In the past, I created posts on which soccer fans among my friends and I could discuss and comment on the games played during a concurrent soccer tournament. It was great fun, and I am doing this again for the UEFA Euro 2020 competition from June 11 to July 11, which was delayed by a year due to the pandemic.
For the group phase, Germay finds herself in the mother of all "groups of death", Group F with, aside from Germany, the reigning World Champion, France, and the reigning European Champion, Portugal. Hungary will complete the quartet.
In the old days, only the first- and second-placed teams of each group advanced to the elimination rounds. This would have meant that Germany would have to finish ahead of France or Portugal in Group F to get beyond the group phase, a daunting prospect given the decidedly mixed record of the German side over the past several years. But UEFA, in its wisdom, decided in 2016 to increase the total number of participating teams from 16 to 24, which makes it necessary to start the elimination phase with a round of 16 that also includes the 4
third-placed teams with the best records. That is to say, 4 points in the group phase (1 victory and 1 draw in 3 matches) will probably be enough to advance. In fact, even 3 points may be enough, as demonstrated by Portugal during Euro 2016: They tied three times during the group phase, advanced to the elimination round as a third-placed team, and won the tournament in the end! And so, even a team with a checkered recent record like Germany's has a chance to advance beyond the group phase.
I will start the discussion in my first comment with a few additional observations about the German side.
Posts
63 comments:
Germany’s embarrassing elimination in the group phase of the last World Cup (2018) has not been forgotten since the new start promised after the debacle got off to an extremely slow start and was never really completed. None of the newly-formed teams could put together a series of convincing performances since 2018, and as late as last year, a German team was trounced 0:6 by Spain. The memory of that defeat also sits deep. It’s almost a sign of helplessness that the German coach called back two of the older players he had kicked off the team after 2018, Hummels and Müller.
This last-minute adjustment certainly shows that not credible starting formation has emerged over the last 3 years, and this is indeed a reason for concern. Especially the defense is still something the Germans call a Baustelle, a construction site, and it will meet in the first match of the tournament the high-powered offense of the French. One-on-one the German defenders are no match for them--they will be able to prevail only through a concentrated team effort, and it is not clear that the Germans will be able to do this, given that they are not eingespielt (used to playing with each over a series of matches), no matter in which constellation they step on the pitch.
But as I said in the introduction, there is a chance for Germany to advance beyond the group phase, and if they manage to do this, one of the traditional strengths of German teams may come into play, their ability to improve as the tournament progresses. This happened memorably in 2014 in Brazil and was also demonstrated in the most amazing fashion by the German U21 who won the European championship a few days ago in spite of the fact that nobody had given them much of a chance when the tournament started. And they succeeded precisely because they functioned as a team able to compensate for shortcomings of individual players. The A-team watched the final, and we can only hope that they were inspired by what they saw.
I loved this one German word that means this long English expression "eingespielt (used to playing with each over a series of matches)" 😆
Yes, Safwan. It means literally "played-in": They understand instinctively where the others will be and what they will be doing.
The match that will start soon, Italy vs Turkey, will lead to strong emotions in Cologne, our hometown. The Italians as well as the Turks have huge and very excitable communities here. I look forward to seeing what will happen in the city after the match. Luckily, the Covid restrictions have been loosened at the right moment.
What do you think: Should we all predict the semi-finalists? Here’s my tip: France, Belgium, England and Italy. I hope the Germans will reach the elimination round and will present us with one or two suspenseful matches.
Ulrich. It's good that you highlighted the German U21 European Championship team. This is really a great German soccer team with a great coach. There are as well very good Soccer players in the German national A-team, but the team is not a team at all: too many chiefs, too few Indians! In addition, there is a completely conceptless trainer. Let's see what the European Championship will bring.
