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Post by MasterSnit on May 1, 2012 14:53:24 GMT -5
I was going to bring this up in the real-life TNA booking thread, but with the European Championships coming up we might as well start this.
So Fabio Capello abandons ship as England's manager and everyone considers Harry Redknapp to be the obvious replacement.
Swerve.
Roy Hodgson gets it.
I'm actually quite amused by the news because I can't stand Harry Redknapp. It does seem very TNA-ish though.
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Post by Velkontés on May 1, 2012 15:17:23 GMT -5
Fabio Capello would have been the TNA swerve option. Or Sven.
It's a no-lose situation for the FA. Either they capture lightning in a bottle, or they can fire him after England lose in the group stage and nobody will mind. The last few guys have been former stars from WWE managers from other countries, so in some ways this an anti-TNA pick.
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Post by MasterSnit on May 1, 2012 15:47:05 GMT -5
Yeah, I agree it is a no-lose. For both the new manager and the FA. I think England have Ukraine (hosts), France and Sweden in their group. It'll be a challenge just to progress from that. So if they get sent packing early it will be because Hodgson never had time to work with the team, and if they manage to progress all the way to a semi-final penalty shoot-out it will be because Hodgson is the right guy to "take the team forward".
Oh yeah, Great Britain will be going for gold at the Olympics. Messi and Argentina won gold last time, so I doubt a team full of Scottish duffers, useless Welshmen and English rejects will fare very well.
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Post by MasterSnit on Jun 16, 2012 17:13:46 GMT -5
Any of you been watching Euro 2012?
It's been decent so far. One thing I noticed was that in the opening match Greece played the hosts. Just as they did when they won the tournament in 2004 when they played the hosts Portugal in the first and final matches. Then they somehow sneaked through at the expense of Russia tonight. I doubt they will win it again, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
England did well to beat Sweden. It's still going to be tough for them up against the co-hosts Ukraine in the final group match.
Ireland have been quite disappointing. Yeah, they landed in one of the hardest groups, but they will probably go home with 0 points and having been thumped in every match.
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Post by Velkontés on Jun 17, 2012 5:58:52 GMT -5
I've been watching a bit of it. England TNA Bookinged their way through that match against Sweden. God. Sweden really aren't all that great. Well let me put it another way: England shouldn't be going behind 2-1 after leading 1-0, and then desparately needing two goals to win the game against Sweden.
Russia jobbing to Greece made me laugh. Losers.
I think Croatia are a dark horse if they could get through. They're beatable but they can also cause the good teams problems.
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Post by Naitch on Jun 17, 2012 22:51:21 GMT -5
I've caught some of these games these past two weekends. I enjoy watching the crowds when the camera pans. It looks like so much fun to be at one of those games. Germany had what appeared to an American to be a good showing this weekend. Portugal intrigues me, there players are just so odd to me.
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Post by MasterSnit on Jun 19, 2012 11:48:49 GMT -5
Lol. What is so odd about the Portuguese players to you, Naitch?
V, do you really believe that England shouldn't be losing to Sweden at some point during a match? And that managing to come back and score two good goals and win the match is anything other than a good thing? Come on, not one of these teams playing in the tournament are that much better or worse than the others to go into every game and win it with ease. Look at Russia, they were the best team in the tournament a week ago and now they are gone. Sweden aren't a bad side, and until recently they had not lost to England in years. I consider both teams to be on the same level and neither side in that match were that much better than the other. I fancy England to beat Ukraine tonight and France will probably have enough to beat Sweden.
I'd say Spain and Germany are the two best teams in the tournament, and then every other team are at least a slight level below. Still, Spain didn't look too great against Croatia and anything can happen in the knock-out stages.
Right now, I think Germany will win.
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Post by Velkontés on Jun 19, 2012 13:47:43 GMT -5
V, do you really believe that England shouldn't be losing to Sweden at some point during a match? And that managing to come back and score two good goals and win the match is anything other than a good thing? Come on, not one of these teams playing in the tournament are that much better or worse than the others to go into every game and win it with ease. There are probably 8 teams better than England in this thing, but I would say England are a little bit better than Sweden. Having said that, I said to a friend before the tournament started that England could conceivably lose all three matches. So it's not so much that at one point in the game they were down 2-1. It was more the way they got there. They were in control of the game in the first half and the defense clowncarred two goals to a lesser opponent.
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Post by MasterSnit on Jun 20, 2012 16:58:32 GMT -5
OK, I'm predicting semi-finals of Portugal vs Germany and Spain vs Italy. With the final being a repeat of the last final between Spain and Germany.
I've not been too impressed with the Czechs and Portugal can beat anyone on their day, so I think Portugal will win that one.
Germany just can't get enough of that Greek poontang.
Italy vs England can go either way, but I think the Italians will be a little too cute for the English.
France upsetting Spain wouldn't surprise me as teams are handling Spain's style better than they used to. Still, if they are at their best I think Spain should have enough.
Hopefully things don't work out quite so predictably, but that's my picks.
