Spain vs Russia @ Innsbruck [R]

[Marbur66]

Anybody else as unimpressed with Sergio Ramos' defending as I was?

[Pichi]

The game could have ended 4-2 or 4-3 easily, but it didn't and we played well. the deffense is what will send us home. Besides Capdevila, everybody else played undr what's expected. A big team like Italy or France will not miss the chances Russia had today.

ARRIBA ESPAÑA! Ya me veo el Marca del miercoles..."A que ganamos la Eurocopa?" :D

Almost it now says: "Villa nos hace sonhar" and AS says "Villa De Espanha"

[Fiorentina lives!]

If Puyol and Marchena continue to be the distracted hothead cool-losing bunch, the QFs could be it.

Sergio Ramos is a midfielder. He surely doesn't play like a defender. Get da f%^$ back to your position, kid. If you wanna attack don't play fullback.

On the other hand though... Villa has made us forget about that other guy who wore No.7. Dave will see some serious ca$h come August at this pace.

Spain depends on Villa.

[dmar]

Villa, Xavi, Senna, Capdevila and Puyol were giants.

The russians were very soft. Not a meaningful game.

[TariboWest33]

http://vinovo.magnify.net/watch/playlist/CG6LZF55LGZ3K58J
Goals from match

Impressive stuff from Spain, they ripped apart Russia and moved beautifully as they did so. Villa and Torres were terrifying.

[footyfan1]

Anybody else as unimpressed with Sergio Ramos' defending as I was?

I made this post (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=14846219&postcount=112) back on page 12.

[Cristian24]

If Puyol and Marchena continue to be the distracted hothead cool-losing bunch, the QFs could be it.

Sergio Ramos is a midfielder. He surely doesn't play like a defender. Get da f%^$ back to your position, kid. If you wanna attack don't play fullback.

On the other hand though... Villa has made us forget about that other guy who wore No.7. Dave will see some serious ca$h come August at this pace.

Spain depends on Villa.

Casillas, Top 3 goalkeeperd in the world. Senna-Xavi-Inesta-Fabregas. Torres.

We depend on Villa...? I knew some people would say that after he just scored three goals. Torres gave him the first one with an empty goal. Or what about Iniestas world class pass so that he would just touch it to score. Or Cazorla's pass in diagonal to get the third goal's play going. Come on, man. Be rational. Valencia depends on Villa, not Spain.

[novastar400]

If Puyol and Marchena continue to be the distracted hothead cool-losing bunch, the QFs could be it.

Sergio Ramos is a midfielder. He surely doesn't play like a defender. Get da f%^$ back to your position, kid. If you wanna attack don't play fullback.

On the other hand though... Villa has made us forget about that other guy who wore No.7. Dave will see some serious ca$h come August at this pace.

Spain depends on Villa.

I agree whole heartedly with this... I think his defending was the prime reason that Torres was taking off and Cesc was brought on... It added more width to the midfield... And if you go back and watch the game I guarantee that Ramos was not nearly up the field as much since there was a midfielder there filling that role... This took a lot of steam out of the Russian attack b/c whoever that left winger/back for Russia was, he was ripping Spain/Ramos a new one... Now Ramos is back defending and guess what? That Russian player was a complete non-factor after the switch!!! Ramos will have to be more disciplined if Spain is to have to chance... The announcers were saying that they would most likely go up against one of the group of death teams... The Dutch would absolutely rip apart terrible defending like that on the counter attack... Still Spain looked very composed in the midfield, nothing you can really do against quality like that... And Villa, man his stock is fixing to sky rocket... Valencia are looking at a very nice payday...

[timotheus]

Dammit.

I have a soft spot for Eastern Europe, and rooting for Poland, but also any Eastern European sides.

Apart from the Czechs (and possibly Slovaks) all of them play woeful.

I expected more from Russia after watching UEFA CUP and Zenit romp through it.

[sumthingspecial]

I already posted this on http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=704638&page=2 but decided to do it again to see if anyone wants to respond..


Thank you very much Shirokov! You were by far Spain's man-of-the-match...

While everyone seems to be praising a 'fantastic' performance by the Spanish duo and Xavi being for Spain what Arshavin should of been Russia... what it all came down to was the Zenit central defender playing like it was a practice match rather than Euro 08.

The first goal was completely his fault, gingerly jogging back to the box while watching Kolodin struggling in a one on one situation with Torres instead of tracking Villa.

