It's funny but I don't think that any team has looked all that convincing. Spain have the best talent but a terrible manager; Portugal looked darn good against the Oranje but that might be a mirage. Greece defends like there is no tomorrow. France laid a big one yesterday. England, well they are England. Italy will go only as far as Balotelli can score. Czech Republic won the weakest group and Germany labored against Denmark. I'm not picking a winner.
The strength of opposition is pretty beatable. I am so sad that oranje is out. In the World Cup Brazil & Spain looked way stronger than now
What is terrible about Del Bosque? I think Germany will win. Against Denmark they were lucky but that is the signal of the true champion.
Spain were lucky against Croatia, Portugal were lucky against Denmark, Italy were lucky against Spain, England were lucky yesterday.. I'm hoping for Spain - Ita/Eng final. France would be nice, but I can't see them win it
Guardiola combined tiki-taka with Total football to create a team that applies unrelenting attacking pressure and scores oodles of goals. Del Bosque combined tiki-taka with Anti football to create a team that, with almost the same players available to Guardiola, doesn't attack at all, but instead move the ball around between the halfway line and halfway to the box. He then pretends that Spain is playing like Barca and everyone worships them for it because they're too blind to see just how useless their style really is
^Same! Except I'm only 1/16th French. But none the less, it's my only other known background other than Dutch, and I need someone to cheer for!
The difference is that they have no Messi. Barcelona also plays quite boring but in the end, all attacks end with an attempt by Messi - and he becomes angry when Tello or Pedro himself decides to make a shot. Barcelona has the highest posession stats of all teams in Europe but their shots per game is below the likes of Dortmund, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Juventus, Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal.
(Click it and listen to funny English football fan rant) The classic result vs style discussion. Will never end. I must say I have not a big problem with England (though I see what they are doing). I also watch for freshness in new faces, like Ox and Welbeck. That does compensation for me for now I guess (though Ox is a bit gone). Let's see how they will do against Italy.
^I was glad to see Capello go as he was really not a very good manager. Hodgson did the right thing and cleared out some of the older players from the team. I think he has them playing with a goal in mind but Milner really hasn't been very good for them and probably should not be starting.
Milner is not doing well. Against Italy I would consider my options and look if he really needs to play.
The alternative is Walcott but he's carrying an injury and cannot play a full 90 (actually I don't think he can go more than 20 minutes at this point). Too bad because he is very dangerous on the wing.
I dont buy the fact that Guardiola combined Tiki Taka with Total Football. There's very little of Total Football in there IMO. And I dont like Barca's style too. I find Tika Taka sometimes creating un-necessary continous boring diagonal passes. I think they could be a bit more direct. This is the reason I dont like Xavi & Biscuits tempo control & Iniesta & Messi dribbling through & making connections is like a breath of fresh air admist safe meaningless diagonal passes. And Del Bosque has a massive Madrid bias,maybe a big Barca-Madrid bias since he does not want to play the other guys. I would drop one of Biscuits or Alonso & play a Navas for width & speed or a Carzola for width & long shots.
Del Bosque is a horrible tactician, the Spanish team is only doing well due to the players individual talents imo. Didn't Fabregas say that they never discussed the 4-6-0 formation before until they saw the first team list to face Italy? imo Del Bosque just picks 11 players and then sends them to the pitch to figure things out themselves.
Portugal won. I guess they deserved it. Czech's were pretty energetic in the first half, but in the second half it looked like a handball game. They had one outbreak where they really could have scored on the Portuguese when a guy ran down the left side, but mist precision with the final ball. Every second ball at one point was for Portugal and the goal would fall sooner or later. Half final again this "decade". Portugal for the size of their country is doing really good. Don't have to like them, to give them some credit.
^yes, and if they can somehow protect the left side of their defense because Ronaldo refuses to track back they have a shot at going to the final match. They trashed Spain in a friendly and I really don't like del Bosque's tactics; he is capable of losing the championship for Spain. I don't think France has a chance against Spain unless Lloris comes up big in the goal and somehow France can snatch a goal..
LOL . Spain have won the last 2 major tournament championships with Del Bosque as manager. You don't do that if Del Bosque is terrible. He is a quiet, humble man who lets the players express themselves on the field. Managing a team of players with a wide variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds is no small feat. Managing egos at Real Madrid or the Spanish National Team is an even greater achievement. He won 2 La Liga titles and 2 Champions League crowns while at Real. To say he is a terrible manager shows a disconnect from reality. Spain are without their best striker and most important defender, and yet they were still top of their group, 7 points, and only 1 goal against. If only the other managers could be so terrible.
Small correction: Luis Aragones was the manager in 2008, Del Bosque in 2010. I do agree that he can't be that bad, remember how Real Madrid totally failed after he left. He won 2 CL's and La Liga's but the Galactico years after him (2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006) were a joke. And yes, Spain is without Puyol and Villa, almost every Spain critic ignores this.
^but they really ought to be doing much better than they are. Playing with two holding midfielders is just a waste with this team. It is one of the primary reasons that you are seeing a lot of 1-0 victories as opposed to 2 or 3 - 0. I don't think he manages the players that he has to the utmost of their abilities. Regarding managing Madrid, I don't put much on that given that they are pretty much guaranteed a top two finish in the Spanish league because of the wild disparity in finances between the teams there. Don't get me wrong, he is decent but not one who can really bring out the best in the team.
Without Del Bosque the galactico's were thrashed in the CL by teams such as Leverkusen (not the 02' team) and Monaco. That is unacceptable. Also, 10 years ago there wasn't such a gap between Real/Barca and the rest as there is now. Valencia was a serious title competitor and won it in 2002 and 2004. Deportivo (with Makaay) won it in 2000! It also wasn't surprising to see Barcelona finish 3th in those years.
^probably not worth getting into an argument about whether the galactico approach was correct; just to note that a lot of the players that came into Madrid were on the downside of their careers at the time. My only hope is that the league get its house in order in terms of the TV revenue. It cannot last with Madrid and Barcelona getting the money that they are with only a pittance for the other clubs.
Don't think the Greeks can come back in this one. Germany was almost as wasteful in their shooting as we were against Denmark.