I'm a supporter of Germany - so I really really hope they can show that fantastic soccer that they've showed for most of the 2010 World Cup. I'm all in favor of actually winning the tourney - but I'll be satisfied with 4 or so great games.
Germany pretty much always has performed quite well at tournaments overall (if you willing to look beyond just 1st place), but 1996 to 2002 (inclusive) I thought that their play was not a joy to watch. Even though they got some titles and 2nd/3rd places in that time frame.
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Yes, neither Messi nor RVP would be nearly as good without say, Fabregas, behind them -- but how much will the teams with only Xavi or Ozil or Fabregas fair without the mega-star strikers?!?
Well, remember World Championship 2010. The only striker considered the superstar of his team AND actually being successful was Uruguay's Diego Forlan. Spain had Xavi and Iniesta, Germany had Ozil and Schweinsteiger, the Netherlands had Wesley Snejder. And, on the other hand, what about Messi, Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo? Well, they went down with their teams.
But I don't want to take away anything from those players. They're all great strikers. But the time when a single player could regularly decide a game are over, it's the best teams who win. Which, in my opinion, makes players like Xavi, who can organize their team, much more valuable.
he is NOT like the quarterback in American football.
I only tried to underline how important those players are for their teams. As far as I understand (and I'm european, so I won't even pretend to understand anything about american football), a quarterback is his team' most important player. And I think the same goes for Xavi-like player types.
I was really hoping Podolsky would be a great 2nd Forward for us -- well, I still am, obviously.
Maybe. It's just that I doubt his character (when playing for Bayern Munich, he wasn't only awful, he didn't even seem to try) and that I don't think that he can hold his own in teams with speed and fluidness (like our national team). And , well, I love Arsenal's style (even when they beat my favorite team Borussia Dortmund in last year's CL) just for that reason, so I really have problems to imagine Podolski being part of Arsenal. Though I also can't imagine Arsène Wenger suddenly being brain-dead, so maybe there's still hope. ^^
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@ the Wormsy Queue,
Actually, I was thinking about that Xavi vs Messi - position importance argument a bit and I think another good example to look at is the Uruguayan National Team. Two mega-star Strikers and mediocre (at least at this level) Mid Fielders.
And look what they did at the World Cup AND the South American "Cup?" 8 months ago....!
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No biggie on the American QB comparison -- I looked at it quite a bit for a good year before coming to the conclusion. In American football the QB is far, FAR more important than, most American sports fans would say, any other team-sports position.
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Hopefully!
More animated history: Spain.
Featuring (if I didn't mishear) a trumpet playing a bit of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez (featured prominently in the world's best movie about a colliery band - Brassed Off - but also covered by Miles Davis [as Skeches of Spain]) and the third of the three fascist stooges - General Franco.
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Depends on the circumstances.
A friend of mine talked about this once. He is a Barnsley fan and once he attended a game where a long time player and terrace hero came back for his first game back at Barnsley after being transferred. He was applauded warmly when his name was announced and then loudly booed for the rest of the match. The message was thank you for your service now you are the enemy.
A lot of the reaction depends on who they transferred from and to and how they did it. If there was no particular antipathy between the two teams (say Bolton to Chelsea) then there would not be much of a reaction. On the other hand if there is an intense rivalry (say Spurs to Arsenal) they will get abuse for it. Sol Campbell got some horrific stuff thrown his way purely because he moved from Spurs to Arsenal in the past.
It's one of the nastier sides of football frankly.
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He was applauded warmly when his name was announced and then loudly booed for the rest of the match.
This is how we are in most cases for American sports. If a Mikel Arteta left an Everton for an Arsenal or a Fabregas left an Arsenal for a Barcelona, the American fans would cheer for a moment as their former player entered the stadium and then Booo the rest of the game.
Of course, like you alluded, this is when a player leaves an Everton for an Arsenal or an Arsenal for a Barcelona. It's a WHOLE 'NOTHER thing when a player leaves an Arsenal for a Tottenham or a Barcelona for a Real Madrid.
