**Official Football Thread** (Not American Football) Vol 2

[Anceh]

How many of Messi's goals were assists from Xavi or Iniesta?

Why am I disappointed with Hazard joining Chelsea? I dislike Chelsea very much.

I don't really cheer for any Country in the Championship. I dont like the dutch cunts tho. Thats for sure.

[itsallgoodbabyGb]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Looking forward to todays games, should be a party + your other comments

in footballing terms, this has been an amazing tournament, if you'll excuse my biased hyperbole; poland didn't disgrace themselves quite as badly as they have done in the past decade, and england still lack any element of disgrace themselves, and with 2 quarter finals, 2 semis and the final to go there STILL hasn't been a 0-0 draw. come on! goals throughout!

as for estonia not making it, perhaps you're right, but the experience could still help. they say that poland isn't really a football country either, and this could explain a lot of things - such as why huge nations like the USA, india, china, even russia really have done nothing in football, comparatively, while countries as small as the czech republic, hungary, the netherlands, uruguay etc. have such hugely impressive footballing histories, cultures and traditions themselves. i don't know if it's such a good thing missing out - then again you may be right, latvia went to euro 2004, but haven't done anything since then.

and referees - really, the less said about them, the better. :/

i'm actually surprised howard webb's in poland and hasn't been assassinated yet, after the wildly hyperbolic reaction to him awarding austria a last minute penalty against us in the last euro. hopefully he doesn't get any trouble from idiots, even though he is an undoubtedly detestable referee.

and yeah, the blaszczykowski goal against russia ended up being one of the few highlights of the tournament for poland; disappointing overall. and russia are surprising in their underachievement after the performances they put in to reach the semi final of the last euro; it definitely seemed like they just wanted to get on with the quarter final from what i saw of their match with greece; greece took advantage, punished a mistake with an opportunistic run into the box and a goal, and then held out for the win and progress. amazing

and i was disgusted by both russian and polish idiots, hooligans and nutters fighting on the streets; it was a terrible misjudgement to allow a march for national russia day - it's just downright provocative to hold a march in the capital city of a nation who has such a long-standing grudge with your country, i mean come on. it doesn't excuse the thugs who attacked them, but what on earth did they expect holding that march?

and england? well, cautious optimism and a distinct LACK of hyperbole from our media, yes, it's all rather perplexing difficult to believe really. we topped our group, after sweden beat a lacklustre france and we held out against the co-hosts ukraine - that devich strike and terry's clearance off the line shouldn't have happened because milevski who put devich through was offside when the ball was played long to him. but since the linesmen and referee didn't see that, the ball DID cross the line.

here's the thing - if goal-line technology had been introduced and the goal was given, then EVERYONE would be whinging about the offside that was missed in the build-up. i just think that with technology in football, you should either implement systems to deal with EVERY situation, or none at all. it's not fair to just introduce additional technological support for one specific situation in the game.

and yes, whether the ball crosses the line or not is the most important situation in the game. however, offsides, fouls/dives, whether the ball goes out for a corner or a throw in or not - these are all things that count in the build up to goals, and can define whether a move that would lead to a goal is valid or not - it all counts, it's all significant. add video and technology to identify the correct decisions in every situation, or rely on the human element for all situations as we have done for so long. that's my take on it.

it's always better with rooney man he may be a chav, but he's by some distance the most naturally gifted player in england's team right now.

may the party continue! no trouble since russia poland from what i've seen, although UEFA did fine niklas bendtner 100k for advertise paddy power on his boxers, but only 60k to the croatian FA for racist banners some of their fans displayed at matches... wait, what??

Originally Posted by Anceh

How many of Messi's goals were assists from Xavi or Iniesta?

Why am I disappointed with Hazard joining Chelsea? I dislike Chelsea very much.

