The Official European Football Thread

[POJO_Risin]

LMFAO...I'm actually physically fearful of going to Soccer games in Europe...

[Seshmeister]

That's what is all about...

I need to take you to one.

[Wawazat]

Originally posted by POJO_Risin
So give me a few players over the next few weeks to pay attention to...

I was talking to a friend today...Brazilian by birth...who's telling me there's this 26 year old for Brazil...Ronaldini...Ronaldino...some shit like that...and people are saying he could be the best...

true?

who else?

Ronaldinho has been awarded the FIFA World Player of the Year award twice (2004, 2005), as well as the European Footballer of the Year award and the FIFPro World Player of the Year award (both 2005)

Champions League Winner 2006:

On May 17 2006, Barcelona became European Champions after defeating Arsenal 2-1 in the Champions League final, the goals coming from Samuel Eto'o and Juliano Belletti, who were both assisted by Henrik Larsson. Ronaldinho finished the season with 25 goals in all competitions, his best ever tally.

Who else ?

All of the brazilian Team

[jero]

Originally posted by Wawazat

Who else ?

All of the brazilian Team

I would say: Ballack, Robben, Van Persie, Riquelme, Crespo, Henry, Nedved, Gatusso, Toni (Luca), Torres, Drogba, Kone and forget about the Brasilian players.

[Wawazat]

I would like to add: I´m not impressed by the dutch performance so far.

Robben is one cool motherfucker though

[jero]

I'm not either. Playing ugly but winning is something San Marco van Basten must have learned from the Germans.

[Wawazat]

Quite rightly so.

Can´t wait for tomorrow evening

[jero]

Kroatia rules!

[Wawazat]

place your bets & shut up

[trueblue]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
I don't usually like German football but this team isn't like the usual ones. Very attacking with a shit defence.

What people always forget is that half the games after the group stages end up being penalty shootouts which means there is a hell of a lot of luck involved and Germany are brilliant at shootouts and Holland, Italy and England are shit at them.

Everyone seems to assume that Brazil will win but it's in Europe. South American teams never win in Europe, when was the last time 1958?

i
There is every chance that Germany will win it.

It's unlikely England will win it because their manager is such an insanely useless cunt. They have a couple of great midfielders but no strikers.

Hi Sesh, i get your point... i know of countless fans that think German teams are full of robots on auto-pilot and play like machines, that the German game is too physical and lacks "flair"...i obviously don't quite agree with these popular stereotypes...but i confess the obvious here: the current German team is nowhere near the league of past teams, but they play outrageously strongly in offence and seem to be scoring shiploads of goals recently...this is of course, offset by a lousy, shaky defence that leaks in far more goals than past German teams used to...I have several complaints about Jurgen Klinsmann's approach, one of which is his almost comical enthusiasm for some odd American gimmicks learned in California that he thinks are like silver bullets to solve some of the problems in German football..then he seems to be perfectly happy with winning hockey style games with scorelines of 4-3 or 5-4..ughh!!!...He also pisses me off by his habit of explaining away and glossing over the mistakes that this German team repeatedly makes...he just did it again after the Costa Rica game and i felt like putting him six feet under...you're right about Sven..a moronic drone that should maybe be selling iceberg lettuce outside the stadium instead of coaching the England team..


and hey, i don't rank Brazil as a run-away favourite at this WC, but not for the reason you cite here...1958 and 2006 are totally different contexts...back then, only a handful of Brazilians were playing in Europe and the continent and playing conditions were totally alien to the Brazilians. Brazil winning it back then in Sweden was arguably a far more remarkable achievement than Brazil winning it now....Today, countless Brazilians play all over Europe...their first team consists of almost ALL players playing overseas in Europe....so the mystery is gone, and for many of the players it must feel like an extended end-season engagement, only this time not with their clubs but with country...

you're spot on, Germany are odds-on favourite to win penalty shoot-outs against anybody, and knock-out stages will involve at least one such game if you wanna reach the final...anyway, hope Germany win at home again, only if Australia exit early...

[trueblue]

Originally posted by Don Corleone
Natra - I'm reading in todays papers that your guys are hoping to avoid England in the 2nd round, is this true?

I watched the game on Friday (Germany vs Costa Rica) and I think you'd take us.

hey Don i find that incredible..do you have any quotes on this??...cos i feel this German team plays quite recklessly but fearlessly too all through the last 2 years......in fact i got the opposite and more obvious take on this issue about England v Germany games...i just read about David Beckham and another player (I forget now which one), reportedly saying that they badly wanna avoid Germany in the knockout stages and facing them in a 'shoot-out' would be an "absolute nightmare"....btw, the opening game against Costa Rica gave me mixed feelings...rousing attack but the usual pathetic defence...and it ended up only 4-2...playing like they did would guarantee the result in reverse when Germany plays against stronger opponents...but then again, England hardly made anybody (much less Germany) tremble with fear by their 'heat-induced', "own-goal-inspired' win against Paraguay..

