I forgot to list Robben and van der Vaart for Holland in midfield. Anyway, I think Xavi is getting old and has not been that good of late. My ranking would be: - Busquets = Kroos = Khedira > de Jong - Schweinsteiger = Alonso > van Bommel - Oezil = Xavi = Snejder - Iniesta = Robben > Mueller > Cesc - Silva > Reus = Goetze = Podolski = van der Vaart = Mata = Thiago - RVP > Klose = Gomez > Villa > Huntelaar So there may be a slight advantage for Spain in midfield and attack, but it is very close between Germany, Spain and Holland.
It's about team play! I remember a player check for Germany against Argentina. Argentina was a little bit better and lost very clearly 0:4. Its not the players itself. Thats too easy...You need them in good condition and playing perfectly in a team. Germany can do that very good, Spain a little bit better. At least they could....lets wait for Euro 2012
Xavi not as good lately??? he's scoring more than he's ever done this season and he has about 15 assists. Yes he's getting older but he's having an amazing season. And he's definitely also having a better season than Oezil and Sneijder. As for the bold, let's be serious, do you really believe that Mueller is better than Cesc??? Let's forget that Cesc has scored more goals than him (and even had more assists if i'm right) this season and that Cesc was always "the man" when he was at arsenal, tell me what Mueller does better. And the only thing that Robben does better than Iniesta is score which is normal because he plays higher than him and is very direct, order than that, Iniesta>>>Robben and there's nothing wrong with that and it doesn't mean Robben is not a great player, it's just that Iniesta has been considered a top 5 player for the past 3 years so he's actually better than most players. And you think Gomez is as good as Klose and better than Villa??? Ok i'll put it like this, do you think that Gomez can fit in with Spanish and Barca style of play???
That's why i said Spain was better both individually and "as a team" because the core of their midfield + Villa play for the same club. And IMO, Argentina only had a better Attack than Germany, Germans were individually better in other positions.
It's obvious we have Spain fanatics and Germany fanatics. No one can win here it's about the quality of these teams during the European Championship 2012! The season is absolutely unimportant. Of course people like Xavi and Alonso are amazing because they are in the best club in the world, Barcelona. What do you expect? And Gomez well it seems like many people only know him from the Bundesliga He scores a lot there but international? He is definitely worse than Klose and definitely 100% worse than Villa I can assure you that ^^ Because when you play against teams like Barcelona or Real Madrid or as a national team against Spain, Holland and Italy and so on you have to do A LOT to score regularly. Gomez cant do that he isnt a good techniqual player at all. Edit: Well Argentina had better men in midfield and attack, at least at the time. Also some defenders I dont remember where seen a bit better than Germany. All in all it was absolutely irrelevant who was supposed to be better individually... Yeah Spain might be better individually and as a team. Thats right, we'll see Cant be like that forever, at least I hope so for a better tournament atmosphere
Oezil had a lot more assists then Xavi this season (Oezil: 14/Xavi: 7 in the Primera Division, 21/13 overall; see player profiles at http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/mesut-oezil/leistungsdaten/spieler_35664.html ...). Snejider may not have had a good season so far, but he is still young (27) and has shown only one season ago that he has the potential to be the best in the world (after Messi). I think his current slump is mainly a matter of motivation and fitness. It may just mean that he is well rested when the EC starts. I, as a Germany supporter, still have a lot of respect for him. Cesc may have been "the man" at Arsenal but he never was in the Spanish national team or at Barca. And football is not only about neat passes and tricks, it is also about athletic abilities, fighting spirit, dynamism, doing the unexpected to unlock stubborn defenses. Mueller is great at that. Have you forgotten what he has done in South Africa? And he does it every time when he plays for Germany. In my opinion, Robben is (and has been over the last years), a top 5 player on the same level as Iniesta or Xavi. He has something that no other player except Messi has: he can make an opposing team tremble with terror because they know that they have no answer. If he is in the mood, he can score at will even if they throw 3 players at him. I admit that Gomez has not been very good when he played for the national team. But that seems to be a thing of the past. In his recent games, he has played a lot better. The quality of Gomez is evident when you look at his goalscoring record: 2011/12: 27 in 32 games (Bundesliga: 18/20, CL: 5/6 ...) 2010/11: 48 in 55 games (BL: 28/32, CL: 8/8, ...) Carreer: BL: 119/204, CL: 18/30 Only Messi, Ronaldo and maybe van Persie and Rooney have a better record. Villa is, in my opinion, the weak link in the Spanish team. They have a problem with scoring, they win most of their games only narrowly despite being vastly superior. And his goalscoring record for Barca has been much worse than Gomez's for Bayern in the last 2 years despite Barca dominating Europe and a lopsided Spanish league. And "fitting in with Spanish and Barca style of play" may be important for the respective managers, but it is not the criterion to measure the quality of a striker.
