The Football Topic (Page 37 of 52)

An entertaining match. The Greeks were game until the equalizer made the Germans turn up the wick. So much talent from so many directions, the Greeks wilted under the onslaught. Germany looks the juggernaut. 'Till Spain? All I see tomorrow is France heading home.
Rick

The French, to my eyes clearly the worst of the quarter finalists, came to heel like good puppies while their Spanish masters played fetch. I pray the Portuguese put up a fight and can get aggressive at attacking that mind numbing possession game.

No offence intended to any of my English footy friends, but I'm sure you'd agree that it would have been an injustice of Chavski-like proportions if England had stolen this game on penalties. Italy should have killed the game off long ago, they had enough chances.

Pirlo was majestic! The Panenka penalty was the icing on the cake! Obviously, I enjoyed the irony of a West Ham reject scoring the deciding kick.

No offence to our English friends either, but they dodged so many bullets it was crazy. Playing to not lose is not the way to win. The penalty shootout nemesis reigns supreme. Now a dissipated Italy faces a well rested Germany.
Rick

Well they do say that the best teams are built on a solid defence and that being the case then England should take some encouragement for the future. But Roy Hodgson should now see the scale of the job he has on his hands.

The back 5 were magnificent. Terry had an outstanding game as the 5 of them were subjected to an almost continual onslaught. That the Italians had 74% of the possession tells you all you need to know.

I was disappointed when I saw the team sheet as Roy persisted with a selection that would be more of the same - Milner and Young being shackled to an anonymous defensive shadowing role.

The opening exchanges were fun but then the pattern emerged.  England's game plan seem to be to protect a lead they didn't have. I made a bet with myself that he would exchange Milner and Welbeck at 60 minutes for Carroll and Walcott.

He did it at 59 minutes.

But these 2 should have been on from the start in order to maintain an attacking presence from the beginning. As Rick says, you don't win games in a knock out comptetiton by being so negative.

The german commentator reveled that when Gerrard went down with cramp in 73 minutes he had already run 9 kilometres! Most of that was foraging for the ball that would be too easily given away 15 seconds later........

That was our biggest failing last night (apart from the negative set up). We can't keep the ball for long enough. So many times we were in Italy's half of the field only for the ball to end up with Hart who then thumped it gratefully back to the Italians.

There were positives from this competition:

a) we got further than we thought
b) the back 5 is very solid (Johnson had his best game)
c) Carroll is definately worth persevering with
d) we know the limitations of Ashley Young and James Milner

To be honest, I'm not convinced of Rooney's worth at this level and never have been. But if he is the best we have then we need to find out how to get the best out of him. He tried very hard last night, to be fair with very little support. He looked more dangerous once Carroll got there.

The main task for Hodgson now is to find the players who can dominate the midfield. Gerrard needs help.

As for the Italians, we have unfortunately tired them for their encounter with Germany. They were thoroughly deserving winners last night, constantly attacking and I love their shoot on sight mentality. They will hopefully provide a stern test for Germany. I think Loew will have seen all he needs from last night.

I expect Gomez to start but I'm not sure about Mueller and Podolski. Hopefully he lets Reus have another chance. This is the game I am looking forward to. Spain's 'Total Domination' football doesn't do it for me.

Here's hoping for a Portugal / Germany final.

+1
Günter

I'd like to see Spain play Germany with a proper striker, like Llorente, instead of with six midfielders. I have numerous reasons for liking Spain, and none at all for liking Portugal. A lot will depend if Pepe remembers that he's not playing Barca, his 'red rag to a bull' team.

Maybe a bit of over coaching by Germany, but that is just supposition when confronted by the superb effort Italy produced. The perfect counterattack was well played and the defense and Buffon stood up to the best Germany could muster. The young German team will be better for this loss in the future as Italy still has thier number. I too think Italy can beat Spain. On to the finals!
Rick