The Turkish team is not predictable; they can win the most difficult
games, but lose against the weakest team easily. Against Italy, I
would like to see a good game, a good start for Turkey. Let's see : )
Following kidbrother's suggestion, I played the tournament on the website of the German magazine Kicker, by strictly following the current rankings of the teams; i.e. I gave a victory always to the higher-ranked team--1:0 if the teams are close and 2:0 if the teams are ranked farther apart. The results are interesting: Germany will meet the Netherlands in the round of 16. The quarterfinals will pit the following teams against each other: France/Kroatia; Belgium/Italy; Germany/Denmark; Spain/England. This will lead to the following semis: Belgium/France and England/Denmark. Since Denmark is ranked only one place ahead of Germany, there may be also an England/Germany semi.
And so, being a patriot, here is my tip: France/Belgium; England/Germany
Not a good start for Turkey! I was able to watch the first half, they played insecure and unorganized against the Italian team. And of course Italy had experienced players… what are your thoughts? How did you find Burak’s performance?
HiE
@Halil: I actually felt the Turkish defense held up pretty well in the first half and I do not understand why they gave Italy the space they needed in the second half. I do not know who Burak is--is that the first name of a player.
Italy off to a great start!
Yes, Italy was obviously the far better team. But there is one thing I do not like about them: They brag too much--that has never done any team any good. I remember England in 2006(?) when they declared themselves winners already before the start, but all I can remember is Beckham puking into the flowers. Same with the German women's team a few years later--they bragged that they would defend their title, easily, but did not get very far. And American journalists declared the USA "contenders" and Germany "pretenders" before the start in 2006--well, the USA didn't survive the group phase and Germany made it to the semis. There was even someting like this at play in 2016 with the German team--I think winning the Confed Cup the year before had made them overconfident.
Watched Belgium/Russia, up to the 60th min or so, and then I left. The Belgians did not want to do more and the Russians could not do more--Boy, it was boring!
People were on the streets after Italy/Turkey, but things remained peaceful. Fans celebrated themselves and the end of the Corona restrictions.
And England, the third of my semi-final tips, delivered tonight. Now it’s France’s turn, unfortunately against Germany. I hope for a tie and dream a little about an early counter goal by the Germans, which would irritate the French. They have fantastic “fun players”—if they trail, or are fouled repeatedly, they may lose their “contenance”.
Well, I found the first Benelux against former SSR match (Belgium/Russia) exceedingly boring. But the second match of that kind (Netherlands/Ukraine) was the best I have seen so far--neither team parked the bus before their goal; i.e. each had space to attack, and so we saw a very entertaining match, with some amazing twists to boot. The Dutch deserved their win, but the Ukrainians must feel terribly deflated--after coming back to erase a 0:2 deficit, they lost through a totally avoidable goal, caused by a horrendous mistake by their goalie, who up to then had been excellent.
We’ll take it! I thought the match was exciting.
That match war great, but I think Ukraine will beat Austria and Northmacedonia. Today we will see Spain for the fist time. The Team is a mix of old and young players. Is interesting...
Spain/Sweden was positively bizarre: At the 17min mark, Spain had had 91% possession, but hardly any clear chances. The Swedes were perfectly happy to watch them pass the ball back and forth (and I had thought tiki-taka was dead!) as long as they did not get behind their own defense. The teams had one thing in common, though: an uncanny knack to miss clear chances when they offered themselves, once in a while. In fact, the best chance any team had in the whole match was the one missed by the Swedes late in the match. As a result, I do not know yet what to make of the Spaniards.
I had recorded Poland/Slovakia and now spent a very pleasant evening watching the match. I was truly impressed by Slovakia—they demonstrated how to take on a team ranked 15 places higher than them. They were fully concentrated and focused from the first minute, went into one-on-ones aggressively, w/o overdoing it, and wasted no time on their counter attacks. And, of course, they took Lewandowski out of the match—he was always marked closely, even doubled, and I do not remember a single decent serve he got in the entire match. At no time did Slovakia appear intimidated by their higher-ranked opponents.
