Euros 2020

[Antoine]

Team cohesion => pretty good round!

web photos

[surfer]

I was pretty livid when Wales went a man down and in forty minutes Italy couldnt get a second goal, which would have made things really tight at the top. Most satisfying thing in Kicktipp is when you get 4 points against the field. I'd have to go back through Matchdays but I think I've done it twice this tournament.

[DarkAttraktor]

i still don't get croatia. for instance, why is brozovic playing so down low and so much off the ball like he is a defensive specialist and not a fucking spindle. modric osculates from majestic in the final third to a liability in the first. vlasic makes so much more sense than kramaric, he's such a breath of fresh air in croatia's game. and kovacic is waaay better than vs england. petkovic, rebic - tomato, tomahto.

i just hope juranovic sent vrsaljko to retirement with the kind of game he produced in the first half. also gvardiol was very good. still, no caleta car - no party.

sorry for not posting more, but i am not getting to watch almost any games as my job took over my life.

[surfer]

Yeah I agree with most of that. Esp Petkovic and Rebic who are equally useless. But nice performance today all around; the Modric goal was absolute class. The little maestro continues to run the game. Happy we got out of the group at least.

[DarkAttraktor]

and in the end a seemingly breezy 3:1 with some modric and perisic individual magic to cover up a very shaky defensive performance at times and the lack of an over-arching attacking strategy (i know that part of it is dalic tactic of swapping players' positions but i still don't get what's the plan offensively). lovren simply doesn't have it anymore (his second yellow card came as a bit of relief), vida is what he is, while livakovic is glued to the goal-line at all times and when he isn't it is usually hair raising. he's terrible decision maker. if i was dalic i'd take subasic out of retirement for these EUROs until we figure out what to do.

however, any other result would be a crime against football as scotland is really two tiers below them. in the end, CRO grabs a super-respectable runner-up spot, avoids the group of death and has only spain left to avoid. sweden would be a tough but solid test in the 1/8 finals, but drawing spain is probably still the most likely outcome as i simply don't see slovakia holding them in a crucial, do or die game. a game with spain where CRO loses respectably would be a fantastic EURO campaign for CRO all things considered and not to mention advancing going to the 1/4 finals over slovakia or sweden and then going out from the portufrancogerman group winner. this is already a massive success and we are close to over-performing territory.

[Antoine]

According to the french newspapers, 3 changes tonight for Les Bleus : Tolisso replaces Rabiot, Koundé replaces Pavard and Hernandez is back (instead of Digne), with a supposed different system (2018-like).
Whatever that means, I always kicktipp wrong when France plays

[Wombatz]

it'll be interesting to see if they finally click up front or if they start to unravel (with benzema having a history of being a, cough, difficult person, mbappe having a history of underperforming in decisive games, and griezmann having a history of withering in the shadow of too much ego).

england should go out in the next round. they really need a coach. at least harry is successfully working on lowering his price tag like he promised he would.

dunno about this german team. i had wanted them to go out quietly, but of course heroics from unexpected atalanta players are nice. if they can keep their energy levels and spirits high they might actually win the whole thing, but they'd have to rely more or less on the same starting 11 in every game.

so whom should i be rooting for now? of course everybody roots for denmark but that's not fair, that's emotional hijacking. wales look like they're having fun, i've been to aberystwyth for a couple of trimesters, as a kid i was very good at mini golf, and the guy from datblygu has passed today, so i guess wales it is ...

[surfer]

wales look like they're having fun, i've been to aberystwyth for a couple of trimesters, as a kid i was very good at mini golf, and the guy from datblygu has passed today, so i guess wales it is ...

I had a dream about Gareth Bale last night. He was living in a jungle cave in the rainforest, about an hour's hike from the RM training facility. Water was dripping from the ceiling and there were books and vines everywhere. He was sleeping on the floor. I was visiting him and I asked him why he was living here and he said something to the effect of "Fame and expectation are not easy to live with it, many footballers dont know what they are getting into. Fame is not all its cracked up to be." I asked him how long it took him to get here and he said he can do the hike in 45 min to an hour. I asked him where does Massimo (Allegri, I suppose he was the manager) land his helicopter? Gareth chuckled and said Massimo hikes out here too, but its takes him 2-3 hours where he can do it in 45 min to an hour. I said I was in the Peace Corps in Africa, and he smiled and said it was a good organization and there were Peace Corps volunteers who lived nearby. He was reading a book on Kant.


Gulacsi is a really good keeper.

[Wombatz]

we were watching france portugal while working/doing homework, dire stuff. it's interesting that pundits seem to think you're hard done by if taking somebody's head off receives a penalty against you (both poor lloris and whatever croat threw an elbow in schick's face). speaking of decisions i secretly understand, i'm sorry but uefa were right in not allowing the rainbow stadium thing because obviously it would have been unfair to put additional pressure on the away team by provoking their dictator watching from afar. while i haven't seen the germany game, i repeat you can't play sané instead of müller in a game that matters, they have to stick to the same starting 11 (they can maybe start emre can in midfield, or werner for some diffuse panic, but that's all the possibilities they have). still england should be the right aufbaugegner (opponent that kindly helps you to get your own thing going). only italy and belgium look like they could win this "deservedly" ... it seems impossible portugal should beat belgium, but i remember last time around they started every game the much weaker team before they put in some survival act (even against, like, andorra?), and they don't look any worse than that ...

(p.s. just saw the totally lopsided draw ... no chance for portugal, every chance for germany ... or wales!)

