to these inexperienced eyes portugal were fucking tremendous, right up on spain like white on rice
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:51 (eleven years ago) link
so when did everyone decide to abandon the fantasy league and leave me looking daft at the top? dick moves.
― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:51 (eleven years ago) link
otm Portugal were fabulous. In a way it's slightly depressing, because nobody can keep that up for a full 90 mins and beyond. Germany'll rip Spain in the final though (if they get there).
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:53 (eleven years ago) link
spain's lack of striker truly is a bizarre way to play; i know torres has his issues but lacking villa don't you need SOMEBODY who doesn't mind trying a little forward fuckery?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:54 (eleven years ago) link
they played a striker in the first half
― Number None, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:55 (eleven years ago) link
i mean fielding a team that includes fabregas but nobody for him toflip it to should be prosecutable behavior
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:56 (eleven years ago) link
i find the lack of striker thing really overegged. it's not like it means they're playing with 10 men or something. and it's not as if they don't have tons of goalscoring potential in the team.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:58 (eleven years ago) link
also... is it me or were bbc way harsh on ronaldo? surely it's not that uncommon for a team to have the best player on the last penalty? am i completely wrong?
Dunphy went HAM on him naturally
― Number None, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:59 (eleven years ago) link
can imagine. also when has a player got to pick the kick he takes? blame it on the bento imo.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:01 (eleven years ago) link
ok ok maybe i am drinking the kool-ade. but i do think they miss villa.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:02 (eleven years ago) link
thread otm. that was a good and proper game.
― For bodies we are ready to build pyramids (whatever), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:02 (eleven years ago) link
Giles mumbled something about the manager being responsible but was shouted down
― Number None, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:02 (eleven years ago) link
really feel portugal blew that.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:06 (eleven years ago) link
surely you want your best penalty takers on the first pens as it gets statistically less likely the penalty will actually be taken the deeper you go, as happened there.
― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
spain don't need a striker, fine, but then they need not to play it wide and cross it to the guy that's not there.
Llorente has more to complain about than torres imo
― Ну, там твое место, там сабе будь! (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
important penos are first and fourth iirc
― Ну, там твое место, там сабе будь! (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:08 (eleven years ago) link
son, it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done. xp.
― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:08 (eleven years ago) link
is ronaldo even such a great penalty taker?
― Rosie 47 (ken c), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:09 (eleven years ago) link
yeah tho in my mind teams often leave a particularly good taker as the last one. isn't this fairly common?
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:10 (eleven years ago) link
He's near enough infallible with kicks in normal time. Shoot-outs he's a little dodgier
― Number None, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:11 (eleven years ago) link
23 out of 24 for real is pretty impressive actually. i just can't tell with bbc cos they made it out as though every free kick he takes was going to be a goal
― Rosie 47 (ken c), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:15 (eleven years ago) link
xxp. maybe, he's going to regret that for the rest of his life tho, is the bottom line.
― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:16 (eleven years ago) link
son, it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done. xp.― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, June 27, 2012 10:08 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, June 27, 2012 10:08 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
and by the way, tell your mother....ZLATAN
― For bodies we are ready to build pyramids (whatever), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:16 (eleven years ago) link
nice ;)
― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:22 (eleven years ago) link
is it just me or was that ramos pen shite? didn't execute it properly, not delicate enough.
― Chris, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:27 (eleven years ago) link
A penalty that hits the net is never shite.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:38 (eleven years ago) link
It was fine. xp re Ramos (especially considering his one vs Bayern.
Spain are so awesome defensively. Good match, Portugal played Spain straight up and concentrated on playing their game the best they possibly could rather than solely concentrating on nullifying Spain.Meireles pass to Ronaldo on 90m was so so terrible.
― pandemic, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:39 (eleven years ago) link
na don't get me wrong it was a good'un obv. but as panenka pens go, it was underwhelming! you're supposed to momentarily stop breathing as you realise 'wait, wtf, he hasn't... fuck me he has.' time's supposed to stand still. went in though so who gives a fuck.
― Chris, Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:45 (eleven years ago) link
i find it hard to say that portugal were that great. like italy they took the game to spain, rather than parking the bus, as everyone else has done against them this tournament. like italy they at least matched spain for most of the game (in this they overachieved, they're nothing as good of a team as spain on paper), but faded at the end (last quarter of an hour of the ninety minutes for italy, the entire period of extra time for portugal). spain often start slow, but del bosque got it wrong tactically and this compounded it. negredo didn't look like he had any idea of what his role was, and was largely ineffective when the ball did manage to arrive at him. silva and xavi both underperformed massively in the first half imo. i didnt think fabregas was that great but an improvement on negredo? absolutely. navas looked livelier than silva but going for the byline and whipping in crosses - for who? - which invariably hit the first man and at best went out for a corner, as if spain know what to do with one of those, just isn't a good enough plan b. thought arbeloa had a bit of a torrid time and should've been sent off. thought pedrito was great and if only he'd had more playing time - this season, this tournament - he might just have gotten something.