I hope the Germans will be able to take a page out of Slovakia's play book when they take on France tomorrow.
Good afternoon to all, to Ulrich, and all his friends who read and post on this very nice blog of his.
I am writing from Portugal. I am proud to begin this competition with Portugal as the European Champion. It is the first time my country starts an EuroCup as the reigning Champion. This time, Portugal is in the "group of death" (as mentioned previously by Ulrich), competing with teams such as Germany and France. Furthermore, Portugal will play against Hungary in Hugarian lands, and wil play against Germany in German lands. This increased difficulty has never happened, because tournaments were mostly played in just one Country. But there is a belief here, that the National team, as a Latin team, "only plays well when the conditions are hard" (an old sentence we use to say). And this time, as in the Euro 2016 final in Paris, against France, conditions are really hard...
We should not dismiss Hungary out-of-hand. They have some excellent players, starting with their goalkeeper, who is able to keep a team in play even against a superior opponent, as he has demonstrated time and time again in the goal of RB Leipzig.
At 60m with France the german team is still doing good (even though they are down by 1).
France was better, both on defense and offense, and so their win comes as no surprise. The only surprise is that they needed an own goal by the Germans to get there.
I was particularly disappointed by the German offense. It was too slow im Umschaltspiel (change from defense to offense) and then could not land the final pass. It speaks volumes that they had not a single shot on goal through 90+ minutes (if I remember correctly).
Especially Müller distinguished himself through errant passes--in no way did he justify his being invited back into the national team. And Hummels, the other returner, is now in the record books as the first German to score an own goal during an European Championship.
Löw got himself into a bind with these two. He has to start them (why invite them back otherwise?), but when they do not perform, he looks stupid.
Well, we're still at the beginning of the tournament...
"...they needed an own goal by the Germans to get there." not to mention they scored two goals -- but not counted for offside.
What is surprising to me was what happened to the German team's precision and discipline. Yes, France is a good team, but so is the German's?
The Germans have an expression, "Ich sehe schwarz"--literally, "I see black"--meaning "I fear the worst", and ich sehe schwarz for the current Mannschaft in this tournament. The seemingly close match and 0:1 loss, in and of itself nothing to be ashamed of against the best team in the world (sorry, Belgium!), should not blind us to the fact that the Germans have no Mannschaft--the pieces do not fit together. And that's entirely the fault of the coach. He had three years to rebuild the team, and he failed--as I said, inviting two of the disinvited back at almost the last minute shows that he had no concept, as GG has pointed out.
Of course, I would be delighted if I were to be proven wrong, and given the quality of the individual German players, it's not impossible. But likely? No!
@ Ulrich: Yes and no. France’s cadre is sooo superior, with an estimated market value 10 times higher than that of the German team, which nevertheless had more than 60% possession and lost only through a (spectacular) own goal. Gnabry should have converted his 100% chance and everyone would have been happy with a 1:1 draw… But you’re right; the system is dead; and Kroos has reached the end of his career as playmaker. Nothing goes at the front because nothing is coming from mid-field, no idea, no creativity, no passion. Always nothing but lateral passes and "wait for a chance, which will always materialize at some point" (Jogi’s approach). But the attitude was right, they all fought.
I’m now looking forward to see what will happen against Portugal. I think a draw is possible and then a victory against Hungary… it would be nice to reach the elimination phase…BTW all my predicted favorites have delivered, Italy for the second time—6 points, 6:0 goals.