[jero]

Originally posted by Wawazat
place your bets & shut up

Cool! I would bet Kroatia- Brasil 2-1

[jero]

Gooooooooooooooooood comeback Australia

[DavidLeeNatra]

couldn't post yesterday...congratz to holland not impressive but effective...robben was good! and chapeau to the aussies! you fucking DESERVED it!!!

and I'm LMFAO about pojo posting in this thread...

this Worldcup looks like a hell of a party so far...england sucked, argentina was ok, holland was ok...can't wait for tommorrow and I'm curious what italy will bring to the table...

[trueblue]

i'm over the moon guys...where's Grant and my fellow Aussies??.....i knew we could get past Japan and we did...and in fantastic style.. 2nd half was Australia all the way...second round beckons and Brazil and Croatia have been warned....wish i could celebrate with our heroes for making late night viewing end in joy.....wanna hear what ya all think?...Is USA gonna follow our lead against the Czechs??..slim chance i reckon..but i'd be delighted if they pull off a shocker and win...Meantime, Australia is the show-stopper right now..

[DavidLeeNatra]

I hope this game was not too hard for your socceroos...it was very hot and they played a fast game in that heat...fuck kroatia! aussie and brazil next round!

[Unchainme]

Weird hearing the National Anthem sung over there.

I was thinking they were going to boo it or something.

Is the US playing in a dome or something, Natra? Didn't know they had domed soccer stadiums over there.

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by DavidLeeNatra
alright you no good bastards!!! I opened the forum where we can predict the games. the site gives the points automatically...the only problem is, it is in german...that could make it a bit difficult for some of you to get through the manual...it's rather simple anyway if I explain it to you (we have plenty of time since it begins)

let the games begin:

you go here: http://www.kicktipp.de/natras

then you got to "mitglied werden" (become member)

then you enter your nick, password and email

you're in!!!

to play:

go to "tippabgabe" enter the results and save at the bottom

I hope the english speakin' people can handle it or maybe you find a similar site in english were we can play. but I can tell you that I know this site for years and it's really good and the point system is great...

hope we'll meet there!

Questions

a) Why the fuck don't I get any points for correctly predicting England would only score 1 goal in the opening game? 5-1 to Paraguay should still get me something.

b) How did I end up bottom of the league already?

[Seshmeister]

Ahh shit I forgot to put any predictions on for today.

My German sucked. I've now found the option to see it in English.

[Seshmeister]

Oof 1-0 to the Czechs already.

[DavidLeeNatra]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
Ahh shit I forgot to put any predictions on for today.

My German sucked. I've now found the option to see it in English.

shit...I see it now..."persönliche einstellung" gives you the opportunity to see all the shit in english or french...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Hello socceraholic Freunde.

I'm just out of a ten-day mess without an Internet connection, but I could see nearly all the matches. And no team really showed anything noticeable - but they maybe preserve their energies for the next rounds.
Even the team I think will win - Holland - still has everything to prove IMO.
Only Germany started big - four goals! - but revealed a rather fragile defence.
Tomorrow France begins their championship vs Switzerland... A really good time in perspective, as in the pub I like to see matches there are always a few Swiss chaps with big loud mouths. French people are convinced that the French team is the best one, always the same old song.
It'll be all the more delicious to see their faces when Zidane and co will be sent back home in the quarterfinals.

It's great to see Australia win a match, what if European and South American teams started to lose ground to the "rest of the world"? Then maybe soccer could become a real worldwide sport, which it isn't yet.

France 2:2 Switzerland

[BITEYOASS]

Well Fuck Piss Shit!! Damn Czechs scored a goal!

[DlocRoth]

FUCK!! Reyna off the post!!

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by DavidLeeNatra
...or french...

I missed that. I have to go back there. Thanx DLN!

[Figs]

Down 2-0, it's over....not going to score 2 on Petr Cech

[DavidLeeNatra]

wow...the czechs got a hell of a team! best performance since the now...hope jan koller is well, great guy!

[DavidLeeNatra]

sammy kuffour as we know him from the bundesliga...

italy was very disappointing...but they always fuck up the first round...I wonder why people always complain about german football being not so attractive...when was the last time you saw a game of italy being great (fuck all of you who's answer is 3:1 in the final of 1982)...italian football is the most unattractive and boring shit...