― tell it to my arse (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:45 (eleven years ago) link
i feel like the spain backlash is so fucking strong that we give portugal so much credit for containing them and stopping their play, and yet ignore the fact that despite portugal never gave spain control, neither did they look like scoring, or have a shot on target.
― tell it to my arse (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:49 (eleven years ago) link
but faded at the end (last quarter of an hour of the ninety minutes for italy, the entire period of extra time for portugal)
Yes, teams are noticeably falling off against them - it's really heavy going to not have the ball, especially when you choose to press as Portugal often did.
― you can't stream a pancake (onimo), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:49 (eleven years ago) link
xp.ha some terrible english in there, you'll decode it.
yeah, but i think you have to press spain to beat them. it's the best tactic. you just need to be better than portugal going forward - which germany are.
― tell it to my arse (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 22:50 (eleven years ago) link
thank fuck somebody who used to play in England scored to enliven this otherwise by-the-numbers encounter
― ENPBGIW (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 27 June 2012 23:13 (eleven years ago) link
The shots on target thing is so misleading; Ronaldo is about as good a goalscorer there has ever been and still cocked up a couple of decent to good chances. Especially the break at the end, that is usually his bread and butter.
― Smothered, Covered and Chunked!!! (a hoy hoy), Thursday, 28 June 2012 01:09 (eleven years ago) link
A penalty that hits the net is never shite
Only because penalties defy analysis. The only useful analysis you could do would be to assess their saveability by height, disguise, distance from the corner, etc. Of course we never hear that, it's always "great penalty" for the ones that go in and "it's a poor penalty to be honest" for the ones that don't - even when they're identical in every respect except which way the keeper dives.
The thing is that ultimately that's all that matters, so all pundits more otm than me, basically.
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 28 June 2012 06:40 (eleven years ago) link
that chance near the end was difficult, tho it needn't have been if the decision and execution from meirelles wasn't shite
― Ну, там твое место, там сабе будь! (darraghmac), Thursday, 28 June 2012 08:08 (eleven years ago) link
The only useful analysis you could do would be to assess their saveability by height, disguise, distance from the corner, etc.
I saw something a few years back when they did this and worked out that the best way to take a penalty in terms of risk vs likelihood of scoring was to hit it low and hard into the corner. Up there with all that research about how cornflakes get soggy when they're wet.
― you can't stream a pancake (onimo), Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:15 (eleven years ago) link
I once read the best way to save penalties is to stay standing up in the middle, as between going left, right and through the middle people are most likely to go through the middle and you can cover more space standing up etc.
― Smothered, Covered and Chunked!!! (a hoy hoy), Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:19 (eleven years ago) link
But also keepers feel like heroics come from big diving saves or whatever, so they always do that
― Smothered, Covered and Chunked!!! (a hoy hoy), Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:20 (eleven years ago) link
The amount of panenkas that people are going to be trying now, I'd totally stand still and catch them if I were a keeper. (I'm not, clearly.)
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:24 (eleven years ago) link
I bet those chipped penalties look fucking lame if the keeper doesn't move. Berbatov looked like the coolest penalty taker in the universe until he had one saved when it just looked shite.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:26 (eleven years ago) link
Ha!
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:26 (eleven years ago) link
the Graun's weekly youtube roundup thing today has a clip of five shitty panenkas, most of which have precisely that happening
― jacob von logflume (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:30 (eleven years ago) link
A keeper would make a panenka extremely unlikely by standing still for the first penalty of a shoot out. Just standing still for each one seems like an unwise policy.
― Tim, Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:32 (eleven years ago) link
28% of the goal is unreachable for any well-struck penalty, iirc the research. High into the corner to the side of the kicker's favoured foot is preferential, but an arc around the goalie's reach is a close enough depiction.
― Ну, там твое место, там сабе будь! (darraghmac), Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:36 (eleven years ago) link
from the initial angle last night nani's looked unsaveable- if the keeper stands and reacts there's a good chance that's within arm's reach.
But the keepers were good in the penos last night tbf, just a technically good shootout.
― Ну, там твое место, там сабе будь! (darraghmac), Thursday, 28 June 2012 10:42 (eleven years ago) link
if you just stand still, this happenshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XuEGHHoZGM
― Rosie 47 (ken c), Thursday, 28 June 2012 11:19 (eleven years ago) link
actually i guess he did save it!
― Rosie 47 (ken c), Thursday, 28 June 2012 11:20 (eleven years ago) link
game was fuckloads better than Lineker and Hansen made out
Yes, fuck off to the golf course and let people who actually interested in football comment on it. Didn't Hansen once say he wouldn't watch football if he wasn't being paid for it? Why have the BBC also got tonight's semi-final? At least Klinsmann will be on the panel, but does this mean they won't be covering the final?
― Too Busy Thinking About Mr. Abie (Tom D.), Thursday, 28 June 2012 11:28 (eleven years ago) link