Following a recent tradition in World Cups and Euro Cups, Portugal and Germany are in the same group, again. Since Ulrich opened the blog, I wonder how many times it has happened. I remember a few. Today, we have the pleasure and happinness of assisting another match between our National Teams. From this side, playing against Germany in Germany is always a very respectful match. I would prefer that Portugal would play against a Germany, without so much pressure from the German side. To end the message with another match between our two Countries, when this very nice Blog of Ulrich did not exist yet, I will finish with a very good memory of mine in front of TV : October 1985, Qualification for the World Cup 1986 that would be held in Mexico months later. A match Germany - Portugal played in Stuttgart. The match was in Germany (FRG), and Portugal had to win the team of Rummenigge and Schumacher, in order to be qualified for the WC. A player called Carlos Manuel, made an epic goal. The final result was Germany (0) - Portugal (1), and this victory in Germany made possible the qualification for the first major tournament that my generation assisted with the National team.
@Pedro: Yeas, I remember these matches well.
Congratulations for the victory of Germany in today's match against Portugal.
Germany was better in the game. It was not a good game for Portugal, and had a moment that seemed lost (when suffering the 3rd and 4th goals). But overall, it was a match against Germany, and we have to count that it would not be easy. However, everything is open now, and I have hope that Portugal will do a good match against France.
About the German team,from what I saw today, it is not less than the French team at all, and a candidate to win the Cup (as always).
Wow--so much happened, most of it unexpected. Like kidbrother, the most I dared to hope for was a draw so that with a win against Hungary, Germamy would advance to the knock-out phase. But with this win, the Germans have it in their own hands to finish in second place, and with France's tie today, they may even win the group. I have to admire how the team came back from their poor performance against France and today after conceding the first goal, which could have been demoralizing. But still, throughout the first half, I remained extremely nervous because their defense appeared extremely vulnerable against counters.
And they did not seem to be able to neutralize CR7, which had been a key to their success in previous matches with Portugal. All this changed in the second half. Ronaldo was kept under control and the defense stabilized by no longer offering the spaces they had given Portugal in the first half.
But most imprtantly, the offense was unreconizable from their lackluster perfornace against France. Yes, two goals in their favor were own goals, but the situations leading to them had to created in the first place.
With the other surprises of today, we are guaranteed a very exciting next week--so much still has to be sorted out. For our group, one has to keep in mind that the second-placed team may encounter England in the next round and the third-placed team Belgium--a big difference as things look right now!
@Pedro: I hope both Portugal and Germany will advance and will be able to live up to their potential in the matches to come. Only a few days ago, I would not have said this about the Germans. But then again, one swallow...
@Ulrich: I hope too that Germany and Portugal will be qualified for the next phase. I particularly enjoyed that you called "CR7". I was not aware that this name is used abroad as well to refer to our dear Cristiano.
Denmark/Russia just finished--boy, it was suspenseful, with the parallel match Belgium/Finland going on. My only complaint was with the American commentators: They talked the Erikson story to death, and I was close to a screaming fit when I heard that name for the millionth time.
What a game.... most enjoyable to watch...especially the first and the third goals for Denmark.... awesome!
The final standings of Group B illustrate nicely something I have observed again and again in sports: A beats B is not a transitive relation, in the mathematical sense. When Russia beats Finland and Finland Denmark, one would expect that, by transitivity, Russia beats Denmark--not so!
And so, we have the curious fact that a team gets into 2nd place with only 3 points.
In the absence of transitivity it's even theoretically possible that all 4 teams have exactly four points after 3 matches--each with one win, one loss, and one tie.
This time, being in such a hard group, with so many teams of high quality, it was not easy, but, Portugal is qualified !
About the game of yesterday itself, between France and Portugal, I think it was a game of quality, very tight and even between the two teams. But throughout the game, we were first, second, third, and fourth in group, in the same game. I think we were out of the competition twice and got into the competition again twice, because of what was happening in the other match of the group, Germany vs Hungary. I have to admit, for moments, I could not believe that Germany was loosing against Hungary, and Germany was almost preparing an unpleasant surprise to us, but happily for us, there was no surprise...Honestly, I believe Hungary desearved an easier group, they showed quality in these three matches, certainly, in a more accessible group they would be qualified.
