Euro 2012 - A.K.A - FOOTBALLS!

[Temple Guard]

Shit, I'm just happy that ESPN has decided to let us Americans finally watch some damn soccer!

But I will be rooting for the group I rooted for during the World Cup (after America was eliminated of course...): Germany

Chalk me up as another American who is thrilled that ESPN is airing these games. They also aired the MLS draft earlier this year which is testament to the growing popularity of football in the United States.

As far as support goes
United States
Germany (where the grandparents are from)
England (Worked with and fought along side some Royal Marines)
Underdog (I love a good upset)

 

[Stu35]

Shame Ireland couldn't turn over Croatia, never mind though. The Draw between Italy and Spain opens it up for the Croats - be interesting to see if they can beat Italy or Spain.

Shit, I'm just happy that ESPN has decided to let us Americans finally watch some damn soccer!

But I will be rooting for the group I rooted for during the World Cup (after America was eliminated of course...): Germany

Chalk me up as another American who is thrilled that ESPN is airing these games. They also aired the MLS draft earlier this year which is testament to the growing popularity of football in the United States.

As far as support goes
United States
Germany (where the grandparents are from)
England (Worked with and fought along side some Royal Marines)
Underdog (I love a good upset)

Good to see the beautiful game gaining popularity in the US. I do find it interesting that the MLS has a draft though (I appreciate this is the norm in North American Sports, but still...)

Gutting to see Scotland get so badly beaten by the Yanks the other week though. Such results to not auger well for us going into a World Cup Qualifying group we should be able to win.

That said, it won't be long til the U.S are challenging for a World Cup, they get better every year.


Anyway, back on topic - Englands first game tomorrow, I reckon it'll continue the low-scoring trend of the tournament and finish 1-0 to England.

 

[Wadders]

So... I take it I'm the only one cheering on Italy today?

Never thought I'd be supporting Italy in a game. But God damn, I hate the Spanish national team so much.

Nope, I was too, but only because of Balotelli and his madness which provides endless entertainment. May I ask how come you hate the Spanish?

I know it's trivial, but no mention on ITV of that lovely little bit of skill Balo showed to keep the ball in on the near touch-line either. If anyone else had done that they'd be wanking over it. Having said that replacing him with Di Natale seemed to work...

I reckon Germany will win it, boring choice I know. Hardly even looking forward to England's game tomorrow. By 7:00 I expect us to be feeling like the poor ol' Ireland fans did tonight, having had our chips well and truly pissed on.

 

[Cat of Doom]

I'm rooting for England (My homeland) and Czech (Where i'm currently living), even though they both have little chance of winning, just hope they can both escape the group.

well here's my predictions

Group A:
1.Russia:9
2.Poland:4
3.Czech:3
4.Greece:1

*russia easily strongest, with good strength and depth and a good tactical manager, poland will just edge out czech and greece, due to the awesome lewandowski. May just be wishful thinking Czech coming 3rd, they have a poor squad.

Group B:

1. Germany:6
2. Holland: 4
3. Denmark:4
4. Portugal: 1

* despite Portugal having in my opinion the best player in europe, in Rolando. Also the underated, pass master midfielder joao moutinho, Portugal don't play well as a team, have a bad coach and play really negative football. I see germany winning, holland will prob edge out denmark on goal difference.

Group C:

1. Spain: 7
2. Croatia: 6
3. Italy: 4
4. ROI : 0

*cant see Ireland getting a point. Spain, even with injury problems are still the best in Europe and the world, other teams may be getting wise to them, and they may be injury hit, but they so much quality in there squad, with a lineup full of huge names to choose from. Still the team to beat. Don't rate Italy to highly, Croatia may just have the edge.

Group D:

1. France: 7
2. England: 5
3. Sweden: 2
4. Ukraine: 1

* Ibrahimovic is a big game bottler, but Sweden has a strong structure and may manage draw's at Ukraine and England. France however will get the best of them. Ukraine is weak. England and France will draw. Both have a strong defense, but France has a stronger attack and more creativity in the middle thanks to the likes of M'vila and Cabeye.

