Euro 2004: Post match analysis

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Karma baby.....karma

Fukcing magic!!....thats all I have to say.

Four years ago, I sat amongst 'friends'(the majority of which were England supporters) to watch the final of Euro 2000. Draped in my Italian flag, and biting my nails while my team held onto a 1 goal lead in time added on, I watched in utter terror as France scored to tie the game. My 'friends' cheered happily (despite not one of them being French! ) and relished in the thought of Italy shitting the bed. My terror found full fruition when Trezugay won it for France in golden goal. I quietly stood up, and excused mysef from the room, thanking my 'friends' for their kind hospitality as they made slight efforts to hold back their delight at Italy's misfortune. As I slowly came to grips with this nightmare, I took solace in the fact that someday........someday in the not too distant future.....Karma would pay my 'friends' a wee visit, and have them feel the same agony for their team as I did then for mine.

That day has arrived baby!! ...... and I just have one thing to say:

Imagine that was the final!

Viva Les Blue

 

[Hands of Stone]

Hos and Captain two words, GET BENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes I am bitter, and NO i am not golfing next week.

Just bring the 20 spot to dinner at KOB's, I can even spend it on some nice English pints.

As for the game, it is not only 90 minutes, but yes injury time too, and England fell apart with some major mental mistakes in the last 4 minutes.
The free kick should never happen at that point in time, that close to the net, James had no chance on a great strike by Zidane.
Now the pass back was a shocking move, there can be no blame put on James for this PK, there was no chance he was going to get first to the ball, but he had to challenge, weather that be feet first, hands first or even head first, as soon as the ball was knocked by him, he was fukced, if any contact with the french player takes place, easy pk for the ref to call.
As for Bartez, world class save on the pk, he got across and got his hands high enough to make the save, fantstic. The twenty spot will come in handy on saturday night, cheers, coach.

hos

 

[silver fox]

With regards to England's loss, it couldn't have happened to a better bunch of cnuts.

BTW Coach, what's with all this "we" terminology in your earlier post (being "Irish" and all)?

Scotland Forever

Silver

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Yes, SilverFox, I was going to comment on that 'we' bit too. I don't know too many 'English' fans who are also Celtic fans. Coach, a little help please?

 

[Captain Shamrock]

How about a few photos for our England supporters....

HOpefully these might cheer you up, lads.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

A few more shots before going to bed.....

Nice wall by the way.....

Look how badly he sent James the wrong way. Fcuking magic.

 

[oor wullie]

I can just see the delight in the Engerlish fans face at the 89th minute!!

DISASTER...

Then what would appear??? ****in ZeeZoo!!! un-****in-believable... are you shittin me? The Frenchman turned an engerlish delight into a freakin nightmare, what a beautiful day!!

This has totally made my Tartan Army-less Euro 2004! To be honest, its almost as good! Queer-Spice's miss was the eventual icing on the cake!!! This has made my week!

Tres biens les bleus!!

Oor Wullie

 

[Ballbaby]

Man, I am impressed with the Danes! They have been the most technically gifted team to watch in this tournament thus far. Beautiful passes into space. Perfect timing and the composure of ALL their players in pressure areas of the pitch is beautiful to watch. They switch the ball magnificently. I am impressed. They do have the ability to score but the Italian defense and keeper are very tough.

The Italians did not look good as a team. Individually, you can see how talented they are, but they were not on the same page. I enjoyed the game.

 

[Regs]

Agreed 100% Balls!

How about the tre-men-dous saves in this match though?!?!!?

Cheers,

~Regs.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

So the game is worth watching later? I'll take your word on it, lads, so I can give my analysis....


Denmark has been good technically for a long time now. More importantly, another win in the tokens lottery. I should be able to buy the site soon. Of course, I wouldn't have a fcuking clue on how to run it.........

 

[Ballbaby]

Agreed 100% Balls!

How about the tre-men-dous saves in this match though?!?!!?

Cheers,

~Regs.

Good point Regs. Both goalies were displaying some great skills. You'd never know it by the demeanour of the commentator. No excitement in his voice. His reaction to some critical saves by both keepers made you believe that it was just another routine save when it was not!

 

[sensei_hanson]

Even though it's not post-match yet, one would have to be quite impressed with the way Henke has made his presence felt in Portugal. Two clinical finishes in two minutes....yikes. Without getting on that bandwagon too quickly, I'd be VERY worried about the prospect of facing Sweden if he can maintain a similar form. Larsson, Ibramovich and Ljunberg make for a formidable attacking trio.

If Petrov can pull one back for the Boolgars it'll be quite the day for Celtic. Perhaps it's not too late to pull Hristo Stoichkov out of mothballs.

 

[filling the net]

Even though it's not post-match yet, one would have to be quite impressed with the way Henke has made his presence felt in Portugal. Two clinical finishes in two minutes....yikes. Without getting on that bandwagon too quickly, I'd be VERY worried about the prospect of facing Sweden if he can maintain a similar form. Larsson, Ibramovich and Ljunberg make for a formidable attacking trio.

