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So....Really? No one interested enough to make a thread?

This evening: Belgium-Italy. We'll see.

stupid question - where are Netherlands?

Charlie Don't Surf said:

stupid question - where are Netherlands?

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Didn't make it through to the championship.

Ther's some 48-ish European countries, only 24 go through, they didn't, because they suck yo. (well, they mostly had bad luck a few times and some organization issues).

It feels like really recently (the last one?) they were in the finals of the World Cup. Isn't that a harder/bigger tournament than the Euro? I liked their orange jerseys.

Recently I learned that England have failed to win their opening Euros match for eight tournaments running. No wins out of eight. That's relegation form, that is.

Charlie Don't Surf said:

It feels like really recently (the last one?) they were in the finals of the World Cup.

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That was two world cups ago, in 2010. IIRC that was a bit of a Cinderella run as it is.

Not so good for ya @Bubble181. At least it wasn't a horrible hand ball like the Brazil-Peru match at Copa.

Sparhawk said:

Not so good for ya @Bubble181. At least it wasn't a horrible hand ball like the Brazil-Peru match at Copa.

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Music and passion are always in fashion there, I hear.

--Patrick

blotsfan said:

That was two world cups ago, in 2010. IIRC that was a bit of a Cinderella run as it is.

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i was nosy enough to look it up, two years ago they were 3rd!!!!

The Dutch are going through something of a rut right now. Their squad doesn't really have any stand-out superstar names, apart from the ageing stars from the last generation (Robben, Sneijder, Huntelaar etc). Their new core players (Depay, Strootman, Wijnaldum, Janssen, Bruma etc) are good, but they don't really strike fear into the hearts of opponents like Robben, van Persie, van der Vaart, van Nistelrooy, and Kluivert did. And if you look at even earlier generations, you find elite players like Bergkamp, Seedorf, Davids, van Basten, Overmars, de Boer, and of course the king of football himself, Johan Cruyff.

There's every chance the current generation will improve and return the Dutch to their previous status as an elite team, but as things stand right now, they're not doing too well.

EDIT: I should also add that the Netherlands's manager, Danny Blind, has a reputation for being tactically naive and inflexible. As a result, he can't even get his squad of good-but-not-great players to play at a good-but-not-great level.

Charlie Don't Surf said:

i was nosy enough to look it up, two years ago they were 3rd!!!!

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Yes, with a good drawing, some luck, a lot of other teams who were tired because of the early date in the year where other teams' players all played in ongoing competitions where the Dutch had mostly already finished, and as one last hurrah of the last generation - and even so they over-achieved.

The Belgians yesterday did exactly as expected (I prognosticated a 0-1, myself, but still). Our coach simply can't get his players to play together as a team, and despite all the effort, we still can't manage against a team that defends. We can play great football if the other side plays offensively, as shown at the WC against America, but a good, well-defending team paralyzes our unimaginative offense and a single good blitz can pass by our defenses, as Italy showed twice.

We'll win against Ireland, I guess, but I'm far from sure Sweden won't manage a tie or a win - Ibrahimovich is just the player for that "one quick flash".

Bubble181 said:

Yes, with a good drawing, some luck, a lot of other teams who were tired because of the early date in the year where other teams' players all played in ongoing competitions where the Dutch had mostly already finished, and as one last hurrah of the last generation - and even so they over-achieved.

The Belgians yesterday did exactly as expected (I prognosticated a 0-1, myself, but still). Our coach simply can't get his players to play together as a team, and despite all the effort, we still can't manage against a team that defends. We can play great football if the other side plays offensively, as shown at the WC against America, but a good, well-defending team paralyzes our unimaginative offense and a single good blitz can pass by our defenses, as Italy showed twice.

We'll win against Ireland, I guess, but I'm far from sure Sweden won't manage a tie or a win - Ibrahimovich is just the player for that "one quick flash".

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That pass from Bonucci for Giaccherini's goal was nothing short of pornographic.

I honestly don't understand why Wilmots kept Alderweireld in the game after that, and he made a few bad calls later on as well (surrounding the second goal, too). I like him, but he really wasn't playing well.

Bubble, hope you are okay with what I'm sure is lots of wild celebrations with the Belgian win today.

I was really hoping that Iceland could have held on for the win against Hungary, but Hungary finally started just putting the ball on goal to get something to happen.

Portugal-Austria is on now, Rinaldo already looking like the whining is going to be EPIC today.

Watching Twitter after the penalty was glorious. After the offside was just gravy.


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I really dislike Ronaldo.

Sparhawk said:

Bubble, hope you are okay with what I'm sure is lots of wild celebrations with the Belgian win today.

I was really hoping that Iceland could have held on for the win against Hungary, but Hungary finally started just putting the ball on goal to get something to happen.

Portugal-Austria is on now, Rinaldo already looking like the whining is going to be EPIC today.

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Yup. Though now we're back into "the Red Devils are Saints and Wilmots Can Do No Wrong" and I don't understand. yes, we played a better match and, most importantly, won, but the first half sucked and we didn't accomplish anything until Ireland started playing and stopped defending. Italy defended the whole match, and every game we've played in the last 3 or so years has shown the same. We can win if the other guys play ball, but we can't if the other side hunkers down and waits for a counter opportunity. We're one big Ronaldo.

Jay said:

I really dislike Ronaldo.