[surfer]

we were watching france portugal while working/doing homework, dire stuff. it's interesting that pundits seem to think you're hard done by if taking somebody's head off receives a penalty against you (both poor lloris and whatever croat threw an elbow in schick's face). speaking of decisions i secretly understand, i'm sorry but uefa were right in not allowing the rainbow stadium thing because obviously it would have been unfair to put additional pressure on the away team by provoking their dictator watching from afar. while i haven't seen the germany game, i repeat you can't play sané instead of müller in a game that matters, they have to stick to the same starting 11 (they can maybe start emre can in midfield, or werner for some diffuse panic, but that's all the possibilities they have). still england should be the right aufbaugegner (opponent that kindly helps you to get your own thing going). only italy and belgium look like they could win this "deservedly" ... it seems impossible portugal should beat belgium, but i remember last time around they started every game the much weaker team before they put in some survival act (even against, like, andorra?), and they don't look any worse than that ...

(p.s. just saw the totally lopsided draw ... no chance for portugal, every chance for germany ... or wales!)

Not to come rushing to Lovren's defense, because as DA points out, Lovren is our third or fourth best CB right now, so its a bit of a relief Dalic wont be tempted to play him for "veteran vibes" or whatever. But that penalty was given because there was blood, and the contact was incidental as far as i was concerned. he didnt swing his elbow. If that occurred and there was no blood, that penalty isnt given. If that incident occurred in the middle of the pitch, and there was no blood, no foul is given. I think the penalty is given retroactively because of the bloody nose.

It seems impossible but is therefore likely that Portugal should beat Belgium. They have a good enough midfield to set up a medium block and isolate Lukaku from service, and rotational strategic fouling of KdB anytime he touches the ball.

Germany should start Werner, his off ball movement, link up play and causing of "diffuse panic" could help unsettle the backline of England enough to allow others to "interpret space" in the box.

Aufhaugegner is such a great word, Spurs have been one of those teams for years.

[Wombatz]

Not to come rushing to Lovren's defense, because as DA points out, Lovren is our third or fourth best CB right now, so its a bit of a relief Dalic wont be tempted to play him for "veteran vibes" or whatever. But that penalty was given because there was blood, and the contact was incidental as far as i was concerned. he didnt swing his elbow. If that occurred and there was no blood, that penalty isnt given. If that incident occurred in the middle of the pitch, and there was no blood, no foul is given. I think the penalty is given retroactively because of the bloody nose.

that's in line with what the pundits said. he maybe didn't swing his elbow, but he was in a worse position for the ball, side-pedalling at some speed to make up for that, and putting up the elbow to at least make some impact ... like lloris, making up for bad timing with complete disregard to the health of an opponent ... if it works, great, if you hit somebody, it should be penalized (it's not a red card or something), like those tackles where you touch the ball but then run through an opponent with open studs because there was no other way to touch the ball. it's a relatively easy decision, dangerous play, and more satisfying to get a penalty for blood than all the silly penalties at the edge of the box when a striker fools the defender into accidentally touching him after he's lost control of the ball ... i have noticed i'm in a minority with such opinions but seriously i wonder why (because football is a manly sport, except when it's not).

like southgate, löw is not enough of a strategist to make full use of his resources. unlike southgate, he has a certain mad stubbornness himself that might inject sufficient energy into a flawed plan to still create some kind of creature, one never knows. anyway you need to start werner, when everybody else is still fresh and sharp and can take advantage of the chaos, he's not as effective as a sub.

[surfer]

Nice fight back from the Croats but just undermanned really, not a great team, although Spain certainly are not all that. Havent been too invested in the knockout rounds because of some personal stuff happening in my life, thus lack of posts or pithy analysis.

[Wombatz]

first really fun day at the euros. of course it had to be mbappe, that was laughably predictable.

belgium should be embarrassed to win that way, i hope they go out in the next round (wait, it's against italy, so they should).

tonight will be interesting as this is starting to smell like a tournament germany might win despite mostly stinking up the place. löw will do his best to keep them underperforming, but a couple of easy lessons from the games so far would make them second favorites after italy.

so whom to root for now (guaranteed kiss of death) ... i had a nice stay in prague with school back when there was still an eastern bloc and comics artist kaja saudek should be better known ...



despite some, cough, ideological problems involved ...

[Wombatz]

ahaha, three lions outlöwing löw with their dourness of a line-up, two teams begging to be beaten, alas, only one of them can ... let's see if flick will instantly transform the german national team, it's entirely possible

[surfer]

Jeremy Doku, wow, eye-popping performance of the tournament so far

[Wombatz]

i'm sorry, denmark, but since i once spent a week of holidays on the tiny island of agerso and since music of the spheres by rued langgaard is still a sadly neglected composition decades ahead of its time (just listen:



like, so?) i am now finally officially rooting for you despite everybody else doing the same. (well, my boy roots for england so i can't give the kiss of death to them.)

[Antoine]

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2021/ ... 20/619379/

[Wombatz]

likeable lads (quoth the guardian), ahaha ... i get 4 virtual extra inter-family kicktipping points for accurately predicting before extra time that this would be decided through an undeserved penalty awarded for an english dive. this was kind of unfair to my boy, since when it actually happened it took the fun out of result for him. anyway, i really hope (despite them not looking especially great against spain) italy will hand the english their asses on a platter ... immobile's dive at least was funny, they don't build their complete strategy on this (i blame pep). to be fair, denmark had nothing left to offer ...

[Wombatz]

For an island our size we’ve got an incredible influence on the world and we’ve got to keep that in a positive way. There are historic things that we should be proud of. We’ve had unbelievable inventions in this country.

People have tried to invade us and we’ve had the courage to hold that back. You can’t hide that some of the energy in the stadium against Germany was because of that. I never mentioned that to the players, but I know that’s part of what that story was.

25 years after nazi penalties bombed out wembley, he finally got back at us true inglourious basterds style ...

[Antoine]

congrats, surfer!!!