Way to go Russia. Now I'm 0-3 on QF picks in '08:) So now I guess Italy is going to spank Spain in game 4?
The Dutch back line was atrocious the entire match. Their defenders were playing some of the worst defense I've seen in this tournament. Who was the defender who let in that second goal on the far post??? Terrible, just terrible.
Way to go Russia. Now I'm 0-3 on QF picks in '08:) So now I guess Italy is going to spank Spain in game 4?
The Dutch back line was atrocious the entire match. Their defenders were playing some of the worst defense I've seen in this tournament. Who was the defender who let in that second goal on the far post??? Terrible, just terrible.
Couldn't have put it better myself. I was surprised Russia didn't run out of steam, but letting 9 of your first 11 take a week off looks like a mistake in hindsight.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
This has to go down as one of the greatest EUROs in recent times.
Certainly didn't see Russia beating Holland.
[url=http://sensiblecoasters.wordpress.com/][b]Sensible Coasters - A critique of sports games, reviews, gaming sites and news. Questionably Proofread![/b][/url]
JRod wrote:This has to go down as one of the greatest EUROs in recent times.
Certainly didn't see Russia beating Holland.
One of the greatest TOURNAMENTS of at least the last 20 years.
Great team goals have been the hallmark of Euro 2008 - that and a penchant for attacking play that has been missing for quite some time. There have been legitimate criticisms of the calibre of defending play. But I think many of the defensive lapses have been more the result of terrific attacks than just inherently poor defense.
Case in point was Holland yesterday. The defense looked pretty poor on a couple of the goals. But when you go back and look at the attacks they were faced with (side backs steaming repeatedly up the sides and even up the middle, beautiful passes played off at angles to attackers coming in at full speed, Arshavin!), any defense is going to have trouble coping.
Best wishes,
Doug
"Every major sport has come under the influence of organized crime. FIFA actually is organized crime" - Charles Pierce
JRod wrote:This has to go down as one of the greatest EUROs in recent times.
Certainly didn't see Russia beating Holland.
One of the greatest TOURNAMENTS of at least the last 20 years.
I agree. It's fantastic.
So did the soccer players invent the "crowd shhh" celebration (sometime coupled with the jersey point) or are they copying the NFL/NBA? It's getting old...time to come up with something new.
I am not happy to see the Dutch go home, because they played such great football through the group stage and I generally like them, but man yesterday's game just made me giddy. ARSHAVIN! The way the Russkies played was just simply the right way to play. Aggressive, positive, creative, optimistic, never pouting, hard working, rushing forward as a team, rushing back to defend; and then ARSHAVIN! Van Der Sar was downright amazing as he had been throughout the tourney, but what could he do on those first two goals? The Russian GK is absurdly good as well, but it seemed to me his defenders did the heavy lifting, which I didn't expect. Wow, but Hiddink seems to have these guys tuned just right and primed to go. I just hope they can keep it up. I could see them coming out flat on Thursday, but I am happy to think Russia is on the way up as a national side and am very curious to see how they grow in the next two years.
Where is Arshavin going to end up this summer? Any rumors out there? I think I have a new favorite player. . . .
Zeppo wrote:I am not happy to see the Dutch go home, because they played such great football through the group stage and I generally like them, but man yesterday's game just made me giddy. ARSHAVIN! The way the Russkies played was just simply the right way to play. Aggressive, positive, creative, optimistic, never pouting, hard working, rushing forward as a team, rushing back to defend; and then ARSHAVIN! Van Der Sar was downright amazing as he had been throughout the tourney, but what could he do on those first two goals? The Russian GK is absurdly good as well, but it seemed to me his defenders did the heavy lifting, which I didn't expect. Wow, but Hiddink seems to have these guys tuned just right and primed to go. I just hope they can keep it up. I could see them coming out flat on Thursday, but I am happy to think Russia is on the way up as a national side and am very curious to see how they grow in the next two years.
Where is Arshavin going to end up this summer? Any rumors out there? I think I have a new favorite player. . . .
Hiddink is an astonishing good manager and tactician who now has a team of players who for the most part have excellent technical skills to go along with a fantastic work rate. He performed miracles with Korea but now we can see the kind of performance he can get out of a squad containing some truly gifted players like Arshavin.
Best wishes,
Doug
"Every major sport has come under the influence of organized crime. FIFA actually is organized crime" - Charles Pierce
Well first half was pretty bloody awful - hope Spain can find the target in the second half cause I can just see this ending up in tears for Spain after a loss on penalty kicks.
Best wishes,
Doug
"Every major sport has come under the influence of organized crime. FIFA actually is organized crime" - Charles Pierce
dougb wrote:Well first half was pretty bloody awful - hope Spain can find the target in the second half cause I can just see this ending up in tears for Spain after a loss on penalty kicks.
Best wishes,
Doug
I dunno. The Italians are playing as they should against the quick lil' Spaniards. If Spain brings in Fabregas they might be able to get a bit more going and maybe find the pass that opens up Italy's impressive D (so far). Buffon looks beatable today. He has had a couple week dives against some off target and on target shots by Spain.
Luca Toni - please someone teach him about the offside rule!
Fernando Torres - very poor start giving the ball away before a couple of nice plays, and then substituted by someone who looks a bit like Luca Toni
David Silva - Hasn't done very much outside of 1 good shot
Best wishes,
Doug
"Every major sport has come under the influence of organized crime. FIFA actually is organized crime" - Charles Pierce
I'm also really glad that Marcos Senna scored his penalty....God only knows what Aragones would have called him....actually, I have a pretty good idea what he'd say.
Russia - Spain should be great.
Last edited by Macca00 on Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
<Pats £10 each way betting slip on Spain at 16-1 from before start of tournament, starts to breathe again>
Italy were abysmal, Spain could have had at least one penalty, and I could never bring myself to support a time that has wasters like Panucci, Cassano and Camoranesi in it. Some of their better players didn't exactly show up either - Toni has been awful all tournament, De Rossi was anonymous and Ambrosini very poor as well.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
Spain deserved to win that. Not the most exciting game in the world but at least we saw some D from the Italians. Casillas was excellent especially in the PKs. Ramos did a nice job banging around against Toni too.
Spain deserved to win that. Not the most exciting game in the world but at least we saw some D from the Italians. Casillas was excellent especially in the PKs. Ramos did a nice job banging around against Toni too.
Man did Gray hate that ref or what!
Italy certainly didn't deserve to continue on in this tournament. I don't think they played one game that was exciting to watch.
[url=http://sensiblecoasters.wordpress.com/][b]Sensible Coasters - A critique of sports games, reviews, gaming sites and news. Questionably Proofread![/b][/url]
Yeah, did Spain have a black player in the 2006 WC?
That was when that Spain manager got into trouble didn't he?
It seemed the Spanish players didn't celebrate Senna's goal in the shootout and when they won it, he was kind of outside of the group of Spanish players celebrating.
