EURO 2012

I want a Portugal Germany final but can see Spain doing enough to go through tomorrow. If Spain progress and Germany beat Italy (god I hope so) then I want Germany to win. Hate the idea of spain winning another trophy and just generally hate Italy. 

Portugal > Germany > Spain = Italy - my preference for winners. 

keen on a Spain Germany final

I expect the German machine will be direct enough to win - either way it would be an interesting contest

You're not really Dutch are you?

 

So, so much this this.

You would rather your hated rivals win over someone else who also happen to play superb football.

Rivals maybe but sometimes it's not that straight forward. I dislike the krauts but mainly only when in competition with them. I have quite a few German mates (though, when with them I don't like to admit any of this) and generally I actually do enjoy the way they play. Also I wasn't bought up in Holland so the Dutch-German thing wasn't drilled into me from a young age. Sure my Opa and Oma mentioned occasionally but in Holland it's much stronger in the culture there, when as I was always only reminded of it every now and then. 

I bet Tommy Smith and Michael McGlinchey don't quite hate the Aussies as much as most of us who have spent our whole lives here do for example. 

For the Spanish I'm not one of those saying I don't like how they are playing so much, I just don't want to see their domination go on for much longer. 

Not really that difficult to understand. 

You know I was just taking the p!ss don't you?

I'm also supporting Jerry.

 

I knew you were, Buffy seemed like he wanted answers.

In essence I'm jumping off the Old Rivalry boat and on to the Rest of the World Against Spain bandwagon.

Spain through. Ho hum.

Not much in that though. Looking forward to the game tomorrow but hoping for more goals.

Yeah the last 4 hours of the tournament have produced no goals. Not even many chances in todays game. Still, ze Germans will probably change that, and Italy aren't anywhere near as defensive under Prandelli as they have been in the past. An early goal would be good to open the game up

Did anyone else think that Nani pulling Alves from the fourth peno was a ploy to throw off Casillas? I genuinely don't think they just fucked up the order. I also think Ronaldo was taking the fifth Portugese peno so that he would be the one in the spotlight if they'd won on his shot. LOL

I'm not sure what to think of that incident - it seemed a bit weird, that's for sure. Think it threw off Alves more than Casillas too. As for Ronaldo, I don't know why you would leave your best penalty taker til 5th - for exactly the reason seen today, he might not even get a chance to take one. Should have been one of the first 3. Your reason for that is probably right!

Rule number 1 for penalty shootouts: The next shooter is always your best available. Best first, worst last.

These were exactly my thoughts. Could have been quite a clever ploy actually, although obviously in hindsight it wasn't terribly effective.

 

 

Close line between  and 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvkRiH1DDTI

Rubbish decision, the better game and I'm pretty sure they said they'd be playing both semis? Not like anyone will be getting up to watch CGW repeats or home shopping........

Mario is a god. Germany have been rubbish this morning. A lot of stray passes and very poor on defense.

Has to be a screw up by Portugal. I can't see how that would have any effect on Casillas. As a keeper myself, I always felt the pressure was on the taker and would slow proceedings down to try and maintain the tension on them. I never cared what order I faced the taker.

Much better game than the other semi, open play, lots of chances, Mario Balotelli - great entertainment. God I hope Italy beat Spain now.

Looking forward to logical extension of the earlier posts - if NZ score 1 against Italy and Italy score 2 against Germany then NZ would have scored 3 today. 

You're underestimating how much they put into penalties strategically/tactically. They don't simply screw up the order. No offense but I don't think comparing your experience to this level is relevant. You didn't care about who took the next penalty because you hadn't studied the players you are facing.

Also I don't think the Alves/Nani swap was so much to make Cassillas rethink his next move due to a new taker but more to just throw his thought process off and wonder what the hell they are doing. It's mind games both ways, much like most 1 v 1 sporting duels around the world.

No shit, Shearer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18619259

Not sure who he's arguing with. Who the hell thinks we're going to win 2014?

Fair point on the make-up of the Prem. The last stats I saw showed that only 33% of the players and 20% of the managers are English. Applies to owners too; only 7 or 8 of the Prem clubs have majority English owners. 

 

 

Fair call - athough I regularly knew the players I was facing.

Question remains: how would Casillas be bothered? At all? And if it wasn't a screw up, Alves is a decent actor with his facial expressions!

The way I see it is there is only so much they can do to put off their opposing player without breaching the rules or attract huge criticism so they might have chosen what they did because it's an obvious disruption and likely to make people think about/question what is going on. I'm certainly not saying Cassillas was put off by it but I am wondering if it was a deliberate attempt to put him off. All they want to do is throw him off his normal train of thought, maybe make him second guess his decision or confidence in what he is thinking in the build up to the penalty.

 

Shearer almost hits the nail on the head.  Almost.

Spain are Barcelona with ringers.  Italy, Juventus.  Germany, Bayern.  These teams have a core that train and play together throughout the year.  (There's a bit of a Viktoria Plzen look about the Czech republic, a Porto flavour to Portugal, and Greece have a shade of Olympiacos.)

By comparison, England's Euro squad has a number of current Liverpool players, but they're not the core of the team (and, for that matter, a number of them are fairly new signings at Anfield).  The French squad, arguably better, is cobbled together from the big leagues of Western Europe, and the Dutch are scattered even further afield.

It would be an interesting exercise to consider putting together an English side that actually play together.  I suspect that the "base camp" would be two of Spurs, Stoke & Sunderland - and for that reason, I'm not going to do it.

I think you may be overanalysing all this. Why go to all that effort just to try to throw off the keeper for just one in a series of penalty kicks? Especially considering that it had the potential to badly blow-up in their face (i.e. if it was planned, Nani had significantly less time to prepare for the kick, the ref may have got involved, and since the takers are under more pressure in those type of situations, the whole farce could have ended up in a miss).

I'd say it's far more likely that Bruno Alves simply miscounted and went for it one kick too early. And I'd say the whole thing did affect him, as he stuffed up his attempt later.

 

As for today's result, Spain, you're my last hope. Don't mess this up.

My reaction towards El Grap when Italy win Euro:

 

Good idea, Azevo.  Here's mine:

really interesting to follow the anti-Spain backlash

I can certainly do without their diving and play-acting (not that those things are unheard of from our Italian friends)

not sure who I'll favour on the day

on another note - I wonder if the Bowie song of similar name could be the basis for a YF chant  (at about 1:18 in clip)

"Gloreeey, they call them the diving dogs"

Brisbane, they call them the diving dogs

Sydney, etc etc

 

That should make for a laugh or two on the podcast this weekend.

 

I wasn't sure who to support in the final until now. FORZA ITALIA.

If Italy win the final, Pirlo should be awarded the Golden Ball trophy. It's been fantastic season for him.   

My reaction if Italy win Euro:

 

Couldn't add any text at work, but wanted to add om om om om, as I believe the kids say

Shame there's no 3rd/4th playoff at the Euros - Portugal v Germany with nothing important riding on it would have been good entertainment value

Euro is a realists tournament, there can be only one.

Draw @ 90 mins...Ballotelli to score winner in extra time....  Forza Mario, Forza Italia...Viva L'Italia..buona fortuna

Mario e dio , Chapion Itlaia...