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Post by Velkontés on Jun 25, 2012 0:22:40 GMT -5
I think the Italians will be a little too cute for the English. Nah, they'll just do what everyone else does. Win by the penalty shooutout. The Diva Finish of football match endings. In fairness, this was one of the few times where the other team actually unquestionably outplayed England before winning on penalties. It made me laugh after it was all over when Alan Shearer blahed something on the lines of "this is how good England are right now... the fifth or sixth best team in the world". No, it's more like England are the 13th or 14th best team in the world right now. It's that kind of delusional thinking that's part of England's problem: "hey, we're nearly good enough right now, we just need some luck". No. We're shit and we don't know we are.
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Post by MasterSnit on Jun 25, 2012 13:35:54 GMT -5
I think the Italians will be a little too cute for the English. Nah, they'll just do what everyone else does. Win by the penalty shooutout. The Diva Finish of football match endings. ![](http://i.cr3ation.co.uk/dl/s1/gif/a095b62ba601cdf2e9b5ff3d0e9c8069_pirlodink.gif) I dunno, that seemed pretty cute to me. While they are gripping, I'm also not a huge fan of penalties. However, Italy deserved the win last night. An article on the BBC described it as a 0-0 thrashing, and apart from a little while in the first half, it pretty much was. It's the same story all the time, the continental teams are so much better at keeping and using the ball. Andrea Pirlo had a whole team wrapped around his finger last night. I got the draw mixed up (like usual) but the repeat final of Spain vs Germany still looks likely. Both semis can go either way though. Did Alan Shearer mean the fifth or sixth best team in Europe? Anyway, yeah, there are plenty of teams who are clearly better than England. I also don't see them catching up with the top teams at any point in the foreseeable future either.
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Post by Velkontés on Jun 27, 2012 15:23:18 GMT -5
Keeping and using the ball is a pretty fundamental part of the game. And yes, England aren't as good at it as a lot of other nations.
It doesn't bother me so much that England aren't very good, it's more the mentality that we're still some big shot on the world game like Italy or Germany, when really we're just another Croatia or Ukraine. I think that dumb mindset (and the resultant pressure on the players) is a big part of the problem. England actually had a good tournament.
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Post by MasterSnit on Jun 28, 2012 15:09:18 GMT -5
Expectations can be crippling. Look at the likes of Greece in 2004, or Denmark in 1992. They probably went into all of their games without any real pressure and as a result it must have aided them in being able to go out and play as well as they did.
There just isn't a lot of time for players at International level. So the teams with the more complete players are the ones who have the success.
From what I understand the way the game is played and taught down in England is much the same way it is played and taught up here in Scotland. There is not a big enough focus on learning and perfecting the more basic skills. When I was at school, I think I was about ten years old (Primary 5) when I first played for the school team and it was 11 v 11 on a full sized pitch. Me and another guy played as the strikers and were told to hang about the halfway line to receive the ball before pushing forward in attack. I touched the ball twice the entire match and we got humped 32-0. Not quite Arbroath v Bon Accord, but still. Point is, I learned nothing and nothing ever changed after that. Our manager was the school janitor, and every training session and game was us just doing whatever we wanted. The janitor was too busy getting drunk on the job down in the boiler room or just standing about, happily farting like a son of a pregnant dog. The Sunday league scene wasn't much better either.
It just seems obvious to me that punting a ball up and down a massive, muddy pitch in the depths of winter is the main reason why our players suck. Of course there are many contributing factors, but with anything, it helps greatly if things are learned at an early stage and the way we approach the game doesn't allow for that.
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Post by Velkontés on Jun 30, 2012 6:46:04 GMT -5
I touched the ball twice the entire match and we got humped 32-0. Yeah, I remember our primary school took part in a inter-school tournament one Saturday. I think the games were 20 minutes long or something, but it was also 11 vs 11 on a full-size pitch. I was midfield. The one memory I have is being behind the other team's striker when he hoofed the ball forward from forty yards, and watching it bounce once, twice, hit the post and in the net. We lost that game 5-0. We lost the other games 1-0 and 11-0. We were the Ryback's Opponents of the tournament. They been saying the same thing for 20 years though. They know what the problem is, there just doesn't seem to be the desire or wherewithal to actually, you know, do anything about it. It's not like it's some impossible task, either. England lost 6-3 at home to a far superior Hungarian team in 1953, and 13 years later won it all. I'm not saying England can ever win the World Cup, but they can certainly get better at playing fucking football.
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Post by MasterSnit on Jul 2, 2012 16:24:13 GMT -5
The one memory I have is being behind the other team's striker when he hoofed the ball forward from forty yards, and watching it bounce once, twice, hit the post and in the net. Yeah, I remember witnessing a few "screamers" similar to that. That's also reminded me of a game I played in, again 11 v 11 and a full sized pitch, and it was really windy. So windy that every time our 'keeper took a goal kick in the first half, it would get so far and then boomerang back, bouncing just outside our own box every time. It was almost impossible to get to the other team's goal because a) the pitch was too big for us and our limited skills to get there by passing, and b) our best chance of getting there (punting the ball up the pitch) was taken away. I really didn't expect Spain to do what they did last night. I thought that game was a 50-50, but Spain ripped the Italians to shreds. Most of their team will still be there in a couple of years at the next World Cup too, so teams are going to have to try and get closer to them. Can you imagine a final in 2014 of Spain (possibly the best team ever) v Brazil (the most successful country in history) in Rio? That would be so cool.
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