cactus-jack wrote:
Meh, we beat Portugal, we're satisfied.
Besides, it would be unfair towards the other nations to have to play against us, we stayed home out of sympathy
You beat Portugal, when the coach was the biggest fool out there, who never called Moutinho, for players like Maniche and Antunes, and left Patricio and Quim home for Beto and Daniel Fernandes. We played awful back then, no wonder we lost.
Rin wrote:
I mean France isn't a strong team as they used to be, they aren't even contenders for the cup so bad are they at the moment..
They aren't a team they are a bunch of individuals that should grow up and really start to play for the other ones in the team and not for theirselves.
How far did they come at the last Euro and at the last World Cup? I can't see why they are a diffrent team to 2010 or 2008, they could advance but then the first knockout round is pretty much their last game at the 2012 euro
They're different. They were like a chicken with a fucked up mind (old players and gangsta-like acting guys).
Now they're a headless chicken, with no motivation, no idea, nothing. Not the mere sum of individuals, which wouldn't be enough, even less. And they've allowed idiots back in. If by chance, we'd make it past the groups, that'd be it. Italy, and Spain even more, are in another league at the moment. Though Italy has been rather crap for their standards, and we're like Spain's nightmare in main tournaments, but I don't believe in miracles (and I'm not sure we're the nice guys who'd deserve a miracle anyway).
I have little faith in our team. Our defense is weak and teams like Germany and Portugal know how to exploit that weakness. I somehow feel that Denmark could be the big surprise in this group because the other teams are very desperate to win against them.
Rin wrote:
Also I think Sweden has actually a chance of advancing.. I mean France isn't a strong team as they used to be, they aren't even contenders for the cup so bad are they at the moment..
... How far did they come at the last Euro and at the last World Cup? ...
We got knocked out in the qual and never got to South Africa.
I never mentioned Sweden after the big cursive sentence, so it's obviously I mean France
ruben wrote:
@Rin
The 3-0 match is not a good example at all. Netherlands missed Robben (most of all ofcourse) Affelay, Van Persie, Van der Vaart etc...
Germany also missed some players, but Germany has a much bigger player pool of good players.
If Holland misses 3 players it will be very hard.. especially if it's the only world class players.
Keep believing the 3-0 was a normal match fo the Netherlands and you will fail at the euro 2012
But it was still a very decent game and one of the decent games from Germany after the World Cup 2010 where you haven't or couldn't play well
Yes Robben etc. wasn't there but you still had decent players there like Huntelaar who has at the moment more then a goal per game (for the Netherlands and Schalke), Sneijder, Stekelenburg etc.
Löw tried in the game against Ukraine before something like a emergency game where he mixed players in that never played like this, diffrent tactics etc. and it was 4-4, before he testesd a system like 4-1-4-1 and that also didn't worked out very good
So ok it might have been a more important game for the germans then it was for the Netherlands, as it was the last national game this year for the germans and with the mixed results before Löw wanted a win there
But it was still a very decent game for us
The weaknesses for the Germans:
- I think the defense is still not that good
Lahm is a world class player but then.. Mertesacker maybe behind but then 2 players that will play very similar times like Boateng, Aogo, Badstuber etc.
Friedrich retired or will retire (he canceled the contract with Wolfsburg) he was a very good tackler who even gained the ball in the penalty box without giving up a penalty shot
Mertesacker struggles at the moment in Arsenal but seems to progress with the diffrent way of playing I think Arsenals last game was very very good
- Germany knows how to blow up theirselves
There are 2 options:
Germany knows how to blow up a group stage game:
2006 WC against Poland (yes Germany won but could have gone the wrong way if Germany hadn't a player who is a track athlete but not a football player)
Euro 08 against Croatia I guess
2010 WC against Serbia
Imporant players know how to miss a important game:
2002 WC Ballack missed the final game against Brazil because of too many yellow cards
2006 WC Frings punched an argentinian player and missed the game against Italy that knocked us out
2010 WC Müller missed the game against Spain because of too many yellow cards I guess, that also knocked Germany out
- When Klose misses a game:
Gomez is really good at FC Bayern because he gets the balls he needs just infront of the net and scores a lot of goals
But he isn't really a player that will go into a defensive mode and try to regain possesion of the ball whilst Klose does that and Klose is a tournament player whilst Gomez tends to play not good at these national games
The german national team trys to regain the ball very early and so Klose/Gomez have to work a lot and be more a assistant for the outside players but that isn't Gomez "nature" of playing football and thats why Löw counts on Klose but not that much on Gomez
Maybe Löw could try in a friendly match Podolski in the position of Klose and Schürrle/Reus/Götze/whoever at the left midfield position as I think Löws test with the 4-1-4-1 won't work and Germany will continue with 2 defensive midfielders
Now as my team Cologne is very bad, Podolski now learns that he needs to work a lot in the defense to regain the ball as a striker which he didn't really at the beginning of his career nor at the World Cup 2006 or even 2010 where many people said that Müller tries to work defensivly whilst Podolski doesn't do that but he works on this and could be an option as a reserve for Klose if Klose isn't available
Team Bianchi - 2012 Man-Game ProContinental Tour Champions
valverde321 wrote:
Group A and B will be exciting. The others, its pretty obvious who will make it past the group stage.
For me, not obvious at all in C and D. I am giving Croatia and Sweden better chances then Italy and France (their time was ten/fifteen. years ago, not now).
I find Croatia and Sweden as some kind of dark horses for the competion...
Group A boring all the way, anybody could do it. Group B should be delightful to watch
@Rin: What use is Huntelaar is there's no creative players to deliver him the crucial end passes? You see thats the problem with you, you don't look further than names.
Think of tactics for once. A Netherlands without 4 of their 5 best players is not much better than mediocre teams like Sweden or Belgium
So ofcourse they get easily beaten.
Edited by ruben on 07-12-2011 11:55
Out of my country's perspective the top contenders are Spain, Germany and Holland. I can see my fellow dutchmen pull it off though. With Robben in top shape, you never know
Group A
1.Russia
2.Poland
3.Czech Republic
4.Greece
I think Russia will be too strong and should top the group. It will be close between Poland and Czech Republic, but gone for the co hosts.
Group B
1.Germany
2.Holland
3.Portugal
4.Denmark
I think Germany should be strong enough to top the group ahead of Holland. Denmark, harsh for them really but I don't think they will be good enough, they may give Portugal a good game.
Group C
1.Spain
2.Croatia
3.Italy
4.Ireland
Spain easy 3 out of 3 in my opinion, Italy and Croatia, depending on how much Italy have improved since the World Cup.
Group D
1. France
2.Ukraine
3.England
4.Sweden
France under a new regime of Blanc should top the group, I fancy Ukraine, some good players who are very capable of seriously upsetting this group. England, I don't think Hodgson has enough time to make an impact in this tournament and shouldn't be judged on this tournament.
