UEFA Euro 2016 Thread

[lopernv]

Doubted all tournament. Still undefeated. And now, in the finals. Love it.

 

HERÓIS DO MAR! VAI PORTUGAL!

[WelshSteeler]

The loss of Ramsey was the difference in the end.Please France or Germany beat this lot who make Greece 2004 look like the Dutch of the '70's.

[crashcarson15]

Hey, Portugal won a match for the first time this tournament. Congrats!

[Seadragon76]

4 hours ago, crashcarson15 said:

Hey, Portugal won a match for the first time this tournament. Congrats!

 

What about the Round of 16 game against Croatia? They won that game.

[HedleyLamarr]

16 minutes ago, Seadragon76 said:

 

What about the Round of 16 game against Croatia? They won that game.

He's probably of the belief that that own-goal doesn't really count as winning the game....more like the other team beating themselves.

 

Unless a defensive player purposely scores, the last offensive player that touches the ball ought to get credit for the goal instead of deflections being considered  "own goals"

[crashcarson15]

16 minutes ago, HedleyLamarr said:

He's probably of the belief that that own-goal doesn't really count as winning the game....more like the other team beating themselves.

 

Unless a defensive player purposely scores, the last offensive player that touches the ball ought to get credit for the goal instead of deflections being considered  "own goals"

Nah.

 

Football/soccer matches are 90 minutes long, so I side with the bookies here — if you place a result bet on a knockout match at a major tournament, it’ll be for 90 minutes. So Portugal and Croatia drew their 90-minute match, then played a 30-minute period of extra time because a winner had to be determined, not because it’s what you do in level matches.

[HedleyLamarr]

18 minutes ago, crashcarson15 said:

Nah.

 

Football/soccer matches are 90 minutes long, so I side with the bookies here — if you place a result bet on a knockout match at a major tournament, it’ll be for 90 minutes. So Portugal and Croatia drew their 90-minute match, then played a 30-minute period of extra time because a winner had to be determined, not because it’s what you do in level matches.

I wasn't aware we were placing bets on the game.....

[Berlin Wall]

Portugal won't see any light in the final.

[crashcarson15]

2 hours ago, HedleyLamarr said:

I wasn't aware we were placing bets on the game.....

I mean, most of us aren’t. Just pointing out that I’m not the only one who sees it this way. 

 

If this is, like, 98-99% of competitive football matches, there’s no opportunity to win a game that’s drawn after 90 minutes. So IMO, it’s easier to contextualize results when we stick to that standard for the other 1-2%. And I get that tactics are different in this situation than the average match, sure, but I prefer the level playing field of “90 minutes for a match.”

 

It also has something to do with the fact that the vast, vast majority of players’ bodies don’t really hold up well to extra time — given how taxing 90 minutes is — and how (generally) crap extra time is. It’s not the ordinary set of circumstances one operates under to win a football match, and it shouldn’t be reflected as such.

[lopernv]

I'm not going to address it. You play offensive football and unluckily draw three games, you're called sh-t. Tactics change and you now play pragmatic football while still dominating chance creation, you're called boring. You allow 0 shots on target against for an entire 120 minutes in one game, sweep kicks from the mark in the next, you're lucky. I don't care how, all that matters is they're there.

 

No credit for this team reaching the finals. Not sure why this team is so hate-able for seemingly no reason other than them not outwardly trying to score. Sure, it's not the joga bonito we've seen from Brazil Sr in the past, but they aren't exactly parking the bus. They have not been outshot or outchanced in any game yet.

 

Portugal will be massive underdogs for the final against whoever they play, but they haven't looked like quitters yet. Excited for Sunday whether it's a win or loss!

[-kj]

I believe FIFA considers games decided in extra time to be wins/losses, while games decided in shootouts are recorded as draws. (I can't seem to find a good source on that, though.)

[AnPheitseog]

No way that France should be winning this game at the half. 

 

That said, very happy, and hope that Lloris wins it for France  

[lordsketor]

Its looking like France vs Portugal on Sunday....