What a group of teams this time : the two latest World Champions, the European Champion, and a surprising Hungary. It is good to look back now...
@ Ulrich : Congratulations for the qualification of Germany for the next phase ! For instants, it seemed that only one our teams would pass, but both have passed.
I'm still recovering from the horror show Germany produced against Hungary. The only good thing I can say about the team is that they did not give up, and the equalizing goal was an act of pure will on the part of Goretzka, who deserves to be a starter next time. But aside from that, nothing worked.
Starting with the general tactic. It is well known that the best thing against defense-oriented teams is to get an early goal, to force them out of their cocoon, and the worst thing is to spot them an early goal because that allows them to really lock the door. The Germans knew this--they said this much before the match--but proved unable to act upon it.
I already had a bad feeling in the first minutes, when I saw them pass the ball endlessly backwards and sideways. If one of these passes is intercepted, the backfield is wide open for counters, and that's exactly what happened.
The second thing that helps against defending teams are standards, and so, I expected the Germans to have practiced them before-hand. If they did, they failed spectacularly--their standards were awful, including a corner by Sané that sailed untouched from the right to the left corner--it was so bizarre that one the American commentators exclaimed "What was that?"
And then to top all of this was the second goal for Hungary--scored just seconds after the Germans had equalized, and in exactly the same way in which they scored their first goal--the defensive line was overrun with a counter. It's true, the German coach had just substituted two(!) players moments before and the team hadn't sorted itself out yet. But why chose this moment for substitutions in the first place? I could go on...
@Pedro: Congratulations for Portugal reaching the knock-out phase. They will face a formidable opponent, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they will handle this.
As to Germany's prospects against England--not good. It's not that England has the better players, but as I said before, the Germans have not found a way to act as a coherent unit, and this holds for both the defense and offense. They have 4 full days, though, to retool--we'll see...
If one looks at the standings, one sees that Germany had an enormous amount of luck—one goal less against Portugal, and they would have finished third. Now third-placed Portugal faces the toughest imaginable path towards the final: If they win against Belgium, they will face Italy and then in the semi-finals France or Spain. And Germany could make it there by first defeating England and then Sweden and thus meet the Netherlands in the semi-final. Only the Dutch have a seemingly even easier path, first against the Czech Republic and then against the winner of Wales-Denmark.
Anyway, I do not believe that Germany will reach the semi-final against the Netherlands. There’s simply too much missing. But who cares? It was suspenseful yesterday, unbearably so. A match against England that has to be decided in a penalty shoot-out would again be top entertainment.
My original tip for the semi-finals cannot happen as Belgium and Italy will meet in the quarterfinals, if they win their round of 16 matches.
BTW You’re missed here as co-spectator. Let’s hope you’ll be in Cologne again next year for the (absurd) desert World Cup.
AS an aside: I was extremely skeptical of UEFA's decision in 2016 to increase the number of participating nations from 16 to 24. Yes, it is, in principle, nice to give "smaller" nations a chance to perform on the big stage, but given my dim view of UEFA as an outfit totally corrupted by money interests, I thought that this argument was only a fig leaf for exactly that, an interest in making more money.
Well, my view has changed. No matter what UEFA's motivation was, it has led to an immensely suspenseful and entertaining tournament, in which even the third matches in each group (and especially those matches, as was demonstrated yesterday!) remain important for the outcome of the group phase--in the old days, they were often irrelevant because the first- and second-placed teams were already determined.
I, too, have to revise my predictions for the semis: England/Germany will happen already in the round of 16.
If all goes according to form, we will have the following quarterfinals: France/Spain; Belgium/Italy; Netherlands/Denmark. But I am at a loss to predict the last two matches in the round of 16: Sweden/Ukraine and England/Germany. I tend to give Sweden an edge, and yes, England will be the odds-on favorite for the second one, but I'm not ready to write Germany completely off, even after their disastrous performance against Hungary. And so, every permutation for the last quarterfinal appears possible to me. Against my better judgement, I predict Sweden/Germany.
