Euro 2012

[Jimmydeicide]

Nailed my prediction. WHAT a 2nd goal that was. Perfection. Great game so far lets hope Italy get one early for an even better 2nd half.
Ramos is starting to wind up Mario keep your eyes peeled

[XXXIV]

Nailed my prediction.

Perfectly!

I have really been entertained....and yeah I hope Italy get a goal early this half to keep the party going.

[rhymes450]

Huge performances from the big Spanish names. Xavi's got all his lights on and Iniesta looks unstoppable. Apparently Jord Alba will be joining them at Barca next year. Italy came into it a bit after the first goal with a couple of decent long range efforts but it's hard to see them working their way back into the match now.

[dougb]

Huge performances from the big Spanish names. Xavi's got all his lights on and Iniesta looks unstoppable. Apparently Jord Alba will be joining them at Barca next year. Italy came into it a bit after the first goal with a couple of decent long range efforts but it's hard to see them working their way back into the match now.

That's the thing, Italy haven't played badly at all. Spain are just outrageously good.

Doug

[XXXIV]

Huge performances from the big Spanish names. Xavi's got all his lights on and Iniesta looks unstoppable. Apparently Jord Alba will be joining them at Barca next year. Italy came into it a bit after the first goal with a couple of decent long range efforts but it's hard to see them working their way back into the match now.

That's the thing, Italy haven't played badly at all. Spain are just outrageously good.

Doug

Agree. Spain is good


It sure is going to be hard for Italy but I hope they try. I had fun with that first half and want more of the same play. Selfish I am.

[10spro]

Usually a losing side keeps pushing forward looking to narrow down the difference, try to find a lucky break here and there. But the Italians are so resigned to the fact that they lost to a much better team with still 20 minutes to go and look more forward to the showers. They look exhausted.

[toonarmy]

3-0 as Torres scores. Congrats to Spain.

[toonarmy]

Correction, 4-0, as Torres makes a wicked no-look pass to Mata for another goal.

[XXXIV]

History baby!

Bad ass mother f***ers!

Grats to Spain.

I know its going to be in Brazil but I would not bet against these guys . Ever.

[wco81]

Do the Madrilenos have the slightest ambivalence about the prominence of all the Barcelona players on the national team?

[XXXIV]

Do the Madrilenos have the slightest ambivalence about the prominence of all the Barcelona players on the national team?

I would think f*** NO!

Country before bs bought for club teams.

[rhymes450]

Do the Madrilenos have the slightest ambivalence about the prominence of all the Barcelona players on the national team?

Undoubtedly. Hard core Madridistas will come up with all types of argument to explain to the rest of the world why Cristiano Ronaldo is much better than Messi. IMO, there's no doubt that this Spanish team plays in the style of Barca, which is team Catalonia, but there's little doubt either that players like Casillas (possible player of the tournament???), Xavi Alonso, Ramos, Silva etc., have played a big part.

Tough on Italy. Things weren't looking good for them anyway, but when they went down to 10 men, the match turned into a procession (Prandelli obviously hasn't played enough Master League or he'd know that it's very risque to make all three substitutions before at least the 70th minute ). Still a good tournament for them. I guess the question now is where this Spanish team and their Tiki Taka style belongs in the history of international football.

[dougb]

This Spanish team is one of the great teams of all time. I think they're the true inheritors of the mantle once held by those fantastic Brazilian teams of Pele and co.

Doug

[RobVarak]

That was a fantastic performance. Loved it!

[JRod]

[quote="rhymes450"][quote="wco81"] (Prandelli obviously hasn't played enough Master League or he'd know that it's very risque to make all three substitutions before at least the 70th minute ).

Add this to our running list of winning quotes of the tournament.

[10spro]

Spain plays the type of footie that I grew up playing and I enjoy watching so much. Watching the replay of the excellent piece of art displayed by Spaniards as I post this.

