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06-12-2012, 06:44 AM
Another thing I noticed while re-watching last night the France-England game: to get the best of Benzema, Blanc needs to play a real striker like Giroud up front so that Benzema can feed him and support him. As the Big Benz likes to go deep, take the ball, take on players and then link up front with a target man. This is how Mourinho has been able to get the best of him at Real with Cristiano up as the guy up front. Wonder why Blanc hasn't noticed that yet....
Another observation on France: while Nasri is a madly talented player, he tends to slow things down as he likes to have the ball on his feet way too much...
Anyone else noticed these or am I thinking too much and over-analysing this?
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06-12-2012, 06:51 AM
You have to remember that in all major games Ibra had played the last 3 years his opposition has made it a priority to shut him down. It is at these times the support players have to do their part.
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06-12-2012, 08:42 AM
After watching alle the matches, a coupple of things strikes me. First of all the enternainment value is way higher then for the last world cup in South Africa. Secondly, the quality difference between the teams first matches are huge.
Germany- Portugal and Spain - Italy, by far the better teams and matches so far. All of them obvious title contenders.
France, Holland and Russia have also been pretty good. France needs more tempo on the ball and for their combinations. They did not want to take much risiko when attacking England. If they had, they most likely would have won it. Holland could easily have won by 2-3 goals. They did not play great, but even their low standards are a class above most of the opponents. Russia moved excellent, but with an ageing squad, Im not sure how long they can keep on playing like that.
Ukraine, England, Croatia, Denmak, Greece have played like I expected them to. Greece extremely unlucky with a mad ref mistake. Making them play with 10 men.
Czech Rep, Sweden, Poland, Ireland all been disappointing. I cant really see them advancing even if the Sweedes might beat England, the old tired legs will lose to France in the last match.
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06-12-2012, 01:49 PM
Anyone see the blonde Russian chick making the heart shape in the crowd just now,damn. Might have to apply for my Russian visa.
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06-12-2012, 05:53 PM
Not sure what game some of you watched, England clearly played better than France , a number of times Chamberlin was hacked down after he had beat his man, with a better referee it would have been a simple Enlgand victory.
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06-12-2012, 06:30 PM
Billy,
Not sure what game you watched as England didn't do jack in that match. They simply parcked their bus in front of their goal in their box. In the entire 90 minutes+, England must have passed the midfield line no more than 10 times. In the 2nd half, it was more like an attack defence with England having everyone back behind the ball and France attacking all the time. Some stats for you 19 shots to 3 for France, almost 60% ball possession for France. Apart from a couple of runs/bursts, Chamberlain was a non factor, same for Wellbeck. The only English player who could have had an impact would have been Walcott and we French are very grateful for Hogdson for bringing him only towards the end. Had France or rather Blanc been a bit more daring by putting a real striker up front as Giroux , it would have been a clear win for France.
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06-13-2012, 07:17 AM
If Chamberlain was so inefectual then why did France have to resort to cheap fouls to stop play ? France got away with cheap professional fouls all over the pitch when they knew they were beaten, a proper ref would have dealt with it, if you cannot see that you clearly know nothing about football. Your stats are also misleading, France had only 7 shots on target to Englands 4 because most of their efforts were specualtive. Without a ridiculously biased ref France were not in that game. Considereing this is am England team with no experience and major players missing France should be more worried.
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06-13-2012, 07:24 AM
You know that your team is in trouble when you have to blame the ref for everything.
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06-13-2012, 08:15 AM
DK is going to clobber Portugal! Or so I hope.
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Euro 2012
06-13-2012, 08:28 AM
WARSAW, Poland -- The injury toll from clashes involving soccer hooligans before and after Poland played Russia in a tense European Championship game increased to at least 24 while 184 people were detained.
But Polish officials were putting a positive spin on the situation Wednesday, saying they intervened decisively when trouble arose and that the big police presence prevented worse trouble.
The trouble started when about 5,000 Russian fans marched through central Warsaw waving flags while making their way to the National Stadium for Tuesday's game. It was seen as provocative to many Poles. The two countries share a difficult history, including decades of control by Moscow over Poland during the Cold War. Many Poles felt authorities shouldn't have allowed the Russians to march as a group in Warsaw.
Police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse fights between fans of the rival teams and to repel attacks by Polish fans against officers. The fights were scattered across downtown Warsaw. None was at the National Stadium or in the downtown fan zone, where about 75,000 watched the match on giant TV screens.
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06-13-2012, 12:34 PM
I'm nervous, goddamnit !!!
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06-13-2012, 01:45 PM
oh boy, was that game close...
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06-13-2012, 03:55 PM
Great result. I don't see Holland winning 2-0, 3-2 or 4-3 vs Portugal which they need to go on to the tournament.
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06-15-2012, 08:23 AM
After yesterday's results, Italy are almost out. Spain and Croatia need to tie their game and they'd get rid of a dangerous thread. Which wouldn't be a big loss after all for the tournament. Italy should have killed the game in the first half against Croatia but failed to do so and in the 2nd half, paid the price cash. Spain easy win over a weak Irish team. Hoping that Ireland will play their best game against the Italians to get at least a point in this Euro. Come on Irish lads!!!
Hoping today that Ibra and Sweden send home a very overrated English team. For us France against Ukraine, it'll be a tough game playing against the home team and a reborn Sheva. Hoping we can emulate the result of the friendly a year ago in Kiev where we beat Ukraine 4-1. Allez les mecs!!!
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06-16-2012, 02:05 AM
Good win by England even tough at times they looked a bit lost that is until Walcott was brought in. For England to do anything in this Euro, Walcott and Carroll have to play from the start. I don't know what's hard to understand for Hogdson here. With Rooney returning for the Ukraine match, it'll be interesting to see England play and see if Rooney will finally delivery at a major international tournament which he has yet to do. If the coach plays Rooney and Walcott, then England can become a potentially dangerous team to face for any team.
For France, I was delighted to see Evra on the bench as Clichy is a much better player. Evra has been more of a liability than anything. Now, if we can only find a good alternative to that clown of Mexes, then we'd be set...
Tomorrow, Russia should beat Greece comfortably and the Poland-Czech Republic will be an interesting one to watch.