It’s starting to look like England is set to go head-to-head with Germany again, if they can overcome the Italians first, which btw is not entirely impossible.
No surprise Germany beat Greece. A pity- i feel for Greece and to have more punishment handed out by Merkel’s country must be hard to take, but they’re not in the same class.
I rate Oliver Kahn higher than Meier, and Buffon at least the equal of Zoff. Pat Jennings was a better goalie than Zoff or Meier, imo
Yeah, fair enough with Di Stefano- it was his already having played for Argentina that confuses things but my list needed more Spanish anyway (several borderline ones).
Glad you picked John Charles; in Italy he’s known as a centre forward but he was also one of the 2 greatest British central defenders (most experts pick him alongside Moore in all-time British team), and often played for Wales at centre half. Has anyone been as good in 2 such different positions? Beckenbauer moved to sweeper from midfield, as did Matthaus, but i think Charles trumps them. You could have him score for a 1-0 lead then go back to maintain it! Gianni Rivera belongs in a European 50.
A pity- i feel for Greece and to have more punishment handed out by Merkel’s country must be hard to take
In which countries of the world can a hairdresser retire at age 50 on a full government pension? Only in Greece. And who’s to pay for such a luxury? Greece says, “Not us!”
Anyway, back to sport…
According to news sources, my prediction of French team discord has come to pass. Some teams can play through this, but not France. I’ll be watching the game from a Salvadoran pupuseria over a bowl of sopa de gallina.
go Hodgson! go team Eng
England forgot how to play the passing game, took the gamble… lost again.
Penalty shoot-out is a wretched way to break a deadlock, but Italy dominated the match, literally ran rings around their English opponent and rightfully deserved to win.
Ashley Cole missing (saved) England’s last chance…the tabloids are gonna have field day, one can almost see the headlines.
pirlo’s pk was pretty badass, haha
Just when it seemed not taking chances would cost Italy dear, they won on penalties anyway, when i’d had a feeling all along it would go to penalties and England would win. Italy have had bad luck in tournaments with penalties; i was reading earlier they have never lost a 1/4 final except on penalties (twice), whereas England have never won a knockout match against a top team outside England. England still need a creative midfield genius.
I’ve seen those Charles videos; he should have a lot more views on youtube.
We’re left with the 4 best teams now in Euro 12, or the 3 best and Portugal have deserved to make it too. Holland the main disappointments but that was a hard group.
Germany and Spain must be favourites but I hope it’s Portugal v Italy final
Italy has dominated. WHere England was the last hour of the match? 70% of ball possession for us. I saw the best Italy since a long time. No doubt: a deserved victory
@ Mais1, there’s a good interview on youtube with John Charles and Dickie Davies, in which Charles spoke about little Sivori, his brilliant Argentinian creative partner at Juve (bottom right in team photo in 2nd video above), having to do a runner from the Mafia after a match in Sicily. Sivori-Charles was a great little and large combination, better than Toshack and Keegan.
Germany v Italy; 2 matches come to mind at once, (W.Germany it was then)- 1970 semi final and this
Doesn’t surprise me at all that England lost. They never come through in big games. They just don’t have any spark in them. They’re always the type of team that can just barely get through the group stage in a big competition, but that’s it. They need the new generation to come of age. Rooney, Gerrard, and Cole have had their day.
Lot of heavyweights in the semis. I look for Portugal to shock the world and beat Spain. Germany has too much power for Italy. It looks like Germany is primed to win the title unless a dark horse like Portugal can step up.
Eusebio has been having heart surgery
He was the star of the 1st world cup i watched.
@Bobby: I cannot see Italy being a serious challenge for Germany, especially since the Germans have had an extra two days. I’m sure they want blood for what happened on home soil in 06!
Yes, Germany is on a rampage. I just hope Portugal wins. I don’t necessarily want Spain repeating and I don’t care to see Germany on top either. Portugal deserves it.
PORTUGA-LA-LE, PORTUGA-LA-LE!!
