Euro 2012

So, Portugal won, and they deserved it. This is one of the few time the losing team didn't seem like they should have tied or won it; odd.

It felt like their 11 players were only playing on their side of the field, lol. Well, it didn't saved them.

Quote from kleinluka

BTW, I think using replays would be a mistake. FIFA has always stated that they don't want to lose the human side of the sport and I agree. Bad decisions are part of the sport. If they allowed video replays it would just lead to interruptions all the time because a team demands video replay for every free kick. I think you could also expect things like results being changed after a game if a team wanted to challenge a referee decision with video evidence. I say keep technology out of football and just deal with the fact that people make mistakes. Sometimes you get unlucky and sometimes others get unlucky....it is what it is.

The thing that annoys me the most is that the UEFA claims the additional referee would solve this issue. I am basically paraphrasing Urs Meier (a retired FIFA referee): it is not humanly possible to determine whether the ball passed the line or not. No human referee can reliably do this, because the human eye is not built for that. It happens in a split-second and the ball and goal post don't even have distinctive different colours.

I think the chip would be the best option, because it solves the problem (if the technical implementation is solid) and it doesn't open up the flood gates for video proof.

On the topic of CZE vs POR: well deserved win.

Quote from Marvin.Star

Portugal vs Czech - Portugal, but not by much, although so much depends on how well Ronaldo plays; if he doesn`t perform than Czech have a chance I think. Also, I feel the need to point out Postiga is a useless striker, and his substitute Oliveira is hardly any better... Portugal could benefit somewhat from a decent striker

Everyone around here says the same thing about our strikers. We've 3 strikers (besides Ronaldo that does that position once in a while), Hélder Postiga, Hugo Almeida and Nélson Oliveira. Hugo Almeida (he is the one who replaced Postiga when he got injured in this last mast) is the biggest turd of the three, he just ruins all the chances we create and everyone hates him, but statistically speaking he is the best one (dunno how...). Postiga is far better, and although he doesn't score (i think he has one goal so far) just having him there allows Ronaldo to score more goals. About Nelson Oliveira, I don't know how much people know about him but he played on the Sub-19 Euro last year (where Portugal finished second) and he was the revelation player of the cup, he plays for S. L. Benfica (it's his first year on the main team) and has done some amazing games on the Portuguese League and Champions League, the problem is that he is still very young (20), unexperienced, and he is not a real striker (yet), he usually plays as a second striker, but he is the fastest and more technically advanced of the 3, he just needs some more time. He is playing on this years Euro because everyone believes that he will be our next star player and we really need to have a world class striker.

The main thing that pisses people off about the strikers is that we've other strikers that are much more efficient that weren't called by the coach, like for example Nuno Gomes, Ricardo Vaz Tê or Danny. But whatever, we've Ronaldo heh

About the game, it wasn't our best game (I blame it on Hugo Almeida), but as usual Nani (word around here is that Mourinho wants him in Real Madrid), Ronaldo, Coentrão and Pepe played amazingly well and got us the win. João Moutinho was also great this time, but it seems like we can never have a game where all our 3 midfielders play well, Meireles for example did a really poor game (he was the one that was always trying long distance goals and failed miserably).

Anyway we're now on the semis waiting for either Spain or France, we've rivalries with both of the teams so whoever wins it will certainly be an exciting match

Quote from Pampers

putting a sensor in the ball to check if its over the line or not should be doable though?

That would make it to reasonable & equally fair to everyone

Quote from kleinluka

Video for reference:BTW, I think using replays would be a mistake. FIFA has always stated that they don't want to lose the human side of the sport and I agree. Bad decisions are part of the sport. If they allowed video replays it would just lead to interruptions all the time because a team demands video replay for every free kick. I think you could also expect things like results being changed after a game if a team wanted to challenge a referee decision with video evidence. I say keep technology out of football and just deal with the fact that people make mistakes. Sometimes you get unlucky and sometimes others get unlucky....it is what it is.

