Euro 2012

[gypsycatcha]

I thought Croatia were a bit unlucky. Modric showed his class and why he will probably end up at madrid next season.
Cant believe Llorente's not getting on !

England tomorrow. Rooney is back. Hopefully Terry has a new set of legs which makes him not look as though he's running on sand.

COME ON ENGLAND!!

 

[greygoose]

You'll certainly do better than Ireland against them but, sorry to say, thats as far as England will go.

I didn't mind Italy winning tonight, made no difference to us, but I kinda wanted Croatia to get knocked out. They were the one team there was hope Ireland could beat and we couldn't. They beat us fair and square but still, I didn't want us doing them any favour by winning today.

The Irish fans were fantastic but I'm sorry to say that the team was pretty poor. Is that down to Trapattoni or the quality of the players? You deserved to see your team win atleast once.

And yeah that's England pretty much done; that's if we even qualify.

 

[a-dev]

The Irish fans were fantastic but I'm sorry to say that the team was pretty poor. Is that down to Trapattoni or the quality of the players? You deserved to see your team win atleast once.

And yeah that's England pretty much done; that's if we even qualify.

Worst team in the competition for definite. I think we've also become one of the worst ever performers in the history (or maybe just recent history) of the Euros. We would have done better in a different group but no point thinking about that.

Irish pundits put the blame on 3 things - A) bad luck in the draw for the groups - being unfortunate enough to be pitted against the 2 past World cup champions B) Trapattoni's footballing philosophy being out of date - good enough against other lesser teams but easily beaten by big teams and C) seemingly irrational team selections and substitutions and also the complete omission of certain players of promise.

Roy Keane is totally pissed off at the whole thing. He's disgusted with the performances and hates how much attention 'the fans' are getting. He thinks the whole singing in the face of embarrassing defeat is part of why Ireland cannot compete seriously, I dunno, stops us from aspiring to be better on the field where it counts.

 

[Shoo]

Just kidding man.

I know. So was I.

 

[Deeznutz6]

Shaping up nicely for a Spain vs England QF.

If they win tomorrow do they not play Italy?

 

[SixMillionDollarMan Guy]

Spain had to be sweating until the 88th minute when they scored. Yeah I know, a draw and they would have qualified. Italy was leading their match and if somehow Croatia would have scored and held on, the Spaniards would have been knocked out.

 

[SixMillionDollarMan Guy]

If they win tomorrow do they not play Italy?

If England wins, it still depends on France. If France wins, then England plays Spain in the quarterfinals.

From Espn.com.....

"However, France wants to finish first and thereby likely avoid Spain in the quarterfinals."

 

[Dingo]

Roy Keane is always pissed about something, but he sure was a good gutsy player

 

[greygoose]

Roy Keane is totally pissed off at the whole thing. He's disgusted with the performances and hates how much attention 'the fans' are getting. He thinks the whole singing in the face of embarrassing defeat is part of why Ireland cannot compete seriously, I dunno, stops us from aspiring to be better on the field where it counts.

Love or hate Keane; he's a winner. He speaks the truth.

If they win tomorrow do they not play Italy?

If France win we finish second regardless. The French will want to avoid Spain.

 

[thecorsair]

Roy Keane was a great player and his off the cuff style makes him a great pundit as he doesn't sit there and recycle the same inane cliches after every game.

His point about Ireland is a good one as there comes a point where the "lovable losers" mentality that seems to be shared by the players and fans becomes an embarrassment.

 

[a-dev]

Roy isn't the most popular in Ireland right now. Unfortunately the whole abandoning the team in the 2002 World Cup goes against him and gets brought up every time he says anything these days (mind you he brings it up himself too)

I dunno, on the one hand I agree with him but on the other hand I did find myself somewhat uplifted by the fans singing after the Spain match despite the fact we'd just been hammered. Perhaps Keane wasn't attacking the fans themselves for doing the singing but rather attacking the emphasis that was being put on the fans by pundits and newspapers when its supposed to be on the football. And the football was dreadful. The praise of the fans has been overblown in Ireland - its pretty arguable how much effect they can really have on what happens on the pitch, plus, its just a bunch of people going over there and getting drunk. And the papers are talking about how they've done us all proud and been a credit to the Irish people.....great they didn't go over and cause trouble. But its still just a bunch of people going abroad and getting pissed. Probably reinforcing and vindicating the stereotypes about Ireland and the Irish.

 

[thecorsair]

When you look at the 2 managers Keane spent most of his club career playing under ( Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson ) it's no suprise that he's become such an outspoken character and like those 2 greats he would probably be the first to admit that sometimes he oversteps the mark.

But in this instance I think he's made a decent point. He obviously wants to see the team improve and isn't shy about suggesting what the problems may be.

On the one hand it's nice that the fans will sing passionately no matter what but that could be percieved by the players in such a way that they don't give 100% as they know the fans will still like them no matter what....maybe that's what he's getting at.

 

[gypsycatcha]

If England wins, it still depends on France. If France wins, then England plays Spain in the quarterfinals.

From Espn.com.....

"However, France wants to finish first and thereby likely avoid Spain in the quarterfinals."

Can come down to goal difference. england win by 2 or more, england top the group. By 1 more, It will go down to goals scored in which we have 1 more than france.
Will be interesting

 

[SixMillionDollarMan Guy]

Can come down to goal difference. england win by 2 or more, england top the group. By 1 more, It will go down to goals scored in which we have 1 more than france.
Will be interesting

Really looking forward to this one. Starts in mere hours.

Hoping Ukraine can pull this off.

 

[gypsycatcha]

Really looking forward to this one. Starts in mere hours.

Hoping Ukraine can pull this off.

I think we will concede but go thru. I dont fancy us against spain in the knock outs. They have not set the tournament on fire but they're ball retention will drain us in the heat and they have the quality to finish teams off.

You never know though!

 

[-jay-]

Hoping Ukraine can pull this off.

Breaks my heart to do this but you're going on ignore

We will win 2-0

 

[SixMillionDollarMan Guy]

I think we will concede but go thru. I dont fancy us against spain in the knock outs. They have not set the tournament on fire but they're ball retention will drain us in the heat and they have the quality to finish teams off.

You never know though!

Yup, Spain has quality all over the field. I'll be rooting like hell for England to beat Spain though. The two teams I want see go down are Spain and Germany.

My most anticipated game coming up is Greece vs. Germany in the quarterfinals. It would be a glorious day if Greece pulls a miracle and takes down the Germans.

 

[SixMillionDollarMan Guy]

Breaks my heart to do this but you're going on ignore

We will win 2-0

Since you're the 'kiss of death'.....I've already penciled in Ukraine into the quarterfinals.

 

[RagingBull]

I love watching the Germans play & I'm English. So if we go out I'll be cheering for them
I like the Spainsh too ha sorry but they do play great football

 

[SixMillionDollarMan Guy]

I love watching the Germans play & I'm English. So if we go out I'll be cheering for them
I like the Spainsh too ha sorry but they do play great football

I generally like rooting for underdog teams and against the world powers such as Spain, Germany and Brazil.