The Official Football Thread

[Solafighter]

Good luck germany. You will need it.

[Last_Hope]

Originally Posted by alamarco

Wow, did Austria ever play a great game. Losing was a real shame, not deserved at all. I'm disappointed with Croatia, it seemed like they were content with 1 goal. They're missing Eduardo, but they still could of tried to attack more. If they play like this they wont make it through Poland and Germany.

Yeah, I expected a lot more from Croatia. I don´t want to diss Austria after that game but before hand I saw Croatia as a dark horse. After today though... I feel like I will have to revise that.

Portugal on the other hand impressed a lot on me and Germany is looking solid so far.

But h*ll(!) I´m nervous for the game on tuesday against Greece. The winner of that game will most probably accompany Spain to the Q-Finals. Do or die!

(My grandfather is from Greece so I have always had a good eye for them but I´m Swedish first and foremost after all.)

[Blaat]

Well Germany and Portugal are so far the two teams that stand out in the group A/B bracket, second match might change that though.

[Vibeke]

I just got back from watching Poland vs Germany witch my friends.... many tears were shed

[alamarco]

In my opinion Poland played so much better once Roger was introduced. I love Zurawski, but if he has to sit down for Roger than I think it should happen. I didn't like the first goal either. The pass was meant for Podolski and was going right to him before Klose stole the pass to run on a break. That really screwed the defense up.

Germany were the better team though, Klose played extremely well. Shame that Klose left Bremen to Munich . By the way, why did Gomez start over Kuranyi? First he misses an open net and then he's invisible the whole game, where as we already know Kuranyi is extremely talented.

Next up Italy vs Netherlands! The game I'm looking forward to, forza Italia!

[Solafighter]

After Podolski´s goal, it seems like, he did a sad face, cause he is a pole himself.

[Eps~]

Today's match Italy vs Holland is going to be quite interesting? Anyone willing to make predictions?

[Blaat]

Goalless draw.

[shelter]

Originally Posted by Blaat

Goalless draw.

That would be an ideal result, & then Romania can stun France by a goal to zero

Well, somebody has to support the underdogs.

[Kinny Riddle]

Domenech had already bored us before in 2006 before he somehow managed to get his "ancien regime" to the final, so I'm not surprised.

Romania could yet be the surprise package. We'll see how Netherlands vs Italy fare. Italy goes for a 4-3-3, while Van Basten only has Van Nistelrooy as his lone striker.

Update as no one has posted yet: Van Nistelrooy's goal certainly seems offside to me. On the other hand, Sneijder's goal was just pure class.

[kaito-kid]

Wesley's goal was simply brilliant!

[alamarco]

F'n pathetic. Screwed over in Euro yet again. Van Nistelrooy was clearly offside. It wasn't even close. How both the referee and the assistant can miss the call is beyond my understanding. Hell, even Van Nistelrooy knew it as he kept staring at the referee even while all the Dutch were surrounding him in a circle.

Wesley's goal was a beautiful goal, but without the first goal I doubt that would of happened. With Italy having to push forward the Dutch could easily counter-attack on the corner with less defenders back.

The referee was horrible. He gave so many free kicks to the Netherlands, yet never blew his whistle until 13 minutes left in the back for Italy. Why? Possibly because they had so many good free kick takers as was seen by Pirlo almost scoring (amazing save by Van Der Saar). Hell even Bouhlarouz shook the referee's hand before leaving the field.

[Sheba]

Good job Netherlands. That was awesome.

[Kinny Riddle]

Not withstanding that Van Nistelrooy offside goal, the other two Dutch goals are some of the best counterattacking displays I've seen so far. That's a better game, compared to the borefest a while ago.

[Eps~]

Nono, Van Nistelroy wasn't offside. Apperantly because there was an italian player lying outside the field. At least that's what some professional referee said. So if a guy goes off the field without permission, it still counts as he's behind :/

But this was a great match to watch

[Shinndou]

I don't feel like complaining about the referee. We played horribly and we deserved to lose anyway.

I hope this severe loss will wake up Donadoni who TOTALLY MESSED UP the starting eleven. Why on earth are De Rossi and Chiellini sitting on the bench. Why on earth is Materazzi and even Panucci playing when they both had physical problems. WHY DIDN'T DEL PIERO START FROM THE FIRST MINUTE?!