Not sure about the rest of the road but I see Germany winning in the finale, against either Spain of France. I think France could potentially beat Spain, but I think both will fall to a strong German outfit.

 

[teebeeohh]

even if I wasn't German i would probably support Germany, the current generation of players is really good and delivers exciting games but they have yet to win something.
and spain can go fuck off and die, if they win we want our 100 billion back.

 

[Total LOLige]

So... I take it I'm the only one cheering on Italy today?

Never thought I'd be supporting Italy in a game. But God damn, I hate the Spanish national team so much.

Nope, I was too, but only because of Balotelli and his madness which provides endless entertainment. May I ask how come you hate the Spanish?

I know it's trivial, but no mention on ITV of that lovely little bit of skill Balo showed to keep the ball in on the near touch-line either. If anyone else had done that they'd be wanking over it. Having said that replacing him with Di Natale seemed to work...

Yeah they would have, it's the same when Neymar scores a 'wonder' goal against shit opposition every pundit hails him as the next Pele.

I reckon Spain don't have a chance of winning because every team will just park the bus when they play against them.

 

[Wadders]

So... I take it I'm the only one cheering on Italy today?

Never thought I'd be supporting Italy in a game. But God damn, I hate the Spanish national team so much.

Nope, I was too, but only because of Balotelli and his madness which provides endless entertainment. May I ask how come you hate the Spanish?

I know it's trivial, but no mention on ITV of that lovely little bit of skill Balo showed to keep the ball in on the near touch-line either. If anyone else had done that they'd be wanking over it. Having said that replacing him with Di Natale seemed to work...

Yeah they would have, it's the same when Neymar scores a 'wonder' goal against shit opposition every pundit hails him as the next Pele.

I reckon Spain don't have a chance of winning because every team will just park the bus when they play against them.

Yeah, I suppose the media/ tv will always have its favourites, building people up.

No doubt teams will try that, but I can see Spain finding ways through. Not that I particularly want them to win mind.

 

[Zetsubou-Sama]

Me, and no other portuguese really thinks Portugal can go far this time, too many shitty picks, too many star-eyed players, too much lazyness during preparation.

This'll be 2002 all over again

 

[Wadders]

So... I take it I'm the only one cheering on Italy today?

Never thought I'd be supporting Italy in a game. But God damn, I hate the Spanish national team so much.

Nope, I was too, but only because of Balotelli and his madness which provides endless entertainment. May I ask how come you hate the Spanish?

I know it's trivial, but no mention on ITV of that lovely little bit of skill Balo showed to keep the ball in on the near touch-line either. If anyone else had done that they'd be wanking over it. Having said that replacing him with Di Natale seemed to work...

I reckon Germany will win it, boring choice I know. Hardly even looking forward to England's game tomorrow. By 7:00 I expect us to be feeling like the poor ol' Ireland fans did tonight, having had our chips well and truly pissed on.

I fucking despise them for three reasons;

1) In matches where I should be neutral, I side with the underdogs almost every time. Obviously, Spain are not the underdogs, so yeah.

2) Their boring ass play style. I'm fed up of people just rimming Spains asshole for managing to pass the ball from left back to center back to left back over and over and over and over. Yes, it's successful, but how is it entertaining? It's way more entertaining to see a defensive team utilize cold blooded tactics to their fullest extent. With Spain it's just Xavi passing to Puyol who passes to Pique who passes to Xavi... Repeat 200 times.

3) Their players are a bunch of fucking assholes. You've got Ramos, who I'm sure is going to try and murder someone again before this tournament ends (although his partner in crime Pepe isn't next to him, so he might have to put in a bit more effort), and the rest of the team, who are a bunch of diving fuckwads.