After that, I give up--I really, really do not know what to expect in the quarterfinals. And so I find it impossible to predict the semi-finals, except perhaps that the Netherlands will make it. Which is another way of saying that we will be in for a real treat in the quarterfinals, which will present us with one clash of titans after the other. Keep your seat belts fastened!
@Pedro: Best wishes for your team!
The Dutch offense is helpless against the Czech defense.... puzzling
Yes. I think the Dutch were not really prepared, mentally, for this type of resistance, determination, concentration.
I think the Italians yesterday were also surprised by the gutsy Austrians, but managed to get their act back together late in the 2nd half and then took over again in overtime.
Anyway, this is one suspenseful tournament!
About the game Portugal-Belgium yesterday, I am obviously disappointed with the result. I prefered my team during the second half of the match, when they were able to open the game of the opponent, and tried and tried, but unfortunately, they didn't score.
It is the ending of a period of Portugal as European Champion. Maybe and hopefully one day it will happen again...
As a joke, I have to say that in 2016, I thought Portugal would be Champion for four years. I was wrong: Portugal was European Champion for five years !
What a day of soccer!!! The suspense, the surprises, the flashes of brilliance all around...
@Pedro: I'm really sorry--Portugal was better, but as you said they could not score.
The two matches today croatia x spain and the swiss x the french were among the most exciting games i have seen in a long while...love how both teams came back from 3-1 defect to tie the game in tbe last 5 minutes ... amazing soccer.
I agree with both of you. Fantastic the will power of the Swiss--and the superb penalties they kicked! The "little ones" have gotten closer--Hungary, Czech Republic and now the Swiss. Austria, too, could have beaten Italy. Let's see which favorite bites the dust today. I see England/Germany 50:50, with slight advanatages for England, and Sweden will probably beat Hungary. We then will have very surprising quarterfinals.
Nail-biting suspense. The only difference between England and Germany was that England used their chances and Germany did not, and I can live with that.
I am watching the highlights mostly. There are good examples of teamwork and perseverance. I liked Croatia and Switzerland football against two stronger teams. Germany vs England was a very good game too. It is unfortunate that the German team missed scoring in the beginning: they didn't have chance to take advantage of a couple clear goal positions. Portugal's elimination was a disappointment. Overall, we are watching an interesting tournament.
@Halil: Monday was perhaps the greatest soccer day of my life i.t. of suspense and excitement. Both matches follwed the same script--underdog gets the first goal, favorite equalizes and then leads by two(!) goals late in the match, underdog manages to equalize against all odds and forces extra-time. And then we had this incredible penalty shoot-out where the Swiss performed brilliantly and kicked France(!) out of the tournament. You don't get this suspense if you watch mostly highights--but then again, I'm retired and have all the time in the world.
Some afterthoughts: Germany has players who are good enough to beat teams like England. But the manager never succeeded in forming a team in which all pieces fit together. 7 goals against in 4 matches show that the defense never klicked, and 2 matches out of 4 without a goal show that the offense also had huge problems. Löw missed the opportunity to retire with dignity after the 2018 World Cup and then wasted the next 3 years by trying, without success, to build a new team out of the rubble.
I have to admit that in the aftermath of 2018, there was no obvious candidate to succeed Löw. Such a candidate is now available in the person of Hansi Flick. It will be interesting to see how he will go about building a team out of the pool of promising players he has.
And what happened to the group of death? None of the teams made it to the quarterfinals--perhaps it wasn't what it was cranked up to be in the first place...
Looking forward to the quarterfinals with an unusually large number of teams never expected to get that far.
Italy was as embarrassed at the 2018 World Cup as Germany, perhaps even more so, because they didn't even qualify. Or perhasp this was a blessing in disguise because they did not exit, watched by the whole world, in the most humiliating fashion by losing their third match in the group phase 0:2 to S. Korea, when a win would at least have gotten them into the knock-out phase--I'll never forget the completely lifeless performance of the team in that game.
