European Championship discussion thread! Americans keep out.

[quietfanatic]

It will make up for the Olympics at least.

 

[Brother None]

But hell, we0ve lost but most of all we organized a great Euro. Even UEFA says it’s the best ever, so we win!

...That's like ugly people saying "true beauty is on the inside"

But yeah, Portugal organised one hell of an EC. Too bad about the cameraworks, tho'

That said...

AHAHAHAHAHAH. EAT SHIT!!!!

Beautiful, bloody beautiful. I can't believe how *much* better Greece was, either. Portugal hardly put up a fight and even had to resort to pissed-off hacking down opponents at the end. Individual quality x 11 = nothing. Submission to the greater good x 11 = teh win.

lets all sing Deutschland deutschland uber.......

Why?

Pauleta I agree, it was preferable to put Nuno Gomes or even Postiga from the start, but Deco? Of course that Deco should be on the starting eleven, he played fantastically during all the Euro, and is by far a better creative medium them Rui Costa, who can only play well for about 20 minutes.

Hind-sight has 20/20 vision. Deco played a pretty bad match.

Hahahahaha. Oh man. I'm so happy about this. Go Greece, go Greece.

Yes, I was pro-Czech, still am. But in lieu of the Czechs, the Greeks are the way to go.

 

[Sander]

Bwaha. Now this was fun.

 

[Briosafreak]

Congrats to the Greeks from this forum, well deserved victory! And they were the best team on the tournament, the Czech were too Nedved dependent. The first part from the Greeks was awesome, perfect team play football, great technic moves and individual quality. Although with more resources for the attack than any other team on the tournament, Portugal lacked the hability to play in 4X4X2, wich the Czechs and the Russians shwoed it was the only way to scare the Greeks.

Best team was Greece, no doubts, followed by the Czech, then Portugal and Denmark. The Swedish had a perfect gaming scheme, but they still need a couple of world class players to be the best, maybe in two years? The English surprised me, with a second rate team in term of players still Eriksson found a new containmment/counterattack strategy that works quite well, maybe the next world cup can bring a surprise from them. The Dutch, like always , were overrated, but with those attackers and Robben they still went almost to the finish. They really need young players though, a lot of them, like Portugal needs at least three.

France was a disaster, and since Portugal played a bit like France in the finals i`ll say our coaches needed to watch a few videos that were forgotten.

I liked Latvia, they might still spoil the fun of the Portuguese in the road to the world cup. The Spanish just need Raul to start playing again to become dangerous again. Italy need more young players, new ways to play the game (only Greece showed how to play the "catennacio" Italian strategy, England was a bit lucky so that doesn`t count) and less players filled with EPO when they were young, making them fat and with bad temper.

Overall great tournament, weak referees though, but lots of fun and good weather, and many great looking girl supporters, nice

 

[Hellion]

Before the tournament, when asked by a journalist, Otto Rehagel said "there's a surprise-team in every tournament, let's hope it's us this time". Man, he didn't know how right he was when he said that

I still can't believe it...we are European Champions...theoritically, GREECE is the best team in Europe. I returned from the celebrations out on the streets at 7 AM, and there were STILL lots of people out there! (will post links to pics later, mwahaha)

So now...ON TO THE WORLD CUP! BRING US BRAZIL!!

 

[Sander]

The Dutch, like always , were overrated, but with those attackers and Robben they still went almost to the finish.

The Dutch were overrated in the foreign press, yeah, but not in the Dutch press.
Plus, we weren't overrated "like always", it's only been like that since 2002, before that we had one of the best teams in the world. Meh.

I wonder whether Rehhagel will become an honorary Greek citizen.

 

[Sovz]

lets all sing Deutschland deutschland uber.......

Why?

Because Greece is Germany in disguise, they play like the Germans, they even have a German couch.

Plus at least one German won the cup, that’s more then I can say about the rest of the teams.

 

[alec]

Greece won? Bwahahahaha! That's ridiculous, they suck at football, that's a known fact. How much did they pay for that title anyway?

Hm.


Now that this crapola is over, it's time to start thinking about...

