Euro 2008

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 10:23 am

:3

I should say, this was the best game I've seen in a long, long time. And I don't mean just cause the Russians won. The Dutch had a great team, and they were way more organized than the Russians. The Russians were just a bit more aggressive on the attack, and let's face it, having a Dutch coach probably helped them prepare a strategy to create opportunities. They had more opportunities by the end of the game, and with tiredness setting in after the 110 minute point, probability finally did its job.

Mithroch · Post by **Mithroch** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:36 am

Stupid Russians... where the hell did they come from? I didn't expect them to even get out of pool play.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:48 pm

Mithroch wrote:Stupid Russians... where the hell did they come from? I didn't expect them to even get out of pool play.

Um.

Actually I was surprised they did so poorly at the beginning. The Russians have been tipped as an exceptionally strong team this year. I think it would've been very stupid to expect them to have done poorly. Although I should say I thought for sure the Dutch were unstoppable.

Otherwise, Russians and soccer? Let's not forget UEFA Cup, which was won by Zenit St. Petersburg this year. With giant amounts of money from whales like Gazprom being pumped into Russian football in the last 3-4 years, I would say Russia is going to be a major force to reckon with in this sport in a few years' time. They have popularity, official support, money, and help from foreign talent (especially in management/coaching) to build up a strong domestic soccer base rapidly. So watch out, etc.

Mithroch · Post by **Mithroch** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:11 am

Otohiko wrote:
Mithroch wrote:Stupid Russians... where the hell did they come from? I didn't expect them to even get out of pool play.
Um.

Actually I was surprised they did so poorly at the beginning. The Russians have been tipped as an exceptionally strong team this year. I think it would've been very stupid to expect them to have done poorly. Although I should say I thought for sure the Dutch were unstoppable.

Otherwise, Russians and soccer? Let's not forget UEFA Cup, which was won by Zenit St. Petersburg this year. With giant amounts of money from whales like Gazprom being pumped into Russian football in the last 3-4 years, I would say Russia is going to be a major force to reckon with in this sport in a few years' time. They have popularity, official support, money, and help from foreign talent (especially in management/coaching) to build up a strong domestic soccer base rapidly. So watch out, etc.

Come on, they barely qualified. Russia squeaked by that power house Andorra (yes.... sarcasm) and still needed Croatia to win in England. It's true... group D was not the strongest... but with Arshavin suspended first two games I really figured Russia was done and I'm not the only one.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:46 pm

Congrats Germany!

The Turks put up a good game, but as usual, the cautious if determined German approach got their results. Not very impressively though.

Admittably, when it tied with 10 minutes to go I was a little worried... Germany shouldn't have let them to get that close to beating them.

PS - trying to keep my healthy skepticism for tomorrow so I don't expect too much... honestly, I think Spain are the ones with the best chance against both of their next prospective opponents now.

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:23 pm

Germany VS Spain, i never would have guessed that ... i'm voting for German. My German blood made me do it.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:23 pm

guy07 wrote:Germany VS Spain, i never would have guessed that ... i'm voting for German. My German blood made me do it.

I'm "voting" for Spain for much more logical reasons. If you notice, Germany have put on a very cautious game, to put it mildly - they only won their first game against Poland with a lead of more than 1. Otherwise they never got to penalties and all through, they pretty much played an annoyingly cautious game where they'd score and then hang on to their lead instead of continuing attack, wearing down the other team gradually through relatively organized defense.

The problem is that as we saw - especially in this last game - Spain can put on offensive pressure and keep it. They managed to wear down the Russians even though the game was constantly in their (Russians') own zone - and I'm afraid the same thing will happen to Germany unless they realize this.
One thing for sure, they won't be able to win against Spain the way they've been playing up to now.

I'll be going for Germany too, but as with Russia, I'm skeptical. Russia just fell apart against Spain's game. Not shamefully, but in a way that was completely obvious and showed their team's lack of organized offensive cooperation. They were counting on "Arshavin magic" and other individual talents on their team, and it didn't work at all. They weren't playing well together on the attack - and Spain's goal-scoring attacks were all brilliantly set up by comparison. The Russians did admirably on defense and the goalkeeping was top-notch. Just that if one team is completely dominating the ball in the opponent's zone, probability will eventually do its job.

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:01 am

Non-believer! You shall pay for your blasphemy!

Mithroch · Post by **Mithroch** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:20 am

Given Spain's history of self destructing... Germany.

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:55 am

Why was Russia in the Euro 2008 cup in the first place?,

They didn't let China or any other asian country in.