Pre-match: EURO 2012: Italy - Ireland (June 18,2012) [R]

I was wrong - I Tweeted Bobby McMahon from Fox Soccer Channel and he confirmed the yellows reset after the quarters.

Sorry for doublepost, bigsoccer weirdness.

Like I said early in the tournament our wingers are pure jokes. They can't get the ball in the box.

As a Motta hater I'd just like to give him credit and say I enjoyed his match today.

Too bad about the Chiellini injury. I'd like to see us go back to the 3-5-2, have DDR back as sweeper, have Barzagli take Chiellini's spot, and my boy from Palermo Balzaretti take that flank

Barzagli is the best center back on this team. Losing the hunch back is not good, but if it's him or Barzagli, Barzagli is the rock.

IM HAPPY FOR CASSANO AND BALO. they played well in that game against Croatia but where unlucky not to score.

FOR ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WERE HATING ON CASSANO & BALO BEFORE THIS GAME.

DAMN DI NATALE IS REALLY SHORT.,

Really pleased with Balza too. Juve had their chance with him so tough luck to them for giving up on him early on. Pirlo was pressured a lot and De Rossi therefore had more space. Less balls were going through Pirlo as a result.

This part somehow got embedded into AmericanKaka's quotes. I guess I didn't edit it properly...

I thought Ireland was already progressing forward before Cassano went off, and I saw that starting to decline with Diamanti's insertion and the come to a stop with Balotelli, but yes I think both Balo and Cassano will be starting next match. I'd also wonder about how well Giovinco and Balo can play together. They were really good in the U21 run a few years back, 2009 I believe it was.

I believe a 0-0 draw would have sent Croatia home and caused Spain to finish 2nd in the group as final position in the case of a three way tie on points is determined by looking at the results between the three. In this scenario they all drew with each other but Italy would have 2 goals, and Spain and Croatia each 1 goal. Then to determine who would be second they would look at goal difference and that would mean Spain would have ended 2nd.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but that's the way I read the official criteria:
Tiebreakers

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.[7]

1. higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
3. higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
4. higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
5. if, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 4) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) to 10) apply;
6. superior goal difference in all group matches;
7. higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
8. higher number of goals scored away from home in all group matches;
9. fair play ranking in all group matches;
10. drawing of lots.

Huge win today. I was screaming at players to attack attack attack instead of the BS tiki tak slow ball Pirlo was doing. I swear, everytime he got the ball he slowed it down and passed it back to the defenders. Awful game by his standards. DDR was incredible. He has really been proven himself well. Balzaretti really did a much better job at LB than Giac, so Id start him. Abate was nice at RB, but to be honest, him or Maggio is ok with me. Obviously Pirlo starts, but Motta and Marchisio have been disapointing for me. They arent the workhorses I thought they were. Id be much happier with Nocerino for Motta and start one of Diamanti/Di Natale/Giovinco up front with Cassano/Balotelli to provide pressure on the attack. I think our biggest offensive problem today was that we didnt have a target man. Cassano and Di Natale both came back for ball or went too far wide. When Ireland had time to set up their defense, we had no way too attack. If we put Balotelli up top and Cassano and Support Striker than we can play a more 3-4-2-1. Losing Cheillini is a big loss, but Bonucci/Barzagli/DDR defense will be good. Proud of the guys for gettin the job done, and frankly I don't care who we play. Im not scared of France/England or the Ukraine. Bring it. Ideal lineup...

-----------Buffon-----
----Barz-----DDR-----Bonucci
Maggio---Pirlo---Nocerino---Balzaretti
-----Cassano-----------Di Natale/Giovinvo/Diamanti----
-------------Balotelli

yes you are correct in that a 0 to 0 draw between Spain and Croatia would have Croatia out and Italy winning the group because according to tie breaker rules Italy would have scored more goals amongst the teams in question and Spain goes through runner up over Croatia with better overall Goal Diff in all group matches.....

first is head to head results amongst tied teams, points against each other
2nd is GD in matches amongst tied teams
3rd is overall goals scored in matches amongst tied teams

if everthing is still equal with the 3 teams after this then the Ireland results are taken into consideration so...