What a pressure for group D to grab the first place...... Being second is equal of playing against Spain in the quarter. The most boring outcome of the EURO2012 is also the most rational at the moment - Spain wins. . . . Although Germany and Holland can surprise. But let's hope for Ukraine to win
The top teams who got drawn into the "Group of Death" (Holland, Germany, Portugal) have got it a lot better than it seems at first glance, because in their half of the draw there are only 3 top teams (group A is a joke). They beat one of the other 2 tops teams and they are in the semifinals. In group C and D, only two out of Spain, Italy, France and England will make it into the semifinals, or, in other words, only one of Italy, France and England.
It's not even about being a fanatic, i'm not even spanish lol i just happen to really follow both teams (and other NT too) because they're both great teams, the 2 best in the world clearly imo. So from an objective view, i see Spain as having the better individual players that also plays great as a team and will outplay any midfield on a good day. And i'll repeat what i said earlier,Argentina only had better attackers (when you pick them individually) than Germany at that time. But then again, Messi played as a 10 for Argentina (has been playing there since 2010 for them) but we all know it's not his real position. Mascherano definitely wasn't a better player than Schweinsteinger for example.
You guys are kidding about Germany winning right? We are 2twice as stronger than in the world cup. If we lose is because we had a bad day lol. We are too deep for Germany, it's almost a joke to compare! We have the most technical team in our history and the upcoming players are all very talented. Only brazil can match us with talent. Low would use a lot of the players we don't use for our first team. Llorente Adrian Soldado Villa Bojan Iniesta Xavi Jordi Alba Cazorla Thiago Navas Silva Mata Munuain Diego Capel Pablo hernandez Pedro Cesc Xavi Alonso Busquets Javi Martinez Arbeloa Sergio Ramos Puyol Pique Iraola Wait for... Cuenca La guardia Coke Aaron Oriol Isco San Jose Canella Azpiculeta Rochina Canales Fran Merida Dominguez Bernat And more..... We can be stopped. But we have squad like we never had before and posting Germany as the favorite is clear ignorance and blindness. France will be strong. Everyone forgetting about them and just beat Germany!
we beat germany before the last wc in germany, didnt do much good for us or bad for them. spain lost a few friendlies recently as well, even to england. but i agree that spain are pretty much only beatable by themselves this summer, though if germany faces them for a 3rd time, i would imagine they would have a few new tricks up their sleive, not just erickson v scolari it for a 3rd time in a row. could see germany edging a 3-2 after extra time possibly, lahm saving the draw and a tap in for klose in et.
There is no doubt that we can lose against any team. I mean we lost against the USA and Switzerland. I would argue that against the USA it was a combination of luck and us missing like a trillion chances. Against the swiss, weans I the world cup in general all the teams became ultra defensive which is why we won by narrow scores. If Germany plays attack against us, they will be in trouble. So I expect Germany and holland to play with a defensive style against us. Traditionally, France and Italy are always more uncomfortable teams, so it will be tougher as specially Italy are contra attack specialist. Also. It to trust eastern european teams, I am more weary about them, they are unpredictable.
For me the three best teams in Europe, and probably the world at the moment are Spain, Germany and Holland and are the favorites to win this. Spain have gone from strength to strenght since winning this thing last time but it's hard to win three major tournaments in a row and there are major question marks over the Villa/Torres combination. I'm a little unsure of Holland though... several of their key players that starred in the last world cup (Sneijder, Robben, Kuyt, etc.) are not in the same form they were in two years ago but RVP is in the form of his life and if the others can rediscover their form, they will certainly be a threat to win it all. Germany have looked in fine form recently and could win this thing.. will have to overcome their bogey team Spain after losing to them in the last two tournaments. Italy, England, and France have a decent chance of winning it, too. It would be quite a surprise if anyone outside this groups wins imho. England have problems though with no manager and question marks over who will lead the front line with Rooney out for the first couple of matches and Bent now out. I would be really surprised if anyone outside these six win though, but it's the euros and stranger things have happened... Denmark, Czechsovakia, Greece... etc.!
