euro 2012

[xes]

Germany are the ruling elite in this tornament. They are bossing everyone they come across. Been impressed watching them play, they've been playing good football. They will win, unless some freak accident happens and all of their legs fall off.

[blistanbul]

mesit ozil is unstoppable.

this bloke killed the greeks like we have in the thousand years.

such a charmer.

the germans demolished those guys so well.

no bail-out this time fatties.

i have a feeling germans will lose in the finals.

i also have a feeling portugal beating spain.

[SlavikSvensk]

germany are the best team of the tournament so far, that's true. i think they have the second best talent, after spain--but unlike spain, they have lots of players who can put the ball in the back of the net. and they're the fastest team too, i think. not just ozil, but the whole team has the pace of a 1990s brazil team. they should easily beat the winner of italy-england, and would beat portugal again if they made it to the final. this is a team that has absolutely no problem demolishing the defensive tactics that england, italy and portugal have all favored this year.

the kryptonite for germany, though, is the spanish possession game, which robs them of their pace. spain don't look as sharp as they did at the world cup, or at euro 2008, but this is still the worst matchup for germany.

that said, i think the germans take it, no matter who they meet at the final. just would be harder if it were spain than if it were someone else.

[DarkYoung]

no bail-out this time fatties.

lol

[DarkYoung]

garbage

[Von Noosh]

England were poor; they started playing pretty decent football at the beginning of the game and I was pleasantly surprised. Then for some bizarre reason they took Welbeck off and brought Carroll on.
Because of this the team started playing long ball tactics, could not keep possession of the ball and basically crumbled.
The best team won however so no major complaints.

Mesit Ozil is weird looking, he doesn't look very German and his eyes bulge out of his head a bit too much; he reminds me of that "Toad" character from the X-men.

The Bosch look good and I hope it's a Germany - Spain final.

Slavik is spot on by saying: "the kryptonite for germany, though, is the spanish possession game, which robs them of their pace."

Have Spain been behind in a game yet?

[blistanbul]

Mesit Ozil is weird looking, he doesn't look very German and his eyes bulge out of his head a bit too much; he reminds me of that "Toad" character from the X-men.

if you paid some attention to his name instead of his looks then maybe you would know that he is not of German ethnicity. Maybe players on German team are not German ethnicity. what is your point?

he still has more skill on his toenail than you and is one of the best playmakers in the world.

i guess that is why he is making millions playing for Real Madrid while you play for Potato Couch DC United?

Anyways, I hope Germany will win it because they thoroughly deserved it with their play. We will see how they fare against one of the top guns though.

I also feel Wellbeck sub for Carroll was correct one as Wellbeck wasn't doing anything and he was looking too much for Rooney, just like the last game.

Thirdly the lads got outplayed and outclassed yesterday by the Italians. Simples. The better teams have won and gone through to the semis which is only right.

Lastly, can someone please explain to me why a bloke who has never scored for his national team in Hundred Caps is picked to kick a penalty and this guy is DEFENSIVE player?????

[SlavikSvensk]

england just doesn't have the depth of talent to compete with the big boys right now. italy showed that pretty clearly, but it wasn't a surprise, as if you think about it objectively, england hasn't actually been good in any match so far. the media were really overhyping ambiguous performances against pretty poor competition. i mean, a 1-1 draw with a pretty awful france squad (in which france had the better of things), a 3-2 win over a much-worse-than-normal swedish side that can't defend (and yet still had the better of things for most of the match), and a 1-0 "victory" courtesy of bad officiating over that football powerhouse, the ukraine? this is not the stuff legends are made of.

but hey...my team (sweden) also had structural problems, and couldn't even get that far, so it's all relative.

predictions:

i think italy plays germany tight for a while, but in the end the germans have too much firepower and win 2-0.
spain and portugal go scoreless and spain wins in extra time or PKs.
germany finally overcomes their kryptonite i the final, 2-1

[Von Noosh]

if you paid some attention to his name instead of his looks then maybe you would know that he is not of German ethnicity. Maybe players on German team are not German ethnicity. what is your point?

Blistanbul, I wikipedied Ozil and got the following:

"Özil is a third-generation Turkish-German,^{[49][28][50][51]} who, in reference to his game, concludes, "My technique and feeling for the ball is the Turkish side to my game. The discipline, attitude and always-give-your-all is the German part."^[52] Although of Turkish descent, his entire life has been committed to Germany.^[28] His ancestors are from Devrek, Zonguldak in Northern Turkey.^[53]
He is a practicing Muslim. He recites the Quran before his matches. Talking to the Berlin-based daily Der Tagesspiegel, Özil said, "I always do that before I go out (on the pitch). I pray and my teammates know that they cannot talk to me during this brief period."^[54][55]
In 2010, Özil received the Bambi award for being a prime example of successful integration within German society"

No wonder you were so offended, the man is one of your Turkish brethren.
I did not really have a point other than he does not look German and he has bulgy eyes; I myself do not look British.
The Potato Couch DC United jibe is well below the belt and I will accept nothing else but a full apology from yourself within 24hrs

I still disagree with you on the Wellbeck substitution; Carroll was always going to come on but I personally feel he was brought on too early. As soon as he came on England started playing long shitey balls and constantly losing possession. Anyway, England deserved to go no further in the competition.
Cole probably took a penalty as he is one of the senior players and deemed to be more cool headed in these situations. He probably nominated himself.

Viva Espana

[SlavikSvensk]

potato coach dc united LOL.

(i have no idea what that means)

[SlavikSvensk]

well i certainly wasn't expecting that

[blistanbul]

italy destoryed germany.

again germany's great offensive scheme suffers.

is it me or the germans can not win against top sides of the tournament?

they can beat the near top-tier teams like turkey, croatia, but have hard times against spain, italy?

i think they lack a true scorer with the decline of Klose.

anyhow i predict italians to top spain in extra time with belotonii to score.

ps at least England can say we lost to the eventually winners.

again.

i was really upset with the play with the germans. no true 4 on 3 or real attack. this was a joke.

