Group C Euro 2012 General Discussion

[DannyInvincible]

'Robbie Keane ready to play deeper role against Croatia': http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18359484


The Republic's midfield was outnumbered for much of Monday's friendly against Hungary and Giovanni Trapattoni expressed concern after the game.

"I might have to drop deeper on to the [opposition] holding midfielder and not let him dictate the game," said Keane.

"It's more things like that than, say, a formation change."

The LA Galaxy striker added: "He's had the same system since he came in, so if anything changes it would be a minor thing.

"We're not going to just go to a 4-3-3 when we haven't done it for a long time."

[shakermaker1982]

Corluka having tests tomorrow. Croatia won't have anybody left!!!

[geysir]

Fresh injury blow for Croatia (http://www.football.co.uk/croatia/fresh_injury_blow_for_croatia_rss2260788.shtml)

'Croatia coach Slaven Bilic suffered another blow on Thursday, on the eve of the start of Euro 2012, as midfielder Ivo Ilicevic was ruled out of the tournament after suffering a left calf injury during training in Poland.'

Not a big blow though.

[French Toasht]

Corluka having tests tomorrow. Croatia won't have anybody left!!!

Hope Corluka is fit, he's definitely a weak link at the back that can be exploited.

[Murfinator]

Talk of a rift in the spanish camp between Barca and Real players, Xavi stirring things a bit.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1086644/xavi-hernandez-threatens-to-stoke-spain-tensions?cc=5739
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1090208/barcelona-midfielder-xavi-downplays-jose-mourinho%27s-achievements?cc=5739

[Charlie Darwin]

Corluka has been cleared to play on Sunday.

[osarusan]

The fact that this Greek team finished ahead of Croatia in the qualifiers gives me hope.

[legendz]

Russia were impressive. No dishonour in being the runner-up in that qualifying group. Wouldn't have minded being in Group A but sure we'll have some hell of a tournament in the group we are. It's fantastic though to have great games to look forward to, it's what being back in the big time is all about.

[thischarmingman]

Russia were good but I thought Czech were very poor, and gave them far too much space. They (Russia) are probably capable of beating most teams in the competition but I'd bet on them going out in the quarters when they meet a good side.

[boysingreen]

Hope Corluka is fit, he's definitely a weak link at the back that can be exploited.

I hope YOU and SLAVEN BILIC are both right, because he describes him as their best defender! (http://espnfc.com/us/en/news/1091076/croatiavedran-corluka-cleared.html)

[bennocelt]

You can't decide if a winner of a world cup, European championship, 3 champions leagues, 5 la ligas and current captain of the best club team in the world is a loss?

To put this idiocy in context if Richard Dunne was ruled out for us you'd get the same goons in another country guffawing that its actually a good thing for Ireland because of those few penalties and own goals they'd seen him giving away in the premiership. A "liability" and "headless" they'd shriek smug in their ignorance. They're quite comparable in importance and foreign fan disrespect for their respective countries in fact.
If you can't understand how Puyol would be anything but a massive loss for Spain then I'd request sparing our palms from excessive face time and not commenting on the sport again.

This is a massive and possibly tournament costing loss for them, he's been the glue that held together a very rickety Spanish defence in the past. Theres real implosion potential for them without him because individually few of their back 4 are solid or reliable defenders. If you've ever watched him in person the amount of yelling and instructions he gives out on the pitch is incredible, he never shuts up. I wonder without constant instruction how the likes of Ramos, Iraola Arbeloa and Albiol will get on because they do not look like the same players on teams without Puyol as they have done for Spain.
If they're smart they'll bring an experienced replacement Marchena, either way this is excellent news for us. If Villa was out as well even better, without their lynchpins in attack and defence it'd make them very vulnerable. Spain have an endless reel of quality midfielders and wide players, they're very lean for defence and orthodox forwards.

Do you think? Only let in ONE goal.LOL:D

[weldoninhio]

I predict 3 embarrassing defeats and 2 more years of horrific football under Crappatoni!!!!!


Guess who was right???

[Charlie Darwin]

Pat Kenny?

[tetsujin1979]

To anyone who thinks that losing the three games has done irreparable damage to Irish football, what effect do you think Shamrock Rovers's performance in the Europa League did?

[DannyInvincible]

In what sense would either performance have done irreparable damage to Irish football? They're only irreparable if we fail to learn from where we went wrong.

[tetsujin1979]

Maybe irreparable is a little over the top, but some comments have been along those lines. Roddy Collins claimed the results have put us back 20 years (meaning we're going to qualify for the next world cup?) and I've read posts saying it would have been better not to have qualified.

[DannyInvincible]

I don't think the results put us back 20 years, but they do expose just how far behind we are. We can continue with the current slipshod approach or we can learn our lesson. The wake-up call has to be viewed as beneficial, but I can't see how failing to qualify could have been in any way advantageous. It's just people reacting in over-the-top fashion.

[tricky_colour]

Maybe irreparable is a little over the top, but some comments have been along those lines. Roddy Collins claimed the results have put us back 20 years (meaning we're going to qualify for the next world cup?) and I've read posts saying it would have been better not to have qualified.

Wish it did put us back 20 years as were ranked on the worlds top 10 then.

[bennocelt]

To anyone who thinks that losing the three games has done irreparable damage to Irish football, what effect do you think Shamrock Rovers's performance in the Europa League did?