And so, Italy and Germany had to rebuild, and while Germany wasted 3 years trying to do this, the Italians demonstrated how it's done. They came out of the rebuilding phase with a team unlike any other Italian team I have I have seen in the past: The emphasis is now on speedy counter-attacks, and it's really exciting to watch them. At the same time, they showed how to integrate older, established players--in fact, Chiellini is a textbook example of what it means to assume leadership on the pitch. Full credit to their coach!
The German manager failed in all of these aspects, and that's why the comparison with Italy is so instructive.
Yesterday the Italians completely out played the Belgians...quick counter attacks with accurate short and fast passes parallizing and confusing the Belgium defense.. in addition to a very solid Italian defense that kept De Bruyne and Lukako away from the dananger zone (except for their left wing who was quick effective and out run the Belgium defense many times).. i think Italy will win this tournment.
With a delay of some days, and trying to answer to Ulrich's question about what happen to the group of death : I have the oppinion that with this combination of teams in this group, it envolved so much effort for each of the the teams, that when they played the next game, those teams were physically and mentally tired. In any of the possible explanations, it is strange that France, Germany, and Portugal, the three teams of that group were out of the tournament so soon, in comparison with other groups in the same phase. In other words, it was a strange coincidence.
It is hard to predict a winner in Football, and we still have the semi-finals, but if I had to make a prediction, I think Italy seems to be the team that convinces me most to win the Tournament this time.
Still shaking my head about the Spain/Switzerland match--it went to a penalty shoot-out, against all expectations, and a new upset seemed possible, given how well the Swiss did in the shoot-out with France. And then Spain even wasted their first one and I was sure the Swiss would make it. But no, they appeared to collapse. Picking up on Pedro's suggestion: Perhaps they could not, a few days after the exhausting 120 min against France and another 120 min against Spain, muster the concentration and will power needed.
Surpisingly Spain was the better team against Italy today but they failed to score more than one of the many chances they created....
@Ulrich: Sorry for missing out on the lively comments. I haven't followed soccer much recently. The intensity of the matches was amazing. Of course, from my perspective Switzerland's unexpected success was the highlight of this tournament. The dramatic win against France will surely enter (Swiss) history books. Italy vs England is a dream final: may the better team win!
It's not an unexpected final, and I must confess that I am routing for Italy 100%. As I said before, how they used the three years rebuilding has my greatest admiration, especially in light of the fact that the Germans failed exactly in that respect.
I must also confess that I cannot warm to the English side, for reasons not entirely clear to me. Yes, I found it inexcusable that the English spectators booed the German national anthem. And yes, the obsession of the English boulevard press with Germany is simply infantile--WWII is over, guys! You won! Get a life! But no, whenever they play Germany, German "panzer" (tanks) are invoked and the match is pictured as yet another battle against the huns. I know, of course, that all of this has nothing to do with the team itself. But it may influence the way in which I view the soccer they play, which I do not find attractive. And does the manager always have to look so surly?
Anyway, avanti populo--oops, squadra azzurra!
The attitude of English fans and press towards Germany is unacceptable. The 'Respect' slogan applies to countries as well, and UEFA should condemn it. By contrast, at Wimbledon the BBC commentator apologizes for the swearing of a player (I could barely hear it), and the supplier of strawberries to the Royal Box is an MBE. Looks like the English live on different planets...
What is fascinating about this Euro tournament is that small country teams with good team spirit have done well. Did it ever happen that Austria and Switzerland reached the knock-out phase, while Germany failed in the group phase?
I think the increasing presence of "small country" teams in these tournaments is no accident and we will see more of it. Many of their best players play in the top leagues in Europe, and you need only 23 players to form a cadre for a tournament. With a good manager, able to form a team out of the available players, and the team spirit you mention, they can go far. Look at the Austrians--only one player in the starting line-up actually played for an Austrian club.
