Positive/Negative surprise of the tournement

Positive surprise was Portugal. They did very well in the group of death and played together very well as team, good roster with good young players. Also gave Spain a run for their money in the semis and almost complicated Germany in their opener.

Negative was the Netherlands and France... just a bad team vibe overall. Next oranje coach should put Snejder and Robben in the doghouse.

 

Negative was the netherlands, those guys just rub me the wrong way, especially robben.

Positive would be balotelli, i think this guy has matured a lot in 3 weeks, and i'm very happy for him. He had a great tournament

I'm unsure of what to think about germany, they made a semi final AGAIN, showing consitency as always. It seems they lack conviction, but the talent is certainly there.

 

Well the obvious positive surprise would be Portugal since we managed to survive the group of death when EVERYONE said we would be Euro's biggest flop and that we would be lucky to even get 1 point! We played the best football of the entire tournament alongside Germany and we played like a team, like a country and like a nation.

On the other hand, the obvious negative is Holland, but I also think France.

 

Portugal was a surprise for some but they really shouldn't be. Having said that, this team was strangely the revelation of the tourney and with a few tweaks they can challenge well for the 2014 WC. I think Spain and others would prefer to avoid this team in the next major.

Holland and France were major disappointments yet again.

 

Positive surprise: how well Cassano played the same year he had heart surgery, really displaying good leadership and making a difficult Italian game plan (requiring long balls to players running the channels) feasible with his intelligent movement and deft touch. Thought he got unfairly overlooked due to Balotelli playing well, but also did great. Second surprise was a very strong Croatia, could easily have knocked out Spain and perhaps should have gotten a goal against Spain to knock out Italy in the group stages. Third, Denmark, they definitely played more creatively and well than expected.
Negative surprise: Despite bracing for England having a poor tournament, surprised still at how bad they were, really a physical side that reminded of Greece 2004; Poland and Russia both bottling great chances in their third match.

 

Positive: C Ronaldo scoring in vital games bar the Spain game, Balo's double against Germany and Sheva's brace against the Swedes. The latter was surprising because I thought that he wasn't up to the international level anymore

Negative: Italy getting demolished in the final. Apart from that, I doubt that is as bad as Holland not getting a point or France's no-show against Spain

 

Positive surprise:
-- I heard of the strikerless systerm, but it might finally arrive. Spain's strikerless systerm looked boring at times, but very effective. This might be the start of a football revolution.

-- de Rossi playing as a playmaking sweeper was also interesting. I recalled 433 talked about playmaking centerbacks, but I laughed it off as "going back" to the sweepers. Hummels also moved forward into forward positions and he almost scored against Italy twice. This could be the beginning of the offensive centerback or the return of the sweepers.

-- I know the Englishmen was upset about their team, but their defensive lines looked well-organized. Yes, it was boring and nothing revolutionary about it, but as I said, it was well-organzied. it was something the Italians would have been proud.

-- the old guards: Shevachenko, Pirlo, Gerrard, Klose.

-- Prandelli made himself a name. Besides good tactics throughout the tournament, Balotelli looked liked a different person. He must have done something.

Negative:
-- Holland, especailly Robben, RVP.
-- Lowe was considered a genius, but failed at the most important game.
Negative surprise:
-- Lowe was considered a genius, but got outsmarted.

 

I don't know if this is positive or negative (mostly positive for Spain fans though, hahaha), but i was surprised that Balotelli (or any other Italy player, for that matter) didn't get to score. For that, props to Casillas--he's continuing to make a strong case for all time honors.

 

It's hard to divide them into positives and negatives, still...

Positive surprises:
- Poland scoring a beautiful goal and managing to draw with Russia
- Italy winning over Germany (I usually support the underdog)
- Portugal playing really well in general against difficult opponents

Negative surprises for me personally:
- Poland losing with Czech Republic (although I gave them 50% chances)

Other surprises:
- Russia not going through

 

positive surprise- PORTUGAL, i enjoyed this team, almost could do a miracle and win the thing
also Poland looked strong like in the old days(i expect Hungary to create a good team yet again and then the Euros will be more complete).