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Ronaldo is, talent-wise, in the top 3 players of the world. His attitude and way of dealing with things is why he'll never be the player Messi is, though. Seriously.

Bubble181 said:

Ronaldo is, talent-wise, in the top 3 players of the world. His attitude and way of dealing with things is why he'll never be the player Messi is, though. Seriously.

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He's got talent, that's a given but he's a punk ass bitch. He still acts like a spoiled child and he's in his 30ies now.

The other day, Iceland pulls a miracle and ties Portugal and he's whining to people they were celebrating too much, what the fuck dude. Grow the fuck up.

He's probably has more model #s on his phone than the entire population of Iceland, do yourself a service a stop being an asshole Ronaldo.

BTW, he's never done much on the international level (euro/world cups).

Don't bring up champions league, until all teams have a salary cap, big clubs can just buy the best talent.

Apparently Aaron Ramsey's curse works proactively now. Unless Anton Yelchin wasn't his victim at all, and another celebrity dies in the next few days.

Couldn't be happier than Russia being tossed out like the sad sacks they are.

Jay said:

He's got talent, that's a given but he's a punk ass bitch. He still acts like a spoiled child and he's in his 30ies now.

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Oh, I don't know, look at the classy, mature way he deals with a journalist asking him if he was completely ready before the final group game.



Wait. That's not classy or mature!

Point stands, happy he played great in the last game, they needed it.

Croatia vs Portugal though, gonna be hard.

Also Italy vs Spain, my 2 countries, wtf... why couldn't they meet in the finals!

Jay said:

Point stands, happy he played great in the last game, they needed it.

Croatia vs Portugal though, gonna be hard.

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Well, they won. Not really deservedly, but they won. Now onwards to Poland!

And us, on to Wales. People here are saying it'll be a piece of cake and it's "just" Wales, but they seem to forget in the group round, we only lost once and had two ties....That loss and one of those ties were against Wales.

Somehow I can picture Gareth Bale dragging Wales all the way to the final.

bhamv3 said:

Somehow I can picture Gareth Bale dragging Wales all the way to the final.

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Well, Portugal vs Wales would be Ronaldo vs Bale, pretty much. I'd root for Wales in that match-up. Though I'd rather see Belgium kick Ronaldo's pretty boy ass back to Portugal

England has entered the death spiral.

Brexted the Euro 2016.

And holy shit Iceland and Italy.

Fucking hell England's a fucking joke.

My hopes are now firmly on a Belgium-Iceland finals, and just for the sake of the Cinderella story, Iceland can win

And he's a part-time dentist.

Hugs, @Bubble181. At least it wasn't Iceland that knocked y'all out, eh?

Gruebeard said:

Hugs, @Bubble181. At least it wasn't Iceland that knocked y'all out, eh?

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The way we were playing, they would've. Ugh...

We have some great players. We don't have a good team. And we DEFINITELY don't have the right trainer. I said so after the WC, and I'll say it again. Our players constantly have to stop and think and look where the others are - no mechanisms, no habits, no muscle memory. We need speed to win, and we slow the whole thing down ourselves!

Not gonna win games with that type of defense.

finally, the curse is broken. Germany wins against Italy

And good lord, what the match lacked the penalties made up for. Pfffff.

chris said:

finally, the curse is broken. Germany wins against Italy

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Not much of a victory when it comes down to the 9th round of penalty kicks....

If there wasn't for a couple of epic fails from Italy, Germany was out.

Never liked penalty kicks (not ideal for a team sport) and it looks like Italy played specifically for it by mid-point in the match. What a sad display.

Jay said:

Not much of a victory when it comes down to the 9th round of penalty kicks....

If there wasn't for a couple of epic fails from Italy, Germany was out.

Never liked penalty kicks (not ideal for a team sport) and it looks like Italy played specifically for it by mid-point in the match. What a sad display.

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Italy have always been a defensively-minded team though. They invented the catenaccio system, after all, plus they have arguably the best central defensive players in the tournament. Playing to their strengths is understandable.

So today is F1 British Grand Pre Wimbledon final and Euro final?

HCGLNS said:

So today is F1 British Grand Pre Wimbledon final and Euro final?

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So? Wimbledon's the men's - who cares anyway, just Brits. F1 British likewise hardly anyone cares but a very different kind of Brit and a couple of foreigners who like cars. And Euro 2016 is Portugal vs France which is a match nobody outside of their respective countries cares about since one's the host and the other hasn't played a decent game all championship, plus they have Ronaldo for a -5 CHA modifier.

Bubble181 said:

So? Wimbledon's the men's - who cares anyway, just Brits. F1 British likewise hardly anyone cares but a very different kind of Brit and a couple of foreigners who like cars. And Euro 2016 is Portugal vs France which is a match nobody outside of their respective countries cares about since one's the host and the other hasn't played a decent game all championship, plus they have Ronaldo for a -5 CHA modifier.

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Toowit toowoo, my favourite meal is owl stew!

I think I would've preferred France to win, but fair play to Portugal, it was a good win.

Also... now Ronaldo has a major international trophy while Messi does not.

bhamv3 said:

I think I would've preferred France to win, but fair play to Portugal, it was a good win.

Also... now Ronaldo has a major international trophy while Messi does not.

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And a moth!

HCGLNS said:

So today is F1 British Grand Pre Wimbledon final and Euro final?

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Also, you forgot it's also EC Athletics ;-)

I'll be damned.