For me -- as a new Arsenal fan and an American outside of football culture -- what Fabregas did was both understandable and forgivable. Nasri, Kolo Toure and Cole on the other hand -- not so forgivable. (Although the latter two happened before my time so I don't know much what really happened -- though I know we Booo Cole like the devil.
Today: Jedward!
My car is now properly dressed for the Euro
sideview
password Aeglos
Animated history: Italy.
...don't mention the bookies.
Don't mind if I do: Germany. Yes, there's a mention or two of knocking out England on penalties.
Karl Jesper Haglund (my name) It's the handle I used on some now-defunct Swedish football-forum where the user-names had to be eight characters long. Realising I needed another two characters, I added the "se" at the end because... I can't remember...
My car is now properly dressed for the Euro
sideviewpassword Aeglos
Need more cowbell. Or perhaps not, seeing as it's not an alpine skiing competition or a summer-oriented house track. ;)
And aujourd'hui, la Belle France and their comedy head butters.
Anyone happens to come to Poland for Euro? Visit Krakow by their way, perhaps?
And question for everyone, what is the shortest joke in Poland about soccer?
*strolls into thread in underpants*
whistles "54,74,90,...."
*puts on white socks with black rings*
whistles: "eine Liebe die nie endet"
*puts on black shorts with white eagle crest*
whistles: "wir sind schon übern Brenner"
*puts on white national jersey with black eagle crest, black rims, black-red-gold stripes and of course 3 stars*
whistles: "three lio....ups, wrong song whistles: "Fußball ist immer noch wichtig"
*ties black-red-gold scarfs to both arms*
whistles: "schwarz und weiß, wir stehn auf deiner seite"
*puts on comedic plastic Pickelhaube in black-red-gold*
whistles: "gute freunde kann niemand trennen"
*paints face black-red-gold*
sings: "Fußball ist unser Leben"
*waves black-red-gold flag*
"Ha-Ho-Heja-Heja-He; Ha-Ho-Heja-Heja-He"
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
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best wishes to the people in poland and the Ukraine.
May everything be peacefull and may you have the great experience we had in 2006 over here
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Poster outside a Swedish cinema showing the opening game in conjunction with SVT (the Swedish public service stations): The Big Lewandowski
have you seen the guy in the greek armor ?
poland vs Greece
first game is on
have you seen the guy in the greek armor ?
Saw a guy in a greek helmet, and I'm betting he won't see much of the game (or anything) unless he removes it after kick-off.
Legendary sports-commentator Arne Hegerfors (speaking about the Greek red card) during halftime - "I've been commenting on the Spanish league this season, and I've never seen so many bad referees as I have there. Here's a Spanish referee who might have ruined the game."
(And yeah, I kinda agree - the second yellow was barely a free kick.)
But hey, at least it was a fun game, with some stuff to talk about over a pint afterwards.
And the weather in Wroclaw seems to be a bit wet... long studs on, and hopefully we'll some first-rate, last-option sliding tackles. :)
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Well, Sczesczny didn't exactly score a goal for Poland....
Yikes.
But the good news is he won't have to play next game either and hopefully Poland will not make it out of Group Play and he'll get the rest and vacation time he needs -- and be hungry for Arsenal in August.
Even better, Rosicky and CZE didn't look so good against God-Bless-Arshavin and RUS so maybe with this loss and his still nursing an injury they'll let their only good player (and Captain) sit out and Rosicky can get the rest he desperately needs so as to be fresh and healthy come August.
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Not only should that moron ref get fired -- they REALLY need to rescind not just one but both of those Yellow Cards. And publically apologize to the Greece National team.
I've only been following football for about 3 years and I've certainly seen lots of horribly bad, game-ruining calls & no-calls, but this is one of the worst.
They've got to fix this.
. . . . For all you who have followed football your whole life and seen things like this your whole life -- doesn't this poison the game for you?!? How are there not tens of millions of fans from all over the world shouting at UEFA and FIFA until it is fixed?
I get that refs will not be perfect during the game. Certainly.
But there HAS to be at least one more ref in a booth looking at replay who can contact the ref on the pitch and overrule him. That won't slow the game down!!!!