I don't really cheer for any Country in the Championship. I dont like the dutch cunts tho. Thats for sure.

i assume most of messi's goals were from assists from those 2 and a fair amount of penalties too. but he still had to put them all in, and some of his goals were jaw-dropping - the various chips, the free kick which won that match against atletico i think - some of ronaldo's goals were breathtaking too, don't get me wrong 2 of his goals against APOEL stuck in my mind.

and why dislike chelsea? we're a friendly family club he might make us more likeable, you never know. marin's joined too and he's another skill-based player.

and you must be delighted at the dutch demise i was surprised that they turned out to be the big team that flopped in this one, i have to say, but they were prima donnas from start to finish, and even though they should have scored double figures against the danes, helped produce one of the most open, entertaining matches of the tournament against portugal with their change of system and scored 2 lovely goals by VP and VDV, they were a hugely temperamental, disappointing, embarrassing team. i shouldn't even use the word team.

so, portugal will play spain or france - plenty of history there either way - in the semi final, while germany shall face either england or italy - again, plenty of history there whichever team faces the germans. 4 previous winners, including the holders, still in it, with portugal and england looking to win their first euro. roll on france vs. spain!!

p.s. germany vs. greece was much more fun then i expected it to be; great goals from the germans, resilience shining through incompetence from the greeks, 6 goals and a throroughly entertaining match.

[Anceh]

Portugal - Spain

Germany - Italy; My guess

Spain - Germany in the finals most likely.

Germany - Portugal again would be awesome tho.

[Raptor]

Epic game yesterday

[Anceh]

England - Italy was the most boring game yet.

[Raptor]

er no.

Any Spain game except for when they played against Italy has been boring.

[itsallgoodbabyGb]

haha, you predicted germany vs. portugal anceh, so we got italy vs. spain in the final edit - oh wait, re-reading you did say germany spain. i thought it would be that too to be fair i was hoping germany would win, but they looked lethargic against italy, who were in turn brilliant themselves; boateng continued to be a liability, not a bad footballer, but always allowed his opponent to get back in front of him, and sooo lumbering and slow. gomez was anonymous, as was podolski, and schweinsteiger also looked tired and deflated after the 2 balotelli goals. i also pick out ozil, who, while he was trying to do stuff at least, wasn't incisive or quick enough; perhaps it's a little unfair to criticise him too much though. the defence were obviously shit, failing on both italian strikes.

italy, on the other hand, were astonishingly good, playing to the best of their ability, and everyone doing their job with unerring efficiency and energy; they also played some great sweeping passing moves, and attacked with intent, and when germany came out stronger in the second half, they looked assured in defence, and dangerous on the counter, although they should have scored at least a couple of those breaks, lol.

as for spain, well, like at the world cup in south africa, they seem not to have any outstanding performances, and yet have only conceded a single goal, in the opening match to their co-finalists italy, and never looked in too much danger of going out, even when croatia had that great chance in the last group game, and when portugal carved out a few chances of their own in the semi. edit 2 - i must add, however, that i was thoroughly impressed by their 4-0 win against ireland, which should have been 14-0 and in which they did seem as good as ireland were bad; that one was an enjoyably attacking, dominant performance. more of that please! they looked more like 2008 spain then 2010 or 2012 in that one.

i'd LOVE to see italy win, just to see someone new, and this italian team actually seems likeable to me - balotelli, cassano and montolivo, the trio involved in the goals against germany funnily enough, have all had less then noble moments in their lives and careers, quite a few, but all seem focused and passionate to win for italy, and the rest of the team play a lovely style with them, something i've never seen from the italian national team before, and it is also remarkable how they seem to pull this kind run in a major tournament when their clubs are mired in a match fixing scandal - winning the world cup in 1982, paolo rossi just back from over a year out following match fixing ban, and then coming back for the world cup and scoring 6 goals, including a goal against west germany in the final; winning the world cup again in 2006, after calciopoli, indeed beating hosts germany in the semi-final, AND milan, nearly disqualified from the champions league in 2006/07 because of their part in calciopoli, but eventually admitted because it didn't extend to fixing CL matches, and going on to gain revenge on liverpool by winning the final against them; and now italy reaching the euro 2012 final, while yet another match-fixing case unfolds in italy, and beating germany in the semi-final yet again; truly remarkable.

some other stats - germany had won 15 competitive games in a row, a world record for a national team, until italy beat them, which was the 8th time they'd played each other in major tournaments, germany never recording a single win, although they do have 7 wins from qualifiers; also, with 4 games to go, there hadn't been a single goalless draw, but following england vs. italy and spain vs. portugal, italy took longer then 3 minutes to score their first against germany which meant that period between alonso's second against france and balotelli's first against germany was the longest goalless period in euro history.