One would think that such a soft goal would wake a player up, however he continued to lazily drift around the pitch and be caught out of position.

You could see what Hiddink was thinking; Spain are not a tall team by any stretch and despite Sergei Ignashevich and the twins being far more proven, the quick Shirokov & Kolodin are better suited to handle Torres & Villa. Even with all the errors Kolodin had today, he fared better than Berezutsky would have, particularly since some could be attributed to the rain.

No, the blaim for Russia's dreadful defensive performance today in fact falls solely on the lazy and spoiled Zenit liability known as Roman Shirokov.

Goal #2 came after a horrendous corner kick from Russia. As Spain kick-started their counter-attack, I counted seven Russian players rushing back to defend. Out of those seven, where was Shirokov? He was walking around in no-man's land on the other-side of the pitch! In fact it was the lone striker Pavlyuchenko playing center-back, along-side Anyukov, who thanks to the absence of any other defenders was caught out, having to cover a large area of the pitch and not being able to commit solely to marking Villa nor playing him off-side.

And finally Goal #3 was probably Shirokov's biggest failure, underestimating a man with two goals already, as a complete amateur. Without a doubt a tremendous move by Villa to bring the ball back, however it was pure sloppiness from Shirokov to give Villa a look at the goal for two full seconds from 10 yards out while stranding his keeper Akinfeev to cover the entire length of the goal.

How Guss Hiddink did not replace him with Ignashevich at half-time I will never understand. I don't care if it is harsh on a player, he had to send him a message, play like that and you won't be playing in this tournament.

Spain's fourth and final goal, was a complete group failure, a result of the loss of will. Being off-side it shouldn't of counted, but the game was long over by then anyway.

If Guss dares to play this man again, I can't wait to see how he does against the likes of Henrik Larson & Zlatan Ibrahimovic.


http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/6590/1907617qa7.jpg
*if I was Anyukov or Akinfeev, I would punch this lazy disgrace of a teammate in the face :mad:

[Lusankya]

Russia acted very naive, I think vs Germany or France a Spanish player would fly all over the pitch before they can show off some tricks and combinations.

I really like the spanish team and wish they make it to the final but I believe they will lose in tears to a team from group c. :(

[Achillean]

I made this post (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=14846219&postcount=112) back on page 12.

unsurprising biased comment.:rolleyes:

[squidward123]

very good passing attacking football from spain, and then on the counterattack as well.

russia matched them in all that except for the finishing

spain's defence was opened up easily and so was russia's. Russia's defence was a little worse than spain's.

could easily have been 4-4 or 5-5.

[Achillean]

could easily have been 4-4 or 5-5.

You have no idea what you are talking about, no matter how ************ the central defenders that Spain has they still have to beat the best goalkeeper in the world.

[jfcule]

First and final warning: let's try to keep this friendly, people.

[squidward123]

You have no idea what you are talking about, no matter how ************ the central defenders that Spain has they still have to beat the best goalkeeper in the world.

i'd agree with that if spain were allowed two goalkeepers to cover the net, but they weren't.

[footyfan1]

unsurprising biased comment.:rolleyes:

This from a Real Madrid fan? Please. Club football shouldn't matter here and it doesn't with me. Can you say the same??

Take a look. I wasn't the only one who thought Sergio Ramos was crap yesterday.

EDIT: And by the way, I'm a person who thought Raul should be on the roster and agree that Casillas is probably the best keeper at the tourney.

As I said, club football doesn't matter to me. Can you honestly say the same and then tell us that Sergio Ramos wasn't crap yesterday??

[footyfan1]

i'd agree with that if spain were allowed two goalkeepers to cover the net, but they weren't.

Looks like we've got another sensitive Real fan squid.

Seems there are so many of those..... ;)

[squidward123]

Looks like we've got another sensitive Real fan squid.

Seems there are so many of those..... ;)

Yeah, where the hell did that comment to my comment come from?!

I'd really love to say Puyol was magnificent and Ramos was crap just to see his reaction ;)

[footyfan1]

very good passing attacking football from spain, and then on the counterattack as well.

russia matched them in all that except for the finishing

spain's defence was opened up easily and so was russia's. Russia's defence was a little worse than spain's.

could easily have been 4-4 or 5-5.


And might have been 4-3 were it not for Casillas.