The Official Football/Soccer Thread: 2017-2018 Season
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I ask of players to do what I see doing to people I've played against or with, that's all. (Not to mention the referees... :lol Maybe I've played with the best talents out there, and all come to the same town, maybe that's why Iniesta came to live here... to see the field from his house , btw Iniesta has not done anything special today either, like Casillas and a lot of players we know they're good... Actually 5 of the 6 Spanish goals have been counterattacks. And the other was a corner. Well it's good, they're winning. But in a knockout match things should be different... Official Standings for the Round Two of the Macca Board League Dan's Dynamos (Daniel's team)=109 points La Furia Catalunya (unclesox (not mine )'s team) 82 points Oliver Sanz's team (aka 21st Century Paul here) 80 points Btw, I've read today than the Spanish "furia" was born in a match against Sweden too in 1920, where some Spanish player asked the ball saying "Give the ball to me, I'm gonna run over them!"- "que los arrollo!" In one match I said almost the same, "Give the ball to me, "que me los cargo!", very untranslatable... and not said in a literal sense of course, just with the ball. okey it has to be a ugly playing sometimes. We can win ugly too, at lately happens.
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21st Century Paul:
okey it has to be a ugly playing sometimes. We can win ugly too, at lately happens.
Spain now unbeaten in their last 18 internationals with 8 victories on the trot. I'm not complaining.
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Standings of the Macca Board League after round 2 finished. Dan's Dynamos (Daniel) 109 La Furia Catalunya (unclesox) 82 Oliver Sanz's team (21st Century Paul) 80 BTW, after the group leagues will finish, everyone can change all the players in their team in Fantasy Football, so maybe it would be a nice time for joining for someone here and only trying to win counting the results of the knock out rounds. Thank you Nihat.
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Turkey vs Czech Rep. What a match, not best in skill or so but it was very moving. The last 15 minutes Turkey did a little masterclass on "How to score against a defensive team with almost all the players inside their own area" Crossing, crossing and more crossings. This time the trouble was the Chech defenders were taller and stronger than the Turkish forwards... okey... two or three Turkish going to the wing and crossing made low not by the air. That finally caused goal one. Goal two, persevering with crossings and Nihat being the smart striker "just in case" the goalkeeper fails, and even Cech fails once in a while. And the third goal, you know. And for an hour it seemed very hard to imagine the Turkish scoring, but they found the way. They kind of reminded me of Spain sometimes. Turkey vs Croatia will be the first quarterfinal and the second one will be Portugal vs... maybe Germany.
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21st Century Paul:
Turkey vs Czech Rep. What a match, not best in skill or so but it was very moving. The last 15 minutes Turkey did a little masterclass on "How to score against a defensive team with almost all the players inside their own area" Crossing, crossing and more crossings. This time the trouble was the Chech defenders were taller and stronger than the Turkish forwards... okey... two or three Turkish going to the wing and crossing made low not by the air. That finally caused goal one. Goal two, persevering with crossings and Nihat being the smart striker "just in case" the goalkeeper fails, and even Cech fails once in a while. And the third goal, you know. And for an hour it seemed very hard to imagine the Turkish scoring, but they found the way. They kind of reminded me of Spain sometimes. Turkey vs Croatia will be the first quarterfinal and the second one will be Portugal vs... maybe Germany.
Yes...it was a exciting match,especially the last 20 minutes ...
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ElvisBondCelebrityCosmos:
21st Century Paul:
Turkey vs Czech Rep. What a match, not best in skill or so but it was very moving. The last 15 minutes Turkey did a little masterclass on "How to score against a defensive team with almost all the players inside their own area" Crossing, crossing and more crossings. This time the trouble was the Chech defenders were taller and stronger than the Turkish forwards... okey... two or three Turkish going to the wing and crossing made low not by the air. That finally caused goal one. Goal two, persevering with crossings and Nihat being the smart striker "just in case" the goalkeeper fails, and even Cech fails once in a while. And the third goal, you know. And for an hour it seemed very hard to imagine the Turkish scoring, but they found the way. They kind of reminded me of Spain sometimes. Turkey vs Croatia will be the first quarterfinal and the second one will be Portugal vs... maybe Germany.
Yes...it was a exciting match,especially the last 20 minutes ...
It looked like a Hollywood script.
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so far, imho, this has been better than any world cup i've seen... i know that is a stretch but i am going from my personal view not yours.
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21st Century Paul:
ElvisBondCelebrityCosmos:
21st Century Paul:
Turkey vs Czech Rep. What a match, not best in skill or so but it was very moving. The last 15 minutes Turkey did a little masterclass on "How to score against a defensive team with almost all the players inside their own area" Crossing, crossing and more crossings. This time the trouble was the Chech defenders were taller and stronger than the Turkish forwards... okey... two or three Turkish going to the wing and crossing made low not by the air. That finally caused goal one. Goal two, persevering with crossings and Nihat being the smart striker "just in case" the goalkeeper fails, and even Cech fails once in a while. And the third goal, you know. And for an hour it seemed very hard to imagine the Turkish scoring, but they found the way. They kind of reminded me of Spain sometimes. Turkey vs Croatia will be the first quarterfinal and the second one will be Portugal vs... maybe Germany.
