Euro 2004 Football discussion

[DarkMaster]

An incredible ending for France!
The Englishmen were punished for their pride!!!

They are finally back. After a disastrous world cup.

Yesterday we saw the difference between a good captain (Beckam) and an amazing one (Zidane). The real sports legend don't crack under pressure.

I guess Beckam should concentrate more on the field and less on his personal image. Actually, he earns more with his image than with his talent.

 

[DarkMaster]

Considering that we were without our two most important players Graversen and Grønkjær I'm ok with a draw. Although, we did play them under the ground. Denmark did show that even without some key players they were able to outclass Italy as I expected.

The Italian were not outclass they always play like that. You think that you're dominating them but can't go through their defense. And all of a sudden they counterattack, score and spend the rest of the game in their zone playing their ultra tight and boring defense until you get to the 90'.

I hate watching the Italian. Law of the least effort. All the years I have been watching them I always tell myself, this time they don't have the team to make it to the second round and almost everytime they get there. And the same thing goes on for every round. Every major competition I wonder how they were able to get that far.

 

[AGGEMAM]

The Italian were not outclass they always play like that.

Appearantly you don't watch too many games then. Italy is a ball possession team who likes to have the ball and play it around until they find an opening. A 67% ball possession in 1st half (61% overall) to the danish team speaks of a very atypical game from an Italien POW. You can rest assure that the Italien press is going to slaughter the team today.

 

[johnsemlak]

Sweden crushes Bulgaria, 5-0 and as usual Henrik Larsson delivers.
Zlatan, Ljungberg and "Chippen" ruled, but as a team Sweden did a fantastic match. I don´t think that I´ve ever seen Sweden play any better than this.

Henke 4 life.

Asmo

That was very impressive, I must say. And I thought Bulgaria were playing OK until that minute where they gave up two goals.

Larsson's amazing header was the goal of the tournament so far (still early going, of course).

I thought Sweden looked real impressive when they drubbed Poland 4-0 in a friendly warm-up, but this result really signals that Sweden might be a possible tourney winner. Of course, it's difficult to know exactly how significant this victory over Bulgaria is, but I think it should be an omnimous sign for Sweden's opponents.

Germany-Holland tonight. Ugh, these matches finish at nearly 1:00 a.m. where I am. I'm gonna have a tired three weeks

 

[Lichtenhart]

Appearantly you don't watch too many games then. Italy is a ball possession team who likes to have the ball and play it around until they find an opening. A 67% ball possession in 1st half (61% overall) to the danish team speaks of a very atypical game from an Italien POW. You can rest assure that the Italien press is going to slaughter the team today.

I can slaughter them too! They played pretty much to their worst. But the boring play is all the coach's fault, and I really wish we had replaced him after the world cup. Hopefully they'll learn something from this match. To run, for example. Soccer shouldn't be played by statues.

 

[MonsterMash]

Got to admit my lack of good wishes for Italy was due to the boring style of play, though I've got to admit Eriksson's teams are not always too good to watch. Has Trappatoni alway's been very defensively minded in Serie A as well?

Well done Sweden, I bet you're glad Henrik Larrson changed his mind about retiring from international games.

 

[Lichtenhart]

Got to admit my lack of good wishes for Italy was due to the boring style of play, though I've got to admit Eriksson's teams are not always too good to watch. Has Trappatoni alway's been very defensively minded in Serie A as well?

Yes. Awfully. I don't think a serie A team would take him as a coach. I wish the italian federation realized that if the good italian coaches won't train the national team, it's better to hire a good foreign coach than a bad italian coach. Against Denmark he should have used Pirlo instead of Totti, and Gattuso since the beginning. Oh well, again I can only wait and hope he learned something. Thank God we have such good goalkeepers. Last time Toldo saved us against Holland, as some of you surely painfully remembers.

 

[DarkMaster]

Appearantly you don't watch too many games then. Italy is a ball possession team who likes to have the ball and play it around until they find an opening. A 67% ball possession in 1st half (61% overall) to the danish team speaks of a very atypical game from an Italien POW. You can rest assure that the Italien press is going to slaughter the team today.

Well from the top of my head go back and watch France vs Italy in the WC 98 or during the Euro 2000 or Italy vs Croatia in the WC2002 now Danemark vs Italy Euro 2004 even when they went in the WC final in 94 always the same boring type of game, they are completly dominated but managed to give a really hard time to their opponent. I have other example but would have to refresh my memory (I am not a Italian fan quite the opposite, but I learned to respect them).

 

[Lichtenhart]

Darkmaster here is the thing:

Euro 2000, WC 2002, Euro 2004 = Trapattoni. 'Nuff said.

WC 1998 = Maldini. Another coach that no Serie A team wanted. See a pattern here?

If you want to see italian soccer, please, look at the Under 21 team. you wouldn't recognize it.

BTW, why England brought Rooney, who is playing wonderfullly and is barely 18, to the Euro, and we left Gilardino, who is 19 and has made more goals than any other italian this year, with the Under 21? Answer: because our coach is dumb as a brick.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Beckham was poor vs. the French, for sure. I hope he can pick himself up otherwise there is going to be talk of questioning his selection...

And no it seems both Scholes and Butt might be out of thursdays game. I think Hargreaves will get the position on the left, though I'd rather see Joe Cole there, at least for now.

Sometimes I wonder if Cole - Lampard - Gerrard - Dyer would be a better England midfield...

Looking forward to Germany vs Holland today. Should be a very exciting match.