EURO 2012

We also shouldn't blame Spain for the coming explosion in (shitty) teams playing without a centre forward next season

Holla.

No, blame Scotland for that.

A prophet is without honour in his own land

Actually we can probably thank Scotland for the invention of tiki-taka, going all the way back to that first game against England where England did nothing but dribble and the damn abominable Scots passed the ball to each other like heathens or communists.

Some kinda metaphor goin' on

SM is a passionate individual iirc

BARCELONA 4-0 SOUTHAMPTON 12-5-1998
De la Peña (2), Mario, Luis

Barcelona: Baia, Reiziger, Nadal, Couto, Roger, Amor, De la Peña (Xavi), Mario, Oscar (Ferron), Sergi (Jofre), Pizzi (Luis).

Southampton: Jones, Warner, Benali, Richardson, Dryden, Lundekvam, Basham, Saberski (Bridge), Hirst (Sarli), Palmer (Gibben), Beresford.

carlton palmer was the crucible the debutant xavi was forged in

Carlton Palmer and David Hirst. Fucking hell.

Carlton Palmer was the proto Patrick Vieira.

england players!

when he went out, carlton palmer kept a shirt in his boot to change into if there was a fight.

Spot the odd one out

Euro 2012 team of the tournament: Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Ita), Iker Casillas (Spa), Manuel Neuer (Ger)
Defenders: Gerard Pique (Spa), Fabio Coentrao (Por), Philipp Lahm (Ger), Pepe (Por), Sergio Ramos (Spa), Jordi Alba (Spa)
Midfielders: Daniele De Rossi (Ita), Steven Gerrard (Eng), Xavi (Spa), Andres Iniesta (Spa), Sami Khedira (Ger), Sergio Busquets (Spa), Mesut Ozil (Ger), Andrea Pirlo (Ita), Xabi Alonso (Spa)
Forwards: Mario Balotelli (Ita), Cesc Fabregas (Spa), Cristiano Ronaldo (Por), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Swe), David Silva (Spa)

Gerrard ahead of Mountinho? Crooksy is that you?

Gerrard and Ibrahimovic both failed to get to the semis. Zlatan didn't even get out of the group stages.

you've seen teams of the tournament before? you know they're not just based on how the team that player played in did?

e.g. gerard hit over 3 good crosses in nearly 400 mins of football so he clearly deserves his spot

and they were both standouts in fairly crap teams tbf. Gerrard got three assists in four games which i'm sure is up there

Iniesta got player of the tournament btw

yeah i don't think either inclusion is ludicrous tbh. it's a big (and wholly imaginary) squad.

Lol at both the Golden Boot winner and the dude he narrowly edged out both failing to make the squad.

I would say the inclusion of Balotelli is somewhat debatable. Though i'm not sure who you would put in his place

Samaras, clearly.

Actually Greek right sided frwd who came on as sub in first game, scored and who set up Samaras goal vs Germany? Was also good vs Russia iirc.

Or Madzukic.

I was just spotting the odd ones out.

Gerrard's probably the only one who can only speak one language.

they have filled 3 of the 5 spots with non-strikers

(re forwards)

which is appropriate really

nice blog apart from the 'boring' bit. no-one's calling what they did last night boring. i understand zonal marking and net spend. i understand resting with the ball. there are 14 triangles and 4 diamonds in a 4123 formation. spain are probably the greatest team of all time, they're usually lovely to watch. but that spain-france match was fucking tedious.

the best national side, maybe, certainly not the best side

they nicked everything from cole-yorke

"Striker" denotes 'pure' goalscoring, whereas "forward" (or "attacker") denotes something slightly different. Balotelli as striker, Cassano as forward.

But yeah, I was careful to put 'international team' in the body text, and not talk about Milan or Real Madrid or Barcelona or Ajax etc etc.

i'd like to see brazil 2k2 vs this spain team, hopefully someone will arrange it

PES 2012
COM vs COM

brazil classic vs spain?

That Brazil front three is probably pretty lardy right now, I wouldn't like their chances.

where is kleberson these days

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

don't think about shakira don't think about shakira don't think about shakira DOH

lol!

the HUNGER and the DESIRE from these guys

the brazil front three

wrt hunger

love this shot of the airport workers

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/02/article-2167715-13E4FE37000005DC-843_634x441.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wv4CL.gif

Is this really such a great gesture?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvg5DxMR0EA

idgi

Casillas tells little ref behind the goal to stop the game "out of respect". Whistle goes a few seconds later. Everyone calls Iker a true sporting gentleman etc.