^I think one of the Chile games was very exciting but otherwise it was a very lifeless tournament. Uruguay/Ghana was a fun match when Suarez inadvertently thought he was a goalkeeper. Spain didn't really play any exciting football while winning the tournament.
I've never seen four goals of this quality from a striker ever! Just insane who Zlatan put the ball in the net. All four are in this YouTube clip:
IIRC Germany had some entertaining games, and I definitely agree that Spain was dull. They were a disgrace to the quality of players that they had. Their style was to defend by holding possession at the midway line and not attacking.
I watched highlights of GermanyU21 vs Turkey U21. The German attack was good, but their defense sucked. Are they in our pool?
Canada packed eleven players behind the ball and tried counter attacking. USA had no ideas of how to break it down. Kyle Bekker (played AM) was Canada's best player, but he doesn't dribble the ball much and prefers to pass it to a runner. The problem was that he had two highly static DMs behind him who don't know what to do with the ball other than boot it, and wingers who had a lot of trouble beating their man and couldn't find space. As a result the counter attacks weren't quick enough. Since it wasn't a FIFA date, both teams were made up of MLS players and Canada had a couple of players from the Scandinavian leagues.
Here is a better video of Varane: This kid has everything. Is an excellent footballer, defends with elegance, is a beast that outruns Messi, can throw in real tackles if he has to, can head a ball excellent, is an offensive threat with set pieces, is tall and strong but still moves over the pitch as a lightweight. Him, Nastasic and Alaba are the new top prospects in defense in Europe.
Yep, along with Spain and Russia. The other group looks a lot easier with Israel (host), England, Italy and Norway.
Link Uefa broadcasting U20 WC on their site. Outside of Europe you do not get to see it, but with the "Hola unblocker extension" for Chrome you might get to see it anyway. So far I liked Suso the most when I saw Spain.
What happened on club level in Europe with the Spanish teams, we see happening with the NT now as well. What Bayern did to Barca is the same as what Brazil now does to Spain. Brazil in their own country will be a huge problem for any country to overcome. On a side note, I don't understand why Navas was not given more playing time.
How did you see it as similar? The possession stats in this game were more even (56 vs 44) as in the Bayern vs Barca match-ups (where Barcelona had way more possession).
Similar in a the way a Spanish team gets a trashing. Similar in the way that I felt Spain was out of ideas and were not able to cut through Brazil. I felt the same kind of powerlessness over Spain as I felt back in that CL game between Barca and Bayern. It was the same kind of "unable-ness". Navas looked like a player able to do something (also created the penalty), that's why was wondering why he does not get a starting spot. As for the possession stat, a certain red card comes to mind that might have skewed things. However I did not look at this stat when I drew a parallel. Don't care for it so much, just the feeling it gave to me.
Del Bosque uses him as a supersub, since his speed is an efficient weapon against exhausted defenders.
http://www.nieuws.nl/sport/20130803/West-Duitsland-in-finale-74-mogelijk-niet-schoon Cheated in 1974, 1978 and 2010!
Rumours/Vague news of doping are/is always there when a team stays successful for long but it remains just that. I will start believing when there is far more extensive research done and this story stays in the air for the following month. I also doubt FIFA has the balls to do something about it when there is something seriously fishy, after all they did nothing about the cheated matches of the 1974 world cup or the infamous Spain - Malta match of 1982.
No, I saw the final match and it was just a close game. I think if the Dutch hadn't tried to be so cute they would have won but it was one of those 50/50 games and the coin flip went to the other side.
After the penalty was converted they started playing too much keep away rather than going for the jugular and closing the match out. IMO that type of play turned it into a 50/50 match.