I'm just getting tired of England tending to play for the tie. So many games in the past seem to me they go up a goal or tied and then they go mostly defensive. It drives me crazy.
I was really impressed with Italy. Only team I've seen in a few tournaments who look capable of technically standing toe-to-toe with the reigning world & European champions Spain. Italy took the game to Spain. Who has done that in the last 5 years or so?
Following her rise to fame, and after Argentinian coach Diego Maradona promised to run naked through Buenos Aires if Argentina won the 2010 World Cup, Riquelme matched the offer and promised that she would run naked (wearing only body paint in the colors of Paraguay) through Asunci??n if Paraguay won the World Cup, or even if they reached the semi-finals by beating Spain.[7][8] Paraguay eventually lost its match against Spain, but Riquelme announced that she would fulfill her promise anyway,[4] a promise that she kept.[9]
I was really impressed with Italy. Only team I've seen in a few tournaments who look capable of technically standing toe-to-toe with the reigning world & European champions Spain. Italy took the game to Spain. Who has done that in the last 5 years or so?
Yes! Backing Italy 100% in this tourney.
Will be interesting to see if Di Natale starts the next match. Who knows what the score of the Spain game would have been if he had started instead of Balotelli. Highly entertaining match, to say the least - such a pleasure to watch!
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
vintageinfants said:
no one saying nathan bout a kraut?
Y'ALL IS SHOOK
Tonight's game was good, although Germany took their foot off the gas at the expense of some of the game's entertainment value in the latter part of the second half. Hard not to see them going all the way.
I think I preferred Holland when they weren't Blackburn. Too many pub players in that side, and they'd have been better off playing Jethro Clampett at left-back. Arjen Robben is a classless, arrogant toerag who should never kick a ball for Holland again.
I'd love to have seen the odds on Bendtner getting more goals at the Euros than van Persie.
I'd love to have seen the odds on Bendtner getting more goals at the Euros than van Persie.
not mad. hope Bendtner and Arshavin go lights out this Euro's, maybe AFC actually can sell them on for a profit. And RvP realizes that playing in a team of 'stars' doesn't ensure success and just leads to dealing with big egos and bigger babies.
that said, my Euro bracket is going to hell if/when the Dutch drop out.
I was hoping the Irish would win 1. But their fans are really great. With all the fan nonsense that has gone on this tournament, it's pretty great to see and hear.
Watching the Ireland game in the pub, commentary drowned out by two hundred lagered-up spiky haired grad types, and when you haven't got some commentator and pundit hyping up the wonder of tiki-taka, you see it for what it is.
Essentially boring.
Se??or, the goal is thataway-------->>>>
And Xavi has that Napoleonic look about him, a la Platini.
A future role at the top of UEFA hierarchy awaits.
Mick Mills was years ahead. Toecaps-on-the-side-of-his-boots-R. Pity no-one else was on his wavelength.
Or could it be that, like the rest of the England sides in the 70s (when all the foreigners weren't over here to ruin the game and dilute the national side's ability), they were totally devoid of ideas?
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
skel said:
when you haven't got some commentator and pundit hyping up the wonder of tiki-taka, you see it for what it is.
Essentially boring.
Se??or, the goal is thataway-------->>>>
I think there's a tendency to get a bit Shania Twain about Spanish football nowadays. Y'know - "that don't impress me much". I mean, the Spanish found their way to the goal four times last night. And this is boring? If you're talking about how the gulf in quality creates a one-sided contest, and that this can be boring, then I'd agree. But that's hardly the fault of the better team, is it? As for the infuriating habit that one team has of passing to players in the same strip as them, you're hardly going to win the World Cup and the Euros in rapid succession by constantly giving the ball away or being unable to string a few passes together.
I dunno, skel, maybe we've just got different ideas about what constitutes entertainment. I'm not trying to be a smart-arse but I find it baffling to hear people who supposedly like football default to this sort of received wisdom. It's like when people began referring to "Bore-celona" last season. Ridiculous. We've all seen how you beat Barcelona, and that's to play like Stoke. Or you can try to beat the Spanish national side by kicking them off the park like the Dutch did, and at least we're going to be spared the sight of that in the Euros. Is that what people want to see, though? Alehouse football? When I don't have any emotional investment in a match, I want to see the game played well, with a bit of skill, craft and intelligence. If it happens to occasionally involve some of the best players in the world taking the piss a bit, then so be it. After all, I can watch shit football any time I like.
But...
Personally I want my time investment in a match repaid in a basket of emotional currencies: blood, guts, skill, chutzpah, arrogance, and above all, striving for glory. I can't get cerebral kicks from stats and patterns and tactics and pass completion rates. Two dudes passing to each other four times in a row on the halfway line is time we can never get back.
Watching the local team ticks some of those boxes, Striving for glory, yes, w/o the means to execute.
Watching Spain can tick others. They don't go for glory though, yet they have the ability to do so. I find this especially unforgivable.
I suppose, greedily, I'm disappointed when any team can't be Brazil 82 or Holland 74.
