Re: Euro 2008

yeah, look again, its a really bad call mate.. and the ref made it himself when the play was right in front of him

talk about mutu all you want, but it is because of him and a ref that you lot even have a sniff of the final 8

Re: Euro 2008

[quote=Steve Graham;613385]yeah, look again, its a really bad call mate.. and the ref made it himself when the play was right in front of him

talk about mutu all you want, but it is because of him and a ref that you lot even have a sniff of the final 8[/quote]

yeah ill look later... about mutu... i might have come across sounding like i hate him, im just pointing out his flaws (just how we always pointed out Hagi's flaws - the mistakes they make are similar) but you are right, he is the reason we have a shot at the 1/4 finals, and also why we have qualified. when he puts on a good game we dont lose, but when he plays shitty, we do. it's him and chivu always carrying the national squad and yeah they kick ass. his stats at the end were pretty good too, 6 shots, 4 on goal, 1 goal...

Re: Euro 2008

wow what a game netherlands-france (where's yao?)

just as henry scores robben scores a beautiful goal, best goal of the tournament so far.

i just hope the dutch play the subs against us!!!

Re: Euro 2008

4-1! oh how the mighty have fallen.... even if france or italy get into the last 8, they dont really have a chance do they, lol

Re: Euro 2008

[quote=Steve Graham;613428]4-1! oh how the mighty have fallen.... even if france or italy get into the last 8, they dont really have a chance do they, lol[/quote]

wow the dutch destroyed france and italy... they're winning the whole thing, nothing can stop the oranj...

Re: Euro 2008

Holland is playing extremely well,their counter attacks are deadly.Spain also. The champion will be one of them.

Re: Euro 2008

my god, those last two dutch goals were sublime.. how the hell did Robben get that ball in that angle.

Re: Euro 2008

^^^ reminded me of this, although not even close

[youtube]WLeBKD6_P1E[/youtube]

Re: Euro 2008

oh yeah, 1988 van Basten =)

Re: Euro 2008

The Orange are playing on another level that Robben goal was a shocker.

Re: Euro 2008

christ, Spain played about as uninspired as they typically do in that second half and then eek out that goal.. terribly unlucky for the Swedes. Massive mistake subbing off Zlatan.. was it jsut precautionary or was his knee bothering him again? i missed that

Re: Euro 2008

yeah Spain didnt look as strong as they didnt in their match with Russia, but I never took Russia to be a very good team. I said it after the match vs the russians that the spanish defense is pretty weak (especially in the middle); if they face a team with good offense they are fucked. i thought ibra was limping a bit right after the goal so i also thought his knee was bothering him. massive mistake for hanson, but usually in these competitions an individual mistake can decide the fate of a tourney.

now here's my take on the italians... and yes it is a bit biased, however, when romania isnt in the competition usually they or the brits are the teams i cheer on. VNR goal was legit as panucci was off the pitch voluntarily. he clashed with buffon and on his own accord left the pitch to get sorted out. it wasnt involuntary as the italian tifossi are screaming, because he wasnt on the ground and they called the doctors and they took him off the pitch. toni's goal against romania was valid but thats somewhat disputable. first, i agree with the central ref's decision. it was the lineman's fault. the central ref couldnt see or decide whether it was an offside, but because his lineman raised the flag for an offside, it's his job and duty to disallow it unless he had a better view, which he didnt. second, toni was about 2 meters onside, however delpiero was barely offside. was he an active player? i think this is where debate can go on. he could have been considered active because he might have blocked the field of view of the romanian gk who could have gone and jumped to catch the ball or by not being able to decide which player to go to, del piero could have played an active role in the play. now romanians always get calls against them, which is why we missed the last 2 major tourneys (04 euro and 06 wc), but it was because we placed ourselves in the position where a bad call from a ref could prevent us from reaching our goal. imo the italians are in the same position: if they play top level football, they will move on regardless of a bad call. now the 02 wc was a different story , but so was their match against australia in the 06 wc. i dont feel sorry for them at all, in fact they are in no position to talk about refereeing with one of the biggest ref scandals in football taking place just under 2 years ago. refs are human and they make mistakes, sometime they go against you and sometime they go for you.

my last point, im sick of this shitty match from russia and greece. its not even a tactical, strategic bore as the france romania one was, this is just bad football.i hope the swedes advance so we can see some more quality women :D

Re: Euro 2008

my god that greece/russia match was awful.. defending champs? you would think they would have been a lot more positive than they were. glad they are out.. and russia if they make it out of the group will get beat in the round of 8 anyway.

