Euro 2004

[Privateer Puddin']

because football isn't about tactics? you must have watched it then, you knew we were going for the win, and if that meant scrapping for it, thats what we would have done, so don't expect wonderful beatiful football all the time, certainly not from england !

[Sam.]

sorry to not be pessimistic or down. i don't really understand football but 3-0 is good right. and the last goal was superb. i'm pleased anyway

[m0ds]

Go England!

Much better performance today, IMO. I don't think Switz were as tough an opponent as France though - but England still played well IMO. Their goaly, (who my friend thought looked like a random tramp brought in from da streets) did pretty well - he always got a touch on the ball - just let it in.

Can't say I was overly impressed with Switzerlands "Trip over at every convinient moment" stylee.

Good stuff!

[TheDude]

Croatia just scored 2 goals in 4 minutes against France!! 2-1!! This makes it tougher for England if they end up winning, which is good :P

[Privateer Puddin']

you really hate us dont ya

[Czar]

DAMN MAN!
The referee should have seen that mistake with France's "second" goal.
They should put in the big screens like in NHL!!!

And Mornar's oportunity in 92', dont let me even start with that!!

[Barcik]

For the most part of the match, England was playing on roughy the same level as the Swiss. This pretty much summarizes the match. Campbell, Gerarrd and Rooney were the only players who had a good match in England. They still need to improve dramtically.

It seems nothing can stop France from winning. In 98, a series of come-backs, golden goals and penalty shoout-outs lead them to the final, where they played their only good match of the tournmanet. In 2000, despite playing better, they still needed missed penalties, golden goals and late equalizers. In 2002 Fortuna failed them, and now they are back on track. All of their four goals were rather lucky, a fatal combination between goalie mistakes, defender mistakes and ref mistakes. Nothing can stop them.

More seriously now....

A highly enjoyable 2nd half we witnessed today. The Croations just roamed around the pitch after the half-time briefing Baric gave them. Rosso and Rapajic were especially good, and lead the Croatian team forward. Prso, despite the goal, wasn't focused enough and lost too many balls.
France disappoints once again. So weak, so unimaginative, so expected. Where is Henry's movement? Where is Trezeguet's placing? Where's Zidane's elgance? Where's France? Something bad is going on with Les Bleus, they seem too confused, too lost, too tired. They played today presuming the goal would come by itself. And so it did, but had Mornar been more cool it might not have been enough. What the hell is Desally doing in the centre of the defence? He should be in a prehistoric museum, not in the team which proudly competes for the unofficial title of the best team in the world. Right now, it seems bad.

[TheDude]

France disappoints once again. So weak, so unimaginative, so expected. Where is Henry's movement? Where is Trezeguet's placing? Where's Zidane's elgance? Where's France? Something bad is going on with Les Bleus, they seem too confused, too lost, too tired. They played today presuming the goal would come by itself. And so it did, but had Mornar been more cool it might not have been enough. What the hell is Desally doing in the centre of the defence? He should be in a prehistoric museum, not in the team which proudly competes for the unofficial title of the best team in the world. Right now, it seems bad.

I saw loads of Zidane elegance. At half-time they were showing off all the tricks he had done during the game. Did you see his back-heel flick from the corner? Gallas missed the header from it though.

You are right about Desailly, i think he's past it now. Was it him that missed the ball to let Prso score?

[Harvester]

First of all, yet another robbery against a "small" football nation. I'm certainly not a fan of Croatia, but I have to admit they fully deserved to win. The ball clearly hit Trezeguet's hand before that second goal. I'm disappointed with the way France played today, quite simply put - they SUCKED. And Jacques Santini is an idiot. He has one substitution left and instead of Louis Saha (one of the fastest attackers on the tournament, who would be extremely useful against the slow Croatian defence) he puts in Willy Sagnol, probably the WORST defender they had. Look at his reaction near the end of the game, when Mornar should have scored. I mean what the hell? I don't know why is he still in the Bayern's first team.
And yes, I predicted an easy win for France, fortunately I haven't placed any bets on that. However, I'm gonna do that tomorrow, and I'm betting on Bulgaria. Denmark and Sweden are probably going to draw.

(P.S. I think England scored their second goal after a foul by Vassel.)

[Vel]

Harvester, can you PLEASE change your bets to Denmark and Italy?


And, secondly, France sucks. Croatia proved it. Luckyluckyluckyluck.

[Barcik]

France disappoints once again. So weak, so unimaginative, so expected. Where is Henry's movement? Where is Trezeguet's placing? Where's Zidane's elgance? Where's France? Something bad is going on with Les Bleus, they seem too confused, too lost, too tired. They played today presuming the goal would come by itself. And so it did, but had Mornar been more cool it might not have been enough. What the hell is Desally doing in the centre of the defence? He should be in a prehistoric museum, not in the team which proudly competes for the unofficial title of the best team in the world. Right now, it seems bad.

I saw loads of Zidane elegance. At half-time they were showing off all the tricks he had done during the game. Did you see his back-heel flick from the corner? Gallas missed the header from it though.

You are right about Desailly, i think he's past it now. Was it him that missed the ball to let Prso score?

That lovely backheel was everything he did in the match.

And yes, it was Desailly's mistake.

Vel, they won WC98 and Euro 2000 the same way.

[Vel]

As if I didn't watch them, Barcik.

[Barcik]

Just giving your memory a friendly kick in the arse. 

[Privateer Puddin']

That was, and i quote our commentator, "woeful and good riddance to Bulgaria"

[TheDude]

That was, and i quote our commentator, "woeful and good riddance to Bulgaria"

Haha, I only caught the last 20 mins of the match, and the commentator said nothing other than how bad Bulgaria were.

[Vel]

Not much we can do after 5-0... at least we tried.
However, if we qualify for the world cup we'll do something big(we're in one group with Iceland, Sweden, Croatia, Hungary and Malta.)
Oh yes, it'd be cool if we beat Italy.

[Barcik]

A pity. Bulgaria played well against Sweden, despite the scoreline, but today they really 'lived up' to the prior expectations. Denmark had to be just effective to beat such a weak Bulgarian side, and they added to that a few lovely attacks. The Scandinavians seem best so far.

[jaz]

Harvester: could you set up a separate thread to keep us informed on your bets? It would be very convenient and helpful. Only thing people would have to do is to bet exactly the opposite to improve their financial situation. Thanks much in advance : -)

[Vel]

LOL jaz, ditto.

And Barcik, the football we played today is pretty much the football every team played so far.

[Privateer Puddin']

I dunno, some teams have played good stuff..