Euro 2008.

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[Apex]

Germany is now playing vs Turkey.

A lot of turkish people live in germany, and they give a lot about soccer, it's gonna be a tough match. I remember when switzerland was playing in turkey for the world championship qualification, switzerland kicked turkey out, and the turkish security! guys beat up the swiss in the locker room. Exciting times ahead.     

[Armandillo]

Germany is now playing vs Turkey.

A lot of turkish people live in germany, and they give a lot about soccer, it's gonna be a tough match. I remember when switzerland was playing in turkey for the world championship qualification, switzerland kicked turkey out, and the turkish security! guys beat up the swiss in the locker room. Exciting times ahead.     

Haha, yeah Turks are not exactly famous about their liberalism and democratic values.
But their soccer team rocks hard. Look how they turn the games, they dont give up, they fight till the end.

[Unkn0wn]

Boring if you ask me. That match yesterday was lame, it only got amazing in the last few minutes when all out of nowhere 2 goals were made. Germany's going to pwn them. Turkey isn't this 'amazing strong team'. They got lucky multiple times now, and Kroatia sucked at penalties.

[|-|Cozmo|-|]

^ your American aren't you? why do you follow it?

I'm offended.
I'm Eastern European that immigrated to Canada. To not confuse you, you can say I'm russian... well, i used to be part of it

Most people from across that water have no idea what a football (sorry, soccer) ball is... they all follow NFL etc...

[Rahx]

Uhh... thats true..

[Novox]

Uhh... thats true..

It is to an extent. Futbol culture is growing but it is nothing compared to the rest of the world. Canada just got their soccer league last year... So its getting there.


On another note.

Russia 3 - 1 Netherlands! WOOOOOOOOOOOOH!
Here we come finals! haha. Long way to go though.
Game was beautiful. SO MUCH action, and very well played tactically by Russia's coach.
I got to give it to Van De Saar. AMAZING keeper but Russia beat Netherlands at their own game.

Lets see if my predictions will come true! Turkey vs Russia finals

About the double yellow card. You might argue that it should be there, but it was actually a good call by the ref. First, the ball was out, second it was not deserving of a yellow, and the ref realized his mistake and he had the balls to admit it.

[Phil]

[...] the ball was out [...]

If anything, that's a reason FOR the card, not against it =) In any case, the players were NOT aware that it was out, as far as they were concerned, it was normal play.
The reffing staff made horrible mistakes during this Euro cup. They were very inconsistent. Penalty kicks given for a small shove, while a huge foul on the Russian player was ignored today.

Actually, I felt the game was subpar. There weren't a lot of goals during the first 90 minutes. Not many good chances either. A few nice shots for Edwin to save, but nothing spectacular. I expected a much faster pace and much more scoring opportunities on both sides. The Holland team played very statically, it was a huge disappointment.

[UnLimiTeD]

It is speculated that Ned mostly lost because they never had made any mistakes in the previous games and didn't know how to get along with the russians not letting them play.

To the yellow card:
It's weird, I admit, and we've yet to understand it fully.
But if the referee counted it as a tactical foul, it might be the right decision as it can not be a tactical foul with the ball out of game.
And it wasn't rude or on purpose, so no card ( that should have been a red card in this case) was justified.

And it wasn't a bad game, nice football, just a little slow paced.
It was a grace compared to last game.

I think of Turkey vs. Russia aswell, but I expect something more along the lines of Germany vs. Italy or Spain.

[Rahx]

Game was beautiful. SO MUCH action, and very well played tactically by Russia's coach.

Hmm but the coach of Russia is Dutch... Guus Hiddink... the traitor! 

[Unkn0wn]

Woah, can't believe that just happened   ...
Amazing play by Russia, especially Archavin! He's definately going to be playing in the in the champions league next season. Holy shit, what a player, even after 120 minutes he was still shining and giving everything he had when star players like Van Nistelrooy were empty.

I think the psychological effect at the start of the game had a huge impact on holland's performance. Russia put pressure from the start and pretty much never let go anymore. The dutch were confused and being sent all over the field, always a step behind the Russians. I don't think anyone saw this coming.

Guus is an amazing coach, you gotta give him that, every team he coaches makes it pretty far, just look at his record. Zero teams like Australia, South Korea, etc all made it to at least the quarter finals in a major championship thanks to his coaching, it's damn impressive.


Anyway, this is becoming quite e the 'underdog' tournament if you ask me, pretty crazy .
Germany's my last hope, finals against Russia would be pretty exciting =).

[Rahx]

Holy shit, what a player, even after 120 minutes he was still shining and giving everything he had when star players like Van Nistelrooy were empty.

