A POR ELLOS OE, A POR ELLOS OE, A POR ELLOS OE, OE OE OE

SI, SI, SI, LA COPA PARA MI~*


Thank you La Roja and CSRN family for making this the best Euros ever!


World Cup 2010 - here we come!

;)


P.S. Check out www.spainworldcupblog.org for all my ups and downs. You can also find my Spain blogging during the Euros at www.forzafutbol.com. :P

Here is my blog on the game.

Wir spielten sehr falsch und verdienten zu verlieren.

Congrats to the Spaniards for finally winning something. :rolleyes:

Germany may have looked poor, but to be honest I think that was the quality of Spain, especially in starving the Germans of the ball for such long periods. Am obviously well made up that Liverpool's Torres got the goal!

Spain did that to Russia too! Quality champions all the way!!

No real footy in Europe now until mid-August :(

Thank god for MLS and MLSLive's highlight packages!

You might be on to something except for the fact that the German back line was ripped open by both the Portuguese and Turks prior to Spain putting them out of their misery.

Germany were perhaps the worst finalist I've ever seen in an international finals since I became aware of this stuff in 1982.

Fair play to Spain - I take nothing away from them. They were quality from day one and deserve to win the title. They were quality at ever position, had a bench to support the starters, and did not stumble into card trouble in the tournament. Worthy champions.

But I said it before and I'll say it again - this tournament, while exciting, was partly so because of the alarming lack of overall quality on 15 of the 16 teams. Defending, in particular was enough to have the most tolerant of coaches pulling hair out.

This was a great tournament for ESPN to initiate Americans to the world game, but to those who understand the game beyond "you need each side to score 100 points in order to keep my attention", the level of play was fairly poor.

SB

1-nil was a grave injustice.

germany's back line couldn't start for derby.

-- Germany was lucky to be in the finals, but give them credit, they definitely know how to turn it on in tournaments.

-- Spain did what the other group winners couldn't; back it up in the knockout rounds. And it's good to see "new" blood in the winner's circle for the second straight tournament.

-- Had to love the drama from the other teams as well: Hiddink working his magic on Russia; consecutive miracles from Turkey; the Portuguese, Dutch and Croats exploding and imploding in the same tournament; wow!

Mike

Sorry BR, but I still say sour grapes. This was a fabulous tournament.

Ding dong the witch is dead IE anti-football a la Greece. Long my attacking football reig


ARRIBA LA ROJA!

What grapes are sour? I have no vested interest in this tournament. Doesn't break my heart in the least that the team I picked didn't win, especially since they were playing more negative than most. In fact, I lauded the winners as worthy champions.

I just think that people have been totally bamboozled by the scorelines and have forgotten that you can have both quality and attacking football. They aren't mutually exclusive concepts.

For starters, I didn't compare this to the previous EUROS, I declared it inferior to club football. Nevertheless, I do find it interesting that you call last tournament a victory for anti-football, seeing as both tournaments had the same number of goals (77) and fewer than 2000 in Holland / Belgium. And that's with error-filled defending efforts. So, even with the anti-football of 2004, if this tournament have even standard defending, the goal tally would have fallen well short of last tourney's

A fantastic tournament should have fantastic play. Other than the Spanish, who offered consistent fantastic play? Everybody's golden boy, Arshavin, had TWO good games, one vanishing act in the tournament. That's far from fantastic. Only ONE side could keep the ball out of the net with any regularity. The commemorative DVD of this event will view like a blooper reel.


SB

Nice one J. Nice to read a very neutral, well stated review.

I was interested to hear a German journalist on the Guardian podcast express very similar views to Bishopville. (note, this was before the final, not sour grapes afterwards). He talked about the fans being desperate to be excited about something. The others called him a 'sore winner'. :lol:

I don't agree, just pointing out others feel that way too. I loved the tournament, fantastic entertainment, and I think it's churlish to fold one's arms and say, hmph, there's something better.

I don't think it's churlish at all. This is a tournament where people inside and outside of UEFA have stated is superior to the World Cup because there are no weak sisters - no wallflowers that sneak in because of lame confederations and quotas. So strong that they can expand to 24 teams - almost half the members of UEFA - and not drop in quality.

With the exception of Spain, this was a tournament that flattered to deceive. Lots of goals, but as often due to piss-poor play, not offensive brilliance. Classic sides doing as expected, but due to their opponents playing even worse than they did. Put Germany in any other group and they don't make the knockout phase.

So I'm calling bullshit. Before you get 24 teams, make sure you can put together 4 semi-finalists who aren't inherently flawed sides. Hell, give us two finalists who are actually worthy to lift the trophy.

SB