If Petrov can pull one back for the Boolgars it'll be quite the day for Celtic. Perhaps it's not too late to pull Hristo Stoichkov out of mothballs.

The match really wasn't that lob sided....Sweden took over in the last 20 minutes but were lucky to be up 1-0 at the half.

Larsson was magic today though and it was good to see a game not end a draw!

Wouldn't suprise me if Denmark and Sweden make it to the next round.....Thats if Italy plays there usual "we think were good but don't prove it method"

 

[sensei_hanson]

5-0 is about as lob sided as a match can get at this level.

Regardless, all I said was that Sweden look to be an extremely difficult opponent if Larsson can maintain the clinical form he showed today. Sure the game was close after 45 minutes....but that's why they play 90. Anyways. In games that aren't emphatically lob sided, often times it is the team who can finish the few opportunities presented to them that will win games. So I think Sweden could be dangerous.

Apologies for going all Chelski by misspelling Ibrahimovic...and I think I may have mangled Freddie's last name as well....

 

[termatofylakas]

Actually the score Sensei does not reflect the match. Yes 5-0 is lobsided when you look at the score without seeing the game. But the main difference like you said was that one team finished their chances and the other didn't. I thought Bulgaria played better in the first half. Sweden got their goal on a mistake by Bulgaria playing the trap. The best effort on net other than that was the save the Swedish keeper made to keep out the Berbatov header. Let alone Bulgaria missed a couple more chances. In the second Bulgaria was the best team the first 10-15 mins. They had 2 glorious chances to pop in a goal. Especially the header that Yankovich had from inside the 6. He was uncontested and it should have been a goal. The turning point was that and Sweden got 2 great goals by Larsson and that sealed it. After that Bulgaria just gave in. I thought the penalty could have not been called as it looked like Ljunberg went down a little too easy and again on the last goal the trap didn't work. Sweden is a good team but they didn't show me that they are a favorite to win. Denmark has looked the most impressive to me so far.

 

[termatofylakas]

Also is it just me or should Totti received a red for that kick at the end of the game, and should Linderoth have gotten a second yellow when he jumped in front of Martin Petrov and stopped him from advancing when the score was still 1-0 Sweden?

 

[Yoda]

Post match analysis - Italian Style

Italians blame socks and shoes
Associated Press
6/15/2004

LISBON (AP) - The shoes didn't fit, the socks were too rough and the heat was too much.Italy rolled out the excuses Tuesday following a 0-0 tie with Denmark in 34 C weather in its European Championship opener a day earlier.
Star playmaker Francesco Totti left the field midway through the half to change his spikes on the sideline.``It was like having your feet on boiling sand,'' he said. ``Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.''

Totti said Nike had given him a new pair of cleats for Euro 2004 that featured a different colour scheme from the pair he wore all season for AS Roma. He said he had no choice but to revert to the old pair.``It was very painful,'' he said. ``I have two big blisters, one on each foot.''Defender Christian Panucci, Totti's teammate at Roma, said his socks were a problem.``I had blisters at the end of the game on my heels,'' he said. ``The thread that these socks were made with is too rough.''

Midfielder Gennaro Gattuso also had problems with his feet, but he wasn't complaining.``Don't make me laugh about this story with the socks,'' he said. ``Kenyans run hundreds of kilometres with bare feet.He said his new shoes were the same brand as Totti's.``My foot was smushed, so I put them back in the bag and put on my old pair,'' he said. ``We have hundreds of pairs. You know what the sponsors pay us is not too shabby.''
Coach Giovanni Trapattoni acknowledged the heat was intense but refused to use it as an excuse.``In a team of 11 players, things become difficult when one, two, or three things are not in order,'' he said.Defender Alessandro Nesta was afraid all the sock and shoe talk would make people think his team was crazy.``I don't even want to talk about it,'' he said. ``They're going to take us for being ridiculous. ... The reality is that (Totti) is so good, he could play barefoot.''
In the end, even Totti said the team's focus should be on something other than shoes and socks.``If we want to remain in Portugal, we have to start winning,'' he said

 

[Skip]

Agreed 100% Balls!

How about the tre-men-dous saves in this match though?!?!!?

~Regs.

I also agree that the goalkeeping for both sides was great. Disappointed with Italy's performace yesterday though on the whole. I thought they tried to force feed Vieri too often, instead of being more patient in their attack.

I had to laugh though at the typically stereotyped, and opinionated comments of the English play-by-play. One of the Danes took a bit of a dive in the first half, and it was offered that he had learned such tactics because he plays in Milan. Did anyone else catch that?

 

[Sandman]

Totti should be suspended for the rest of the tournament. I saw the pictures of the spitting incident............Totti's face to face with the Danish guy and he's horks a gob at his face......fcuking disguisting and classless......He didn't spit at his direction, or at his feet.........instead he hit his face. If FIFA is serious about their "Fair Play" theme then there shouldn't even be a debate........gonzo for the rest of the tournament. What a fcukin poser.

Sandman

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Totally agree, Sandman, and they suspend him for another couple of games for the shoc-king tackle towards the end of the game. He is a fcuking piece of shite.