...or even strung a few passes together.
Funnily enough, I think Italy was our best showing.
Printable View
...or even strung a few passes together.
Funnily enough, I think Italy was our best showing.
So lets forget about Russia who we got a point off in qualifying who came in third in a group topped by Greece and the Czechs . The facts remain unfortunately that we got no points. Conceeded 9 goals and scored one. Not good enough.
It was Doyles best game. He made a couple of superb tackles on Pirlo in that game. Something the Germans and English failed to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
No matter what way you look at our group, there's no place to hide from our deficiencies
For the first time in ages football is at the forefront of eveyone's thoughts in Ireland. Even if you fully buy into the view that there was simply nothing more that could have been done it still represents an ideal time to review things - even if the conclusion is only to confirm that view.
I agree with Geysir - despite the quality of the opposition we made things harder for ourselves than we needed to. Adressing these deficiencies might even make us more competitive in WC14 qualifying. Trap version 2 possibly / hopefully. Still hard to beat but with more cohesion, less standing off the ball and more putting pressure on the ball and adapting a shape that helps our midfielders.
And hopefully any review will look at possible deficiencies in the way we nurture footballers and how the game is structured in the country.
A bit unfair that. Russia were a good side that could have got 7 or 9 points in that group. Greece were blessed in that game against Russia. Russia carved them open on occasion and missed. Greece got a goal straight from a botched Russian throw in. Stuff happens in football.Quote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
But I do agree we deserve criticism for our showing. It wasn't good enough. Some here (including me) were thinking we might beat Italy though. That was fanciful in hindsight.
How bad was the German defending for both goals? Hummel was beaten ridiculously easily by Cassano for goal 1 and that high line / through ball sucker punch was pretty basic stuff for number 2.
If you spin a coin 100 times you will see 6 heads in a row.Quote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
That might lead you to believe the coin is doubled headed but such things are expect to happen purely based on luck.
Try it if you don't believe me.
Got to disagree. Samaras was man of the match and the Greeks robbed of a blatant peno. The star/stars of this tournament so far have been Pirlo and even more so Prandelli. His selections, tactics and substitutions have been spot on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Wardy would never have been beaten like that.
There is no silver lining, no sugar coating. Regardless of who we played we were atrocious, ****-poor, just plain bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
If Pirlo was Irish would Trapatoni play him.;)
Could Pirlo do the job that Trap would demand in his 442;)
Okay Pirlo is getting all the plaudits but he is very abely assisted by the other 3 midfielders.
Croatia were probably the third best team at the Euros.
They had Spain and Italy well under control and nearly got the better of them. Spain only scored in the 88th minute when Croatia had to go looking for a goal. Because 5 points wasn't enough to get through.
Well no, Trap would never play the way Prandelli is playing.Quote:
Originally Posted by seanfhear
And in the 2006 semi-final against Germany Trap would have held out for the penalties. Lippi made 3 attacking substitutions to finish off the tired German defence in extra time and Italy scored in the 119th minute. That man Pirlo was instrumental.
Maybe the fact that Spain and Italy are in the final puts a little gloss back on our results, but as others have said it doesnt hide very poor performances. For me our worst game in the last four years was Spain, people will say that they are World Champions and play such great football, but we were hopeless that night. Also in my opinion, but I'm sure very few on here will agree, Spain are not this invincible force that the likes of Sid Lowe and Graham Shunter claim them to be. We could maybe have held them to a draw or at the very least only lost by a single goal. In the cold light of day they've scored half of their goals in the this tournament against us in that one match. Italy generally restricted them to few chances, Croatia did the same and were actually the better team for large parts of that match in Gdansk, the Portuguese showed how they could be stifled. If you look at the Spanish record in competitive games they havent really taken teams apart by 4 goals like that very often. Paraguay, Chile, Switzerland, Lithuania, Scotland all these teams have lost by a single goal yet through a series of catastophic errors we put ourselves on a par with Licthenstein.
I read in one paper that the writer thought that Spain v Italy in round 1 was a borefest. I thought it was a cracker, the highest overall standard of football played in any game so far.
Yeah, it was a great game, maybe people are just so used to the E.P.L. style stuff they have no time for, or don't even recognize it when teams serve up the football equivalent of opera instead of roller coaster.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Some people prefer soap opera entertainment and would fall asleep during Citizen Kane but you wouldn't regard them seriously as a film critic.