And there really needs to be a few more refs on the pitch each game. OF COURSE the refs are grossly incompetent -- how the FUC* can two guys see everything on the pitch -- it's impossible. Get more refs on the pitch.
And finally, for when mistakes do happen, and they still will from time to time, a committee of refs can look at the film the next day and add or rescind Yellow and Red Cards. (This will help kill diving off, too.)
Bad refereeing decisions suck when they happen, but they usually even out over a season, so most of the time I can live with them - it's different in a short tournament like this.
What has me a lot more worried is the amount of money being spent on gambling - the amount of match fixing scandals have really started to increase, it seems to me - and on a related note, there's so much talk of corruption at the highest level in FIFA that it can't just be smoke.
(I'm not happy about the rampant commercialism, either, and the huge player wages at the top level of the game driving a wedge between players and fans that weren't there as late as the 80:s. But that's more a personal opinion, so a lot less important.)
Not only should that moron ref get fired -- they REALLY need to rescind not just one but both of those Yellow Cards. And publically apologize to the Greece National team.
I've only been following football for about 3 years and I've certainly seen lots of horribly bad, game-ruining calls & no-calls, but this is one of the worst.
They've got to fix this.
. . . . For all you who have followed football your whole life and seen things like this your whole life -- doesn't this poison the game for you?!? How are there not tens of millions of fans from all over the world shouting at UEFA and FIFA until it is fixed?
I get that refs will not be perfect during the game. Certainly.
But there HAS to be at least one more ref in a booth looking at replay who can contact the ref on the pitch and overrule him. That won't slow the game down!!!!And there really needs to be a few more refs on the pitch each game. OF COURSE the refs are grossly incompetent -- how the FUC* can two guys see everything on the pitch -- it's impossible. Get more refs on the pitch.
And finally, for when mistakes do happen, and they still will from time to time, a committee of refs can look at the film the next day and add or rescind Yellow and Red Cards. (This will help kill diving off, too.)
FIFA and its ruling get on my nervs big time, The backwardness is terrible, but what can you do? Ref decissions on the field are a sacred cow.
they brought two more assitant refs, by the way.there are 5 assistents now, 4 on each side of the field and one between the coaching areas, should be enough if the refs would actually listen to those guys
huh,
Danish Dynamite seems to be back
Yup. Lovely example of defensive play without 'parking the bus.'
Those darn Danes mustn't have gotten the script - Sweden's supposed to be the upset this year. ;)
So... happy that the assistant referee between Germany and Portugal isn't Azeri, aeglos? ;)
So... happy that the assistant referee between Germany and Portugal isn't Azeri, aeglos? ;)
:-D that joke took some time through my brain
yes, very happy
not happy with the way we play, though
I don't know what happend to our team, we are better than that
GOMEZ!!!
I take the last post back!
playing lousy and wining,
a good old german tournament tradition seems to be back
Yeah. You seemed a bit blunt going forward right up to the goal. (And what a sleeping pill the game was up to that point.) The defence seemed pretty solid, though. Congratulations Germany.
urgh, Italy in the lead. Go Spain!
Spain went. ;)
yeah, someone has to get the Italians out of the way for us. we always lose to italy
come on you boys in green!
Please be in a good mood tiday, Zlatan. Make Rosengård proud!
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Ok, is this tourney national teams with only people from the nations represented playing on their respective teams, or will the best player on the planet* be playing for someone? Just curious, I only follow our MLS and European pro teams (Barcelona, Arsenal and AC Milan being my favorites, for reference), so I'm not really up on what this tourney entails.
*Lionel Messi, in case you were wondering.
Argentina and Brazil played a friendly on Saturday. Messi hat-trick.
Go France!
Are you sure you're American? ;)
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Well, follow my posts and you'll see that I'm sorta hoping that my players get rest so they're healed and fresh for August -- my National team (USA) isn't playing so I don't have a horse in this race.
Walcott and Ox need rest -- Walcott desperately needs rest. So if England loses in Group play my guys can rest.
And Sagna is injured so he can't play for France and Kosciellny, well, I really want him resting, too, but less so than Walcott and Ox.
One hour to go.
Sassa brassa mandelmassa!!