löw outsmarted himself, leaving the right side totally uncovered with the kroos substitution, i rather would have seen the starting 11 from the greece game....disaster
Should be a good close game, I pick Italy for being on fire, but this is the best save of the week already from Hope Solo. Bonus points for being American (and in blistering, sunny heat): [video=youtube;_c2lIgpPAH4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c2lIgpPAH4[/video]
Worst final I've seen in a long long time. Wasn't Thiago Motta already hurt earlier in the tourney? Yet, you bring him in as one of your subs? Not that they were going to win after going down 2-0 anyway... but still...
I'm proud of our guys. They played a heck of a tournament. The victories against ENG and GER were outstanding and a show of brilliant football rendering two great sides pretty much ineffective. Very good showing. Too bad the finals were completely different. Although I agree with Paul (Chiellini shouldn't have started, and Diamanti should have been put in instead of Motta) Italy ran into a Spanish side that played their best game of the tournament. Italy played well the first half, and aside from two defensive lapses, it should have been a 1-0 game at the half. Italy came out hard in the 2nd and created two excellent scoring opportunities. As soon as we went down to 10 men, it was over, and quite difficult to watch. Spain running up the score was brilliant. Great way to get a golden boot for Torres. Italians never would have done that to the Spanish if the tables were turned. At the end of the day, the better team won the finals. Hats off to Spain on 6 consecutive years of domination. See you all in Brasil.
easy to say...harder to prove! 6yrs? What have they done prior to 2008 Euro? I would say great 5 yr run (2008-2012), but what did Spain accomplish in 2007? Am I forgetting something?
Easy to say....harder to prove? Just google if Italy every played a team like San Marino and beat them 13-0 and 11-0 respectively like the teams mentioned. We don't do that. 2-3 goals and we shut it down. Always have. Always will. Against Germany we were going for a third goal because against a team like that, two is never enough. If we played Spain up 2-0 with only 10 men, we MAY have scored a third, but not a fourth, and def. wouldn't try for a fifth approaching the 90th minute. They were attacking like mad. GJ Spain. Next, 2007 was when Spain really came into their own IMO. Anyways, a great 3 consecutive tournaments for Spain, regardless of the span. Agreed?
Sorry, forgot to mention the teams from my previous post. Germany and Netherlands beat San Marino 13-0 and 11-0 respectively.
piling it on... Not sure I agree with you or not... I mean teams that I follow usually aren't good enough to be in that position The Patriots always get accused of piling on And I hate them for it... but I hate them anyway so what difference does it make?
In soccer it is as classless as it gets. Flaunting goals against countries where one of the German or the Dutch players makes more than the soccer federation they are playing against on an annual basis is as low as it gets. I understand goal differential, but cmon man! Show some class. Italians do, and I am proud of that. Let the Germans score 7 goals a game like they always try to do, they always end up getting schooled by Italy anyway. That is one reason I don't like the Germans, they are too robotic, mechanical, and play the perfect game, but emotionless it seems sometimes. And it shows in their results against inferior opponents.
Great post. Agree with every word as an azzurri fan. Although I feel it could've been and probably shouldve been closer Spain proved to be just a bit much. It's a shame cause this Italian team was strong IMO. The shame was having to run into arguably one of the best teams of all time that played one of their best games Anyway damn proud of Italy. Proved to be a real strong team with those England and Germany games. Congrats to Spain. That's just a special team Ps. I've always admired pirlo for what he brought to Milan and then being the maestro for Italy from 2004 till now. But what he did for juventus this year and this euro was incredible. A true hero. Class all around. Best player on the pitch almost every game he plays. And at 33!!!
I don't get the Dempsey situation. Same age as Van Persie, both were in the same boat (1 year left on contract, want to go to winning team). Is this the American player discrimination we've heard so much about? Fulham can sell Dempsey now, or lose him for nothing next year. Arsenal read the tea leaves with Van Persie, why can't Fulham? Probably mildly ironic that Arsenal could really use Dempsey, too.
crazy 24 hours ahead of us with the Dolphins cut down to 53 and the close of the BPL transfer window.
Liverpool.... argh!! If Suarez goes down we are so ****ed. Good news is that Sterling will get plenty of minutes. Can't believe they couldn't scrounge together a couple more mill for the fee on Dempsey... or was it the salary?