[DavidLeeNatra]

but sorry for you guys from the US...I see no chance that you survive the first round...

(and this is not anti-amricano, just the truth from what I saw today)

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by DavidLeeNatra
italy was very disappointing...but they always fuck up the first round...

They weren't great, but they were solid, from beginning to end. Sure they were lucky that Ghana never were able to finish their attacks (how many kicks 5 metres away from the goal?), but IMO they were the first "convincing" team since the beginning of the Kup.
Just my two (euro) cents.

[Grant]

Originally posted by trueblue
i'm over the moon guys...where's Grant and my fellow Aussies??.....i knew we could get past Japan and we did...and in fantastic style.. 2nd half was Australia all the way...second round beckons and Brazil and Croatia have been warned....wish i could celebrate with our heroes for making late night viewing end in joy.....wanna hear what ya all think?...Is USA gonna follow our lead against the Czechs??..slim chance i reckon..but i'd be delighted if they pull off a shocker and win...Meantime, Australia is the show-stopper right now..

Twas a great game mate, and one which I'm sure will go down in folklore for this country.

The Japs played fairly well but we did dominate the game more. Their advantage was their speed, ours was our heights in comparison. You can see the difference when Guus played on Kennedy...and the result was Cahill's first goal after Kennedy's header over the Japanese keeper. I was fuckin' furious when the ref allowed that Japanese goal after the clear impeachment by the Japs. At least, our late goals cancelled it out and the ref admitted to the mistake afterwards.

We're in a good set-up for the 2nd round.

[Grant]

Originally posted by DavidLeeNatra
I hope this game was not too hard for your socceroos...it was very hot and they played a fast game in that heat...fuck kroatia! aussie and brazil next round!

I think they were fine, mate. We're used to the hot climate and much of our players play in the EPL and Serie A...so they should be used to playing against the world's best.

[POJO_Risin]

a goal fucking five minutes in...and would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Reyna gotten that one in...

but such is life...

now we need to win the next two...

don't see it happening...but you never know...

Obviously...they'll be up for Italy on Saturday...

but boy did they look like complete ass yesterday...

[Dan]

Good to see The Socceroos have a great Win to start off the first round.

[trueblue]

Originally posted by Grant
Twas a great game mate, and one which I'm sure will go down in folklore for this country.

The Japs played fairly well but we did dominate the game more. Their advantage was their speed, ours was our heights in comparison. You can see the difference when Guus played on Kennedy...and the result was Cahill's first goal after Kennedy's header over the Japanese keeper. I was fuckin' furious when the ref allowed that Japanese goal after the clear impeachment by the Japs. At least, our late goals cancelled it out and the ref admitted to the mistake afterwards.


You're spot on Grant...the Japs are always fast and actually made our guys look quite leaden and slow in patches of the game...again the heat was quite obvious, even watching the game on TV made me feel for the guys suffering in the sweltering conditions..i think 9/10 times the first goal by Japan would be disallowed in any game, anywhere in the world....we might not dominate in football as we do in several other sports but our fighting and comeback abilities are never to be under-estimated and we showed that in terrific style last night...hope we can stop Croatia and hurt Brazil...so happy for Tim Cahill, he's one of my favourite Aussie players for a long time....keep watching Grant, so will I....cheers mate!!

We're in a good set-up for the 2nd round.

[trueblue]

The USA was a huge dud against the Czechs...i thought the Americans looked totally uninspired and played much below-par than i expected...Bruce Arena looked strangely bored and unaffected by how poorly his team was performing and the team itself played in a sadly lackluster lame fashion..I've always liked the Czechs' style and of course last night, they played the most fluent and convincing football so far in the WC...feel sad for Jan Koller...hope he recovers soon cos his absence as striker would be a big blow to the team's prospects ahead....3-0 was a great start for the Czechs and i hope they go all the way..

[jero]

Very dissapointed how the US played.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

France 0:0 Switzerland after 36 minutes... The blue frogs could well be eating some Swiss cheese in the end.
The city is exceptionally calm this evening.
It's strange, I feel even less like a chauvinist than usual.

[DavidLeeNatra]

Originally posted by Jérôme Frenchise
France 0:0 Switzerland after 36 minutes... The blue frogs could well be eating some Swiss cheese in the end.
The city is exceptionally calm this evening.
It's strange, I feel even less like a chauvinist than usual.

match is ok...I don't see one of the teams dominating the other...good chances on both sides, referee was right with the hand, I'd say...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by DavidLeeNatra
...referee was right with the hand, I'd say...

I agree: that hand was unintentional, it was just hanging there...
Football players will often forget they have hands!