Yes...it was a exciting match,especially the last 20 minutes ...
It looked like a Hollywood script.
Yes,sometimes...
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well... you know... Germany 3 - Portugal 2 Germany was better tactically and found the right places in Portugal defence, even being worse playing the ball. as you may guess here in Spain everybody's talking about the Italy-Spain match, the quintaessential anti-Spain team. Spain never wins Italy in a official game since... 1920. yes 1920. then catenaccio was not even a project... Cruyff says Italy it's the fav vs Spain. Beckenbauer says Italy it's even the fav to win the tournament. And most of the Spanish players said that Italy was the fav to win the tournament... before playing with France!. Ok, Italy defends like no other team. The midfielders, the defense and the goalkeeper. They can't do much with the ball (compared to Spain) but they wait for a easy counter-attack and play with the idea that Spain must have the "inititive" and "try to win" "Spain's favourite" , so risk balls and favour counterattacks. IMO, if Spain plans to pass the ball around in the midfield, they won't do it, cause Italy midfielders won't let them... and if they ever do it... I don't think Villa and Torres are gonna find some space with the Italy defense so close to Buffon... Spain always loses in quarterfinals the same way, not knowing what do in the midfield, cause the others team defends well, risking the ball, and losing with counterattacks. No more! Ok, Italy is gonna wait, that's catenaccio, okey, we can pass the ball around in defence, ACCEPT the 0-0, not trying to force something we can't do, and if Italy tries to make some pressure on the Spanish defenders... long ball to Torres and Villa cause they're good in counter-attack with spaces. And if it's really a 0-0 as our team is full of players that can shoot the ball, we must trust in winning the penalties.... (i.e. Villa, Torres, Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta vs Toni?, Cassano?, etc....). There's only one problem. As Cruyff says, the Spanish defense is not very skilled with the ball (actually the Italian one is more skilled with the ball)... so that is trouble to pass the ball around or to give it to the midfielders.... I would try to make a team designed to hold the ball in the half of the field or so... with Fabregas, Iniesta, Alonso, Xavi and maybe Silva or so... to help the defenders do it, and forget about Senna, who's defensively veery good but that's not the plan... the plan is... we have the ball... and we're gonna only pass it round unless you come for it. If you come, to Torres and Villa, if you don't, do better penalty shoots. Usually Aragones thinks alike than me (except for Raul, though against Italy I think not even Raul would be enough to win them in a normal way)... so maybe that would be plan. If we lose, goodbye. And I hope the Spanish players won't come with broken bones and such as usual against Italy. We're gonna expect maximum violence.
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21st Century Paul:
Italy is gonna wait, that's catenaccio
I realize that because this is the Paul McCartney forum many will want to recall things that happened during the 1960s. But I don't equate today's Italian football to what Helenio Herrera employed with Inter Milan, when their objective back then was to not let the opponents score by hook or crook. Italy did away with that true form of catenaccio in the 1980s. No longer do they mark man-for-man, include a libero or go strictly for the 1-0 win. They certainly didn't win the World Cups of 1982 and 2006 employing that system. Hence the fans' battle cry of Forza Azzurri!. And there were more goals scored in Serie A this past season than in the Spanish or English leagues. None of the matches Italy have played at this EURO have suggested that they play catenaccio. They were all over Romania, especially in the first half when they had a valid goal ruled out for offside. Zambrotta and Grosso often push forward along the touchlines to put in crosses for Toni to head and Pirlo is very much a playmaking midfielder. Greece is by far closer to the 60s style of catenaccio than what Italy does these days. In this game, Italy will likely look to play off the counter since their playmaker Pirlo will be missing through suspension and because it's Spain's style to keep the possession and try and walk the ball into the net, not to mention the weakness of the Spanish back line (Arbeloa needs to start ahead of Sergio Ramos). But I wouldn't be so quick to point and single out Italy of playing catenaccio since all of Spain's opponents are often playing off their back foot. By the way, Italy's goals in this tournament have all come from set pieces.
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What are your thoughts about the dutch team? I can't ask that to dutch people because they always say we're great. But we beat Italy by 3-0 Beat France by 4-1 Beat "Roemenië"* (with all new players) by 2-0 *I don't know how 'Roemenië' is called in English :') Saturday, we'll play against Russia. I think we will win by... 3-0 at least!
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Ever-Present-Paul:
What are your thoughts about the dutch team?
