying group, so now is the right time. Drop the old guard and start fresh with the new talent coming through. Who cares if it's tough? I'd rather have a great young team who are motivated and forged in the fire of actual competition, than the self-absorbed underachievers we've had throughout the 2000s.

[theabyss]

What a lame game that was. Spain vs. Portugal.
Never seen so many crybabies in one game.


Germany vs. Italy will be interesting, though.

[Israphel]

Originally Posted by HugoMarques

^ I thought Benfica was the only portuguese guy lurking around here besides me... Greetings Israphel!

Ah, I'm actually English Hugo. I mean, I'm technically also Portuguese because I have citizenship as my wife is Portuguese and I've lived here so long (15 years). I guess that actually makes me more Portuguese that Pepe, Deco and various others who've played for the national team

Interesting game last night, Portugal started so well with an incredible intensity and really seemed to push Spain back and knock them off their game...but they didn't really make any opportunities and score when they were controlling the game, so it was inevitable that they would tire and lose the initiative.
Still, there's no shame in holding Spain 0-0 and losing on penalties to them...Portugal come home with a lot of pride.
I just think the penalties might have gone differently if Ronaldo had taken the first instead of the last. Why did he place himself there? When you're the second team taking penalties, the 5th player regularly doesn't take a penalty as its all over by then...so why have the best penalty taker last when it might already be too late. If he'd taken the first and scored, the whole dynamic of the shootout might have been different.
Do you think he wanted to be last to get the glory of the winning penalty? A lot of the British press seems to think that.

[DarkEmperor]

Boy, this "tiki-taka" football of Spain is so boring... I almost commited suicide yesterday... I hate those ****ing idiots, I don't think I'll watch the final, not this thing again, thank you. Take the ****ing cup and put it in your arse, dorks. Not even 1 chance, instead 90 minutes of passing the ball horizontally outside the penalty area... :mega puke:

[SkaarjMaster]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!

[Israphel]

Originally Posted by Israphel

This is hardly a good Italian team either (Pirlo aside).

Lol, shows what I know.
What a fantastic game of football. Italy were absolutely brilliant.
Should be an intriguing final...I'm certainly not going to try and call it.