[pk500]

A master class. Perfect combination of typical tiki-taka with some assertive runs and through balls. The second goal was a perfect example.

Lost in the discussion about Spain's offensive style and power was the incredible performance by its defense and Casillas. Allowing just one goal for the entire tournament, even while missing Puyol? Yowza.

I'm not betting against the Spaniards in two years in Brazil.

[RobVarak]

I'm not betting against the Spaniards in two years in Brazil.

Pretty wise, that. 12 goals for and 1 against despite missing their best striker and arguably their best defender.

Spain also now hold the Senior, U-19 and U-21 European Championships!

[RobVarak]

Two clear things learned from Euro 2012. 1. Spain are good. 2. Nobody in England can properly pronounce "Pirlo."

[fsquid]

Spain are the greatest, no doubt.

[toonarmy]

The scary thing about Spain is that this group is not their best team during their incredible run, yet they still dominated the tournament. Then you look at the ages of their players and they will still be relatively young in two years, or at least young enough to still be awesome at the WC. Then you take into account that Spain have a crap ton of great young players that will be phased onto the national team over the coming years. This has the makings of a true dynasty like international football has never seen. I think it was Lalas or Ballack yesterday who said that other teams will have a couple years to learn how to break down Spain and exploit weaknesses. Yeah, good luck with that. Teams have been trying to break this team down for several years now with not much luck. Spain are strong in virtually every aspect of the game and can play an open, scoring style or play a style where they sit back and rely on defense and countering.

[JRod]

I don't think Spain 2012 is as good as Spain 2010. I just think in Euro 2012 you saw the talent pool of Europe where most of the teams were average, aging or caught in a state of flux. And then you have England.

I think it two years, you have Germany finding itself. France has team to gel with youngsters. Who knows how hungry Messi and Argentina will be. And Brazil playing at home. They have an impressive run but after watching most of EURO 2012 there really were that many great teams from the usual suspects.

[10spro]

At the WC 2014, don't be surprised to see some emerging SA teams coming out strong such as Uruguay and Chile. Colombia maybe in the mix as well and of course Brazil with all the fans cheering for them will be tough to beat. Based on the last few games that I watched from Argentina, Messi has taken total command of the team and coach A. Sabella just needs to watch the local boys talent at home continue to evolve as a nice mix with the Internationals will put them in the mix among favorites. Last classic friendly with Brazil where they won 4-3 showed a lot of talent up front and they played even without the services of Tevez. Defense is still a little suspect though.

I think the Germans will be ripe also 2 years from now and don't count Portugal out of the mix. But at this point Spain is the best team in the world by far.

[rhymes450]

Strikes me that the Spain style is like taking the concept of the schoolyard kid that's so much better than all the others that nobody can take the ball from him and putting it into a team context at the very highest level. Tiki Taka seeems like the ultimate statement of superiority - I'm better than you and I can keep the ball all day, and if you do happen to win it, I'll win it back again very quickly, most probably in your half of the pitch and then I'll keep it again until I create a chance...Johann Cruyff meets Arrigo Sacchi??

I guess you also need a bit of luck, especially in these tournaments at the knock out stages. Rob pointed out that it's not like a best of 7 basketball playoff. Upsets in football are more common than in other sports where superiority is generally rewarded by a scoreboard that keeps ticking over. That's not the case in socccer. Spain completely dominated Switzerland in the 2010 WC and probably created more chances than they did yesterday but still lost 1-0. I don't think any team managed to come back and win in the knock-out stages of Euro 2012 after conceding the first goal. Had Spain conceded against either Croatia or Portugal, they'd have found it very tough to stay in the tournament. Very thin line there and Spain have finished on the right side of it in the last three big tournaments. 2014 is probably asking a lot on the law of averages.

[pk500]

I'll repeat: The most overlooked part of tiki-taka is the sublime skill of Spain's defense. It's easy for a back four and keeper to fall asleep when their front six dominates possession, but Spain's rear guard always is ready and ruthlessly good.