Yes Sensible, I am too, although not all the games. I've been picking one out of the two each day & recording it for viewing after the female majority have gone to bed. They ARE however going to watch England tonight although only under the inducement of party food and getting the England paraphernalia out, including in all probability my better half's Michael Owen No 10 England shirt from some tournament of the distant past. Once she gives her affection, she's very faithful. I watched the Croatia - Spain game last night and once again the Spanish bored me to tears, including the last 20 minutes which experimented with a 4-6-0 formation. Let's hope that doesn't catch on. Croatia were unlucky, best chance of the game and a clear penalty missed by the ref. I'm desolate that we won't see any more of Modric, surely one of the best midfield players in the world - or would be if he was taller than 4ft 8. My prediction for tonight: 1-0 to the Ukraine by some fluky deflection or wrongly awarded penalty. At least one England player sent off due to the referee caving in to a 60,000 Ukrainian majority in the stadium and the threat of a flare inserted somewhere unpleasant if he doesn't do the necessary to get the remaining host country through to the quarters. Other than that, should be a good night.
Spain really are boring aren't they. People crave for fast passing football but after an hour of that with nothing happening in the goal mouth it just ain't entertainment. The radio was bigging up England's chances for tonight for most of the morning so here we go again. Big build up and even bigger let down has been the norm for the last decade at least. I'm going to watch but not with any great faith in the outcome. When you get let down so many times it gets easier to bear as time goes on. I hope I'm wrong this time.
You were wrong this time sensible.........thats the second time since D-day that you've made a mistake.........reminds me of an Andy Capp cartoon....where he reminds Florrie that that is the second time you've contradicted me since the Coronation.....I can clearly remember you doing it Florrie. Sorry I'm just rambling on a bit.......must keep taking the tablets.
It's not FAST passing football though is it? That would be really good. Spain play like a bunch of kids in a park where there is simply NO object to be used as a goal - and they've all forgotten their jumpers too. Passing for the sake of passing.
I wasn't predicting an England loss plym but just expecting something to go wrong because that has become the norm. Pleased it didn't. Actually notdistant it does indeed remind me of the warm up session yu see on most grounds these days where they split into two groups and just try to play keep ball. It just seems to me that people praise teams that pass a lot like Spain and Barca. I find it quite facinating for 10 minutes where the passing is accurate and people make space and are available. But, after ten minutes when it just carries on like that it is plain boring. It's as bad as hoofball with no direction. There certainly needs to be a mixture if a game is going to light up.
And another one bites the dust. Thought tonights match was quite boring to be honest. Only Portugal seemed to try to score and the Checs were pretty ordinary. How they got through their group and Russia went home is beyond me. There has been precious little in the way of really good matches so far in this competition. I said before the start that I was finding it hard to get excited and unfortunately nothing has happened since to change that. One thing my Mrs commented on tonight was that the camera man kept picking out a young blonde bimbo look-a-like in the crowd when the opportunity arose. She said how sexist and unfair it was as the ladies wanted their fair share of eye candy as well. He showed a fat bloke in a Portugal shirt and I said there you go one for you lot then. In a flash the answer came back yes but even he had to have tits. How cutting.
I thought the Czechs were OK for the first 10 minutes but after that, it was all one-way traffic. The were missing Rosicky who's a decent play-maker and their best player. I think why tournaments don't seem as gripping as they used to is partly because of the depressingly high standards of discipline - one red card only so far is it? Who can forget that classic moment in some World Cup long long ago when an African defender standing in a wall waiting for a free kick to be fired at him lost it completely and ran out to boot it 70 yards the other way? Who was that man? He must be in a Hall of Fame somewhere. We haven't had a decent fight yet which is a grave disappointment. More seriously, it used to be the case that major tournaments were a big chance to see players you'd never heard of who turned out to be absolute stars. They all play in the main Europe leagues anyway now and as we get wall to wall coverage of the Champions League and what I insist on calling the Fairs Cup, there are simply no surprises any more.
I agree that we see these world stars too regularly because of them being drawn into the european leagues. In the past Brazil would have been pure.......Brazilian football.... with all the skill and trickery that went with it......this day and age they are sanatized and molded to conform to the needs of their European club masters requirements.....sad to see.
You may well be right there notdistant. But, I soldier on and will be there with mmy feet up watching again tonight hoping for something to stir my interest.
Apart from the Spain v Ireland game tonights was perhaps the most one sided of the tournament. Got to say that 4 - 2 flattered the Greeks somewhat. Should have been a cricket score in truth and the old German choo choo train goes chugging on as usual. They have to be the out and out favourites for this competition now despite maybe playing England in the semi. I say maybe because I'm not sure I really believe they will be. It just looks like their manager switches them all on to auto having wound up their clockwork parts and lets them go. The only facination that I could muster was to see how many Germany could score but I think they didn't bother too much at 4 - 1.
For a moment when Greece equalized.....I thought it was ordained that The Greeks would win the tournament.
Firstly, I'll apologise for getting on my hobby-horse again but it riles me when so much is riding on these games that such things can happen. What was that Greek penalty all about? The German defender has his back to the ball, his arm is more or less by his side, the ball comes to his arm and not vice versa having been fired at him from a few yards. How in God's name is striking his hand deliberate? What occurred to me is why do Germany look so much better than England? They don't have any super-star quality attackers like Ronaldo or Robben; their stand-out players are probably a full back [Lahm] and a defensive midfielder [Schweinsteiger]. Is it just that each of their players is a couple of percentage points better than ours with the effect on the whole being greater than the sum of the parts? Or is it something intangible; organisation, tactics, belief, commitment? If the latter then why can't we replicate it or at least some of it? Or is Hodgson beginning to do that by old fashioned means after years in the wilderness with other managers trying to emulate trendier foreign styles?
If I had to choose on either Italy or Germany knocking England out of the Euros.....I would choose Italy. I cannot face another show down against the Germans........they would surely rip us apart......they are getting into their stride now that it is sudden death. They looked light years better than Greece.........and when you consider that they rested three key players from the starting line-up......Mario Gomez,Thomas Muller and Lukas Podolski it just shows the depth of young talent rising to the occasion. Please spare us from being humiliated and knocked back from what Roy Hodgson has achieved in only a few short weeks.
I think it is both notdistant. They are several percentage points better all around and they have much better tactics etc than we do. Not just us but pretty much everyone else. They don't have to pass the ball to death like the Sapanish either. They just go clockwork passing and get the ball into the box and their forwards do the finishing. As plym said they were light years ahead of the Greeks and they would probably be the same against us. I do think also that Hodgson is trying to get back to the "English way". We can't do tippy tappy skillful ball control. We do get it into the box and a big forward being in the right place. I also think that previous managers have tried to emulate foreign teams and players without giving thought to the fact our players are not brought up that way. It would take 10 years and a complete change of child coaching methods to get anywhere near what they were trying to do.
BORING BORING SPAIN I think France deserve praise for selecting Impressionist composer Claude Debussy in right midfield. Imagine how good he'd be had he not died in 1918. As I said, boring.
I take it back! Superb dive from the King of Divers Busquets. What a shame for France that Ravel wasn't fit, due to being dead also.