And in particular, in common with others here, I tend to prefer to rail against whatever I perceive as herd mentality (even if that is unfair comment) and never be in a position where I have to cosign the gestalt being that is the TV Panel.
I can see what Steve and Doc mean. Spain's football is unspectacularly efficient, like Pete Sampras, but despite the fact that people know what's coming, no-one is offering a more effective (non-violent) resistance. They are winning fair and square.
I too long for the Harlem-Globetrotter-swagger, scoring-for-fun days of Brasil '82 but perhaps the old rose-tint Foster Grant's have a blind spot called "90% of the other sides had wood-carving day jobs, doe." The likes of Zico taking a crack from his own half, 90 seconds in, are scoffed at now there's this much money involved.
I was really hoping the Irish would soil the clean Spanish sheet in some way :ayo: rather than have a duck-egg to show for their graft, but really, even when the donkey-crushers were playing for fun, they were never troubled. Completely outclassed.
Yet I can't side with Roy Keane's scathing summary of the Irish player / supporter mindsets. He's very competitive and has enjoyed the best of everything with Un*ted, so when the Irish FA (no telly money, remember) are asked to pay for a credible coach and somehow get 11 blokes out of the hotel and on the pitch when their mates are all having the craic down the road, it's akin to asking them to alter their entire cultural outlook on the priorities of life itself.
As I typed that about the Irish mindset, I recall an old email I got from one of Shay Given's rellos who was there when they exited the World Cup in Suwon (2002 IIRC). Shay always looks for his family in the stands during the warmup and then has a routine where he pretends to be drunk for the practice shots etc. And after the match, the team were all in the boozer playing on stage with the fans. I personally have to salute that. Sad last night that there was no miracle from Robbie Keane; no chasing of every ball until the fat lady had sung.
It's kind of the exact opposite mentality the English team (and most fans) seem to have, in that beforehand they are deadly serious about their chances of winning it, yet perennially under-achieve (albeit, skyed penalties are hardly indicative of failing a contest of footballing). And although this time 'round, I think we all have lower expectations, subconsciously I was thinking, "Yeah, we could do the French here, the do not appear to be owt special." I suspect I am not alone.
What Spain lack is a Cruyff, Best, even a Platini in the mix.
And with the skill that Iniesta, Xavi and them have, do something fucking outrageous FFS, even of you wait til you're three up to do it.
Give us a did you see that moment for the ages.
Here's a conversation you won't be having w/ the grandchildren in 30:
Ah you shoulda seen it. That Xavi. 92 pc pass completion rate.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
It's interesting, and of course perfectly understandable, that the Brazilian team of 1982 and the Dutch team of 1974 should be invoked as exemplars of the kind of beautiful, free-flowing football that represents the game at its zenith.
And yet, and yet...
1974 World Cup Winners: West Germany
1982 World Cup Winners: Italy
Could it be that Spain have found a way of playing attractive football and winning that somehow managed to elude superior teams of the past (the quid pro quo being that we don't get those "did you see that?" moments)?
It's not as if they haven't the players for it.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
And what do we remember WG 74 for?
Imperious Kaiser defensive cool. Goal-hanger Gerd Muller. Skanky proto-mullet of Gunter Netzer. Sepp Maier's outsized gloves.
And Italy 82?
Match fix cheat makes good.
Glorious loser > pragmatic winner, every time, for me.
Totally down though with the opposite view. Personally I'm delighted that the pragmatic win delivers joy to many, as long as I can celebrate and revel in the glorious loss.
Comments
not enough talent, simple as. Ireland were fucking horrible. I'm dreading the game against Spain, it could get ugly.
Russians look pretty good after the first round of games
I'd hit that so hard who ever pulled me out would be declared King of England.
That Irish girl would get it though. Ohhhhhhh yes.
B/w
Patrick Vieira's head though.
WTF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larissa_Riquelme
Feeling better already.
Duder to report to disabled lav.
Yes! Backing Italy 100% in this tourney.
Will be interesting to see if Di Natale starts the next match. Who knows what the score of the Spain game would have been if he had started instead of Balotelli. Highly entertaining match, to say the least - such a pleasure to watch!
the russians are coming
the russians are coming
Why does it seem this shit is only news when it involves the English?
Y'ALL IS SHOOK
Tonight's game was good, although Germany took their foot off the gas at the expense of some of the game's entertainment value in the latter part of the second half. Hard not to see them going all the way.
I think I preferred Holland when they weren't Blackburn. Too many pub players in that side, and they'd have been better off playing Jethro Clampett at left-back. Arjen Robben is a classless, arrogant toerag who should never kick a ball for Holland again.
I'd love to have seen the odds on Bendtner getting more goals at the Euros than van Persie.
Fuck Antonio Cassano.
not mad. hope Bendtner and Arshavin go lights out this Euro's, maybe AFC actually can sell them on for a profit. And RvP realizes that playing in a team of 'stars' doesn't ensure success and just leads to dealing with big egos and bigger babies.
that said, my Euro bracket is going to hell if/when the Dutch drop out.
and this.
I imagine a huge % of pools are in the tank based solely on the Dutch. I know my FB feed is full of people pissed.