The Spain v Italy match was a great game. Overall this has been a very good Euro's. Lots of very good matches. As other posters have said I have found it miles more enjoyable than the Champions league.
It was a cracker. This tournament has shown up the inability of a lot of the Irish and British press to get over their bias towards the EPL and CL.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Disagree NG.
Too many borefests/cr*p football.
And that's after you exclude us!
:rolleyes:
International football seems to get worse and worse, generally.
The CL doesn't really get interesting until after the group stages, when a loss can end your club's interest in the competition, and even then a loss can be turned around in the second legQuote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
With the European Championship, any loss in the group stages can potentially be the end of your tournament, and any loss after that definitely will
Basically, what makes it's better is that there's more at stake from an earlier stage.
Didn't watch all the games but watch I did watch seemed to be good quality, obviously I was watching the opposition more than us :)
Did seem to more technical football rather than the blood and guts stuff you see in the Prem (sometimes).
But these big competitions always add that extra interest, every game counts.
Will certainly miss it when it is all over that's for sure.
I see Spain are still favourites for the title but for me recent results suggest Italy Italy be favourites
they seem to have upped their game whilst Spain have stalled.
IF they reproduce their semi final form surely Italy will win?
Anybody know where I can re watch the Germany v Italy game?
BBC I-Player
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/
sent you a pm
yea, that see,s like the best option, if u do not want a download.Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
may watch it again myself as i missed some of it.
Cheers TC will watch that tomorrow.
I can hardly watch that iplayer link in Ireland?
Don't honestly know. Tried ? or the RTE equivalent maybe.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
You can via a proxy server...
And probably on a loop on You Tube, even if just the Italian version?
It's been a while since I bothered with iplayer.
Used to have difficulties with proxies with it.
Any recommendations?
Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
I think you are probably going to have difficulties as I think it only works for UK based ip address, not 100% sure as I am in UK.
So you would need to find a UK based proxy server which I think will be very difficult, even if your did I expect it would be to slow anyway.
Far easier to do a download I expect.
I find those downloads work pretty well, you can play them in any player and so can have better control over replaying bits, I find the VLC player
best for that, also does great slow motion and stuff. Also I have a decent internet speed and can down load a half in about 15 mins or less
you can download the second half as you watch the first. You may also be able to watch it as it is downloading (not 100% sure).
Some of the downloads look a bit complicated but the one posted by wigan88 looks simplest, although sometimes it can be a bit confusing
which downland button to press.
AB, Why didnt you just post that pre-tournament and get it out of your system? I am certain you'd already made your mind up about this tournament before a ball was kicked.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Disagree totally. Only 2 0-0 draws, great crowds (in Poland anyway), great games between evenly matched sides, contrasting styles, tactical nuances, proper tackling, loads of games with plenty of important context. Although the absolute standard might not be as good as elite (and only elite) club football, the context is that international football teams aren't bankrolled by billionaires or crooks. It's about country's footballing systems pitting themselves against each other, more or less. The only game I missed was ENG v FRA as I was flying back from Poznan, and even then I saw the last 20 mins in Luton airport. I've loved this tournament, absolutely loved it. I'm going to steal Geysir's Eastenders vs. Citizen Kane analogy, that's what we're talking about here.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
No, not at all.
And that was the consensus of most people I've watched games with. Sure there were the flashes of brilliance, but still essentially far far too much dull football.
The same can be said of club football, there's just even more of it.
So basically what you are saying is that the vast majority of international and club football is dull and boring?Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
what other type of football is there besides international and club football?Quote:
Originally Posted by Irish_Praha
A lot of it is very dull, sadly. Mainly because even poor teams can essentially cancel out much of what more skilful teams do.
Largely this seems based on the 'fear factor' of conceding too many or too early.
It's not always boring though, as yer man says there are different systems in place and part of the interest factor is seeing how these match up. That and individual moments of skill are the few things now which make the game worthwhile as a spectacle.
There's football in the park with your mates.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
There's FIFA by EA Sports :)
Sometimes I think that people who play this game too much lose a grip on reality and expect to see this kind of action in real life.
10 shots on goal in the space of 8 minutes and the ref letting the teams play advantage after most fouls.
Action action action!
:p
Good god. What a dreadful article.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88