Match #31 :: The Final :: Sunday 29 June [R]

[+Gooner+]

LOL...you neg repped him because you didn't agree with his assesment on the TUR-GER match?? :eek:

I'll put it this way..the score could have been 3-0 for Germany. Both Turkish goals were massive Lehmann blunders that should have been avoided.

Yes, Turkey had better possesion during the first half but so what?

And yes, they missed several players but with all due respect to the Turkish bench, they had some serious fighting spirit and played their hearts out. But Germany did what they had to and got the result.

Was it pretty? No.

Was it effective? They are in the final, aren't they?

Credit to the Turkish NT, the manager and the subs for playing a great game and managing for the most part to disrupt Germany from playing "pretty"...in the end, who cares?

Okay, that pisses me off now. Okay, the game was not as bad as some make it but it was still pretty bad. And putting the two goals down as Lehmann blunders is simply unfair and stupid. They were massive defensive blunders that could have been avoided but unfortuately we had much more of those and we might have deserved to lose that game just like Holland payed for their massive defensive blunders. It is a pity that our goalkeeper doesn't manage to look as elegant as VdS when conceding goals that were caused because the defense let him down big time but what can you do.

Turkey did the right thing against us. Like you mentioned, they disruped the game, like Craotia did and kept us from doing our thing. But they also managed to confuse us and run our defense dizzy. Plus, we seem to pratically be offended by Turkey doing so. It was like the whole team was pouting because they didn't offer us a red carpet to the final after the great game we had played against Portugal. So in the end it comes down to having problems with Tureky style of play, an attitude problem and general shakyness within the whole team due to the reasons mentioned before.

[Alberto]

1990 was between England and Germany. Argentina was way past their prime and Italy overachieving...Toto Schillaci anyone? Who was neher heard of again?

That's your opinion. 1990 was one of the poorest World Cups on record save for Cameroon's play. It was full of negative, defensive football. Having watched all of those matches live it is my opinion that Argentina and Italy were the most skillful sides. You are aware that Italy beat England in the third place game?

I could argue the same point with respect to Paulo Rossi in 1982. Was nowhere to be seen until the game against Brasil in the second round of group play and then disappeared following the world cup.

[Roland25]

1990, Italy and Argentina were better teams than W. Germany.
.

LOL, Thank you for making my day. It was the funniest thing I had read at this forum :p. No suprise of course from someone who said US players in 2002 were more technical than Germans. To understand this game, you should first learn to spell it "F-o-o-t-b-a-l-l" instead "s-o-c-c-e-r"

[Roland25]

That's your opinion. 1990 was one of the poorest World Cups on record save for Cameroon's play. It was full of negative, defensive football. Having watched all of those matches live it is my opinion that Argentina and Italy were the most skillful sides. You are aware that Italy beat England in the third place game?

No that's your opinion. 1990 was definitly superior to the crap 1994 and 2002 and somehow to 1998.

In 1990 many countries had one of their best teams over the next 10 years. Germany, Argentina, Yugoslavian, England, Italy, Cameron, czech and slovaky, S Irland. Even Brazil had a good team. They were just outclassed by Argentina in 1/8th final.

[superfrantheman]

SPAIN deserves to win....

but i wanted turkey to become the first asian nation to win an european competition :D

[Alberto]

LOL, Thank you for making my day. It was the funniest thing I had read at this forum :p. No suprise of course from someone who said US players in 2002 were more technical than Germans. To understand this game, you should first learn to spell it "F-o-o-t-b-a-l-l" instead "s-o-c-c-e-r"

Don't be a troll. You should read my earlier posts more carefully before making a foolish remark like the one in quotations above, for I used the terms football and soccer in many posts.

And since you cannot argue the fact, but merely belittle them you should go back a read what I previously wrote with respect to the US and Germany in the 2002 quarterfinals. I never said that the USA was a more technical side. I said that the USA outplayed them in that game.

[Alberto]

No that's your opinion. 1990 was definitly superior to the crap 1994 and 2002 and somehow to 1998.

In 1990 many countries had one of their best teams over the next 10 years. Germany, Argentina, Yugoslavian, England, Italy, Cameron, czech and slovaky, S Irland. Even Brazil had a good team. They were just outclassed by Argentina in 1/8th final.

Roland, I don't know how old you are, but I'm pretty sure you were probably to young to have watched 1990 and by the tone of your posts I would think you are probably in your late teens or early 20's. So to venture an opinion over matches you never watched just based on the written record is presumptuous on your part.

[uclacarlos]

Oh come on, leave Poland alone. They gave us some serious trouble at the WC while on the other hand we just overran Sweden both at the WC and a friendly afterwards. They didn't know what hit them.
That's probably due to the fact that you match up better against Sweden than you do Poland, and Poland matches up better against you than they do most other teams.

Sweden has always played Spain well. In fact, all 3 Scandinavian teams match up well against us for some reason.

Sweden are not better than Poland.
Historically Sweden has outperformed Poland. By a landslide.