Now, previously I said repeat passing from CB to LB 200 times. This would actually be 400 times, but Spain spend so much friggin time rolling around on the ground while the few players that can resist doing the same swarm the referee that it's practically half the match. Star struck (or corrupt, it's the UEFA so I wouldn't be surprised) referees actually buy into this shit and thus year in year out you get treated to Spain and Spanish league teams winning competitions by bullshitting their way through. Nothing gets me raging more than thinking of all those unjustified fucking penalties and red cards that have helped Spain along their way.

Then theres stuff like dancing around a member of the losing team taunting them after a match, which is just plain disrespectful. So yeah. They're a bunch of cunts.

EDIT: Also, never forget. Coughing at a member of the Spanish national team = red card, 50 match ban, 2 year prison sentence.

Ha! I love a good rant.

I can see where you're coming from, especially on the first 2 points.

They're often very frustrating to watch, when you're just wishing they would bloody shoot instead of looking for the extra pass, especially in today (yesterday's?) game. I suppose they might have done had they actually included a striker in their starting XI - what the hell was all that about anyway, I'm guessing the sole intention was to pass them to death or hope Italy gave up from sheer fucking boredom?

Personally I don't mind most of their players, apart from Busquets, who is pretty much the worst culprit for the behavior you describe. Especially for Barcelona.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Time to make some Englishmen cry. Poor Milner. I hope that comes back to bite him later.

 

[neil1990]

...
So in short, I think France are gonna win it.
...
Germany = Big time chokers
...

Huh? Wait what?

Dunno what else to say really.

I could pick out 10 examples of Germany holding their nerve in penalty shootout, what you showed there is a once in a lifetime thing, Germans don't lose penalty shootouts. If you notice the first player to miss a penalty was the Croatian Olic also.

 

[Wadders]

haha, 2-0 to Manchester City

Also, Jamie Carragher needs subtitles.

 

[Stu35]

Hmmm, disappointed in England today. A draw against France is all well and good, and they didn't play badly ... Just felt a bit flat in the 2nd half.

Still, a point is a point... I just really, really, really hate France. So very, very much.

 

[Aris Khandr]

They didn't play badly, they just didn't really play at all. Packing your entire side into the box and deflecting everything isn't quite the same as actually playing the game.

 

[endnuen]

Go team Denmark!
We have a real chance at moving n from the group play if we bear Portugal on Wednesday.

I don't believe we can beat the Germans though. Who knows, Denmark might pull a 1992!

 

[Raddra]

Very impressed by England's tactics tonight.

Roy Hodgson before the game: "Alright lads, I've spent all night working on this master plan. Heres what I want ya to do. First, you get the ball in your own half... You with me? You get the ball in your own half, pass it to another player, and that player then loses the ball to a Frenchy again. Do that every time we get possession. Trust me guys. This is gonna be a breeze. We won't even have to have a single shot at goal in the second half!"

Seriously England. Get it together. You're better than this.

England is notorious for this terrible defensive passing (losing the ball) tactic.

The fans have been yelling at them to get together and play some aggressive (game winning) football for over a decade, but its the same crap every tournament. 'Pass pass pass.. oh we lost the ball, who would've thunk it?'

 

[SeeIn2D]

I usually go for Spain and that still stands just because I love Barcelona and a lot of the Spanish players, but other than Spain I really hope Ukraine and Sweden do well. The group of death at this point honestly anything can happen. With Holland losing and Germany barely beating portugal it could be very possible that one or even neither of those two make it through the group stage.

I don't want Italy to go through just on principle. Despite Italian I hate the Italian national team except for a few players and I usually hate their tactics (although they didn't park the bus against Spain). I don't want England to go through just because I feel they're way overrated and I think the manager is a dumbass for the squad he chose. Frank Lampard getting injured is a blessing for them. Portugal I don't want to advance either because they just have such a critical mass of assholes that I can't support them even though I like Ronaldo and Nani.

I'd also like to see Russia do well because they have a fantastic squad and I absolutely love their keeper Igor Akinfeev. I also really like their striker Kherzakov.