UEFA Euro 2008

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Good game by Germany tonight! Germany won 1-0 over Austria but the played much much better than the final score said. The defense was solid, the offense was solid, the goal keeper was solid. The only problem I saw was in the middle field and it was only a slight problem.

Both coaches were sent off of the field for arguing. The Austian team was fouling like crazy, and the German coach confonted the Austrian coach about it and, and an argument broke out. They recieved a warning, and then were sent off of the field. The German coach walked into the stand under a standing ovation.

It really was pretty bad, how the Austrians were fouling (I can say this unbiased because my team won. If they had lost you could have said I was making excuses. They didn't ). Anyhow they were. Podolski was even punched in the face by an Austrian player and the referee acted like he did not see it.

This whole tournament has shown very very bad referering in every game, for every country.

Oh well Go Germany!!! Bring on Portugal!!!

In other news Croatia beat Poland 1-0.

The final standings for Group B are (teams advancing to the playoffs are in bold).

1. Croatia -9
2. Germany -6
3. Austria - 1
4. Poland -1

 

[The Basket]

The Austrians were very ordinary and lacked any cutting edge.

The Germans did enough but I would like to see how they play against Portugal.

Now that I would like to see!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I can't wait till the game with Portugal.

I really hope that the loss to Croatia set a fire under the German's ass, and motivated them to play like the team they are. If they are motivated and play like they should, they will beat Portugal.

Either way it will be a good game. May the better team that night win!

 

[Marcel]

Good game by Germany tonight! Germany won 1-0 over Austria but the played much much better than the final score said. The defense was solid, the offense was solid, the goal keeper was solid. The only problem I saw was in the middle field and it was only a slight problem.

I thought the Germans were rather poor. I saw several occasions where the German defence should have handled the Austrian attackers, but they couldn't as they were too slow. Lack of organisation in the team caused a lot of chaos from time to time and also not many chances were created. But I only saw the game untill right after the goal, so maybe after that it was better. I think Germany will improve in the Quarter finals, they always do, so Portugal should watch themselves.

 

[The Basket]

Germany are good attacking and midfield but the two central defenders are hopeless. Slow and they turn like Bf 110s!

Getting rid of Gomez and putting Podolski as a main striker will be good. Podolski has been scoring and he looks like he will score more. The Gomez miss was a shocker.

Germany can score goals but they struggled to kill off Austria. Austria are a very ordinary side. Just can't see Germany beating a full throttle Portugal side.

Unconvincing is the word I would use and they were lucky to be in a weak group.

They do have some good players and good organisation but the central defenders Metzelder and Mertesacker...apologies if spelling is wrong...are poor.

The Dutch are still my bet and they should let Romania through to get rid of Italy and France.

 

[marshall]

This whole tournament has been terrible as far as referee's go. They are making bad calls, not making calls when they should, etc...

Was it always like that? I watch football for many years, I even tried playing more than what is normal for everybody, and I don't remember this (bad calls) being such a big issue. So are now refs worse than ever or I see more and more of this bad calls and I'm tired of this so much...?

 

[Ramirezzz]

no way Germans could beat Portugal in 1/4 finals if they continue playing like that

 

[marshall]

no way Germans could beat Portugal in 1/4 finals if they continue playing like that

This is football everything can happen...

 

[Torch]

How do they pick the refs?,best performance?most experience? or neutral countries?

 

[Luis Miguel Almeida]

Our final is comming Adler!!

I would like to see what is going to happen to my brother-in-law, in Hamburg, during the Portugal-Germany! LOL

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

no way Germans could beat Portugal in 1/4 finals if they continue playing like that

That kind of attitude is why great teams lose....

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Our final is comming Adler!!

