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Post by danhiggins on Jun 17, 2008 14:22:03 GMT -5
I really, really, REALLY hate Italy. I hate the way they flop all over.
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Post by Hornets on Jun 17, 2008 16:06:38 GMT -5
Agreed, they are right behind the Germans in least likeable team here. But there's hope the Spanish Armada takes care of that matter
Just like the Portugese should wipe Germany from the list of contenders.
Thats would really make our day and let the rest of this tournament be an enjoyable experience.
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Post by danhiggins on Jun 17, 2008 16:14:37 GMT -5
At this point (and given the fact that my favorite European country, Finland, is out) I'm pulling for Turkey. The way they moved into the quarters was so dramatic. I would love to see them move on.
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Post by Orlando Magic on Jun 17, 2008 20:56:20 GMT -5
Go Russia!!!! Sweden is gonna get owned!!!! Agreed, they are right behind the Germans in least likeable team here. But there's hope the Spanish Armada takes care of that matter
Just like the Portugese should wipe Germany from the list of contenders.
Thats would really make our day and let the rest of this tournament be an enjoyable experience. Pfffft. Oesterreich ist Schweinbesteigers.
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Raptors
Jason Richardson
Posts: 1,337
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Post by Raptors on Jun 18, 2008 19:58:16 GMT -5
Germany is least liked haha. I don't like them much and i strongly believe, the way they have played so far, that Portugal will run them over. 3 - 1 maybe.
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Post by Hornets on Jun 19, 2008 10:09:31 GMT -5
Go Russia!!!! Sweden is gonna get owned!!!! Pfffft. Oesterreich ist Schweinbesteigers. Hey, hey, hey, Austria had a heck of a tournament. Before the EURO started everyone said we're the joke of this tourney, just here cause we're hosting it, assuming we'd roll over and play dead. (no wonder, as #102 in the world soccer rankings we were like 80 spots behind the 2nd worst team) But yet, our young guys - many of whom were part of the Austrian team finishing 4th in the U20 world cup just a year ago - were doing WAY better than expected. First dominating a Croatian team who luckily escaped with a 1-0 win, then outplaying Poland, but falling behind on an offside goal, only to get the equalizer in the 92nd minute, and finally putting a HUGE scare into the Germans for 2 days - they even admitted so - and just coming short 0-1 when many believed they would wipe us away. Sure, we're out, but not only damn proud HOW we played ... ... but also finishing better than world-cup runner up France, defending champ Greece, Poland, and co-Host Switzerland.
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Post by danhiggins on Jun 19, 2008 14:20:08 GMT -5
Well, Germany is through. It's now 2-0 and Portugal look like shite! Germany is make them look like fools. I've thought Portugal has been overrated for a while now. Ronaldo is a one-trick pony and as good as he is, Portugal is not a top team in the world. Germany is.
Rankings mean very little, because of the way they're calculated. I would say the top 5 teams in the world (no real order) are Argentina, Brazil (though they've looked like crap in CONMEBOL qualifying), Germany, Spain, and Italy. The next 5 include the Netherlands, Croatia, England, Ghana, and Portugal. The FIFA rankings have teams like Greece, France, and the Czech Republic way too high.
I think those are top 25 caliber teams, but not top 10. Teams like Bulgaria and Columbia are too high too. I think the Asian champs Egypt are too low. They're very, very good. I think it would be better to group them into the top 5-10 teams, then the top 25 , then top 50 classification because there's a real + or - to the equations. The U.S.A. is #21 right now. I think they're a top 25 team, but 21 is too specific. Group them somewhere from 20-25.
That's what I think.
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Post by Hornets on Jun 19, 2008 16:05:07 GMT -5
Well, they ARE through but once again a disappointing evening.
The Germans were outplaying Portugal for the first 30 minutes and rightfully went ahead 2-0 on superb plays (and HORRIBLE UGLY defense from the Portugese). And like Austria before Portugal played beautiful in midfield but was unable to get the final pass across.
But from the 30th minute just one team played. The Germans didn't even get to counter strike anymore. For the next 30 minutes it was constant attack from Portugal, but again without much clear chances for a goal (and a surprising high number of bad shots from 40ft and beyond that didn't even get close to the german goal)
The the usual happened, with the first chance in the 2nd half (after like 25 minutes !) the Germans scored #3, again on a non-existing defense (and a shove from Ballack everyone but the Ref was able to see). From that moment is was more or less over since Portugal had no clue how to attack the german defense anymore and Ronaldo ran out of gas.
Guess Portugal WAS overrated ...
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Raptors
Jason Richardson
Posts: 1,337
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Post by Raptors on Jun 19, 2008 17:09:09 GMT -5
I thought Portugal played better then Germany today...Bounces just didn't go there way, and thats how soccer is.
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Post by danhiggins on Jun 19, 2008 19:41:56 GMT -5
Portugal looked like crap defensively. Once Germany got up 2-0 they sat back and tried burning time. Portugal got plenty of attack because they were down 2-0. They HAD to score. That always happens. The game I saw was absolutely wonderful timing and passing by the Germans with terrible keeper play and defensive breakdowns by the Portuguese.
The sliding, near-post goal by Schwienstieger (sic) was IMHO one of the goals of the tourney. It was typical German offense. Plenty of great passes and pin point accuracy. Germany was the better team offensively and defensively.