THE TOUR DE FRANCE! (the only sports-thing I actually love)

 

[Sander]

THE TOUR DE FRANCE! (the only sports-thing I actually love)

What happened to Justine?

 

[Hellion]

Greece won? Bwahahahaha! That's ridiculous, they suck at football, that's a known fact. How much did they pay for that title anyway?

THE TOUR DE FRANCE! (the only sports-thing I actually love)

Some "known fact". We sucked enough to kick France and the Czech Republic out of the tournament before actually finishing FIRST, thanks. And a country's championship is hardly an accurate image of the National team, especially when almost 60% of the players play in foreign teams. Won't even attempt to comment the "pay" thing.

 

[Sander]

Some "known fact". We sucked enough to kick France and the Czech Republic out of the tournament before actually finishing FIRST, thanks. And a country's championship is hardly an accurate image of the National team, especially when almost 60% of the players play in foreign teams. Won't even attempt to comment the "pay" thing.

YOu guys do suck at football. You just have a great coach.

 

[Briosafreak]

The Dutch, like always , were overrated, but with those attackers and Robben they still went almost to the finish.

The Dutch were overrated in the foreign press, yeah, but not in the Dutch press.
Plus, we weren't overrated "like always", it's only been like that since 2002, before that we had one of the best teams in the world. Meh.

I wonder whether Rehhagel will become an honorary Greek citizen.

Dude you should have seen the dutch in the seventies and particularly at the late eighties, now THOSE were fabulous teams, that i miss. They were completely incredible and changed how football is played, a thing that only the Hungarians and the Italians can claim too. Really, those were the days.

Edit: Saying the greeks suck at football is completely silly, all of their five members at the UEFA 23 list of better players from the chamionship deserve to be there.

 

[Sovz]

and yet they only won the cup once, in 1988 against USSR who was robbed by the ref.... reminds you something?

 

[Sander]

Dude you should have seen the dutch in the seventies and particularly at the late eighties, now THOSE were fabulous teams, that i miss. They were completely incredible and changed how football is played, a thing that only the Hungarians and the Italians can claim too. Really, those were the days.

I know. That stuff gets repeaed every single time a major championship was around. I watched an entire night (8 hours) of football from the World Cup of 1974 a week before this EC started.

Those were brilliant players, Cruijff, Neeskens, Van Hanegem and later Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten. Brilliant.
But this doesn't mean that from '92-2000 we haven't had great teams. Sadly they all sucked at penalties, and that killed almost every team. '92, '94, '98 and 2000. Especially in '98 and 2000 when we had a team that could've won the cup, if we hadn't sucked at penalties. The semi's of 2000 were ridiculous, De Boer and Kluivert missed a penalty in regular time, and three people then missed one in the penalty series.

and yet they only won the cup once, in 1988 against USSR who was robbed by the ref.... reminds you something?

Yet the Dutch are generally considered to have the most beautiful play, almost everyone in this country feels that beautiful play should come before victory, and this has cost us several titles. In '74 we lost to a German team which was playing defensively but effectively, while we were playing brilliantly and beautifully. In '78 we lost the world cup mainly due to refereeing and a huge home advantage for the Argentinians. Players from that final recount how things were constantly thrown at them by the Argentinian supporters, and one of the players wasn't allowed to play by the referee because he had his arm in a cast, even though he had played the previous games with the same cast.

Edit: Saying the greeks suck at football is completely silly, all of their five members at the UEFA 23 list of better players from the chamionship deserve to be there.

Yes, they rocked in this EC. But personally I'd say that this is due to the coach: he brought coherence, team play and discipline, something that the players couldn't bring. This means that the Greek still suck (or are at least not good), but have had a great coach to lead them to the cup and give them that extra edge.

 

[Brother None]

Congrats to the Greeks from this forum, well deserved victory! And they were the best team on the tournament, the Czech were too Nedved dependent.

Seriously no. With the pool-matches Greece played? Megh. The Czech Republic had no really bad matches, like Greece had its Russia.

and yet they only won the cup once, in 1988 against USSR who was robbed by the ref.... reminds you something?