right, i can't see italy winning, i think it'll be spain. which would be incredible; they're already one of the very greatest teams of all time; to win 2 euros sandwiched by a world cup, with the team still mostly young and brimming with talent, the signs would be ominous for the coming tournaments. and it's not the most unlikeable team either, even with their almost farcical lack of a striker most of the time; sure, xavi, pique, reina etc. can be mouthy, ramos can be a bit wild and iniesta does the occasional sly dive, but i only really have hate for a few - jordi alba, whose diving is naniesque; busquets, who's just detestable; and the ever arrogant and also bambiesque fabregas.

still, i find myself to be without bias, and simply looking forward to what will hopefully be an exceptional final. after a few incidents of racism from some fans and of course the trouble between russians and poles, it sounds like it has been otherwise a great tournament from the organisational and supporter standpoints, and it's certainly been quite memorable on the pitch i feel. so hopefully, we'll have goals and a great story to end it in kiev

[Raptor]

Italy just overplayed Germany in every possible way. Individually they were stronger than Germany whose main strength has been its precise movements and ortnung.
Italy however was creative and with such legends like Pirlo and Cassano doing a lot of work + the excellent defence they just had to win it.
Against Spain it will be much harder, but I'm hoping for football to win ONCE at least and I hope EURO 2012 will be that time when it'll happen.

Spain has been always playing a lackluster game imho and that's their main advantage. By passing the ball around for 100 times before suddenly making a move and striking they manage to put the opposition to sleep.
So I hope Italy has a good strategy against that.
It's apparent that what Spain doesn't like is strong pushing from the other side, as shown from Portugal and Italy on the first game.
It kills the Spanish game quite well, so if Italy manages to do that and get some early goals then they can take it.

Staying goalless and/or inactive against Spain for too long will mean death.

So I'm clearly biased here, even though I was hoping for Germany to take it then they just didn't have it in the end. So I'm going for the second best team here.
I just wouldn't be able to stand it if Spain got this one as well. It's not fair!


And I've seen this trend in the past as well, that Italy has always been strongest when it's been difficult at home.
It's been a great cup anyways and it's almost a shame it will already be over on Sunday.

[Anceh]

I honestly thought Portugal would win when the game ended with penalties.

I heard Özil did a good job vs Italy, but the rest sucked balls and its only so much 1 person can do. Didn't see the game myself.

I hope Spain win the final. Just cause I don't like Balotellicuntwhoreshitman.

I really hoped for Germany - Portugal tho

[Injektilo]

football mate, fakkin football yeh?

[itsallgoodbabyGb]

fakkin amazin bruvs and luvs.

i really thought italy would do it. haha! i HOPED they would, just to see the spanish monopoly broken, and in the fear that they'd bore italy and everyone watching to death again. but they actually went for it, and pulled off a great victory. i was very impressed, to be honest. balotelli wasn't, he was piiiiiissed. perhaps i should be ashamed of myself, but as a chelsea fan i was also delighted with the contributions of torres and mata at the end

after everything, really, you have to hand it to the spanish. i certainly do. i mean, yeah, they've been lucky, in more then one instance, over the last 4 years. but on the other hand, they've only conceded 6 goals over the three winning campaigns in the last 2 euros and the last world cup, they only lost one group match, and they scored 32 goals themselves; they didn't concede any goals in open play in the knockout stages of any of the tournaments, they won 2 penalty shootouts which they used to be shit at and they also played some great sides - russia twice, italy 3 times, germany twice, france, portugal twice, bielsa's chile, even the mighty greece; in 2008 they beat the defending european champions greece and the world champions italy; in 2010 they beat the top scoring team in the tournament, germany, in the semi final, and now they scored the most goals, provided the top scorer - torres HA HA HA - the largest winning margin in a final, the first player to score in 2 european championship finals - torres HA HA HA - all sorts of passing records of course; germany did surpass their world record for consecutive competitive victories during the tournament, but spain are the champions, and the first country to successfully defend the trophy too.

fakkin ell.