Euro 2012

[Johnny Drama]

Would of love to have seen Denmark progress. I reckon Ireland to hold Italy and Croatia to go through tonight.

[Jimmy]

Eh, I can see where he's coming from in a sense. If you put a bunch of attacking players on, the team loses its shape and everything just becomes a mess. The Dutch seemed to do an England and want to play all their best players, not really seeing what was best for the team.

[GoN_]

I predicted Germany and Portugal to go through. While they got to the World Cup Final, something about Holland always seemed shaky. Absolutely everything fell for Sneijder in that tournament and I knew it wouldn't happen again. That puts me at 1-1 since I ballsed up Group A so badly :/

Anyway, glad to see Ronaldo doing well. I love the guy now that he's not at Man Utd - I find it hard to hate anybody that fantastic at football. While Messi's the best player in the world, there's something about watching a guy like Ronaldo absolutely tear a football pitch apart that Messi's magic can't compare to. I actually hope they go far. Then lose maybe 6 or 7-0 in the game they go out in. Would be good if Ronaldo could win the Euros but Portugal win nothing

I think that the Dutch have a big problem in not knowing how to play as a team. Their coach was ridiculous today. The starting eleven was completely unbalanced and idiotic, and when he subbed the left back for Afellay he gave us the match.

We had to win be a 2 goal difference, and clearly the way we played the first two games with two defensive midfielders didn't work so he put VDV instead of Van Bommel so we'd be better going forward and we WERE for the first 20 minutes or so. High pressing, lots of possession and we scored. Van der Wiel then started to make big mistakes and the team fell apart. Later on Van Marwijk realized we needed to score 2 goals again so he took off Willems for another attacker, putting the defenders one on one with the Portuguese attackers. Didn't work, but he had to try.

You were better in the first ten minutes when we were giving away the ball. The moment we started playing you could not stop us in the back and could not do a transition from defense to offense. You had no midfield, your defense was a big problem and your forwards couldn't get the ball. It's pretty simple, because more forwards is not equivalent to a more offensive squad, just a squad broken in two halves with no connection in between. You needed one more piece in the midfield to stop our offense AND to start the attack organization in the defense-attack transition. What Marwijk did was what any kid playing FM would do.

[Dingle]

I predicted Germany and Portugal to go through. While they got to the World Cup Final, something about Holland always seemed shaky. Absolutely everything fell for Sneijder in that tournament and I knew it wouldn't happen again. That puts me at 1-1 since I ballsed up Group A so badly :/

Anyway, glad to see Ronaldo doing well. I love the guy now that he's not at Man Utd - I find it hard to hate anybody that fantastic at football. While Messi's the best player in the world, there's something about watching a guy like Ronaldo absolutely tear a football pitch apart that Messi's magic can't compare to. I actually hope they go far. Then lose maybe 6 or 7-0 in the game they go out in. Would be good if Ronaldo could win the Euros but Portugal win nothing

I think that the Dutch have a big problem in not knowing how to play as a team. Their coach was ridiculous today. The starting eleven was completely unbalanced and idiotic, and when he subbed the left back for Afellay he gave us the match.

We had to win be a 2 goal difference, and clearly the way we played the first two games with two defensive midfielders didn't work so he put VDV instead of Van Bommel so we'd be better going forward and we WERE for the first 20 minutes or so. High pressing, lots of possession and we scored. Van der Wiel then started to make big mistakes and the team fell apart. Later on Van Marwijk realized we needed to score 2 goals again so he took off Willems for another attacker, putting the defenders one on one with the Portuguese attackers. Didn't work, but he had to try.

You were better in the first ten minutes when we were giving away the ball. The moment we started playing you could not stop us in the back and could not do a transition from defense to offense. You had no midfield, your defense was a big problem and your forwards couldn't get the ball. It's pretty simple, because more forwards is not equivalent to a more offensive squad, just a squad broken in two halves with no connection in between. You needed one more piece in the midfield to stop our offense AND to start the attack organization in the defense-attack transition. What Marwijk did was what any kid playing FM would do.

This.

Fergie throws attackers into the right areas to get results late on, but Holland just didn't have a defence that could handle the Portugal front-line. It was a last ditch effort to save face for me, and it backfired because they got nothing from this tournament. I think the comparison with England is also a fair one because I'd be playing both De Jong and Van Bommel in my starting team, even if that means I have to drop Robben from it - which I certainly would since he did absolutely naffink. I'd have probably not played willems and started Affelay, but then you have two CDM's who can bolster the defence if he's stuck half way up the pitch.

The Dutch just screamed tactical ineptitude, and whilst I'd have loved to see them play well and advance, they didn't deserve it. They also couldn't do what Italy and Denmark did in keeping Ronaldo quiet, which is especially dangerous since the defence was pretty bad. Probably the worst defence of all the top (five or so) international teams.

[Colly]

Eh, I can see where he's coming from in a sense. If you put a bunch of attacking players on, the team loses its shape and everything just becomes a mess. The Dutch seemed to do an England and want to play all their best players, not really seeing what was best for the team.

I agree. Yes they needed a two goal win, but by not only changing to two strikers but also playing Van Der Vaart instead of Van Bommel they started with a team that had effectively five players attacking and only de Jong to cover, and lost. Step too far in my opinion and not a team that would beat a balanced decent side in Portugal.

Basically that bit where you're losing in Football Manager and stick 5 up front...

Edit: hadn't read GoNs point when I typed that last bit!

Edited June 18, 2012 by Colly

[Jimmy]

I think VdV deserved to start (and even showed that by scoring the goal) but I'd have been a bit more ruthless and dropped one of Sneijder, Robben or Van Persie. The commentators were going through a list of exciting prospects that just didn't even get a look in because the manager refused to drop or sub his stars despite how bad they played.

[Colly]

Should've put Krul up front.

[GoN_]

I think VdV deserved to start (and even showed that by scoring the goal) but I'd have been a bit more ruthless and dropped one of Sneijder, Robben or Van Persie. The commentators were going through a list of exciting prospects that just didn't even get a look in because the manager refused to drop or sub his stars despite how bad they played.

You're pretty much right. If he wanted to take out Van Bommel to play less defensively he could have played someone like Schaars who can help in defense, and organise the team on offense from behind. Van der Vaart deserved to play, he is amazing, but you had to take out someone from the offensive side of the squad.

[METALMAN]

Yeah it's funny. Van Bommel has been the scapegoat for Holland, pretty much just because he's old, but they could have really done with him last night.

[GoN_]

Yeah it's funny. Van Bommel has been the scapegoat for Holland, pretty much just because he's old, but they could have really done with him last night.

I heard that Van Bommel is Marwijk's son-in-law, which made things even worse.

[Sam]

Tonight I expect a very comfortable win for Italy and a less comfortable one for Spain, really cannot see the Irish offering anything tonight.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Looking forward to seeing the 2-2 draw tonight. Should be a cracker!

[IAceI]

Any excuse for a conspiracy theory.

[Liam]

C'mon Croatia!

[IAceI]

De Rossi still decked out in his bizarre long and short sleeve shirt, if he wasn't such a phenomenal man I'd slag him off. I'm really getting to the nub of the issues in this match.

Edited June 18, 2012 by IAceI

[Dan]

I'm Croat tonight!

[Dan]

How is that not a pen?

[Liam]

That was a foul.

[GoGo Yubari]

Fucking Ramos. Fucking ref.

[Summers]

Easily. Really bad tackle too.