The USSR was so not robbed. That was a fair match

More or less

Dude you should have seen the dutch in the seventies and particularly at the late eighties, now THOSE were fabulous teams, that i miss. They were completely incredible and changed how football is played, a thing that only the Hungarians and the Italians can claim too. Really, those were the days.

Those were not just the days, they're incomparable. Not only is there a huge gap between the Dutch team we had the past 10 years and the Dutch team under Gullit, but there's an even bigger gap between '88's Gullit and '74's Cruyf.

Cruyf...Now he's just a blathering old git who most people can't understand (tho' his comments are pretty astute once your learn to understand and speak Cruyfism), but in the old days...He is, without a doubt, one of the best players the world has ever seen.

And no, we shouldn't have won the WC either. Our own fault we lost. Either our own fault or you blame the prostitutes. You choose.

But Briosa, I don't think you know what's been happening in Holland either. Holland is, classically, at least as arrogant as the big football countries, but this has been hammered out be the previous generation (Kluivert, the brothers de Boer, Cocu, Stam, van der Sar, Numan, Hasselbaink, Bergkamp, Seedorf, Davids) who not only lost matches, but lost matches with the ugliest footbal imaginable. The kind of football that would make Bulgaria cringe. A lot of Dutchies resented this, not because we lost, we're used to that, but because we lost as a bunch of arrogant fucktard losers. Still can't stand that Kluivert.

Really, the cocky self-assurance has been knocked out, which is what makes these newbies so great. They're wildly untactical, modest and fun to watch. The opposite of the Netherlands of the 90's.

Not that they're any good. But they could be.

Man, did that Ronaldo suck against Greece, by the by. But meh, he's young.

YOu guys do suck at football. You just have a great coach.

Bull. Just because Greece doesn't have a habit of losing that does not mean they automatically always suck at football. That's such a big football nation mentality.

The Greeks have some good international players, but you never see 'em, ey. They were a great team, tho', fuck the individual players.

'ere's bits of an article from the Volkskrant:

In the summer, the small countries get to shine
Recognised topcountries get a lesson in efficient football, just like two years ago at the WC.

This is justice: rich clubs from big countries buy anyone who is a good soccer player and win almost all the prizes. In the summer all these players return to their country and the small ones win.

(...)

Again the socalled big football countries, England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy all got a kick to their smug hinies, just like two years ago at the WC. The early ousting of topfavourites Argentine and France was considered to be an incident at that time, a consequence of overexerting the topplayers. But the line of sensations continued during the Euro 2004, with the two semi's Czech Republic - Greece and Portugal - the Netherlands.

And the question is if that story of overexerting really cuts it. For instance, the player of Porto, the heart of the national team, played more this season than Raùl or Zidane, symbols of the regiment wornout people for who this EC was just one step too many.

'e's right, y'know. Greece played some ugly football at the end, against Portugal, stalling and annoying them, and Portugal did the same, knocking up against the Greeks at stupid and inoppertune moments.

The old teams, especially the big ones, are way too frozen in their little habits. They depend completely on a few star-players and, more annoyingly, on these bloody computer-statistics-calculated line-ups and attack tactics. It makes for some bloody ugly and boring football, it's no fun too watch and on top of that it stinks.

Methinks, Briosa, or at least I hope, that we're beginning to see a turn-around here. South Korea and Greece both showed how a weak team can accomplish so much by not abiding by the rules and playing like a true team. Portugal lacked this, which might've been what made them so much weaker than Greece. Some other teams were building it, but didn't get to finish.

But it's almost like the '74's totaalvoetbal. It's just what the football-tradition needs, a good quick swift in the butt. I'm long-since tired of national competitions, I don't want interlands to turn out boring either.

<hr>

Ok time for some happy fun-fun sharing our favourite moments and stuff like that...

Kharn's golden 11 from the EC, just for kicks and to see what you'll think. No, no UEFA-style golden 23, but I'll be peeking at their list. I must also not that the UEFA-23 must be one of the dumbest lists ever. Van Nistelrooy as only person from the Netherlands? why? Because he makes a lot of goals. Stuff it. He's worthless (though he's a nice guy. Teh psychological support).