I would like to see what is going to happen to my brother-in-law, in Hamburg, during the Portugal-Germany! LOL

As I said, I am looking foward to it. May the better team win. I just hope that whichever side is losing, does not resort to the same kinds of dirty tactics that the Austrians displayed.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Well Italy has passed through to the Quarterfinals after beating France 2-0. Neither team looked very good though. France was down to 10 players after Eric Abidal was red carded. In bad news though Frank Ribery was taken to the hospital after suffering broken leg in the 10th minute.

In other news Netherlands have beaten Romania 2-0.

The final results of Group C (teams in bold have advanced to the Quarterfinals).

1. Netherlands -9
2. Italy - 4
3. Romania -2
4. France - 1

 

[Marcel]

With the 2nd team, the Dutch beat Romania. I'm glad they did, as the Romanians didn't even play soccer, did nothing but defend. First half was boooooorringggg. Luckily, at least the Dutch players decided to start playing in the second half, so they scored 2 goals. The Netherlands and Italie are through to the next round, France and Romania can go home.

 

[Torch]

Thats tough about Ribery...

 

[Parmigiano]

Well, Abidal was red carded BECAUSE he shot down Toni twice from behind while being the last defender when toni was alone in front of the goalie.
In that case you can only hope for a referee's big mistake: you pile up a red card (foul as last man) and at least a yellow card (foul from behind).
Being able to remain cool, the right thing to do was to let Toni score the goal: at least you don't leave your team in 10. When you are behind the attacker in the penalty area and you bring the tackle from behind you're almost sure of the penalty+red card.

Italy was not bad this game except that, like the previous game with Rumenia, they created 7-8 clear opportunities that they were not able to finalize.
They could and should have closed the match in the first half, Toni missed at least 3 goals.
After the 2-0 and in 11 vs 10 was only a matter to control the game and wait for the end.

Also the defense could be better, they miss Cannavaro very much (he broke a leg in training the week before the tournament, call it bad luck), but in the last two match they were not the disaster admired against Holland.

I was surprised by the low performance of Rumania, maybe they felt too much the pressure of the big chance

On the good side, the news reports for Ribery a 'suspected' broken leg, so hopefully it is not as bad as it looked.

 

[Torch]

Still curious on how they pick the refs for these big games.....

 

[Parmigiano]

There's been a lot of discussion about this already, many teams have complained.

I heard about bad decisions or big mistakes in France-Holland, in games with Austria and others, did not follow all details because I have no time to watch all the games.
Italy too was 'robbed' of a valid goal against Rumania, in this case the referee was honest and admitted the mistake the day after: compliments to the man, an error can happen.

Yesteday the referee was OK : the penalty was clear and another episode when Perrotta was hit in France's penalty area was a game action and not a foul, and was corrctly not sanctioned.

Probably UEFA have to accomodate refs from the widest possible range of countries, and this does not means that they pick the best available in europe.
But same issue is with the world championship, so it is something that always existed and never stopped the tournaments.

If your team is good enough to go ahead, errors pro and con tends to compensate.

Of course sometimes a ref mistake can change the match, this always happened in soccer, but I don't remember of a big tournament decided by a bad referee.

 

[The Basket]

Well, Abidal was red carded BECAUSE he shot down Toni twice from behind while being the last defender when toni was alone in front of the goalie.
In that case you can only hope in the .

Yeah...he got sent off coz he deserved it. Watching it in slo-mo he could have been sent off 3 times!

The Dutch still win for me. I've not seen anything yet to make me change my mind.

The Italians however...start slow and then get into gear...maybe worth a cheeky bet!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Italy too was 'robbed' of a valid goal against Rumania, in this case the referee was honest and admitted the mistake the day after: compliments to the man, an error can happen.

Are you talking about the one where Toni was called for offsides but was clearly not. Toni was robbed of that goal.

I am very disapointed with the refs this tournament.

It turns out that when the German and Austrian coaches were sent off the field, it was not for argueing. They were complaining to the side Ref about the bad officiating that was going on. The field Ref, did not like that and sent them both off of the field.

It was to be decided today if the German coach will be allowed on the field for the Portugal game. They better let him down there!