Re: Euro 2008

[quote=Steve Graham;613652]my god that greece/russia match was awful.. defending champs? you would think they would have been a lot more positive than they were. glad they are out.. and russia if they make it out of the group will get beat in the round of 8 anyway.[/quote]

imo greece didnt play great in 04 either, they just got lucky, they always played for 1-0, it was a surprise they won, especially in the final. its kind of like if romania would go all the way. lol wat?

Re: Euro 2008

oh i agree all the planets were aligned when they won in '04 lol

Re: Euro 2008

[quote=shosh;613200]tom, tom, tom... wtf happened man?[/quote]

sorry for the late answer..was away a few days...what happened is that Germany sucked donkey balls. :lol: It felt like they replaced the entire team with mediocre clones of the players. Now it's up to us to kick the 2nd host of this tournament out tomorrow. :twisted: [SIZE=1]Hopefully.[/SIZE]

Re: Euro 2008

Viva Espania !

... I thought Sweden just aimed to be defensive throughout, and the didi-men (Silva, Xavi, Iniesta) couldn't find a way through against the large athletic outdoors loving scandanavians (copyright Graham Taylor). But Villa and Torres are class and were always going to find a wqay through ... hope David teams up with El-Nino at Liverpool next season.

Holland have been an absolute joy to watch and there fans are the best (sorry TomTom ... I know that many Germans don't like their orange neighbours).

All in all a decent tournament ... Italy v France should be a biggy next week.

Re: Euro 2008

[quote=TomTom;613758]sorry for the late answer..was away a few days...what happened is that Germany sucked donkey balls. :lol: It felt like they replaced the entire team with mediocre clones of the players. Now it's up to us to kick the 2nd host of this tournament out tomorrow. :twisted: [SIZE=1]Hopefully.[/SIZE][/quote]

if you guys dont demolish austria, you dont deserve to be in the tourney no longer... srsly, i wouldnt be worried in the least if i were you, its austria ffs

Re: Euro 2008

[IMG]http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/7677/torresvilla2ft7.jpg[/IMG]

Re: Euro 2008

^^ and you still wont be good enough to win the premier league ;)

Re: Euro 2008

^^^ hahaha, exactly

Re: Euro 2008

lols

watchin turkey-czechs right now... the czechs are def better, turks have a couple of spurts here and there, but damn they play dirty, dirty, dirty

Re: Euro 2008

^^^ ummm, want to rethink that? what a HELL of a last 15 minutes! that red card on the Turkish goalie was daft.. but the heart of the Turkish captain.. unbelievable match

Re: Euro 2008

[quote=Steve Graham;613884]^^^ ummm, want to rethink that? what a HELL of a last 15 minutes! that red card on the Turkish goalie was daft.. but the heart of the Turkish captain.. unbelievable match[/quote]

yeah they came out as a different team in the 2nd half. im actually glad the turks made it through, the czechs always think they are much better than they really are. yeah the turkish gk was stupid to shove koller and lmao at baros getting a yellow card although he wasnt playing. im sure he had some choice words for karel bruckner for not letting him play, he could have helped some imo

great game, as expected, the last 15 mins fantastic. oh and rofl at petr cech & chelsea at the huge gaffe. wow... cant wait for tuesday, im putting 2 tvs next to eachother haha

Re: Euro 2008

yeah, the announcers here making excuses for the wet ball.. come on, thats why they wear gloves, lmao.. punch the ball.. but even still.. no way he should let in 3 goals in 13 minutes.. best goalie in the world? hardly

Re: Euro 2008

[quote=Steve Graham;613886]yeah, the announcers here making excuses for the wet ball.. come on, thats why they wear gloves, lmao.. punch the ball.. but even still.. no way he should let in 3 goals in 13 minutes.. best goalie in the world? hardly[/quote]

i hate those announcers, they're pretty stupid. and i never thought cech was the best in the world, i was quite perplexed when i heard them say that. van der sar, buffon, casillas, reina, dida are much better imo... elementary mistake lol