World Champions my ***.

I seriously hope someone gives a blazing slap on Donadoni's face to make him realize what kind of awful tactical module and formation we were using.

The Dutch played well and concentrated they used all the chanches and definetely deserved to win. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if we italians wouldn't even make it past this group, if that idiot of Donadoni doesn't even use a bit of his brain (provided he has some).

Sorry for the angered tone guys, but I am sure you can understand that it's frustrating to see one's own national team playing so badly because of poor decisions by their own coach. :\

A GG to Holland, they surely deserve to go through more than we do.

[Blaat]

Group of Death, isn't really a group of death any more. Netherlands are the team to beat at the moment, Italy looked awful, France looked uninspiring and the Romanians look like Greece except they can't score.

And oddly enough RVN was onside because there was an Italian on the ground behind the goal touching his face and he was considered to be "in the field of play": considering its not allowed for players to remove themselves from the field of play except in certain circumstances such as getting treatment, substituting etc. Its odd but that's the rule.

[2H-Dragon]

Originally Posted by Shinndou

WHY DIDN'T DEL PIERO START FROM THE FIRST MINUTE?!

My hart stopped when he entered the field. The dude is so badass, but yay for Italy for underestimating us. Giovanni was the man of the match this time. Blocking the ball running like a mad man setting up the counter.

That said Italy vs France is going to be epic. A low on stakes Italy and France who's out for revenge.

edit: It wasn't offside! Panucci was behind the goal.

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by 2H-Dragon

My hart stopped when he entered the field. The dude is so badass, but yay for Italy for underestimating us. Giovanni was the man of the match this time. Blocking the ball running like a mad man setting up the counter.

That said Italy vs France is going to be epic. A low on stakes Italy and France who's out for revenge.

I wouldn't even say you guys have been understimated, I mean, all of us knew that Holland is deadly offensive. It's just Donadoni who is completely stupid and stubborn in his decisions. There's no way in hell Di Natale should be preferred to Del Piero, especially since Del Piero finished top scorer in Serie A this season and has been getting better and better by the end of it.

Any coach with a bit of brain would have fielded this formation:

from left to right:

Forwards: Del Piero Toni

Midfield: Aquilani, De Rossi, Pirlo, Camoranesi

Defence: Grosso, Chiellini, Barzagli/Gamberini, Zambrotta.

With this starting lineup I am sure that atleast we wouldn't have conceded three goals and we would have atleast been more dangerous. But Donadoni has already shown that he's stubborn even when he's aware that his decision are totally wrong, he just doesn't have the humility to admit his mistakes nor he tries to fix them. You can totally see how much of a huge difference there is between his cocky attitude and Lippi's wisdom and charisma. :\

I mean, how can a person with a working brain field Milan's Midfield (Pirlo+Gattuso+Ambrosini) when Milan played horribly this season because of them? Gattuso and Ambrosini are in their worst form ever, why on earth would Donadoni even start them?

Defeating Romania and France sounds like pure utopia to me at the moment, as long as this idiot of a coach is sitting there on the bench trying to look cool rather than doing his job properly. He should go back play some golf as he stated in the press conference before this game, maybe he can do something decent there atleast.

On an other note, I disagree with you on the player of the match. In my eyes Sneijder was definetely the best player on the pitch.

[2H-Dragon]

Originally Posted by Shinndou

Defeating Romania and France sounds like pure utopia to me at the moment, as long as this idiot of a coach is sitting there on the bench trying to look cool rather than doing his job properly.

On an other note, I disagree with you on the player of the match. In my eyes Sneijder was definetely the best player on the pitch.

Still the name "Italy" still breeds fear in people. You might not get that since you are from that country. I think del piero will pretty much play from the start. Since I got the feeling they where "saving" him for france.

Netherlands vs Romania I have no idea what to think. Do we have the power to break trough? No idea. Van Persie still didn't seem 100% from the little he played, eventhough he didn't play bad or anything.

Nah Gio just makes feel the orange spirit. That makes him the man of the match for me. I don't even like him that much, but the dude tries hard.