[Crabcake]

3 hours ago, lopernv said:

Not sure why this team is so hate-able for seemingly no reason other than them not outwardly trying to score.

Pepe says hi. 

[2001mark]

5 hours ago, Mockba said:

I believe FIFA considers games decided in extra time to be wins/losses, while games decided in shootouts are recorded as draws. (I can't seem to find a good source on that, though.)

Yeah I think so.  If a 1-1 draw after 90 finishes at 3-1 after extra time (i.e overtime, not injury time*), the final score is 3-1 yes?  

With penalties, I'm pretty certain they're games ending in draws with the footnote.

[crashcarson15]

On 7/7/2016 at 0:59 PM, lopernv said:

They have not been outshot or outchanced in any game yet.

Respectfully… what? Croatia outshot Portugal 14-5 and outchanced them 17-5. Five chances in 120 minutes. If that isn’t “parking the bus”… I don’t know what is.

 

Quote

Not sure why this team is so hate-able for seemingly no reason other than them not outwardly trying to score.

Well, I think you’ve answered your own question there. Fans generally like teams that outwardly try to score, I don’t know. (Also Ronaldo isn’t necessarily likable, let’s put it that way.)

 

What do I hate about this Portugal team? Their group stage performance was actually very good! I’ll agree with you on that. They were the more talented team in each match, dominated the general run of play, but weren’t clinical enough (against Iceland and Austria) to come away with the three points. It’s whatever.

 

But what bothers me is that they’ve still been the more talented team every step of the way in the knockout stage — Croatia’s the only team you can argue matches them in talent — yet against them and Poland, they still decided to play the “pragmatic” football. Which is perfectly fine! That’s well within their rights! It doesn’t mean fans are going to like a team that doesn’t offer much in entertainment despite having the second-best player in the world on their side.

 

(And yes, admittedly, a lot of my dislike for this Portugal side comes from the fact that they eliminated Croatia — especially with it being in a match where they had no real desire to actually, well, do anything.)

[lopernv]

2 hours ago, crashcarson15 said:

Respectfully… what? Croatia outshot Portugal 14-5 and outchanced them 17-5. Five chances in 120 minutes. If that isn’t “parking the bus”… I don’t know what is.

 

We must be looking at different sources for statistics because mine does not say the same. We can also look at shots on target and see 0-2, can't score if you can't hit the net, but I digress. I don't want to get into definitions and pedantic wording.

 

In terms of parking the bus, I think the action zones can tell the real story here. I'm not going to copy and paste them from every single match here, you can look for yourself if you are that interested. In every game other than the one against Croatia the ball has been in the opposing half more than it has been in Portugal's. In Wales, it was almost completely even. It's defensive football, yes, I can't argue that, but it's not exactly what I would call parking the bus: 11 men behind the ball in their own half being able to defend out of only sheer man power. I don't think that's been the case with this team, Pepe has been a man possessed this tournament. But you are welcome to disagree.

 

2 hours ago, crashcarson15 said:

Well, I think you’ve answered your own question there. Fans generally like teams that outwardly try to score, I don’t know. (Also Ronaldo isn’t necessarily likable, let’s put it that way.)

 

What do I hate about this Portugal team? Their group stage performance was actually very good! I’ll agree with you on that. They were the more talented team in each match, dominated the general run of play, but weren’t clinical enough (against Iceland and Austria) to come away with the three points. It’s whatever.

 

But what bothers me is that they’ve still been the more talented team every step of the way in the knockout stage — Croatia’s the only team you can argue matches them in talent — yet against them and Poland, they still decided to play the “pragmatic” football. Which is perfectly fine! That’s well within their rights! It doesn’t mean fans are going to like a team that doesn’t offer much in entertainment despite having the second-best player in the world on their side.

 

(And yes, admittedly, a lot of my dislike for this Portugal side comes from the fact that they eliminated Croatia — especially with it being in a match where they had no real desire to actually, well, do anything.)

