When Griezmann converted the PK, it made me remember and wonder what could happen if Frank De Boer converted the 1st PK vs Italy in 2000. Pressure would be off and we could have won our 2nd Euro. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
Griezmann is a fantastic player. What a talent. He reminds me Del Piero. The Germans played well but they suffer the lack of vitesse and inspiration in the last 25 meters. They miss a Robben.
He was judged too small and no French club wanted him. Took his talent to Real Sociedad and then to Athletico. The rest is history!!
germany suffers from the spanish syndrom, beautiful football but doesnt hurt the opponent. Can t find shooting positions or last passes in the last meters. Belgium also suffered from it . This reminds how important it is to have good dribbling wingers like Robben. Teams abuse of midfielders playing as inverted wingers now like Ozil or Hazard and it makes them look less threatening upfront. You need to have players able to go in 1vs1 situations using speed. This was a good lesson tonight. Even a mediocre technical player like Sissoko gave more problems to the german defence with his speed and power than the german fake wingers gave to the french ones. I believe Germany could be more dangerous with Reus.
Unfortunately, No new Robben seems to appear in the next dutch generation. Promes? ElGhazi? Bergwijn? Talented young lads but not as speedy as Arjen.
This is what I find strange about Germany, they have never really produced many speedy wingers like a Robben, Overmars, Zenden or vdKerkhof brothers. The only recent guy who comes to mind is Odonkor, but he was never really that good
You dream my friend. Do not have a short memory. The Dutch have too many gaps, especially defensively. Without the ball, the Dutch players are amateurs, they do not know well positioned. Germany would beat us clearly. We could not resist their pressure and their physical impact. As the Dutch players will continue to leave spaces in midfield, we will only succeed no good. Our last friendly against France showed, also, that we were far inferior to the French. I wonder if we would be able to overcome the Portuguese grinta. That being said, I think we should look at the game plan of France. Wijnaldum can be used as Sissokho. I see Robben occupy the same role as Griezmann. Jansse will play center forward as Giroud. Promes be our Payet. Strootman and Bazoer (or Blind) play as pivots. In defense I see: Janmaat (Tete) -Bruma-Van Dijk-Willems.
I agree but Reus was hurt. They also don't have a reliable striker. Mario Gomez would not have made a difference last night as he's really too slow. The player that stood out for me was the young defender from France, Umbitti (don't know if I've spelled it right) who was playing in only his second game for France according to the commentary. Really good ball skills and knew exactly how to position himself. I wonder if Löw is going to stay on as manager. He's had a good run but maybe it's time for someone else to take over.
I expect the teams I support to win every single match!!!! That is what anyone who is delusional about there team should do. I have to confess however that I am often disappointed!!! IMO, van Gaal could have put together a team that was quite competitive assuming Arjen Robben was healthy. Maybe we wouldn't win the Euros but we still have a group of players that collectively could be molded into a nice team that would have given every other team in the tournament trouble. I've watched maybe 70% of all the matches and I don't think there was any team other than Italy was totally outstanding. They were the one squad that really put things together despite the obvious gaps up front. I don't think France would have defeated Italy as the Italian defense is just too difficult to solve. Too bad Pelle and Zaza were such jokers at the penalty spot.
After the beautiful Spanish and German years , this is the time of courage and street football : Atletico, Leicester, and in this Euro , France and Portugal. The weaker beats stronger with courage, work. This is the trend.
How much do we have to fear from the French in our quali campaign? They have shown weakness and strength.
Too bad CR7 comes off with what looks like ligament injury. Portugal had a good final 10 minutes in the half. France needs to get an early goal as the longer this goes on 0-0 their confidence will drop.
I hope Deschamps stays on as manager of France since he is such rubbish in terms of tactics. With him running things, Dutch can beat them.
^^quite right!! I think this was one of the most boring tournaments that I've ever seen. The only team that played above it's ability was Italy and they just could not get it done of the spot. Not a single match was really outstanding.
I couldn't watch live, but did not know the result so I watch recorded program. I was wrong. This France team is not like Netherlands in 2000, but like Portugal in 2004, and Portugal proabably learned well from 2004 lesson. Perhaps Messi could learn from Ronaldo, next time do not play the final, let his teammates win it for him. I agree that the quality of this tournament is not that great, perhaps one of the poorest, if not the worst. UEFA needs to go back to 24 teams. It is time for us to focus on WC 2018 qualification. This France team is still tough to beat. We will see....
Football is weird Portugal play negative for the most part and win tournament with the Great Ronaldo injured. Back in 2002 World Cup of fatigue Portugal fail and 2004 Portugal much stronger teams lose in Final to horrible, negative, anti football Greece Makes little sense but simply put it is what it is. Overall this expanded Euro was piss poor as expected with many weak negative teams who had no business playing in the tournament. For me it rivaled the World Cup 2002 Finals for bad play. Ironically no Oranje in either event.
Yes the tournament as a whole sucked, but I thought the final was pretty good. At the beginning I wanted Ronaldo to lose, but then when he got injured I was happy he won