4th Superior goal difference in ALL group matches;
5th Higher number of goals scored in ALL group matches

if everthing still equal with 3 teams after this then it comes down to uefa team coefficients

this is why if Spain and Croatia drew 1 all today Italy needed to score at least 3 goals and win by a margin of at least two goals to go through because then it would come down to the coefficient tie breaker

after Balo made it 2 to nothing I switched channels and my mind was solely on the Spain Croatia match where Spain was up 1 to nothing with 4 min injury time left....at that point Italy was winning only 2 to 0...if Croatia came back and tied in the final minutes Italy would have been out even with the 2 to 0 win....if italy won 3 to nothing and Croatia came back to tie 1 all Italy would have gone through on better goal diff in all group matches....if Italy won 3 to 1 and Spain Croatia drew 1 all Italy would have gone through on uefa coefficients....lol got it?

Yup loud and clear

So I'm watching the game and near the end I get a text from my Sister reading "Go Spain Go, I can't take it anymore..." and I felt a lump in my stomach because I interpreted that to mean that they (Spain and Croatia) were drawn at 1-1. Then Balo scores, and in the ensuing play I'm watching Pirlo RUSH to take a corner, and I'm thinking that the players were informed that they need that third goal (I watch without commentary usually), otherwise why is Pirlo rushing to get that corner in at the 93rd minute, right? So the game ends, and none of the players are celebrating yet, so I immediately go to UEFA.com to see the result and they're slow to update and it shows 0-0 for the other game, but in real time Spain was already up by one, so now it makes sense why Pirlo was rushing, wanting to get that insurance 3rd goal.

That formation is sexy on paper, but Prandelli will no way have the balls for it in a knockout against a big team unless Italy is down like two goals. I think the best we could hope for is:

-----------Buffon-----
----Barz-----DDR-----Bonucci
Maggio---Pirlo------Balzaretti
-----Marchisio------Nocerino----
-------------Balotelli-----Cassano


I know Marchisio is divisive in opinions, and even I think that he is a little "fragile" in that he has to be deployed just right to get the most out of him, but he has huge upside with the driving goal threat from midfield, and I think his workrate is undervalued because he's not a bulldog like Gattuso or De Rossi, he doesn't make "statement" tackles etc, while his offense is undervalued because he's totally unflashy, no fantasy whatsoever. But Marchisio and Nocerino together should terrify defenses bursting out of the central mid. And they can allow Mario to stay up high and not drop in so much so that the cutting edge isn't lost. Just park his ass on last defender and wait for Cassano, Pirlo, or one of the wingbacks to serve it up, then beast them.

yep....they knew it was highly likely Croatia could have come back in the dying minutes to draw 1 to 1 and were trying the get that 3rd insurance goal

my blood pressure was through the roof from the 70th minute on lol

I'm pretty sure the last 15 minutes lasted 6 hours. The time between the whistle blowing in Italy's game and the whistle blowing in Spain's was approximately one year. One year off my life.

My take:

- Cassano delivered, he got the corner and then scored the winning goal.
- w/Di Natale you get more of a run and shoot game / less possession.
- Pirlo was out of gas (3 games in 9 days doesn't work for him), even though he
had assist on Cassano's goal.
- Balo scored a super goal.
- Chiellini will be missed in the next game.
-- De Rossi and Pirlo usually don't play well next to each other and didn't vs . Ireland.
- Motta does a lot of good work.
- Abate was good defensively, but didn't add much to offense.
- 1-1 vs Spain & Croatio, and win over Ireland are good results, but
running out of gas every game @ 65" will cause problems in knock out stage,
vs. England or France and especially if Italy go down 0-1 or have to
play 120 minutes.

.

hey guys just out of curiosity, can anyone lip read in Italian? What did it look like Balotelli was saying after he scored his goal? Whatever it was, his teammates didn't seem to take too kindly to whatever it was...

according to this he was speaking in english....perhaps to irish fans or players? who knows?

http://english.gazzetta.it/Football...otelli-was-talking-english-911576331239.shtml

lol...most agreeable

Bonucci said that Balotelli was speaking English.....

LOL... exactly. The last 15 minutes of the game yesterday just seemed to last forever. And it didn't help that I was constantly checking the Spain-Croatia score either. Even when we went up 2-0 I kept asking myself "But is it enough??!?! Aaaaaaggghh!"

Yea and Bonucci said he didn't understand what he said because it was in English (I don't buy it, but Bonucci is being smart by acting like he doesn't know).

Balo's goal was amazing though. Clutch goal.