It was, but don't you ever wish to see smeone made to look a right chump by trying one of those, and have it just drop slowly into the arms of a keeper who hasn't moved? Give it a couple of years, and if will probably be done by someone English in that quarterfinal.
Geek of the Week comment: I don't have time to do the web crawling at the moment, but Pirlo's double armed running forward celebration last night looked damn near identical to his double armed running forward celebration from the 2006 final. Not that that's very surprising, it's just that I've re-watched that final Grosso PK so many times, it's an image burned in my memory. And watching that celebration yesterday, it just looked like the exact same footage was pasted in.
I didn't really think about it until much later, but the odd thing last night was how little tension I had during the penalties. I actually took it for granted that England would lose. I think I was much more concerned with how terrible we looked for 100 minutes than actually going out.
difference between having 70-30 possession and creating no chances as opposed to having that possession, having 35 shots on goal and 20 hitting the target einstein. You were a post away on two occassions and 2 missed sitters from de rossi and balotelli from not even going to extra time. Not puffing out my chest, just putting one eyed sore losers like yourself in your place.
Again, not an England supporter. I agree wholeheartedly that Italy was the better side and said as much. But they did not demolish anyone. Good luck with the team I am supporting. You'll see what a demolition looks like when Germany's done with you.
Interesting write up on Englands football situation. http://www.soccerreportextra.com/in...nd-found-out-again-when-will-they-ever-learn/
Interesting, but I don't really agree. Hodgson said that possession stats don't really tell you a great deal, and I'd be inclined to agree. It wasn't a lack of passes that let England down. It was the number of times possession was lost because a player was pressured, or even just played a sloppy pass under no pressure. Possession was turned over an equal number of times by both sides - the same is true in any match - buy why and where you lose possession is critical. You really want to be losing possession at the culmination of an attack - ideally after a kick-off - not in the middle of the pitch. Rather the focussing on passes made or completed, more important is how often a possession for a team ends up in a scoring opportunity. That's what effective football is about, after all. A watch a fair bit of Australian Rules football, and for years they were very similar to the football world in saying that stats didn't mean much. Then they started using stats, but again, holes were picked in them because the things being measured didn't really tell a full story. They measure pass efficiency rather than pass completion, for example. The former being passes that contribute to a move, rather than sideways passes that are purely about keeping possession. The article also highlighted the introduction of Andy Carroll on the hour as some kind of turning point, when England started hiting the ball long. I'd actually suggest England "went long" because the attempt at not going long had failed a good 40 minutes before that. You could have a brilliant forward, but if the ball isn't getting to him, he's not in the game.
It's surprising that the chip isn't tried more often. It seems to be successful 19 times out of 20 and the chances of missing the net is almost nil, unlike with a "regular" penalty kick. Of course the success rate is totally dependent on the surprise factor, but I feel that we aren't anywhere near the point where it becomes advantageous for the 'keeper to be thinking that a chip is a real possibility.
If this refers to De Rossi's early shot off the post - I just went back and watched the replay, and it's obvious that the "slice" was deliberate. He was clearly trying to swerve it away from the keeper.
I enjoyed this game a lot. Hoped Rooney to score. A deserved win by Italy though, they dominated the game in the second half.
Someone showed his dick during the penalty shootout right? Damn British animal ^^ But didn't help at all. Italians don't want british cocks as it seems!
The first 45 minutes were fine in my opinion. The second half and extra time was were it went wrong. Lack of fitness. If you watch the Portgual extra time today, they also looked very tired and out of it.
We did almost nothing after about 20 minutes. We lost possession about then, and they pressed for 10 minutes or so, with us hardly putting two passes together, and after that we virtually lost the will to even try and string two passes together. One of the frustrating things - and there were many - was that for all the criticism about the English style game being unable to cut it at the top level these days, we didn't even look like a English team.
The first half was about even in my opinion. England better for 20 minutes, Italy better for 20 minutes. 5 minutes even. Italy having slightly more possession. The second half was what went drastically wrong and Italy were unfortunate not to score. Extra Time England's legs were gone like Portugal today. Backs against the wall. Pirlo was the real difference between the teams. This is the worst passing England team I can remember for a long time. I have no idea why. On paper England should be a good team, I don't care what anyone says. England's first 11 is AT LEAST as good as portugal man for man.
that's true, but the difference is that England had an edge for the first 20 minutes, while Italy completely dominated for the spell when they were better. I'm not so sure. He played well, undoubtedly, but he wasn't the reason England stopped even trying to tackle beyond 25 yards from goal, nor the reason why England stopped trying to get forward. Portugal can keep possession though, and we can't. We don't have the ability, but more importantly don't have the composure. To be honest I think we are further off with the composure side of things than the ability side. You only have to look at the number of times last night that even under pressure, the ball was passed out of tricky defensive situations. Our natural inclination is to just welly the ball away under pressure rather than look for an option. It also helps that when people can play their way out of trouble, their teammates are used to it and offer support by good off-the-ball play. You only have to look at the many examples when an English player gave the ball away, as easy as it is to blame him for often trying to take people on when doing so is unlikely to succeed, he often found he had no option of passing either.
You guys should relax. You definitely weren't exceptional in the Euros, but your performance was encouraging in many ways. You're a few matches in to the tenure of a new manager and you've a) won your group at the Euros and b) made the QF of a major tournament and took a very good team to PKs. English fans are more self-loathing than American fans.
The problem is England - as a footballing nation, not necessarily this set of players - shoudn't be regarding reaching the QFs and drawing with a good team as being a sign of encouragement. And while a 0-0 daw was achieved, it was largely due to Italy not capitalising on their total dominance rather than England matching them. I've never seen an England team be completely outplayed to that degree before.