EURO 2012

But look at them, and where it got them.

We turned from being rampaging drunken barbarians to cheerful idiots in kilts and Jimmy wigs - angry drunk vs. happy drunk (xp)

now stay-at-home drunks, the demon gets you in the end

haha

Well, there is one constant there

it does not follow that the neutral fact of their technical level is itself questionable

Dunno, great technique isn't great technique unless you can reproduce it under competitive pressure. I'm sure there are players who are amazing on training grounds who can't do it in real games, probably a fair few have played for Spurs. Are Russia technically superior upfront? In defence? I dunno.

England would probably not have finished above a genuinely technically superior team like Croatia who were massively unlucky with their draw.

they did finish over a genuinely technically superior team in france

even scott parker can trap a ball, lord knows his skill was good enough to grace a mcdonalds advert

glen johnson is nifty enough for a fullback

etc

this is like a fraction of the reason england are so dreadful, it's more to do with the lack of any sort of sense of how to play football, it's either heroic rearguard passionate defending or a thudded 40 yard pass to a forward who then has to do something with it, it is the most reactive form of football imaginable and entirely devoid of any schematic logic with no variety, no tempo other than frantic, no ingenuity, no convictions other than criminal

international football's kind of like a school's end of year concert/prizegiving. this is what we've done, and this is what we have to show for it. with spain and germany you can see the result of the changes they've made, the emphasis they've placed on skill and technique, the investment in coaching and training facilities. they mightn't win it, but you can see where those countries are in terms of development, structure, identity etc. what have england learnt at school this year?

Yeah I think England's ineptitude is as much an issue of temperament and composure and basic intelligence than it is of "technique".

I mean England's first touch is generally worse than that of most other teams but passing a ball to yr team mate when the opposing team are standing off you shouldn't be difficult for professional footballers and yet England fuck it up time and time again.

it's more to do with the lack of any sort of sense of how to play football

otm. the rubbish football doesn't help, but the lack of leadership, vision and innovation from those at the top is what really pisses me off.

no tempo other than frantic

Unfair, there's leaden and half-arsed as well.

it's all the fault of the modular curriculum. michael gove will have this team back to former glories soon enough.

xxxxp

international football's kind of like a school's end of year concert/prizegiving. this is what we've done, and this is what we have to show for it. with spain and germany you can see the result of the changes they've made, the emphasis they've placed on skill and technique, the investment in coaching and training facilities. they mightn't win it, but you can see where those countries are in terms of development, structure, identity etc. what have england learnt at school this year?

― Chris, Friday, June 22, 2012 5:01 PM (1 minute ago)

totally

even ukraine, the archetypal 'nothing amazing' side, have a neatness, a sense of purposive movement that probably derives from lobanovskyi and that whole school of universal-interopable player/robots, they generally made good use of their few talented players and it clear what they are at least trying to achieve

england just look like a load of violent remedial kids who have been dosed with lucozade and forced to watch the al pacino speech in any given sunday 400 times

i guess we'll be getting andrey back

Zenit owner Golubev asked reporters: "How can a citizen of Russia treat the honour of his country like that?

"He should be deported."

I don't think Golubev owns Zenit, he just works for Gazprom - which does. I wouldn't be surprised if he stays there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnnL3_C3UFs

this needs to be here tbh

It was true then. Schurrle, Reus and Klose in

What are they up to?

gott in himmel zuviel kleine hunde wo sind die nationalmannschaftkaiserlichehunde?

otm

Achtung Deutschland

gutsy selection

chiselled out of granite....like a greek....statue

http://www10.pic-upload.de/22.06.12/gi6visizlaej.jpg

Looking frwd to seeing Reus. Jogi with balls of steel.

did they mention reus or schurrle at all in the intro

No

but they are all 'good' players apparently

bail-out reus political significance justin bieber greece hate germany bath salts schurrle

lol

http://i.minus.com/ibkhWH0ls3ZEgS.jpg

hes just gone and done him early doors there he has

Not sure about that.

Just.

good call

A reducer.
xp

lol

oh offside

balls of steel is rong, picking fresh v good players instead of maybe less fresh v good players isn't exactly a shocker

if reus? had got that instead then he was onside

still offside if he didn't touch it

schurrle active by dint of kicking keeper in gob

Khedira and Reus were right on top of each other. Doesn't matter who scored it

or Schurrle even

Anyone got a better stream than watcheuro2012live.org? Nothing BBC cos I'm in China...

did reus or schurrle play well against werder and schalke last season? might have figured for low

balls of steel is rong, picking fresh v good players instead of maybe less fresh v good players isn't exactly a shocker

― Smothered, Covered and Chunked!!! (a hoy hoy), Friday, June 22, 2012 7:50 PM (6 minutes ago)

yeah but this isn't like ferguson fielding the kids for a home game vs west brom in between cl ties, can you remember a managing swapping an entire frontline for an international knockout tie?

this team looks better already

oz somewhere here you should find something http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=159973&part=sports

Reus had a goal in the home game and an assist in the away game vs Schalke.

xxp

nakh - no, usually they do it for the third game of the group. it is rare a country has so many good interchangable players tho, how many teams in the past ten years could do this confidently? spain. brazil... maybe? argentina have lots of good strikers i guess.