It is particular striking that in the Bundesliga, supposedly in the land producing the best goalies, the top goalies are not German, with perhaps the exception of Neuer. BTW Yann Sommer is right at the top of the list, and he demonstrated also during EURO 2020 how good he is.
In any case, I am very happy about this development because it will lead to ever more exciting tournaments with great suspense and all sorts of twists and turns.
As we are very close to the end and the final, I have this opinion and remarks about this European Cup.
Taking the previous comment, I think this Tournament brought excellent goal keepers, and impressive defense actions. For me, the best goal keeper of the Tournamemnt was Yann Sommer (Switzerland, disearved more games), but there are others too, like Schemeichel (Danmark), and of course... Rui Patrício (Portugal).
This was an unusual European Cup because it was not held in one country, as it is usual. In general, I hear some disapproval about this. My oppinion about this new model of Euro's, is interesting. It covers the Continent, Europe, as one land. It reminds me the American leagues, where matches are spread all over the US (it alwas impresses me the trips teams had to do).
However it has to be improved in some aspects : the area is enormous (wider than Europe in reality), from Spain to Azerbaijan. In a match between Italy and Switzerland, I heard the TV commentators saying that the Swiss had to fly from Baku to Rome, taking 8 hours, to play that game (against Italy in Rome). Another aspect that has to be improved is that a lot of teams played at home while others could not, which I think is unfair. About this, I read that the 4 semi-finalists played all matches at home.
I heard that is unusual organization in a wide number of coutries was in order to celebrate UEFA's Anniversary. I do not know if future events will be similar. I enjoyed this this kind of event.
The newly built Italian team is immressive and deserves to win... the road to the final was by far tougher than that of England. They managed to fight to the last minute of each game and win it even after they were down and seems to lose control of the game (especially against Spain and for few 15 minutes against England last night)... the team has no supperstars like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Salah, Mbappi, etc) and still managed to play some very exciting soccer and get results. The way they played agaist a greatvteam like Belguim conviced me that they can win this championship.
Bring it Home turned out as Bring it Rome.
It was a weird final. A commentator on Austrian TV said that England played like Italy (yes), and vice versa (not so sure about this...). The start was impressive, but then the match became boring. Why did England's coach pick inexperienced substitute players for the penalty kicks? Perhaps he was haunted by his own penalty experience as player.
From my perspective, one take-away from the tournament is that arrogance is not helpful, especially in soccer. Pogba's beautiful goal against Switzerland was a stroke of genius. By overdoing the celebration, he and his team lost focus and initiated their well-deserved defeat.
Following up on arrogance: the silly slogan 'Football is coming home' is another example, which is now turned against its creators. Well deserved!
I'm doubly happy--the team that deserved to win won and the team that did not deserve to win did not win.
Again, I'm so impressed by the work of Mancini, who formed a team with players who for the most part were no stars (up to now!) and managed to integrate experienced older players. It was a joy watching Bonucci and Chiellini at work (yes, the goal against Spain showed that they, too, are only human, but it didn't matter in the end) and my personal favorite, Chiesa--a Wühler in German, one who digs in and does not give up. And yes, the English seemed to suffer (again!) from overrrating themselves--an English commentator predicted at the beginning of the match on ESPN that England would win by 2 goals.
@Pedro: Yes, a format that distributes the tournament over several countries has its advantages, but it becomes absurd when it leads to one country having home advantage throughout--isn't that something this format is supposed to avoid? In the end, the tournament looked completely rigged in favor of the English, not only because of their home advantage, but also because of the Corona travel restrictions, the home crowd outnumbered the visitors by something like 10:1. And so, the format needs to have some flexibility built in so that such obvious distortions can be avoided. Well, it didn't matter in the end.
Post a Comment