[video=youtube;crxGPhoxA5s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crxGPhoxA5s&feature=fvo&ad=25300622134[/video]
****ing ref Even if the red card was justified, the penalty most certainly was not. Ref gave the game to Man U. Embarrassing.
Being Liverpool....so much fun....the Boston Red Sox of the EPL. Epic Theater. relegation zone! Keeping my eye on Blackburn - Kean Out could still happen - but right now, they are taking care of business in early stages and working to return from one year absence at Championship level.
I called Sunday's Man U match a must win. No question Saturday's match vs. Norwich is. Going another week without getting 3 points would really, really put an even bigger damper on things. I agree with what you said in another thread - ball possession and movement has been beautiful all year. Just can't put the ball in the net. Need to add another striker in January. I'd talk to Man U about acquiring Chicharrito now that RVP has him buried on the bench. I think his style would compliment Suarez well. I like Rogers and hope he gets time to install his system and personnel.
Javier Hernandez would be a nice compliment to Suarez. Carroll, in the right system, was a nice compliment as well. Can you imagine where they'd be without Sterling though? Pressed into action at 17, he's been great. But he doesn't have the finishing power yet. And I think Joe Allen has been a freaking god send. He wasn't this good for team GB in the olympics, so I wasn't expecting much (didn't know him from his time at Swansea). If only there was consistency in the finish. Suarez can't do it himself. And when he does, he hits the bar half the time Realistically, they need two strikers. January can't come soon enough that is for sure. Oh and Suso looked decent last couple of outings. He seems to link with Suarez very nicely.
A 5-meter (16.4 feet) high version of Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed's bronze statue of Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final has been erected outside Paris' Centre Pompidou, one of the world's foremost modern art museums. A smaller version of the statue had previously been on exhibition in a New York gallery, but now it is massive and out in the open for all to admire. Ode to defeat!
am I the only one that thinks the statue looks to be depicting something else? It's the right hand of Zidane.
Caught the league cup game vs WBA last night. Suso really made that 2nd goal by attacking the defense (following the 16 yr old Sinclair). That was a nice sequence. And Rodgers started a very young team and came up golden.
Mr. Black grabs 1-1 draw vs Charlton yesterday...ehhhhgggg. Come on Sherwood or Shearer....anyone will be better (at least short term for the fans to end all the craziness that surrounded Kean and the Kean-Out mentality). Sadly, Venky's still own the club....hopefully they learned lessons during all this too.
Watching LFC yesterday once again dominate an opponent yet come away with little to show for it begs the question - What striker can we bring in January to complement Suarez?
Blackburn Rovers confirm Alan Shearer is a contender for manager's job. Shearer, Rovers' top scorer when they won the Premier League in 1995, told BBC's Football Focus on Saturday he would speak to the club if approached. Some 20 candidates are in the mix.....just pick someone soon and lets move on.
I don't know but January is a long way away at the moment. How many times did they hit the post again? Three? I think we hold the record for that the last year and a half. Borini needs to step up that is for sure.
We hit it 4 times vs Stoke. Idk what's wrong with Borini. He had his head up his you know what the entire match vs Udinese. He's just invisible out there. Hopefully they regroup over this break and come back strong vs Reading. Another match at Anfield where they MUST get 3 points.
Welp! Looks like Borini will be out for a while. It's all Suso now. It was headed that way anyway. Now we MUST get a striker soon. Denba Ba is a pipe dream as is Ozil from RM. Club needs to start spending and give Suarez some help. We are asking too much of Sterling and Suso and eventually Sinclair.
Good lord... hadn't heard about Borini going down until your post. With how well Wisdom has played at RB, I wonder if Glenn Johnson could be switched to forward... desperate times... Can we recall Carroll?
There's been talk of them going to a 4-6-0 formation. Time for Suso, Pacheco and Assaidi to step up. Carroll can be recalled in January.
Must make this happen. Like immediately. www.examiner.com/article/liverpool-link-to-barcelona-striker-david-villa-continues-to-grow
not sure whether to laugh at this or not... probably not... [video=youtube;CocZQX9AOFQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CocZQX9AOFQ&feature=g-logo-xit[/video]