The Fields of Athenry by ftw1905
Essentially boring.
Se??or, the goal is thataway-------->>>>
And Xavi has that Napoleonic look about him, a la Platini.
A future role at the top of UEFA hierarchy awaits.
They're like that annoying friend who insists on passing it around at the back endlessly on FIFA/Pro Evo.
Mick Mills was years ahead. Toecaps-on-the-side-of-his-boots-R. Pity no-one else was on his wavelength.
Or could it be that, like the rest of the England sides in the 70s (when all the foreigners weren't over here to ruin the game and dilute the national side's ability), they were totally devoid of ideas?
I think there's a tendency to get a bit Shania Twain about Spanish football nowadays. Y'know - "that don't impress me much". I mean, the Spanish found their way to the goal four times last night. And this is boring? If you're talking about how the gulf in quality creates a one-sided contest, and that this can be boring, then I'd agree. But that's hardly the fault of the better team, is it? As for the infuriating habit that one team has of passing to players in the same strip as them, you're hardly going to win the World Cup and the Euros in rapid succession by constantly giving the ball away or being unable to string a few passes together.
I dunno, skel, maybe we've just got different ideas about what constitutes entertainment. I'm not trying to be a smart-arse but I find it baffling to hear people who supposedly like football default to this sort of received wisdom. It's like when people began referring to "Bore-celona" last season. Ridiculous. We've all seen how you beat Barcelona, and that's to play like Stoke. Or you can try to beat the Spanish national side by kicking them off the park like the Dutch did, and at least we're going to be spared the sight of that in the Euros. Is that what people want to see, though? Alehouse football? When I don't have any emotional investment in a match, I want to see the game played well, with a bit of skill, craft and intelligence. If it happens to occasionally involve some of the best players in the world taking the piss a bit, then so be it. After all, I can watch shit football any time I like.
But...
Personally I want my time investment in a match repaid in a basket of emotional currencies: blood, guts, skill, chutzpah, arrogance, and above all, striving for glory. I can't get cerebral kicks from stats and patterns and tactics and pass completion rates. Two dudes passing to each other four times in a row on the halfway line is time we can never get back.
Watching the local team ticks some of those boxes, Striving for glory, yes, w/o the means to execute.
Watching Spain can tick others. They don't go for glory though, yet they have the ability to do so. I find this especially unforgivable.
I suppose, greedily, I'm disappointed when any team can't be Brazil 82 or Holland 74.
And in particular, in common with others here, I tend to prefer to rail against whatever I perceive as herd mentality (even if that is unfair comment) and never be in a position where I have to cosign the gestalt being that is the TV Panel.
I too long for the Harlem-Globetrotter-swagger, scoring-for-fun days of Brasil '82 but perhaps the old rose-tint Foster Grant's have a blind spot called "90% of the other sides had wood-carving day jobs, doe." The likes of Zico taking a crack from his own half, 90 seconds in, are scoffed at now there's this much money involved.
I was really hoping the Irish would soil the clean Spanish sheet in some way :ayo: rather than have a duck-egg to show for their graft, but really, even when the donkey-crushers were playing for fun, they were never troubled. Completely outclassed.
Yet I can't side with Roy Keane's scathing summary of the Irish player / supporter mindsets. He's very competitive and has enjoyed the best of everything with Un*ted, so when the Irish FA (no telly money, remember) are asked to pay for a credible coach and somehow get 11 blokes out of the hotel and on the pitch when their mates are all having the craic down the road, it's akin to asking them to alter their entire cultural outlook on the priorities of life itself.
Noble, but ain't going to happen. Enjoy the ride!
It's kind of the exact opposite mentality the English team (and most fans) seem to have, in that beforehand they are deadly serious about their chances of winning it, yet perennially under-achieve (albeit, skyed penalties are hardly indicative of failing a contest of footballing). And although this time 'round, I think we all have lower expectations, subconsciously I was thinking, "Yeah, we could do the French here, the do not appear to be owt special." I suspect I am not alone.
Silly me.
What Spain lack is a Cruyff, Best, even a Platini in the mix.
And with the skill that Iniesta, Xavi and them have, do something fucking outrageous FFS, even of you wait til you're three up to do it.
Give us a did you see that moment for the ages.
Here's a conversation you won't be having w/ the grandchildren in 30:
Ah you shoulda seen it. That Xavi. 92 pc pass completion rate.
And yet, and yet...
1974 World Cup Winners: West Germany
1982 World Cup Winners: Italy
Could it be that Spain have found a way of playing attractive football and winning that somehow managed to elude superior teams of the past (the quid pro quo being that we don't get those "did you see that?" moments)?
It's not as if they haven't the players for it.
:icegrill:
Imperious Kaiser defensive cool. Goal-hanger Gerd Muller. Skanky proto-mullet of Gunter Netzer. Sepp Maier's outsized gloves.
And Italy 82?
Match fix cheat makes good.
Glorious loser > pragmatic winner, every time, for me.
Totally down though with the opposite view. Personally I'm delighted that the pragmatic win delivers joy to many, as long as I can celebrate and revel in the glorious loss.