It would lead to interuptions, but what happens now when something like a penalty shot happens, or a "was the ball in our out" situations, 22 players run after the referee and scream, bitch and moan for 5 minutes, then 2 of them get a yellow card, and ref adds 2 minutes to the game. Video replays would be shorter.

They added the 4:th ref fairly recently, and I think I have seen 2 premier league matches where they acctually diod anything, ( not good or bad , just anything )

FIFA couldn´t care less about the human side, Football is probably the most corrupt sport ever, and somebeody is making alot of money, wouldn´t want to change that

word. the "human side" of judging is just plain bullshit

Quote from Tailgunner

Football is probably the most corrupt sport ever

wooa easy there~

Quite happy with the result of the first quarter final

Quote from FrieChamp

Quite happy with the result of the first quarter final

Yeah indeed. hehe. Although, greece wasn't really a big challenge. They didn't even really seem like they wanted to be there, nobody tried anything and they got lucky they even scored the 2 goals they did. But I won't complain I just hope Germany is ready to face a really good team in the semi final.

Quote from barrakid

Everyone around here says the same thing about our strikers. We've 3 strikers (besides Ronaldo that does that position once in a while), Hélder Postiga, Hugo Almeida and Nélson Oliveira. Hugo Almeida (he is the one who replaced Postiga when he got injured in this last mast) is the biggest turd of the three, he just ruins all the chances we create and everyone hates him, but statistically speaking he is the best one (dunno how...). Postiga is far better, and although he doesn't score (i think he has one goal so far) just having him there allows Ronaldo to score more goals. About Nelson Oliveira, I don't know how much people know about him but he played on the Sub-19 Euro last year (where Portugal finished second) and he was the revelation player of the cup, he plays for S. L. Benfica (it's his first year on the main team) and has done some amazing games on the Portuguese League and Champions League, the problem is that he is still very young (20), unexperienced, and he is not a real striker (yet), he usually plays as a second striker, but he is the fastest and more technically advanced of the 3, he just needs some more time. He is playing on this years Euro because everyone believes that he will be our next star player and we really need to have a world class striker.

Weird, although Almeida did completely screw most of his chances, I must say he felt like the more useful of the three IMO. He actually created chances, and got involved in the offense in a potentially useful way. I don't think I've noticed Postiga doing anything useful more than twice, I don't even think I've seen him hold up the ball so his team can move up the field. It would be good to see Oliveira start for them I think, it would be great experience for him and then I can actually try and get a sense for what he might be able to do.

Yay Germany, although I kind of wonder if it would have been so easy if Karagounis had been able to play. That and the Germans were evidently susceptible to counter attacks. Although the German subs were somewhat impressive, Reus I am not familiar with but he played a good game. Should be a good game today

France is playing and I fucking don't care

France played reasonably well, I was hoping they would do better; I wanted to see France win. But Spain won in there typical fashion. Not much else to say about it really.

This might have been the most boring game of Euro 2012 so far. I didn't think France played well at all. They showed no creativity, the passing was terrible and not precise enough, they kept losing the ball the few times that they had it. And I swear, every single time the French goalie did a goal kick he shot it so far into the spanish half that the Spanish got the ball back. He did this the entire game, did anyone else notice? Terrible game by the French. The only good player was Ribery but the rest of the team was asleep. Spain held the ball solidly but overall they didn't do a much better job at creating chances. The entire game seemed to take place in midfield with only a few good chances here and there. Pretty boring to watch

I have to agree with lukasan: boring match. France could have done worse, Spain wasn't as dominating as in previous games, but Spain didn't really have to fear the french offence either. Ribery was good but his teammates simply didn't/couldn't play on the same level. I didn't notice the French goalie to be particularly bad at goal kicks though.

Here is hope to tomorrow's game being more entertaining.

Agreed. I really enjoy watching Ribery play, perhaps that is why I didn't really register how poorly France played . But yea, it was kind of boring, I suppose that's why I couldn't think of anything in particular to comment on.

Yea, I want to see Portugal win that match against Spain. I think perhaps at this point I'm just kind of bored of Spain winning every game. That and Portugal is far more exciting to watch.

So do I... lol.