Aftermath of the Final [R]

[Campioni_2006]

Spain have to find a new manager first...

I hear Donadoni is available. :p

[Pichi]

I think both Klose and Ballack are done for Germany. I doubt we'll see them in the picture for 2010.

I think Odonkor could develop into a pretty dangerous forward. Kuranyi and Gomez are both quite good, actually, but just didn't show too well in this tournament.


Odonkor will never develop into a dangerous forward. The guys a waste for Real Betis Balompie. He runs like a gazelle but can't control a ball or make a pass if his life depended on it!! I would hope that Lolo sells his ass sooner then later this summer!!!

La enhorabuena a la Furia Roja and Ricardo Zamora and Rafael Moreno "Pichichi" are smiling from heaven tonite after the match!!

Aupa Espanha y Viva Er Beti Manque Lopera!!

La Furia Roja!!!

Er Pichi

[Alberto]

Odonkor will never develop into a dangerous forward. The guys a waste for Real Betis Balompie. He runs like a gazelle but can't control a ball or make a pass if his life depended on it!! I would hope that Lolo sells his ass sooner then later this summer!!!



Yes, he is the Eddie Johnson of German soccer.

[Cirdan]

Was Lahm subbed out due to injury (as Andy Gray believed) or due to poor play? If you're unsure don't guess, I haven't been able to find an article mention anything to that respect.

Lahm was subbed out due to injury, open wound on his left foot (source in German: http://www.sportal.de/sportal/generated/article/tnt_fussball/2008/06/29/10041900000.html)

About Germanys future: Ballack, Klose and Frings are all young enough to stay another 2 years (32 or 33 is not THAT old), even Schneider recently announced that he hopes to play in the next world cup (he will be 36), apart from that, like all other German posters I still have faith in Gomez (currently 23) despite his disappointing tournament, then there is Helmes (24), who disappointed me the few times I have seen him, but he is said to be very talented, and Kießling (23), who might still develop into a class striker if he manages to overcome his bad finishing, adding Podolski I don't see any problems up front in the next years, even without Klose. In the midfield Germany is hoping for Marin (19) and Kroos (18), though both will still be very young in 2 years, I'd like to add Stuttgarts Roberto Hilbert (23), Rolfes (26) already made a decent game as Frings' replacement this tournament against Portugal and Hitzlsperger, Schweinsteiger and Borowski are also still there. Of course it's a bit unsure if we'll find a central midfield that works as well as Frings/Ballack did in the last years. In the defense, I don't see problems, if not too many players are injured (even without Friedrich, there is still Lahm, Jansen, Fritz among others for the wings, Metzelder/Mertesacker will both still be young enough and Westermann had a very good season too, however I don't really see good central defenders behind those 3). In the goalkeeper department, we will probably be better than now in 2 years (with Adler or Neuer hopefully).

Apart from the mentioned players, there are several other prospects on the watch list, to name a few: Werders Mesut Özil (mf, 19), Tottenhams Kevin-Prince Boateng (mf, 21) and his brother jerome (df, 19, HSV), Leverkusens gonzalo castro (df, 21), Stuttgarts Khedira (mf, 21), Tasci (df, 21) and Fischer (fw, 18).

Of course the development of players is hard to predict, and right now, Germany probably cannot replace Frings and Ballack in the central midfield without a significant drop in quality, but I really think that the talent pool in Germany is deeper now than it has been for more than a decade, so I'm very hopefull that the Germans will be better in the next 2 or 3 tournaments than they are now.

[cuyseco]

Very bad performance of Podolski today and almost in the entire tournament.

http://estaticos02.cache.el-mundo.net/eurocopa/2008/albumes/2008/06/29/alemania_espana/1214770575_extras_albumes_0.jpg (http://www.elmundo.es/eurocopa/2008/albumes/2008/06/29/alemania_espana/index_24.html)

[FNU]

Good point, should be an interesting tourney, except for the inclusion of Italy and its 'Anti-football'.

