Soccer EuroCup

:smt038 You a hardcore arsenal fan..cant really add more then what you have already said. Seems like you obviously know about your football. Its like you watch them every week. Do they show all arsenals games on satellite tv there?

 

Umm, occasionally they show games on the Fox Soccer Channel but most of the times, they have them on pay-per-view. On the rare occasion, i catch it on the BBC outlet here or as i do most of the time, watch the highlights online.

 

Co-sign, you know our Gunners! Can't add anything more than what you already said. You can see the games on Fox Soccer Channel and if you want to spend the extra $150/year, you can order the "Setanta" channel which shows a lot of the Barclays Premier league as well.

 

I know I said Italy were going to win the Euro champs. I am jumping ship now though; especially after their shocking display against the Dutch the other night. I think Portugal are looking really good at the moment. Possible winners.

 

I was shocked when Germany lost to Croatia. Hope they can come back on top.

 

Me too...croatia played really well though. Got many good players for such a small country..

 

Sweden is defeated as well. Life is not fair at times.

 

Spain, Spain Spain!!


and Wow, Turkey did a bag up Job!!

 

Now y'all know Turkey had a little luck on their side against Czech Republic. That second goal was sheer bad luck on Petr Cech's part. 9 out of 10 times, he's not committing a howler like that. Now the winning goal, that was something else. I've always felt Nihat Kahveci was a talented player who, whilst quite inconsistent, plays some of the best ball when he's firing on all cylinders.

And what about Spain's David Villa, huh? Whilst everyone was expecting Fernando Torres to be the star man for Spain in this tournament, Villa has practically taken over the goalscoring mantlepiece for himself. Now whether Spain can go on to greater heights or live up to their great reputation as the great underachievers remains to be seen, but overall, i've been impressed by the Spaniards.

I still am rooting for France, but i have the feeling they'd be eliminated. They'd probably win against Italy, but i have been feeling for the longest that Holland will give Romania their game, thus eliminating Italy and France.

I have to say, this tournament has been more exciting that i thought. I thought it'd be snoozefest like Euro 2004 but it's quite interesting.

 

I was surprised that Germany won yesterday but against Portugal they don't have a chance.Lol

 

Man, France have been bounced like a bitch

However, they do deserve to be eliminated. They have hardly played well, and much of it is because of the uncertainty regarding team selection. Some players haven't been fully fit like Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. Raymond Domenech should have left Vieira at home and brought Mathieu Flamini instead, but he chose to go with "experienced" players - some of who simply declare that they do not want to play because "they are not in the right frame of mind". Now how naive and inexperienced is that? No matter what you're going through, you don't quit on your team on the big stages.

But that's exactly what Lilian Thuram did.

And it's a shame.

Watching the France/Italy game was like watching the reruns of a bad sitcom - it got repetitive, tired and quite frankly, annoying. I gave up after about 15 minutes because France were dominated from beginning to end. They barely created any chances, and played without passion. Many of them looked tiredand worn out, perhaps as a consequence of the long domestic season, but that really isn't an excuse. Italy could've taken the game about 5-0 if they had taken all their chances. Luca Toni alone missed about 4 shots on target.

In the end, now that France are out, i'd be rooting for either Holland or Portugal to go all the way. I don't want Germany to win it, and whilst i'll never go out on a limb in sports ever again after the Lakers got their asses handed to them, i have a feeling the final will involve either Germany or Holland.

Of course i could be wrong.

 

France were abysmal; there golden generation is no more. All their great players are getting old. Need to start afresh I think..Thuram is obviously past his best.Italy, though they won, have no chance of winning it imo. The final I believe will be contested by two of these three: Spain, Portugal or Holland. I would like to see Holland in the final, cos in my opinion, they play the most attractive football.But, how many times have they flattered to deceive: too many times I think. They always have good squads, but they never seem to deliver. They havent won a major tournement in 20 years...

 

France should had gotten some younger players after that defeat by Italy in the World Cup but,they had not learned.

 

Not to dwell on the past, but y'all know France, on a better day, would have won the 2006 World Cup. But let's dwell on the present.

It seems these days that 35 is the new 30 in international soccer. Back in the 80s and 90s, most players quit the international scenery when they they started to hit that 30 range. And for good reason. It gave them a chance at a long, committed and storied club career. But now, soccer stars seem to be doing quite the opposite. Rather than retire when the time is right, they seem to be giving the adage "you can't cheat nature" a new edge. Some of them just downright look like buffoons trying to rub shoulders with the young'uns.

And that is exactly what happened to France. And believe me people, it didn't start in June 2008. It started 72 months ago at the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan. You know, the one where they failed to score a single goal in the whole tournament and became only the first team to be eliminated four years after winning the whole trophy. In that fateful tournament, they took players who were either too old and fatigued or too young and inexperienced. Some examples were the visibly fatigued Zinedine Zidane (30 years old), Claude Makelele (29 years old), Lilian Thuram (30 years old), Djibril Cisse (21 years old). Coupled with the fact that most of them played for big clubs who had long seasons, its kinda easy, in retrospect, to see why they were pulverized.

Obviously they still haven't learned their lessons yet. They have stuck with the old guards and that has made France painful to watch. In attack, they are as good and entertaining as it can get with the likes of Henry, Anelka and Malouda. But because they do not have decent playmakers and midfielders, their forwards are most of the time having to create chances for themselves. This was most visible in the France/Holland game last week where they got clobbered 4-1.

What they really need to do is exactly what Marco Van Basten and the Dutch did - get rid of the old guards. They really are not making any progress. For a long time too, Holland were the biggest underachievers in Europe, alongside Spain. They had individual great players like Marc Overmars, Dennis Bergkamp, Edgar Davids and Philip Coco but couldn't blend as a team due to various insecurities and thus their failure. Since their 1988 Euro triumph, Holland have failed to make the finals of a major tournament. They didn't even make the 2002 World Cup - at the expense of Ireland.

That might be the fate of France should they eschew a reformation process.

 

Sorry about the double post.

 

Considering who is out and who made it this far who u think NOW will get the title?

 

I hope Holland or Germany.

 

Okay its gonna be either Spain or Germany. Well I guess Spain will make it

 

Just the final i wanted to see. Ideally, i'd have prefered to see a Holland-Portugal final or a Spain-Holland matchup but the past is the past. I had thought that the Soviets would once again beat the odds because in all honesty, there isn't anything more intriguing than a Hollywood style, underdog story of a written off team going all the way and defying expectations. But the Spaniards proved once again that the Arsene Wenger inspired, free flowing, possession-oriented style of football can indeed win you big games. The first half was somewhat tight, with the Spanish wingers opting more for crosses and inside swings, much to the chagrin of David Villa and Fernando Torres. The Russians dealt with them effectively and you could count on one hand the amount of chances Aragones' side created in the first period.

The second half was another story however. The away team realised that they could only win by doing what they have done successfully for five games - keeping the ball on the ground and making cuts with their playmakers. However, the most crucial moment in the game, ironically, was the injury to David Villa. He was replaced by Cesc Fabregas, who is the ultimate when it comes to playmaking. That freed up David Silva and the rest of the Spanish midfield to do other things and alas, the goals came swarming. My favorite was the second goal, scored by Dani Guiza. The ball movement and flair was just Hollywood.

If Spain can play like this on Sunday, i see no reason why they cannot win. Whether or not they'd succumb to the pressure of starving off their reputation as underachievers remains to be seen.

 

Got to say I like these football reports you do after most game. Reminds me of some of the reports I read in the papers... :smt045