UEFA Euro 2012, June 8th - July 1st

DaltonCraig007

1-0 for Spain

**

2-0 for Spain now !!

thelivingroyale

I've got money on this Spain, don't you let me down, just keep this up.

RogueAgent

Looking like no late football tonight then?!!! What an achievement if Spain successfully defend there title! ^:)^

DaltonCraig007

3-0 for Spain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**

4-0 !!!!!!!!!!!!

RogueAgent

Shame Italy were forced down to 10 men, but the real Spain turned up tonight!

RogueAgent

congratulations once again Spain! Well deserved! If they manage to defend there World Cup? That would just be phenominal! I certainly would not put it past them! =D> ^:)^

thelivingroyale

Spain get to keep their title, and I win £60. Everybody wins.

RC7

What a terrible advertisement for the drama of Football. As predictable and boring as an episode of Doctors.

I was hoping Italy would win this match and the UEFA, but I acknowledge that Spain was far superior today. They had a great strategy against a tired Italy, in which Prandelli's changes instead of improving the team were quite the opposite (why Thiago Motta?).
Congratulations to Spain!
To Italy, well... you can't win them all... (in fact, it's Spain who's winning them all!)

forgotmyusername

My word the Spaniards were marvellous....bravo...

1, 2, 3 x-liverpool players in that team...what were we thinking when we let them go?

St_George

Well, as @RogueAgent said above, Spain at their best finally showed up this tournament in that first-half. Two top goals and brilliant movement and passing - and that's while Italy were still very much in the game, looked a genuine threat themselves and before they went down to ten in the second half and the contest was over.

Could have done without the love-in at the end, though - including jammy Torres somehow managing to end up winning the Golden Boot and Alan Shearer claiming (on the strength of one 45-minute display) this in-and-out Spanish side are better than the glorious 1970 Brazil. Time to give up the day job, Al! :-h

Anyway, well done, you Spanish out there - like the Greeks, Portugese and, well, the Italians, you could certainly do with something to celebrate!

(I'll still be glad to see the back of tick-a-tacky football, mind - talking of which... :p )

CommanderRoss

Lol, Spain's European champion, but I guess Georgio is poster-champion!
I think the end-result doesn't match the game, as the Italians surely deserved at least two goals as well, but indeed, one gamble-too-much by their coach and it was all done for. Oh, and that arrogant Ballotelli showed he doesn't deserve to play at this level. Seldom have I seen a striker playing the ball directly in his opponents' feet.

jackdagger

Wow, completely shocked at the final. Not that I wasn't expecting Spain to win, but 4-0??? Where was this aggressive Spain the entire tournament? Congrats to them, though. Let's just hope Sergio Ramos doesn't drop this trophy under a bus too.

SaintMark

An excellent match as a finale, and indeed the Spanish were the dominant team. And that three major teams in a row, for more than 1000 minutes a clean goal, well earned championship.

Congratulations

Samuel001

Nice end to the proceedings, the final game. I'm glad Spain won.

SaintMark

Samuel001 said:
Nice end to the proceedings, the final game. I'm glad Spain won.

Agreed at the end of the day this team showed its quality in the finale and thus takes the cup home. Italy had little chance even if they showed quality in the previous games.

I hope they have a great party in Spain tonight. Wish I were in Madrid tonight.

Baltimore_007

You'd maybe have trouble with the language

Is this over now?, it seems like this soccer event is done with. I was a little disappointed to learn Italians lose the final game and quite a heavy loss too. But they did well to go a long way. The next World Cup will be in Brazil in two years time, and of course the United States may be involved, it's a global tourney, but Spain will have to watch out for Brazil and Argentina maybe, they are very good sides, but you never know what will happen

Baltimore_007

The soccer may be over, but last word on this and apparently some authority figures of the game do a ranking list for World Teams every now and again, and the most recent was a few days ago, after the end of the Final game with Spain and Italy wherever it took place

List goes like this - (best soccer teams in the world as of July 2012)

#1 Spain
#2 Germany
#3 Uruguay
#4 England
#5 Portugal
#6 Italy
#7 Argentina
#8 Netherlands
#9 Croatia
#10 Denmark

(no mention of Brazil, that was a surprise I did think, and where are France also, they have a very good side don't they?)

United States are ranked #36 Incidentally. Is it me or do I find these lists a bit questionable sometimes, so we get a draw with the English a year or two ago on the World Stage, hold our own, and look at the difference in placings. I don't know much about soccer, but We're better than '36th place' for sure ?

:-L

St_George

Baltimore_007 said:
Is it me or do I find these lists a bit questionable sometimes

The FIFA Rankings are notoriously iffy - always have been ever since they were introduced about 15 years ago. The problem is they're points-based, which means it takes a while for a side to fall down the rankings if they've previously been strong but are suddenly mediocre and, conversely, for a side to rise up the rankings if they're suddenly strong but previously have been mediocre.