“The FA chairman, David Bernstein, declared yesterday that England’s glass was “half full” in terms of their performance at Euro 2012 and the manner in which they had emerged from Fabio Capello’s departure in February and Hodgson’s late appointment.
He said: “There’s a great deal of positives coming out of this – the performance of the team, the commitment of the team, the togetherness of the squad. I think Roy has made a real impact very, very quickly, just the sort of thing we thought he’d do.”"
Glad he has the backing of the FA. It is the standard of players
Spain is through to the final again. Oh well. Hated to see Portugal lose. Penalties can be so heartbreaking. If Germany wins tomorrow I don’t see Spain beating them. If Italy wins it will be a dogfight to the finish.
It matters not what he does for the rest of his career: because he refused to take any of Portugal’s first 4 penalties, Ronaldo will go down as the biggest cuntfuck in the history of professional soccer.
Spain should just play Torres from the start for the final. It will give him a confidence boost
or Llorente! They need a forward
Hmm. I didn’t look at it that way. I will say that Ronaldo had a lot of chances in the match. His team needed him to put one in the back of the net. He couldn’t when it really counted. Big time players make big time plays in big time games. Anyway, last chance in Brasil in 2014.
Bobby- Nani did the math and inserted himself in front of Alves to take the third penalty. Ronaldo should have done the same for the 4th penalty.
Yeah, he probably should have. Bad business.
@B “Hmm. I didn’t look at it that way. I will say that Ronaldo had a lot of chances in the match. His team needed him to put one in the back of the net. He couldn’t when it really counted. Big time players make big time plays in big time games. Anyway, last chance in Brasil in 2014.”
Exactly. This is why it’s quite painful to hear people refer to the legendary, injury-plagued Brasilian Ronaldo as ‘the Other Ronaldo’ (or ‘the Fat One’) when talking about Ronaldo the Portuguese star. Well, the fat one had won the World Cup (twice technically), a couple of Copa Americas, and quite a number of European titles and more, and had proven leadership in the field for both club and country. My nephew and his teammates haven’t even heard of the fat one so I had to tell them.
Brasilian Ronaldo did sort of disappear from the public consciousness. He was extremely accomplished.
Some differences :
C. Ronaldo – WC won : 0
the “other” Ronaldo – WC won : 2 (yes, it helps if your team is named Brazil)
C. Ronaldo – WC goals : 2
the “other” Ronaldo " – WC goals :15
C. Ronaldo – NT caps : 95 / goals : 35
the “other” Ronaldo – NT caps : 98 / goals : 62
Wow. Italy completely outplayed Germany. They should have scored a couple of more goals too. I think Portugal outplayed Spain, so if Italy stays hot they win the title. They were very dynamic and explosive today.
There goes another proof that anywhere past the group stages, it’s winner-take-all and any team can advance regardless of standings. If I remember correctly Bulgaria knocked out the heavily favored Germans in WC ‘94, after Germany lost to outsiders Denmark at the Euro ’92 finals.
For a team composed of mostly young players, I was more surprised that the Germans fell in disarray quite early on even before Ballotelli’s second goal. It’s not a usual sight to see Germany spending most of the match defending inside their own box.
mais1
@Kenji
>I was wondering whether to count Di Stefano.<
Di Stefano was, of course, born in Argentina, to Italian immigrant parents, but was a naturalized citizen of Spain. He was capped 31 times for Spain, 6 for Argentina. Spaniards certainly consider him as one of their own : in 2003 he was selected by the Spanish Federation as their (Spain’s) greatest footballer. I would include him.
I suppose the likes of Eusebio and Zidane could be restricted from inclusion as “European” if one were to base such a list on birthplace (Africa) or ethnicity (African/Berber). The criteria, as I see it, should be based on a player having played for a given national team.
>I don’t rate Sepp Maier as highly as some not already mentioned<
Yes, there is Banks, Zoff (both certainly worthy of inclusion, and usually picked 2-3 – after Yashin – by most pundits)…Maier, however, has a bigger trophy case (not to say he did it all on his own).