I'm not so sure Loew planned on maintaining ball possession against big teams during 2010. In all of our matches against big teams we defended with 2 banks of 4 and counter attacked (Argentina, Spain, and England to a lesser extent). I think this year's team has a much stronger emphasis on ball possession, even against big teams as evidenced against Portugal and Holland. I think you will see a much different approach against Spain this time around.
If Italy get through I think theyre a huge chance. A meeting with France would be a massive encounter and that winner would play Germany I believe. I think the German's would beat the French, but if they met Italy would once again succumb. I still think Spain will win this comp vs Germany in the final.
Spain have only played one decent team and they had a tough time. Ireland made Spain look better than they are. Croatia are capable of getting something from them. Spain are still lacking upfront and will rely on their midfielders. I can't see torres scoring that many more.
100% prediction: italy will reach quarter final OR semi final OR final OR win the tournament. otherwise i see any other team winning. bookmark my words.
itay are already out of the tournament, sorry to inform everyone. croatia are going down about 7-0 to spain, but italy will struggle against ireland, as usual. whoever gets top in our group gets a bye to the semis.
I still hope France has to play against Spain. And in the semi final hopefully Netherlands are still there and can fight Spain.
I see we have a little Joker in the pack. Honestly. Im a Fortuneteller, I can read up fortune to 70-80% . 100% is not possible because there are circumstances which can detect difference & effects. No one can tell you who will win on penalties for example. Let me question my Crystal Ball again. It says Italy= Very possible Germany= Yes Spain= No Any other team= Unlikely So A Italy VS Germany match will catch out the winner And its very possible that Italy will win against Germany. If Italy only have to make it so far lies to them!
2008 squad poor? get lost. Pretty much the same team that finished 3rd at the world cup. 1 Jens Lehmann 3 Arne Friedrich 7 Bastian Schweinsteiger 8 Torsten Frings 11 Miroslav Klose 13 Michael Ballack 15 Thomas Hitzlsperger 16 Philipp Lahm 17 Per Mertesacker 20 Lukas Podolski 21 Christoph Metzelder Substitutes 12 Robert Enke 23 René Adler 2 Marcell Jansen 4 Clemens Fritz 5 Heiko Westermann 6 Simon Rolfes 9 Mario Gómez 10 Oliver Neuville 14 Piotr Trochowski 18 Tim Borowski 19 David Odonkor 22 Kevin Kuranyi That team poor? yeah, sure. Whether they lost 2 games or not it certainly wasn't a poor squad.
Here are the winners if people are allowed to vote for them like in Eurovision: All first places: Former Soviet Republics Following places: Balkan countries Next places: Scandinavian countries Next places: Other Eastern European countries Next places: Western European countries Last place: England
Would've love to see the Netherlands and Spain duke it out again. Since the Duth aren't likely, I'll cast my vote to Spain coming out victorious. I feels a little bandwagonish to pick them, though. I like Germany to go to the finals against Spain but at the end of the I like Spain better for their players and tactics.
The only teams I believe can win the Euros are: Spain, Italy, Germany, France (and England?) From a team cohesion and tactical execution standpoints, so far this tournament Italy and France have impressed me the most. Players on each of these teams seem to play with confidence, have clear positional understanding of where they need to be in relation to their teammates. So while maintaining good defensive stance, there is also have unpredictability and flexiblity in attack. I believe these types of teams are the most likely to win tournaments. Germany will give up goals against good teams. And if they don't get goals from bench players, the current starting 11 are not likely to get the goals that they need. Spain is playing too predictably, their opponents can stymie them now fairly easily. And if their opponents have speed wingers and forwards (like England), tactically Spain's playing style actually favor their opponents. Beside I just don't see Spain winning 3 major tournaments consecutively, that's just too taxing mentally.
I won't argue that but I can't say I agree, BlueInter. Spain has some execeptional players. Even though they are becoming predictable, that doesn't necessarily make them containable. I haven't been able to see France play, but I saw Italy play. They are a strong team, still though, I can't say I see them going to the finals. Call it a feeling.
the first thing i said when i woke up this morning, "what in the world happened overnight when i was asleep?" Greece over Russia, Czech over Poland...............it's a rare occasion to be able to watch the most exciting Russian soccer. i wait for that moment every year with very high expectation and they lose against damn Greece.....give me a break Euro
I haven't been a big fan of Group A, but they put on a helluva set for the teams in it. I'm a bit surprised with Croatia's momentum at the moment.
Did you seriously think that Russia was going to destroy Greece? Did you not watch the 2004 Euro? Haters are funny. After the 2004 Euro, nobody should ever count out Greece. Ever.
Download Euro Octoman! He's been on fire with the predictions for the tournament. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/euro-octoman/id532926339?mt=8
I count Greece out. They've been pretty mediocre. And what does 2004 have to do with the present Greece anyway? Barely any players from back then still are on the team... Too many people kinda buy into the mythical past of a football nation being an indicator of future success. Germany's three-times European champion. But that doesn't help our team one bit. If they win, they'll win because they're simply good. Not because of some trophy-lifting in years past.
Both Czech Rep. and Greece look like two sub-par teams past their best which made it through more due to the frailties of their opposition than their own strengths. I say whatever team meets them in the 1/4 final has an easy match. It is amazing however how resilient to common sense and knowledge both teams are...
In many cases history does repeat tho as with the germans theyre never dead. How many times have the germans come back from nowhere to win games? Theyve did it for decades. I believe greece will go no further and like u you cant give them a chance based on 8 years ago, but sometimes patterns repeat and things are etched into certain teams/people.
Greece v. Germany and Portugal v. Czech Rep. Whatever patterns have occured in the past, I'm counting them both out against these top, dominant teams. Czech and Greece haven't got what it will take to contain these two teams they have to play in the quarter finals. I'm hoping Portugal comes out on top of the two groups.
This has been a tournament full of surprises so it's hard to predict the final game, but I think that the German team has a very high chance of winning the tournament. Not sure about the second team, we may see Spain in the final as well.
I dont rate most of those players especially from the bench apart from the reserve keepers. Of course, you dont need to have the best players to have a great team. The current team is much more talented than that 2008 team. Talent does not always mean better because without hard work talent is worth nothing however this current Germany team is getting the results. 3 wins out of 3 in the group of death and 10 wins out of 10 in the qualifiers.