So my main question is:
Was a verdict decided? Was Lahm subbed out due to injury (as Andy Gray believed) or due to poor play? If you're unsure don't guess, I haven't been able to find an article mention anything to that respect.
Btw, I'm not sure the goal was his fault, I think it was Lehamens. He rushed out, so Lahm slowed down. But Lehamen didn't dive head first (which would have resulted in a nasty collision), instead he dove butt first at the ball (with his hands poorly oriented for the block).
Yea, because Italy really played "Anti-football" in the World Cup with 10 different goal scorers. :rolleyes: Get real.

[uclacarlos]

Can't wait for a potentially great Confed. Cup: Italy, Brazil, Spain, Iraq, USA, Eqypt, S.Africa.
Meh. I don't think that Italy, Brazil and Spain will be motivated, unfortunately.

It'll be an o.k. tournament. Better than the crap before Germany '05, but not like Germany and it won't be any where near as good as the tournament will be in 2013 in Brazil.

Congratulations to Spain!

I never realized how young this team really is....

If they keep this up, Spain will be a force to be reckoned with come World Cup 2010.
And beyond. :D

This is a major, major victory for Spanish soccer b/c it gets us over the hump. But this is a very special generation of players. As long as we can replace Puyol w/in a few years, this generation will be a force to be reckoned w/ for some time.

In '06, we were just too young. We'll be peaking around 2010-2012.

[B]I just hope the guys keep their heads and don't get too full of themselves!!!![/B

[FNU]

Meh. I don't think that Italy, Brazil and Spain will be motivated, unfortunately.

It'll be an o.k. tournament. Better than the crap before Germany '05, but not like Germany and it won't be any where near as good as the tournament will be in 2013 in Brazil.


And beyond. :D

This is a major, major victory for Spanish soccer b/c it gets us over the hump. But this is a very special generation of players. As long as we can replace Puyol w/in a few years, this generation will be a force to be reckoned w/ for some time.

In '06, we were just too young. We'll be peaking around 2010-2012.

[b]I just hope the guys keep their heads and don't get too full of themselves!!!![/B
Well, if they send the youths it will still be entertaining. I think this next Confed Cup is going to be different though, maybe a bigger money prize to motivate the respective federations and teams to field A teams. It still has potential because of the participants. Two World Cup heavy weights, a good and finally winning Spain, the African repeat champs Egypt, the war stricken Iraq who really showed heart in their Asia win, the USA...uh, yea beating Mexico again lol, S.Africa as the host so the support should be strong.

[HakanGS]

How are the confed cup teams picked?
Can't wait for a potentially great Confed. Cup: Italy, Brazil, Spain, Iraq, USA, Eqypt, S.Africa.

[AmericanKaka]

Did anybody else see Merkel chewing out the ref during the reception line after the match? That was hysterical. It's a good thing I wasn't drinking milk, it would have come out my nose.

[FNU]

How are the confed cup teams picked?
The host of the next WC, current WC holder, then winners of their respective confederations.

[squidward123]

The host of the next WC, current WC holder, then winners of their respective confederations.

fifa invites everyone to their office and asks them a set of questions.

Would you like to play a fifa-endorsed tournament? yes
would you like to get prize money for doing nothing much? yes

ok, who would like to give up their summer to do this? *Everyone leaves*

Whoever are left are the teams making up the confed cup.

[MicFW]

Congratulations Spain, you deserve the title! You were by far the better side yesterday and clearly the best team of the tournament as well. Very impressive!

[Excape Goat]

After the Sapnish trophy drought is over, of all the big soccer nations, England now owns the longest drought of all big soccer nation. Let's see how they react in 2010.

[footyfan1]

Yes, he is the Eddie Johnson of German soccer.

I like Odonkor, but to be honest, he's not as talented as EJ......

Odonkor whined his way out of Dortmund when what he needed was another year under Bert van Marwijk.