 

What I would say, from my biased perspective, is it being less about people not liking this team, and more becoming frustrated with them at such a level that you do not want to give them credit for a well-fought win. Comparing this team to '04 Greece is a straight up farce. Attacking is clinical, it's not centred around set-pieces.

 

Seems like Fernando Santos has learned a lot from managing Greece and has implemented it in this squad. Cedric and Guerreiro have been contributing well offensively and I can only remember one real bad gaffe from Cedric (Poland's early goal). Sanches and W Carvalho are perfect for this tactic and it's like they are playing 10 years older than they actually are. 

 

I obviously am not absolutely thrilled with the way the team plays either as I'm used to watching Portugal of old, but the simple fact is I would rather win ugly than lose pretty. Trust me, we're all sick and tired of losing pretty.

 

I guess my point is that this team is operating as a cohesive unit, it's not just overcrowding, physically outplaying the other team. There is a method to this madness that is being overlooked. We will see it's true test on Sunday.

[crashcarson15]

3 minutes ago, lopernv said:

We must be looking at different sources for statistics because mine does not say the same. We can also look at shots on target and see 0-2, but I digress.

I’m taking mine directly from UEFA, which does also show that 2-0 shots on target edge for Portugal — yet I’d contend that’s a little misleading, since both shots came in the same move (one scoring chance), right after Perišić hit the post at the other end. Either way, and we can split hairs, but that game was more than a bit of a bore. I’m of the (admittedly biased) view that the result had more to do with Portugal’s tactics than Croatia’s. (Though Čačić’s management of Croatia that night was poor, and he was certainly out-managed on the night.)

 

It’s been well within their right to play the way they have during these knockout stages, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.  

 

Though I do think it’s important to note that I thought Portugal looked good the other night against Wales and put in the type of performance they should be against lesser sides.

[Crabcake]

The thing is, Portugal haven't been the only team to play "pragmatic" football in this tournament, I think they just get more publicity for it bc they reached the final and because of a certain guy who the media seems to love to follow around. 

 

However, this is something I've been wanting to say this whole tournament: I think the reason we've been getting such boring, crappy, low-scoring matches basically through the whole tournament is a direct effect of having 24 teams. Personally, I'm all for expanding the tournament - it gives us excitement and it also gives us teams like Iceland. But because there were 24 teams in the tournament, some third place teams qualified - meaning that what was most important for teams was to not lose. Teams weren't afraid to just sit back and absorb pressure because they knew that three draws may just be enough to get them through. And it seems like that mentality of not losing instead of winning has carried through to most of he knockouts. I mean, we've had some really good games on paper - Croatia-Portugal especially. Two teams with incredible attacking talent, but the end result? A game in which no one seemed like they wanted to take control and score. 

 

Anyways, let's hope for an exciting final Sunday. 

 

Go France (aka not Pepe/Ronaldo )

[AnPheitseog]

35 minutes ago, Crabcake47 said:

The thing is, Portugal haven't been the only team to play "pragmatic" football in this tournament, I think they just get more publicity for it bc they reached the final and because of a certain guy who the media seems to love to follow around. 

 

However, this is something I've been wanting to say this whole tournament: I think the reason we've been getting such boring, crappy, low-scoring matches basically through the whole tournament is a direct effect of having 24 teams. Personally, I'm all for expanding the tournament - it gives us excitement and it also gives us teams like Iceland. But because there were 24 teams in the tournament, some third place teams qualified - meaning that what was most important for teams was to not lose. Teams weren't afraid to just sit back and absorb pressure because they knew that three draws may just be enough to get them through. And it seems like that mentality of not losing instead of winning has carried through to most of he knockouts. I mean, we've had some really good games on paper - Croatia-Portugal especially. Two teams with incredible attacking talent, but the end result? A game in which no one seemed like they wanted to take control and score. 

 

Anyways, let's hope for an exciting final Sunday. 

 

Go France (aka not Pepe/Ronaldo )

Expand to 32 teams, and it takes away the need to have third place teams qualify.

 

That being said, all i need is Lloris being perfect