Also, they only account for the results a side gains - they don't take into account the actual quality of football a side plays (but the importance of that last point is probably very debatable, given football's a 'results business', as it were).

Anyhoo, one thing's definitely for sure - the idea that England are the fourth best side in the world is daft as a brush... :-j

Baltimore_007

I agree Mr George, they should be at least in second place, these ranking things are a bit of a nonsense I feel

Italy should be higher for sure, they got to a final, did very well, beat a lot of good sides, and only 6th place for them?, if any world teams get to an international final they deserve a bit more credit than that. After the World Cup in 2002 the USA was actually ranked at fourth in the world I remember. - Bit of a fall from glory for sure..

TheWizardOfIce

Baltimore_007 said:
I agree Mr George, they should be at least in second place, these ranking things are a bit of a nonsense I feel

Are you talking about England here? You should get a job with FIFA as you seem to have a similar grasp of the game as Blatter and his cronies.

The usual FIFA farce. On what planet are Italys results over the last 4 tournaments (Winners, QF, group stage, runners up) inferior to Englands plodding efforts (QF, did not qualify, last 16, QF)?

Presume our outrageously elevated ranking is based pretty much entirely on blagging a 1-0 v Spain in a meaningless friendly.

Denmark, Croatia and England - all better than Brazil!! And as for the USA, 36th? Thats on a par with the likes of Wales and Bulgaria when they are a solid international side just like we are.

TheWizardOfIce

Sorry double post. Apologies I was distracted by work.

jackdagger

Brazil is 11th. They fell in the rankings because they haven't played any matches in a while. The European teams were boosted up because of the Euro Cup, naturally.
That doesn't quite explain England, though. At least Italy and Portugal should be above them...

TheWizardOfIce

jackdagger said:

That doesn't quite explain England, though. At least Italy and Portugal should be above them...

And maybe Holland? Or is getting to a world cup final not worth as many points in FIFAs ranking system as decades of systematic failure?

What am I saying? FIFA is the very byword for mismanagement and ineptitude - its surprising England arent ranked 1st on the FIFA model of top to bottom corporate cluelessness.

SaintMark

Holland fell on the list due to a series of losses in a row, so I do see that the current standing is allright. ANd indeed the SOuth AMerican countries will return once they have their tournament. But even then Brasil will not go up much as they are the organising country and do not have to qualify for the nect World Cup.

I find that most countries in the world would rather miss a meeting with Brasil in a big tournament. They are an really impressive side. Something that cannot be said for the Dutch & English currently.

St_George

SaintMark said:
I find that most countries in the world would rather miss a meeting with Brasil in a big tournament. They are an really impressive side. Something that cannot be said for the Dutch & English currently.

Absolutely true. Brazil will surely be mighty impressive at their own WC - however, will they get big stage nerves and bottle it as they have for most of the last ten years? They're not a side right now with players of today's Spanish-like winning belief like they have been in the past.

I guess England's ranking is reflected by the fact that recently, despite being useless in possession, they've won - and drawn - a lot of matches both competitive and friendly. The only time I can actually remember them losing a match in the last two years is the last friendly against Holland (when Pearce was in charge as a one-off) and that was tight. In all fairness, they probably deserve to be ranked seventh or eighth in the world right now when you sit down and think about it. And aside from England, the other rankings may well be about right. Apart from France, who despite their difficulties, are properly still better than their current ranking.

Still, like I said, a statistical ranking system for world teams in football will always be flawed. And FIFA's system has actually improved in recent years, as it rewards more for results gained in tournaments over qualifying matches and definitely over friendlies. Mind you, you might say it was ridiculous it didn't do that for so many years anyway.

Quite frankly, though, my favourite ranking-related notion is the Unofficial World Championships, which asserts the current world champions are... North Korea. Awesome... :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unofficial_Football_World_Championships

TheWizardOfIce

St_George said:
I guess England's ranking is reflected by the fact that recently, despite being useless in possession, they've won - and drawn - a lot of matches both competitive and friendly. The only time I can actually remember them losing a match in the last two years is the last friendly against Holland (when Pearce was in charge as a one-off) and that was tight.

This is true. The system therefore doesnt seem to fairly reward those teams that regularly get over the hurdle of the QFs - Italy, Portugal and Holland the obvious candidates.
How can we be ranked above any of these when we havent beaten a 'major' nation in a tournament knockout match since 66?
Spain on pens in 96 (and that on home soil after they had a valid goal disallowed for offside) is our sole triumph yet these countries consistently knock each other out and reach semis and finals whilst we stumble from one QF misadventure to the next.

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