Holland have proven that they have what it takes to score goals, but I'm not convinced with their defence. Italy and France were a bit unlucky with the numerous chances they had to score, and with Arshavin now available and linking up with Pavlyuchenko up front I think the Russians won't go down as easily as many believe. Russia appears to have become stronger as the competition moves along. I think Holland v Russia is a fascinating matchup and could very well be the best of the quarterfinals. "Roemenië" = "Romania" in english.
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Oh yeah! Thanks for the back up! Hmmm,.. Did you know the coach of Russia is Guus Hiddink? And did you know, Guus Hiddink is from Holland? Jet I think Holland beats Russia
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unclesox:
21st Century Paul:
Italy is gonna wait, that's catenaccio
I realize that because this is the Paul McCartney forum many will want to recall things that happened during the 1960s. But I don't equate today's Italian football to what Helenio Herrera employed with Inter Milan, when their objective back then was to not let the opponents score by hook or crook. Italy did away with that true form of catenaccio in the 1980s. No longer do they mark man-for-man, include a libero or go strictly for the 1-0 win. They certainly didn't win the World Cups of 1982 and 2006 employing that system. Hence the fans' battle cry of Forza Azzurri!. And there were more goals scored in Serie A this past season than in the Spanish or English leagues. None of the matches Italy have played at this EURO have suggested that they play catenaccio. They were all over Romania, especially in the first half when they had a valid goal ruled out for offside. Zambrotta and Grosso often push forward along the touchlines to put in crosses for Toni to head and Pirlo is very much a playmaking midfielder. Greece is by far closer to the 60s style of catenaccio than what Italy does these days. In this game, Italy will likely look to play off the counter since their playmaker Pirlo will be missing through suspension and because it's Spain's style to keep the possession and try and walk the ball into the net, not to mention the weakness of the Spanish back line (Arbeloa needs to start ahead of Sergio Ramos). But I wouldn't be so quick to point and single out Italy of playing catenaccio since all of Spain's opponents are often playing off their back foot. By the way, Italy's goals in this tournament have all come from set pieces.
well, yes Italy still has not done the catenaccio, that's for knock out rounds, in the small league they don't they can't do it cause three 0-0 would make them go home, you know... that's why they always have troubles in those parts on the tournaments, the problem is if they survive it. I think they don't even go for the 1-0, they go for the 0-0. Recent examples. Italy vs Brazil final of the World Cup 1994. Italy back... 0-0 Brazil wins in penalties, of course!. Italy vs France. Quarterfinals of the World Cup 1998. 0-0 France wins in penalties. When Lippi was asked if Italy didn't play well today... "No, 0-0 is the perfect match" you know, that's their philoshopy now... And I think we're gonna see a lot of agression a la Gattusso... blood included. The video of the last official Spain vs Italy, with the famous moment when Tassotti breaks the nose of Luis Enrique and says again and again the worst insult in Spanish.
If we could bet in Fantasy Football who's gonna injure a player of kick them to blood, we all will go for Italy. You know what I said "I want to see fail miserably... the ones that play miserably... probably Italy" but one of the funny things that football has is that is not fair, like life isn't fair. There are corrupt referee, or silly referees and violence without justice and the law is not gonna be neccessarily followed. The game is gonna be anything but fair. Can Materazzi play? -
Ever-Present-Paul:
What are your thoughts about the dutch team? I can't ask that to dutch people because they always say we're great. But we beat Italy by 3-0 Beat France by 4-1 Beat "Roemenië"* (with all new players) by 2-0 *I don't know how 'Roemenië' is called in English :') Saturday, we'll play against Russia. I think we will win by... 3-0 at least!
well, I think they have done the best football in the tournament... and even of many tournaments... but that was the league round... things are different in knock out rounds it's not about points but to be out of in... I trust in Holland (4 players in the Fantasy Football ) for this round but Germany is another story.... they're tactically much better than Holland so it can be a similar thing than the yesterday's game with Portugal. But Van Nistelrooy is very good tactically, with all his movements to receive the goal in or out of the area... it will be a game when "I don't know" would be my bet... I don't know much some Netherlands players... besides Van Nistelrooy I don't think the others attacking players are very good tactically, (they are good with the ball), kind of like Spain. Spain and Netherlands kind of have better good looking football than results, it's a lot of skill with the ball but not much good placement of the players, the oppossite of Italy and Germany.
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21st Century Paul:
well, I think they have done the best football in the tournament... and even of many tournaments... but that was the league round... things are different in knock out rounds it's not about points but to be out of in...
Yes, things are different. But we won all 3 games at the league round. Italy only won 1 game, and all the other games where 0-0 (or 1-1)
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It's 1-1 On the last minute of the extra time! Now there gonna be penalties!
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Damn it!!! $@?#&%§
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Croatia misses 3 penalties, Turkey shot 3 balls in. Turkey is to the semi-finals! Where they stand no change against Germany
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I have to cross my fingers for germany now! *AARRRRRRGHHH*