Euro 2008 coming closer

If you refer to the first dutch goal I'll quote a guy from another forum:

Basic defender knowledge said:
I played football as defender in lower leagues for 15 years. One of the first things that got hammered through my skull was that a defender can't cause off-side by getting off the field. My coach in junior league told the team that even if the leg is cut off, we have to hop towards middle field with the remaining leg: Never ever stay on the ground or go behind your own goal as defender because every freaking opponent will be on-side then
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I'd blame the result on two things. Lack of Cannavaro (Materazzi is not cut for this kind of games) and the Dutch being much more alert on the attack.

Italy still has a shot at second place in the group though. Neither France nor Romania scared anyone, and the French have bombed at the group stage before.
 
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titus said:
The netherlands were better, I don't argue that. gattuso is calmer then in the WK Pirlo is good. Leave Di natale out? no he is to good.
I didn't think that the loss of canavaro would do so much but maybe it does. It is a shame there is also no Nesta anymore.
Del piero? I still don't know about the guy he is good yes, but saw the same thign as against belgian, instead of a good pass he shoot himself, while the pass would probably led to an goal.
And then their is the offside !!!!!!!!!!!!
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The goal is highly debatable, but Italy deserved to lose anyway.
Del Piero created some chances for himself unlike Di Natale who was a spectator.
Against Romania, there will be no spaces, so Di Natale and his speed are useless while DP's and Cassano's skills are necessary to break through.
And I'm sure Chiellini is the best solution for defence.
 
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Finally the day has come for the battle between two giants of total football: Sweden vs Greece:p

1-1 or 0-0 seem like quite possible results in this epic clash of giants.
 
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HEY ARE YOU MAKING FUN OF US? Greece won last tournament and we have one world cup silver, and one world cup bronze! and we will win 3-0 ! THE TITANS OF FOOTBALL ARE HERE!
 
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Sweden played very good in the fisr half but why isn't Mellberg the captain? He was at the World Cup
 
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It would have been a 3-0 win if Sweden kept playing to the end, my suggestion was close anyway!
 
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Thank God the antifootball was punished. Although the Swedish were surprisingly close to scoring 2 own goals :D Hats off for Ibrahimovic; also it's a shame Nikopolidis didn't catch the ball just before the 2nd goal, after making a superb save in the penalty area.
 
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I was just watching swiss -Turkey
The field is a disaster, almost becoming a pond
They should be able to cancel the match
 
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fun or funny with? see them fall and slide
although maybe it is both: Waterfun :d
 
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POLYGON said:
Sweden played very good in the fisr half but why isn't Mellberg the captain? He was at the World Cup
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Ljungberg is more popular and respected among more players. There are two different cliques in the team, with the Mellberg/Wilhelmsson/Ibrahimovic one being decidedly smaller and at times considered full of itself. Mellberg has also had nearly psychopathic outbursts on the pitch at times and has some anger management issues. And there was the aftermath of the 2004 penalty shootout where Mellberg IIRC named the players who refused to take penalties in rather derogatory terms, which wasnt taken too well by the rest of the squad.

The squad seems fairly harmonic atm though:)
 
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Zaleukos said:
Ljungberg is more popular and respected among more players. There are two different cliques in the team, with the Mellberg/Wilhelmsson/Ibrahimovic one being decidedly smaller and at times considered full of itself. Mellberg has also had nearly psychopathic outbursts on the pitch at times and has some anger management issues. And there was the aftermath of the 2004 penalty shootout where Mellberg IIRC named the players who refused to take penalties in rather derogatory terms, which wasnt taken too well by the rest of the squad.

The squad seems fairly harmonic atm though:)
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How come Larsson is not the captain, isn't he a Swedish legend
As for Mellberg I hope he turns out to be a good defender because he signed a contract with Juventus my favorite team, but I honestly grown hatred for Swedish players after Ibra left Juve like that and joined their arch rivals Inter, I hope Melberg will change my feelings
 
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titus said:
fun or funny with? see them fall and slide
although maybe it is both: Waterfun :d
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In the late 70s, the German comedian called Otto made a fictional report of a soccer/football match with even worse field conditions :

"Are we allowed to play against the stream ?"
 
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POLY:
I think the reason might be that Larsson officially retired from the national team around the time that Mellberg was "sacked" (he has retired from national football twice:p). Otherwise I believe he would have made a good captain, everyone (including Ibra) looks up to him as the model professional. He's not very charismatic off the pitch though.

Mellberg is competent but not really my favourite due to his outbursts. Swedish observers seem to assume that he got to Juve as a cheap squad player more than anything else. He will not be your first choice.

Of our DCs I prefer Hansson as he matured in my club Halmstad (as did Alexandersson, Nilsson, Ljungberg and arguably Rosenberg:p).

I can understand your feelings about Ibra, it was the Juve surroundings that made him rise to the level he is at now. He's a very atypical Swedish player in that he is both gifted and has the confidence warranted by that skill. Hansson (willpower, strength and stamina) and Ljungberg (functional technique + speed and stamina) are duller but more representative of our footballing tradition.
 
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Croatia is one nasty team to face. They are really showing that Germany isnt a top dog atm. Portugal and Croatia will face each other in the semi on this half...
 
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This was "übelster Rumpelfussball" what the German team played there. I was close to getting a heart attack when I was watching that game. The worst are really the interviews after the game:

Reporter: What went wrong?
Michael Ballack: We didn't run enough...

YEAH WE COULD FUCKING SEE THAT!!!
 
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Zaleukos:
Thanks for the info:)
I still rate Germany highly, in fact I tip them to beat Portugal in Quarter's. In fact it was a good slap in the face just like the one Italy got
 
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