Ehm... the team of Russia is younger... Van Nistelrooy had his amazing days... he's getting older. And Archavin and Pavlyuchenko are great players...

[Unkn0wn]

All things considered, Holland still has a pretty young team too. The russians just kept fighting, even after victory semt secure. Dissapointing play by holland, reminded me a lot of their Eurocup Qualification matches (which were very unimpressive, they only barely got qualified)

[novox6]

[...] the ball was out [...]

If anything, that's a reason FOR the card, not against it =) In any case, the players were NOT aware that it was out, as far as they were concerned, it was normal play.
The reffing staff made horrible mistakes during this Euro cup. They were very inconsistent. Penalty kicks given for a small shove, while a huge foul on the Russian player was ignored today.

Actually, I felt the game was subpar. There weren't a lot of goals during the first 90 minutes. Not many good chances either. A few nice shots for Edwin to save, but nothing spectacular. I expected a much faster pace and much more scoring opportunities on both sides. The Holland team played very statically, it was a huge disappointment.

They didn't make a lot of mistakes. If you are referring to Van Nisteroy's goal against Italy, he was not offside, since any man that leaves the pitch without the ref's permission is considered to be standing ON the Goal Line. Which is an important rule.

I dont remember any penalties given out others then Romania's against Italy, but yeah, ref's are really inconsistent when it comes to calls in the box. But then again, it is a tough job to call one.

The game wasn't exactly slow paced, it was very strategic i believe thats why i enjoyed it. A lot of ground balls back and forth. Very little of what i like to call "kick and run". Lots of small pass's, but nothing outrages as in the other games Holland played. You got to consider that Holland played teams with a fairly weak defensive line, in their group. France is nothing anymore, Italy has a terrible defense as the best defenders are injured, and romania... well i cant judge that game since they played well until they played against Netherlands 2nd tier. When Netherland was to play a solid defensive line, they were not able to pass through it.

In the end, i simply believe that Russia was hungrier and wanted it more then Netherland. That is all. Same thing goes for Turkeys game. These teams want it more.

Plus, Gus has a really nice setup with a really young team. I love the way they play. Russia push's up with everything, and gets back with everything. Left and Right backs push up the flanks to add that offensive support, and they look like midfielders until u notice them in the back.
Thank god he is going to be staying with the team until 2010 for the word cup. More interested in their performance on the world wide stage

Edit : Forgot to add.

I believe there was a major mistake on the Dutch's coaching side. He made 3 switch's before the 70 mark, which was almost ineffective, since they still didnt have enough push or power. The only opportunities the Dutch had that game was Set plays, which Russia really fails in defending.

[Phil]

Actually the penalty given I was referring to is the one given against Poland, while I'm not sure which Russian player, was shoved and tripped with no call today. Even the first PK against Austria was iffy at best. I don't care how hard it is, inconsistencies like this are horrible. If they can't handle it, it may be time for a change. Bring in video replays or something.
Offside calls, which were never perfect, are rarely as game changing as an incorrectly given penalty kick though. Still, I wouldn't be against introducing some kind of technological advancement, like a computer hooked up to a camera, to replace the refs for offsides. At least in the big tournaments.

The yellow cards were also given almost randomly. Kicking the ball after the whistle meant an immediate yellow card. When Friedrich stepped on Christiano Ronaldo's foot? No punishment. The Croatian player who 'accidentally' kicked the Turkish player in the face? No punishment.
There need to be clearer rules. The refs have way too much responsibility or freedom, and they can no longer handle it. Especially with the new generation of players, who try to take advantage of it. Something must change.

[Wraith547]

There need to be clearer rules. The refs have way too much responsibility or freedom, and they can no longer handle it.

Instant replay ftw?

Or is soccer like baseball (yawn) where it "ruins the spirit of the game" for umps to get the calls right?

PS, not a soccer fan at all, bores me, so I don't claim to know anything about the game.

[Phil]

Some believe so... but if the players abuse the spirit, it's already ruined.

[novox6]

Actually the penalty given I was referring to is the one given against Poland, while I'm not sure which Russian player, was shoved and tripped with no call today. Even the first PK against Austria was iffy at best. I don't care how hard it is, inconsistencies like this are horrible. If they can't handle it, it may be time for a change. Bring in video replays or something.
Offside calls, which were never perfect, are rarely as game changing as an incorrectly given penalty kick though. Still, I wouldn't be against introducing some kind of technological advancement, like a computer hooked up to a camera, to replace the refs for offsides. At least in the big tournaments.