[superfrantheman]

i dont think that the WC on 94 was bad.... however it was the first one I watched, the WC started one day right after i turned seven, and how come are you going to say that competition was bad, with teams like nigeria, sweden, romania, bulgaria, holland, even US who played a good game in Detroit, when they tied Switzerland, and their last game, when they lost 1-0 in the Rose Bowl Stadium

players like Batistuta, Caniggia, Maradona, Romario, Dunga, Bebeto, Aldair, Taffarel, Alain Sutter, and some others

[Alberto]

i dont think that the WC on 94 was bad.... however it was the first one I watched, the WC started one day right after i turned seven, and how come are you going to say that competition was bad, with teams like nigeria, sweden, romania, bulgaria, holland, even US who played a good game in Detroit, when they tied Switzerland, and their last game, when they lost 1-0 in the Rose Bowl Stadium

players like Batistuta, Caniggia, Maradona, Romario, Dunga, Bebeto, Aldair, Taffarel, Alain Sutter, and some others

I think his point is to belittle any world cups that Germany did not win or compete well in as being of low quality. Whether he likes it or not, 1990 was probably the poorest world cup in terms of performance. It was defensive with teams playing for ties. 1994 had some amazing games. France 1998 was a mixed bag in that there were some terrific games and some real clunkers. 2002, also had it's mixture of good and bad games. Though the good far outweighed the bad. The performance by most Euro teams was quite poor, but was made up by the performance of the Asian, African and teams from the Americas. 2002 was thought of at the time as the possible coming of age of the non COMEBOL and UEFA confederations. I think in retrospect the short break between the end of the Euro season and the start of the world cup was more to blame than a fundamental improvement in the quality of the have not confederations.

[superfrantheman]

2002, was the worst WC i ever seen,1998 yes was a mixed bag, but 1994 was a great WC.......


but getting back to topic.. i guess that the only tournament where i've seen a good germany was in EURO 96, and right now they are recovering from a big crisis, from the late 90's....... 2002 was a wird team, no one expeted that that limited team was going to make it to the final, and in 2006 they were local, yes, bit germany did played some interesting games, and in this Euro 08 the only game i really liked Germany was with Portugal!

[+Gooner+]

That's probably due to the fact that you match up better against Sweden than you do Poland, and Poland matches up better against you than they do most other teams.

Sweden has always played Spain well. In fact, all 3 Scandinavian teams match up well against us for some reason.


Historically Sweden has outperformed Poland. By a landslide.

I guess that only shows how much the opponents of Germany and Spain say about their quality and chances to win the final. Nothing at all. ;)

[Wotan]

I cannot stress how important getting a well refereed game is to the outcome of this match. Germany typically stops playing with skill when their opponent is more technically gifted and resorts to hacking the life out of the opponents most skillful players. This is the German modus operandi, and I expect the first shot will be fired seconds after a skillful Spanish player gains possession of the ball. The referee should be mindful of this and set the tone early by cautioning negative football. Persistent infringement against the most skillful player(s) by various defenders will also be part of the strategy to scare the opponent and get them off their game.

Whoever wrote this moronic post, cannot know anything about soccer (football). !:eek: When did this nitwit ever see the Germans play like this?:confused:

I guess after Germany wins He/she will attribute it to "hacking" opponents & a poorly officiated game! I don't care what mods say or do! This is my opinion of this "clueless individual. Go Germany!:D Wotan

[versaj]

Whoever wrote this moronic post, cannot know anything about soccer (football). !:eek: When did this nitwit ever see the Germans play like this?:confused:

I guess after Germany wins He/she will attribute it to "hacking" opponents & a poorly officiated game! I don't care what mods say or do! This is my opinion of this "clueless individual. Go Germany!:D Wotan

Don't worry my friend, after tomorrow we'll see who is the one stumbling around for excuses while at a loss of words when they are succumbed by the artful display of possession orientated attacking futbol from La Furia Rojas. We will truly see who deserves the ultimate glory. Vamos ESPANA!!!!!!!!!!!

[Century's Best]

Vamos ESPAÑA!!!!!!!!!!!

And may the winner be... ESPAÑA!!!!!!

[Paolo Rossi]

BTW, german media reporting that Ballack is doubtful for tomorrow's game.

http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/em/startseite/artikel/380235/

[uclacarlos]

and in English...

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8293836/Ballack-may-miss-Euro-2008-final-because-of-injury

[Roland25]

Roland, I don't know how old you are, but I'm pretty sure you were probably to young to have watched 1990 and by the tone of your posts I would think you are probably in your late teens or early 20's. So to venture an opinion over matches you never watched just based on the written record is presumptuous on your part.


No I have followed every tournament live since 1986 game by game. I can remember 1990 every moments because we had an amature reporting team at school. We analysed every match of 1990 and publiched it at school board.

I would think you are probably in your late teens or early 20's. So to venture an opinion over matches you never watched just based on the written record is presumptuous on your part.

well actually you are the troll here. I was old enough to watch 1990 live. You are probably older than me, but it doesn't make you a football expert. Simply you don't have football in your culture. I think, you prefer Football or better call it for you, soccer, to be a game like Basketball with more goals, or something with fancy movements like water dance.


Any way, we have been in 13 finals and won 6 of them sofar. Actually I don't care that you like to reduce any tornament in which Germany achieved something to poor, boring or whatever. Let' come back to the topic.

[Pakalolo]

well actually you are the troll here. I was old enough to watch 1990 live. You are probably older than me, but it doesn't make you a football expert. Simply you don't have football is not in your culture. I think, you prefer Football or better call it for you, soccer, to be a game like Basketball with more goals, or something with fancy movements like water dance.

absolutely idiotic statement. just because you two have different opinions you shouldn't dismiss his' by claiming superiority cause of your nationality.

[cuyseco]

To much bla bla bla bla here.... lets start the match...Spain Champion :D


hEVJTETxLqc