[blistanbul]

potato coach dc united LOL.

(i have no idea what that means)

it is a joke mate.

of course to add salt to the wound.

it means he is an average joe, couch potato which means he plays for no one.

[blistanbul]

Blistanbul, I wikipedied Ozil and got the following:

"Özil is a third-generation Turkish-German,^{[49][28][50][51]} who, in reference to his game, concludes, "My technique and feeling for the ball is the Turkish side to my game. The discipline, attitude and always-give-your-all is the German part."^[52] Although of Turkish descent, his entire life has been committed to Germany.^[28] His ancestors are from Devrek, Zonguldak in Northern Turkey.^[53]
He is a practicing Muslim. He recites the Quran before his matches. Talking to the Berlin-based daily Der Tagesspiegel, Özil said, "I always do that before I go out (on the pitch). I pray and my teammates know that they cannot talk to me during this brief period."^[54][55]
In 2010, Özil received the Bambi award for being a prime example of successful integration within German society"

No wonder you were so offended, the man is one of your Turkish brethren.
I did not really have a point other than he does not look German and he has bulgy eyes; I myself do not look British.
The Potato Couch DC United jibe is well below the belt and I will accept nothing else but a full apology from yourself within 24hrs

I still disagree with you on the Wellbeck substitution; Carroll was always going to come on but I personally feel he was brought on too early. As soon as he came on England started playing long shitey balls and constantly losing possession. Anyway, England deserved to go no further in the competition.
Cole probably took a penalty as he is one of the senior players and deemed to be more cool headed in these situations. He probably nominated himself.

Viva Espana

I am proud of Ozil. He composes his stuff well, this guy would be brilliant in Brazil squad not Turkey.

So i understand his choice.

Regarding his eyes, i don't know mate. He has bulgy eyes maybe it gives him extra-vision. I don't know why you have a go at him about his looks maybe you have a man-crush on him and you don't understand why? I am joking.


Secondly I really think Hodgson made a proper good choice with Caroll. Were you watching the game? The poor bloke tried to move through the muddy waters by trying anything to move things along.

It looks more and more like he made the right choice except the penalty kickers as he was one penalty from probably finals.

How many times i have to say this??? No defense player can be a penalty kicker. Portugal has paid for it.

ANd please can someone explain why did nani put that bloke off and that ronalda waited like a cowbell for the fifth shot?

[SlavikSvensk]

italy destoryed germany.

again germany's great offensive scheme suffers.

is it me or the germans can not win against top sides of the tournament?

they can beat the near top-tier teams like turkey, croatia, but have hard times against spain, italy?

i think they lack a true scorer with the decline of Klose.

anyhow i predict italians to top spain in extra time with belotonii to score.

ps at least England can say we lost to the eventually winners.

again.

i was really upset with the play with the germans. no true 4 on 3 or real attack. this was a joke.

well it was clearly a mistake to start gomez over klose. he was a total non-factor in the game. ans schweinsteiger was clearly off his game (still injured, i guess). all the offense came from samy khedira, reus and kroos.

but the biggest problem was that the back four were just hideous in defense. i mean hummels was just embarrassed on that first goal, and it seemed like lahm was the only one who tried to catch balotelli on goal #2. really embarrassing for them.

spain will be a lot tougher for italy...i mean, their 4 defenders are arguably the best 4 defenders in the tournament...and that's WITHOUT their best defender, pujol. expect them to play "keep away from pirlo" in midfield and slowly grind down the italians en route to yet another 1-0 win.

and then we'll have to face facts, that this spanish team is just taking the piss with everyone else. winning a tournament without a striker is like saying "let's play golf but this time i'll only use one arm. now watch me still beat you."

[SlavikSvensk]

well that wasn't close.

can't believe i ever thought germany would beat that team.

[blistanbul]

well that wasn't close.

can't believe i ever thought germany would beat that team.

well it wasn't.

the best team ever? no! brazil team would've killed them.

slav don't buy into it.

[SlavikSvensk]

brazil isn't very good right now, blis. they are decent at the back, but even there spain has more talent.

homefield advantage could propel brazil to win wc 2014, but if they were to play spain right now on neutral territory, they'd get stomped.

spain obliterated italy, even before the injury. the team that utterly dominated england and germany was utterly dominated yesterday.

[SlavikSvensk]

plus i don't know how anyone can argue this spanish side isn't that good. they have one of the 3 best goalkeepers in the world (the other two being hart and buffon), they have the best defensive 4 in the world (though portugal's are good too), and they have--far, far, far and away--the best midfield in the world. i mean xavi, xabi alonso and iniesta on the same team?? fabregas as a substitute?? an embarrassment of riches...the only thing this team lacks is a good striker, and that's just because their usual striker was injured this year. besides, it hardly mattered in the end.

plus they have so much young talent--jordi alba, busquets, pedro--who will be the next generation of superstars.

it reminds me of brazil from 1994-2007 that won 2 world cups, got to the final of another and won 4 copa americas. every time the stars of one team stepped down, there were new ones just as good to take their places, as if there was a depthless well of talent to pull from. well it did end eventually, as will spanish dominance.

but it doesn't look like that's going to end anytime soon. just like brazil, they won't win everything in their period of ascendency, but they are primed for at least a decade of top-level success, and i'd be shocked if this their swan song.

[blistanbul]

no what i meant is this team although have undoubtedly accomplish the most in terms competitive play consecutively would struggle against Pele's Brazil, maybe the late 80's Dutch or even a German team from the past.

in my mind they are not the best ever.