Did everyone see Ronaldo go down and as he was getting up he decided he was injured afterall and started squirming like an Italian? Disgusting. That's one thing I appreciate about the German game. It's much more physical and players aren't afraid to get bumped. Much less flopping. That doesn't mean it's completely gone, but there's less of it and that's (I think) a result of the Bundesliga. They play a physical game there.
At least one of them lost. Now, let's see Germany go out in the Semis. ;D
Go Turkey!
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Raptors
Jason Richardson
Posts: 1,337
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Post by Raptors on Jun 19, 2008 21:23:39 GMT -5
Portugal looked like crap defensively. Once Germany got up 2-0 they sat back and tried burning time. Portugal got plenty of attack because they were down 2-0. They HAD to score. That always happens. The game I saw was absolutely wonderful timing and passing by the Germans with terrible keeper play and defensive breakdowns by the Portuguese. The sliding, near-post goal by Schwienstieger (sic) was IMHO one of the goals of the tourney. It was typical German offense. Plenty of great passes and pin point accuracy. Germany was the better team offensively and defensively. Did everyone see Ronaldo go down and as he was getting up he decided he was injured afterall and started squirming like an Italian? Disgusting. That's one thing I appreciate about the German game. It's much more physical and players aren't afraid to get bumped. Much less flopping. That doesn't mean it's completely gone, but there's less of it and that's (I think) a result of the Bundesliga. They play a physical game there. At least one of them lost. Now, let's see Germany go out in the Semis. ;D Go Turkey! I can't agree. Although that Schwienstieger goal was awesome...Thats all i saw from them, they didn't make plays all day and really got 2 goals off of set pieces. The Portuguese controlled the ball pretty much the whole game as i saw and as shown in the ball possession statistics..The 2nd goal IMO proves that Ricardo shouldn't be a goalie for any team in the world. Game by game he makes countless mistakes that can easily be avoided and one that cost Portugal today. Also, Hitzelsperger stepped on Ronaldo's foot as he went back into position. Before i saw the replay, i also thought he just randomly fell and start rolling around, but after i saw the replay, i saw why he was squirming. At the end of the day, Germany is through. No matter if the Portuguese played better or not, they lost. Now the rest of the games should be good and i have a gut feeling Italy wins it all.
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Post by danhiggins on Jun 19, 2008 23:36:28 GMT -5
We must have been watching different games Sonics. Must have been.
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Post by Hornets on Jun 20, 2008 0:15:23 GMT -5
well, Ricardo was facing 3 wide open germans twice after standards ... on horrible team defense (they didn't even go for offside, they simply forgot to cover the Germans). I do think he's an average keeper but i doubt Boruc could have avoided the goals. (But still, I have no idea why he was almost down on the ground already when Klose hit the header. WHY?) As for the flopping, sure the Germans don't have that drama queen attitude, but Ballack is experienced enough to go down in a hurry as well on a couple of occasions (like when he looked like Pepe gave him a full bodycheck and not a little shove). Guess it's a tie between him an Ronaldo (*) In the end, you need to start with a solid defense when ou play Germany. Offense alone won#t get you there. The Croatians understand this and hardly allowed scoring opportunities BEFORE attacking. The Austrians knew that avoiding a goal was #1 prio as it's so hard to score against them. But the Portugese always won their games on superior offense. Not this time. And ONLY because of horrible defense at standards. And that's what i'm sorry about, as they still could have won, badly outplaing Germany, who needed brute efficiency in scoring to prevail. (*) After the replay i thought the German stepped on his foot after the action as well ... but mysteriously he was up an running when play resumed 15 seconds later, so i guess he was going for some Academy Award here ...
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Post by Warriors on Jun 20, 2008 2:56:21 GMT -5
As usual once the quarters and semis start the cream rises to the top. Group games are there to qualify for the quarters and nothing else. Germany will now be strong favourites to make the final as the Croatians will crumble when under pressure just like the Potuguese did last night.
It has been a great tournament so far with the high scoring games and teams like Turkey making unlikely comebacks but now is the time when it's win or go home, and that's when teams like Germany and Italy come into their own. Spain traditionally crumble at this stage and I can't see the outsiders (Russia - Turkey) being good enough to win.
For me the most interesting game will be the Italy - Netherlands re-run and how the Dutch handle the pressure.
My forecast is for a Germany - Holland final and then the fireworks will start LOL.
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Raptors
Jason Richardson
Posts: 1,337
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Post by Raptors on Jun 20, 2008 9:01:25 GMT -5
As usual once the quarters and semis start the cream rises to the top. Group games are there to qualify for the quarters and nothing else. Germany will now be strong favourites to make the final as the Croatians will crumble when under pressure just like the Potuguese did last night. It has been a great tournament so far with the high scoring games and teams like Turkey making unlikely comebacks but now is the time when it's win or go home, and that's when teams like Germany and Italy come into their own. Spain traditionally crumble at this stage and I can't see the outsiders (Russia - Turkey) being good enough to win. For me the most interesting game will be the Italy - Netherlands re-run and how the Dutch handle the pressure. My forecast is for a Germany - Holland final and then the fireworks will start LOL. This is all assuming Spain crumbles, Russia and Turkey aren't the 2008 Greeks and Holland doesn't lose...Soccer is to unpredictable to make as many picks as you did. I think making one pick is the best, because you might get lucky. Hornets - He did step on Ronaldo. But like EVERY other incident where they stay on the ground whining and complaining, they get up 15 seconds later and start playing. Thats just how soccer is now.
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