Re: Euro 2008

van der sar too.. loads better than cech.. christ cech might not even the best goalie on his club team, lol.. lost 2 pk shoot outs to man u in one season

I meant the studio announcers more so than the play by play.. Andy Gray has been great, Tommy the fuckin midget Smyth has been as annouying as always.. but in the studio for espn rob stone and julie foudy.. my god, why is she even in the same room as the others? completely out of her league, some of the looks Andy gives her when she opens her gob are classic.. you can tell he wants to shut her up and say, look, youre a fuckin yank and woman.. piss off

Re: Euro 2008

I am getting extremely sick of the italians right now. I keep checking up on goal.com from my blackberry and it is chuch full of articles about how the italians are pleading with Van Basten to play an honest game and to beat Romania. It's getting to the point that if the Romanians do beat the Dutch, they won't get any credit even if it is a deserved win (granted against a possible B squad). For the Italians, morals are similar to the flu: they come and go. Now, they're coming. People who have followed Moggi, conniving and cheating, re-discovering honesty. Since friday, their motto is to receive from others what others should never expect to receive from them. They barely got a miserable point out of 2 matches and not they beg for mercy and fair-play. They, the champions of arrangements and masters of pacts and cheats, struggle to prevent a scandal that would not be at all scandalous. They are trying to invite the dutch to work for them, the morons. The dutch only want to play to win. So, therefore, to lose. Because they are not idiots, they know they have to avoid the wounded beast in the semifinals, Italy or France, because they would prefer a Romanian squad who, by then, would be exhausted and satisfied. So yes, despite all the pleas from the great historical figures of Italy, the Dutch will play with their "B" squad and play to win-win.

Re: Euro 2008

Italy should start playing football before they look what others do. I am getting pretty excited now..one hour and a bit left. I don't wanna loose against Austria. It sucks to kick the last host of the Games out of the Tournament but better them than us. :lol:

Re: Euro 2008

looks like youre good there Tom

Re: Euro 2008

hahaha, quality from soccernet.com mact commentary

"That's full time and Germany stagger through to the quarter finals but they'll need a huge improvement if they are to beat Portugal. [B]As for Austria, thanks for being such great hosts, sorry you aren't a very good football side.[/B] See you next time..."

zing!

Re: Euro 2008

^ lolololol

Germany didnt impress at all. I thought they were all shaping up after the loss to the croats. Austrians didnt play as bad as I expected, they just couldnt finish. Ze Germans didnt play as well as I expected, they just couldnt finish.

Re: Euro 2008

Fantastic free kick ... was beginning to think that its a lost art.

Re: Euro 2008

Go Turkey !!!

Re: Euro 2008

God we have to improve A LOT to have a chance against Portugal. So far the opening Game was our best one but if they do not show more in the quarter final this Thursday it will be hard to proceed....

Re: Euro 2008

ok 3 hours.. what do you lot think even if Holland plays a weaker side, can Romania get past them? and what about Italy v France? I'm thinking 1-1 draw tbh

looks like if Italy and France draw.. Romania can still go thru if they lose unless they get beat by more than 3 goals.. should be an interesting afternoon!

Re: Euro 2008

I doubt Romania will do anything against Holland so I guess it's all between Italy and France later...can't wait.

Re: Euro 2008

yeah, Holland doesnt really have a "weaker" squad.. robben and van persie came off the bench last match and scored against les bleu, lol

Re: Euro 2008

[quote=Steve Graham;614461]ok 3 hours.. what do you lot think even if Holland plays a weaker side, can Romania get past them? and what about Italy v France? I'm thinking 1-1 draw tbh

looks like if Italy and France draw.. Romania can still go thru if they lose unless they get beat by more than 3 goals.. should be an interesting afternoon![/quote]

yea, we got this. we can beat the dutch. remember, we beat them in the quallifiers, and its also in their best interest to lose ;)

[quote=TomTom;614471]I doubt Romania will do anything against Holland so I guess it's all between Italy and France later...can't wait.[/quote]

come on, give us a little more credit... we'll win

Re: Euro 2008

as predicted, the dutch kept only Boulahrouz and Engelaar in the squad, replacing even the venerable van der Sar: Stekelenburg - Boulahrouz, Heitinga, Bouma, De Cler - De Zeeuw, Engelaar - Van Persie, Afellay, Robben - Huntelaar