Keeper:
Van Der Sar (NL) (either him or Ricardo, really)

Defence:
L: Dellas (GR)
C: Stam (NL)
R: Seitaridis (GR)

Midfield:
L: Maniche (PO)
C: Nedved (CZ)
C: Zidane (FR) (I'm sorry!! It's true)
R: Zagorakis (GR)

Forward:
L: Ronaldo (PO)
C: Baros (CZ)
R: Makaay (NL) (one of the most underrated players of the tournament)

But my favourite moments...Aaahhh...Split between 2:

1. One of the greatest football moments I've ever seen. Last shot from the English in England-Portugal, Ricardo got some divine message, took off his gloves and stopped the ball barehanded, only to, and that was the beauty, finish the game by taking a great penalty.

2. Kinda of a double moment:
2a First penalty in Sweden-the Netherlands. Van Nistelrooy puts it down, and besides being a terribly overrated player and missing a lot for his club, rockets it, straight and hard. Good penalty.
Then he runs up to van der Sar, who is scared shitless by this large screaming dude running up to him, grabs him by the head and starts screaming in his face. What an inspiration.
2b Prettiest moment of the EC. Last shot of the Swedes. Van der Sar jumps and blocks it by the book. The look on his face when gets up, and points to the rest of the team/trainers. Man, I so want a T-shirt with van der Sar's head frozen in that expression.

And Robben shoots it in. Meh, not a shocker.

Prettiest goal was Maniche's long-distance shot against the Netherlands. Beautiful curve, unstoppable. Fantastic.

 

[Sovz]

R: Makaay (NL) (one of the most underrated players of the tournament)

I totally agree with you on this one. He had a great season with Bayern, unfortunately he didn’t win any titles, but he managed to push Bayern during the whole season.

For sure he is one of top 3 strikers in the world, too bad he doesn’t get any credit in the dutch national team

 

[Francisco M L S G S]

Keeper:
Van Der Sar (NL) (either him or Ricardo, really)

Defence:
L: Dellas (GR)
C: Stam (NL)
R: Seitaridis (GR)

Midfield:
L: Maniche (PO)
C: Nedved (CZ)
C: Zidane (FR) (I'm sorry!! It's true)
R: Zagorakis (GR)

Forward:
L: Ronaldo (PO)
C: Baros (CZ)
R: Makaay (NL) (one of the most underrated players of the tournament)

Hmmm. If you don't mind I'll make some changes

4x4x2

Goalkeeper: The Greek dude, I never know their weird names.

Defense: DR: Seitaridis. DC: Ricardo Carvalho. DC: Dellas. DL: The greek, also don't remember his name.

Midfield: MR: Poborsky, AMC: Nedved, DMC: Maniche, ML: Cristiano Ronaldo. (AMC = Attacking midfielder Center, DMC = Defensive midfielder Center. Like in CM )

Forward: Van Nistelroy, Baros.

 

[Francisco M L S G S]

Makaay's a great player but Advocaat didn't trust him or something. If he dedit play then we can't include him in the dream team of the championship. And there's something I just don't get in Netherlands. The guy has 4 fantastic strikers: Van Nistelroy, Makaay, kluivert and Van hoijdonk (sorry for any misspellings), and only plays with one! In my opinion he should play with mckay and Van Nistelroy and in the middle of the game switch one of them with Kluivert or Van Hoijdonk.

And Van der Sar is amazing, tied with the Greek for best keeper in the championship!

Curiosity: did any of you notice the large number of passes from the defense to the strikers of the opposite team??




edit: Missed this part.

Methinks, Briosa, or at least I hope, that we're beginning to see a turn-around here. South Korea and Greece both showed how a weak team can accomplish so much by not abiding by the rules and playing like a true team.

I'm sure you agree that South Korea had a very big help from the referees. They organised the world cup and made everything so they would have a good classification. Every team that played against South Korea was completely robbed!

 

[Psychotic Nutcase]

deleted.

 

[Sovz]

Yes, they sold their souls to the greek devil