Very different tbf. First time a LOI team got to the group stage of a Euro comp, and at least they were fairly competitive in most of the games (unlike Irelands three games). Now if an Irish team continued to get into group stages and not get any points then you might argue that, but not for a first outing.

[paul_oshea]

I don't think the results put us back 20 years, but they do expose just how far behind we are. We can continue with the current slipshod approach or we can learn our lesson. The wake-up call has to be viewed as beneficial, but I can't see how failing to qualify could have been in any way advantageous. It's just people reacting in over-the-top fashion.

10 years at the very leats, if we implement the spanish model from u10 now, more likely the fruits will bear around 15 years, so 20 years isnt too far off really :D

[Stuttgart88]

Anyone who says we've set the game back or done damage is just looking for a Roy Keane-style catchphrase that doesn't stand up to scrutiny. As Danny says, it's a wake up call. We can't compete against Europe's best but we are still serious qualification contenders, just as we were 10 years ago. Maintaining this and cranking it up a notch so that we are group stage contenders is what we have to aim for.

I found this quote from Greg Cunningham (link provided in the Greg Cunningham thread yesterday) quite encouraging:

"We had a good result at home to Italy* and if we beat Turkey in the next qualifier in August we have a great chance of qualifying for the finals. I want to push on to the seniors but I am enjoying the games with the U21s. We have a very strong U21 squad now. A lot of us have been together since we were under-14s"

Last year's U19s were UEFA semi-finalists and got there by beating Italy 3-0. OK, they were utterly outclassed by Spain in the end. (Was there much overlap between that squad and the current U21 squad? What about the U17s that qualified for the Euros a couple of years ago - are they in the U19 or U21 team now? They looked a bit out of their depth in those finals.)

The U17s were a minute away from UEFA qualification last year - thwarted by an injury time Danish winner I think. Denmark went onto the last 16 or last 8 in the U17 World Cup by virtue of their subsequent UEFA performance.

So, amidst all the chaos and gloom, some things are looking up. The underage sides are all playing 4-3-3. The Turkey U21 game might even be a game-changer for Irish football.

* though both our goals were ugly or fortunate. An o.g. from a corner and a penalty from a soft-handball.

[osarusan]

21 days of posts missing from this thread? Last post on the previous page was from 9th of June.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Er, no.

People were either in Polska. Or used individual match/player threads. Or discussed how great the LOI was, how sh*t the weather was or how crooked FF were elsewhere.

[Stuttgart88]

No, it looks like stuff has been moved.

[tetsujin1979]

Davor Suker to take over as head of the Croatian FA with Igor Stimac expected to take over as national team manager: http://fourfourtwo.com/news/restofeurope/104888/default.aspx

[tetsujin1979]

Going back to my photo of the goodbye party from Poznan going slightly viral, I decided to do a reverse-image search* to see where it had ended up
A review of Euro 2012 on an Irish interior design blog: http://www.emeraldinteriordesign.ie/blog/irelands-euro-2012-adventure/
The Ireland Euro 2012 thread on RedCafe: http://www.redcafe.net/f7/irelands-euro-2012-journey-353876/index16.html#post11823188
A Hungarian sports newspaper: http://sportgeza.hu/futball/2012/eb/cikkek/pp/poznan_bulival_bucsuztatja_az_ireket/ (click the "Itt a plakat" link)

*this is where you send an image to google, and it tells you what sites it's on

[DannyInvincible]

Finally, it all becomes clear as to why exactly we did so badly at the Euros: http://pogmogoal.com/the-blog-reel/santos-im-sorry-i-put-em-under-pressure/7305/


He was the Indonesian psychic who predicted Euro glory for Ireland. He couldn’t see past the colour green for the eventual winners. Now Santos wants to apologise to the Irish fans for adding to the pressure on the team. In the end, not even he could foresee Spain’s football from the future.

“Ireland’s performances in Euro 2012 were quite disappointing for all of us. They did not look so confident with themselves. I think it was all about the players’ mentality. They were so nervous. I could see that clearly. They played defence-orientated but did not apply quick counter attack. Maybe my prediction more or less affected them by adding to their burden in this competition. I am so sorry if that’s really what happened.

Predicting a team to be champions can affect them in two ways. First, the team can become confident to win the cup in reality. On the other hand, they will be pressurised so much that they will not play in a way they should.

In 2004, I predicted Greece to be the Euro champions and it really happened. At that time, my prediction (although it was not published) affected the team, making them more confident to compete against stronger sides. I did not pick Greece randomly without any consideration. I really did see the colour blue that year. It meant that only teams with this shade could win Euro 2004. Greece could, Italy could, other blue teams could. But I picked Greece because I wanted to see a surprise in soccer....

[elroy]

Going back to my photo of the goodbye party from Poznan going slightly viral, I decided to do a reverse-image search* to see where it had ended up
A review of Euro 2012 on an Irish interior design blog: http://www.emeraldinteriordesign.ie/blog/irelands-euro-2012-adventure/
The Ireland Euro 2012 thread on RedCafe: http://www.redcafe.net/f7/irelands-euro-2012-journey-353876/index16.html#post11823188
A Hungarian sports newspaper: http://sportgeza.hu/futball/2012/eb/cikkek/pp/poznan_bulival_bucsuztatja_az_ireket/ (click the "Itt a plakat" link)

*this is where you send an image to google, and it tells you what sites it's on

Tets that photo has almost become like a child of yours!!