He thought he was a star already.

The good thing about Odonkor is that he still has time to get his head out of his ass and go somewhere that he can learn his craft a bit better.

I don't think he'll ever be a great striker, but I believe he can learn to be an above-average attacking midfielder........

[magalhaes1976]

Very bad performance of Podolski today and almost in the entire tournament.

Agree on Yesterday's match but not for the entire tournament... IMHO he did ok.

Gratz to Spain, great football, good matches, I'm just glad attacking football won again after what Greece did in 2004. :cool:

I just wish we had Casillas instead of that "chicken" Ricardo. :mad:

It was a good tournament (not for my country :p) lot's of goals, not much violence, not many red cards or dangerous fauls, exciting teams playing good football overall, only a few referee mistakes & few boring matches (top of my head only France-Romenia that I fell asleep), what more can you ask?

See you 2010 in SA.

[footyfan1]

Agree on Yesterday's match but not for the entire tournament... IMHO he did ok.

Gratz to Spain, great football, good matches, I'm just glad attacking football won again after what Greece did in 2004. :cool:

I just wish we had Casillas instead of that "chicken" Ricardo. :mad:

It was a good tournament (not for my country) lot's of goals, not much violence, not many red cards or dangerous fauls, exciting teams playing good football overall, only a few referee mistakes & few boring matches (top of my head only France-Romenia that I fell asleep), what more can you ask?

See you 2010 in SA.

Agree. I also thought that overall, it was a well-played tourney and the best part for me was seeing how the fans got along and enjoyed the party.

I also enjoyed the resurgence of the Dutch and the emergence of the Russians. I wouldn't want to face either of those two in World Cup Qualifying.

I think we also learned that France, Sweden and Italy have loads of work to do and teams like Croatia, Portugal and Turkey aren't far away from the elite.

Like you, I'm also happy to see that stylish, attacking football was well-rewarded.

Now, I know I'm going to suffer some serious football withdrawl symptoms... :D

[Alberto]

Germany Spain
0 Goals scored 1
2 Yellow card 2
0 Red card 0
1 Shots on goal 7
2 Shots wide 5
22 Fouls committed 19
4 Corners 7
5 Offsides 4
27' 56'' Ball. Poss. (time)25' 50''
51% Ball. Poss. (%) 49%

[riquelmisimo]

Well, this is hard to say, as I am a Spanish fan and you might think that my comments are biased. You're probably right, but I'll try to be fair.

1. The winner of the Championship was football. Simple as that. The fact that Spain had decided to play the way they did implies that defensive football was not going to be considered. Additionally, many other teams have also gone for the attack variant of the game (Russia, Holland, Turkey, even Germany in their own way) and that is something we all needed.

2. The fact that a team like Spain clinched the title with talented small players only opens a debate. Is it more important strength or skill? Once again, the combination of both would be great but, if you are up to choose one or the other, what would we choose?

3. Regarding "equilibrium", Senna was the man of the match and, in my view, the best player of the tournament. All his passes were logical, sensible balls to the "big artists"; he stopped every single tallented midfielder trying to attack the Spanish defence. I don't know if a player can do anything better.

4. Regarding flops, everyones says that both France and Italy were disappointing. I do not think so. They played OK. France took chances, but some basic players were not in their best form. And that counts. Regarding Italy, they played the Italian way. With great players, they are always contenders to any title they play. With "not-so-good" players (like the ones they had this time) they still managed to get to quarter-finals and almost beat Spain. Respect for those guys, my friends: they probably don't play "nice" soccer, but whatever they play at, they are always ready to win.

Well, these are just a few thoughts. Congratulations to Spain for a deserved win and to the rest of teams for, probably, the best major tournament in the last 20 years (at least).

[footyfan1]

Germany's Löw Gracious In Defeat (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080629/sp_soccer_afp/fbleuro2008geresploew;_ylt=AsT7jjuiF0wYyExbakOY4I92yLQF)