I can assure you THAT won't happen. Our defense is not very good. I think we will get 1 or 2 goals in every match or something like that... What we try to improve immensely is our offense! We scored during the WC 4 times against Australia and Argentina and England! We also scored 3 times against Brazil and Holland. That's what we do NOTHING else. The match against France was dissappointing as there was only 1 goal in the very end.... If that happens in June we are lost. What I'm expecting from Spain vs. Germany is offense offense offense from both sides. Chances en masse and goals en masse! Not always this stupid bullshit 1:0 from Spain against every nation! Last WC 1:0 against Portugal, Germany and Holland.... Typical endless ball playing game style. Normally that shouldn't be successful at all. Spain does it perfectly though I repeat: if Spain wins the cup for the third time I will forget myself! That CAN'T and WON'T happen! I am sure.... If not Germany then hopefully France. Holland, Italy and England are favorites too though. Wouldn't surprise me if one of them wins!
I think Spain could win a third time. I would even argue that with the current squad we have, we are more likely to win the Euros or the World Cup now, than in the past 4 years of achievements. Our replacements are incredible, we have a fire power in every position. All our players are very dangerous, adventurous and very unpredictable. Those that complain of Spain's scoring abilities, are not looking at all the variability of our squad. Cazorla, Munuain and Navas as the most dangerous, players and unpredictable. If either one has a good game, will win regardless of the opponent. Germany is a strong team, but we are at the level of quality of Brazil, but our team plays the ball better. We are the Brazil of Europe. Out side of us, i wound't put down Italy or France whom are underrated, but very dangerous teams. I think more dangerous than Germany or Holland, because their style of game play suits them better against us. Even though, it might be debatable ground for some fans, Italy and France are unpredictable teams. They are good at the game they play. For Spain, playing against Eastern European teams might be also dangerous. I always fear them, because they fight hard, and have technical players that are unknown to many but hazardous when given the opportunity. It will be a nice Eurocup!
For all that Spain is good.. they are not brilliant yet. Against England and other teams you've played recently have shown that you find it very hard unlocking a well drilled defence. Villa isn't in great form and is injured anyway, Torres is in terrible form, and Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Alonso don't exactly score many goals.. Spain created very little against a 2nd string England defence.
You can count friendly games as deciding factors. But friendlies are just, ways to tryout new players and their is no reason why to make them deciding factors. In fact making friendlies deciding factors is implying they are equal to tourneys. Torres is not in our current squad. Have you read the news? Soldado will be our preferred forward and scored a hat trick, against venezuela. That's good, considering is not an important tourney. England needs to focus more on their own game plan, because Capello quitting shows that their is something going on. England is, and will always be overrated. In a tourney, they haven't won anything, so I am still waiting for tournaments and less favorable friendly results, to estimate validity in your analysis. England is one notch down, the likes of Germany, Holland, France, Portugal and Italy.
Italy is a good team and in the last decade have achieved more than England. To say England is better is sheer arrogance. Italy is historically good with germany and brazil, could you ever say that about England? England gets a lot of attention because if their league, but looking at the quality of their players one realizes hype instead of reality when compared to other countries. English players are notch down in quality, England is the supersayan version of the USA! What have they won recently ? The second division teams in England are horrible and the level of play shows the depth of the failure of nurturing future talents. England spends lots of money in incorporating players for its league while it struggles to build their own system. Wanna look at strong national teams? Look at their lower divisions, it shows the overall strength. It's true! Portugal in my opinion is stronger than England and would not bet money on England If they played Portugal tomorrow. Get the point?
Since Prandelli took over, Italy has started playing better than they used to...The catenaccio days are over. The problem now is that both Cassano and the "yankee" Giuseppe Rossi are sidelined due to injury. The former is unlikely to recover in time (heart disease is not a joke) while the latter might have alredy started training. The coach is forced to rebuid the attack and you can see it's not easy at all after we lost two straight home friendlies against extra-European opponents. I'm also worried because we struggled to score when playing away qualifying matches..I mean we won only 1-0 against Faroe Islands (even though they don't concede many goals at home).
Germany and the Netherlands, along with Spain, are favorites in my eyes. I hold Germany slightly higher than the others.
Well they are all "strong"....It will be an interesting Euro with many great games . And about Spain well...you don't have to count the good players you have. Spain is a great team that has WON two cups in the last 4 years! Don't forget that....that still doesn't mean they are unbeatable and will win for the third time. I doubt it and hope it won't happen MOSTLY for the sake of the suspense of the tournament. I don't want to see a 1:0 between Spain and Italy, I don't want to see a 1:0 against Germany or Holland or France or Portugal....not again ^^