The yellow cards were also given almost randomly. Kicking the ball after the whistle meant an immediate yellow card. When Friedrich stepped on Christiano Ronaldo's foot? No punishment. The Croatian player who 'accidentally' kicked the Turkish player in the face? No punishment.
There need to be clearer rules. The refs have way too much responsibility or freedom, and they can no longer handle it. Especially with the new generation of players, who try to take advantage of it. Something must change.

Yeah I agree, but the reason the refs dont call it all the time is because they dont see it, or they didnt see it fully. Other times they are being stupid. But then again, they DO have to make the call in a split second after the action occurs. I am against the whole technology / replay to call offsides and other small calls in the game. But for penalty kicks, i might have an exception. It has grown into the game, the fact that if you are not caught. Its ok. It is now part of the game and always was. The only thing that has truly changed from before to now is the level the players play at, and thats why calls are so much more difficult. Players are bigger, faster, and overall perform much better then before, and because of that, calls are more and more difficult to do for refs.

Pulling shirts is against the rules and people do it insanely simply because they can get it by the ref. If you implement Replay's to find all the calls, you'll have a soccer game for 2 hours with whistles blown every minute.

It is part of the game and part of the player ethics. If you kick someone in the face 1 time, u might not get called, the next time ull get a red. Maybe next time, ull be missing the championships.

[Phil]

That's what I think is wrong. If you think that it would interrupt the game.. fine. Then don't do replays during the match. Have a set of experts look through the footage after the match and put sanctions on EACH and EVERY player who did something wrong. Hell, if too many players acted out, disqualify the team. There need to be penalties for breaking the rules.

The "anything goes if the ref doesn't see" mentality sucks.

As for pulling shirts... it's either against the rules or it's not. Why can they get away with it? It's pretty fucking visible. It's because both do it, and there's no way to punish both. So suspend the fuckers from the next match or something. Hell, you can even put in hockey style punishments. 2 minutes on the bench, see how they like that.

Oh, and looking at the crap that goes on, players don't have ethics. I mean I love the sport, I love the passion, but it's almost "all's fair in love, war and soccer" now.

Seriously, how can Volkan Demirel get a two game suspension for shoving Koller (like he actually felt it, he weighs a ton) while Friedrich gets NOTHING for INTENTIONALLY STEPPING ON RONALDO. I hate Ronaldo, but that was total bullshit.

[Novox]

That's what I think is wrong. If you think that it would interrupt the game.. fine. Then don't do replays during the match. Have a set of experts look through the footage after the match and put sanctions on EACH and EVERY player who did something wrong. Hell, if too many players acted out, disqualify the team. There need to be penalties for breaking the rules.

The "anything goes if the ref doesn't see" mentality sucks.

As for pulling shirts... it's either against the rules or it's not. Why can they get away with it? It's pretty fucking visible. It's because both do it, and there's no way to punish both. So suspend the fuckers from the next match or something. Hell, you can even put in hockey style punishments. 2 minutes on the bench, see how they like that.

Oh, and looking at the crap that goes on, players don't have ethics. I mean I love the sport, I love the passion, but it's almost "all's fair in love, war and soccer" now.

Seriously, how can Volkan Demirel get a two game suspension for shoving Koller (like he actually felt it, he weighs a ton) while Friedrich gets NOTHING for INTENTIONALLY STEPPING ON RONALDO. I hate Ronaldo, but that was total bullshit.

Then the game would not be what it is. The great soccer teams are known for being clean, and using skill to overcome. Other teams are known for using pure strength and muscle to beat people to the ball. Other teams are known for diving. If you want clean futbol that relies on skill and only skill, watch Joga Bonito You cant remove the physical aspect. Sure doing it after the game, it would be ok. But who cares, its after the game. The scores are already delt. You can give the guy a yellow after the game for fouling, but he got his team to the next stage, big deal, they wont care. Its the fact that during the game, If you get 2 yellows, your off. Thats what worries people. Suspension is nothing, thats for the coach to worry about. The players job is to simply perform.

But yes, some refs did use instant replays to find fouls. Example, Zidanes headbutt. In extreme cases they do it, but you can't baby every single one of the 22 people on the field. Im sure that if the ref saw something or even the linesman, he would say something.

Also, for notes, the problem is that if we begin to call every little thing, it will promote diving, which is pathetic as it is already.

But I have a biased opinion, since when i play player, i prefer to rough it up and push through, but that's the days I don't stand in net

Also, it looked like Volkan Demirel punched the player with both fists when i first saw it on TV, and i bet that what the ref saw too. Not to mention players adding slight theatrics in their fall.

I personally feel diving ruins the game more then dirty play.

[Unkn0wn]

Wow, that was a very dull match.
Wish both teams would GTFO of the tournament.