Negative-i think Greece, they have the talent to destroy everyone but they just play the old school catenaccio football which i think has been surpassed. They must create new age footballers and be again on top of Europe

 

Negative surprise of course. Spain has won it again.
Football got ********ed by Spain

In an interview Fabregas said they are still not full. They need more. Damn they are animals!

 

Positive - Italy's play besides the final. Some great goals like Balotelli's vs Ireland and Germany, Zlatan vs France. Czech's and Greeks advancing ahead of their more fancied rivals. Spain's performance in the final was superb, total football. Nut also negative due to the one sidedness of it.

Negative - how one sided the final was and how boring spain were in 3 of their games. Holland - a total flop. Not enough goals and not enough scored by strikers.

 

True, disappointing Netherlands. Only Ireland had a worse record! Oh well, I guess that's just how European football works. A couple of times in the past even champions have failed to qualify for the next Euro.

Positive surprise: Ukraine's and Poland's effervescence. I mean, host teams usually play inspired, but their performance exceeded the expectations of many

 

Portugal were great to get out of the group, I didnt think they would. Semi's now at the 2000 and 2012 euro, a qtr in 2008, final in 2004 and semi's at the 2006 world cup. Portugal have been great the last 12 years.

I thought Croatia were great and denied 2 penalties vs Spain. Unlucky not to get through. The Czech's were a surprise as were Greece. I thought Ukraine played well in two of their games, a little unlucky too.


Flop -Poland and France.

 

Amazing that Spain have kept 13 clean sheets in the last 3 tournaments out of 19 games.

 

positive surprise:
Italy (showed that they are still belong to top teams)
Portugal (looked very strong)
Joe Hart
Pirlo

neagtive surprise:
Netherlands (dont need anything to say)
Russia (for not reching quarter finals)
France (once again a flop)
Sweden (good play, bad results)
Germany & Löw (against Italy)

 

^^ I didn't expect everyone to be surprised about France being a flop.

Of course, France's games were particularly uninspired and boring, but today's generation of French players is very poor compared to what we've seen a decade ago. It's not even sure France will actually qualify to the world cup in Brazil.

The biggest disappointment for me was actually Germany. Granted they've won all games in the group of death, but they conceded a lot of goals in the tournament and the way the team dislocated itself against Italy was worrying.

I agree the good suprise was Portugal. I think the team has grown in maturity. At this tournament, Portugal looked more experienced, and here to last. They were really close to beating Spain.

 

Speaking of France, negative surprise: Nasri's (and company's) antics. That, and Arshavin (RUS) getting into an ultra-pompous "Not my problem" mode. Very disappointing.

 

Before the tournament I re-watched their loss to Germany in the WC, and was pleasantly surprised by the fact that they were more positive and cohesive than I had remembered. But in the Euros, they really were more negative and dependent on blocks, physical speed/strength, and the like. I don't disagree that this was in fact maximizing their available skills, and it worked to a pretty good point. I think I was just surprised that, at the end of the day, the England team was THAT bad and dependent on fitness and physical attributes. It somehow felt, relatively speaking, like they'd regressed in two years, with mostly the same players; I had thought that Young, Milner, Walcott, and some of the other new blood might look more promising and, I don't know, bold.

So the surprise was really relative to my own expectations, and probably shouldn't have been one, but it still was.

 

Ireland were a disappointment obviously. I actually thought they could make it out of the group and be a surprise team. A total disaster is what they were.

 

I thought england would come at teams and play. Theyve been crap since 2004 when they actually did come at teams. Disappointing. Because with the type of fast players thsat they have they dont try and utilise them. Well only on the counter and that didnt work. England suck let them play ffs they gotthe players to do it.

 

I also wanted to see them make it out of the group somehow. Still, the performances by Holland were a much bigger surprise.

 

yep. Holland were rubbish. I expected them to be almost impossible to beat. It was obviously quite the reverse.