Spain made over 800 passes in last night's game.The only way England could make that many is if we enter Wayne Rooney on Mastermind.
I think Keane was spot on. I mean, I'd love it if the City fans were like the Irish, chanting wholeheartedly at 4-0 down, but it's the manner in which it's talked about which is wrong. Pundits and players often seem to fail to acknowledge that they gave away very cheap goals (in the Spanish case, 3 absolute gifts) and instead just spend their whole time talking about the fans.
So I went to Piper for the football yesterday. It was good, got quite busy and a bit boisterous. No ****s in sinks this time. Went Gardeners, Haworth and Zest too. I'm hanging out my arse today. Properly, properly tired and hungover. Ugh. Fun though, a very fun night. Enjoyed the game in the end. Really thought we'd ****ed it up after half time but to dig in like that, and the quality injected by Walcott, was excellent. Quite exciting, I have to say. Rooney back against the Ukraine, has to go straight back in for me, probably for Carroll. And hopefully Milner won't start, always very willing but lacking in quality in many ways unfortunately. My eyes feel like they are sinking into my head and I am going to lose them forever. I've never squinted so much in my life. Piper pints always do this to me. But then so do those Desperados and Jaeger bombs too...
Still scored 3 goals though didn't we? And without the gifts Spain scored from. Passes are no use if they are all in your own half.
Sorry should I just moan and gripe about the national team? Is there not enough of that in the media, etc?
Was that handball in the wall by the Czechs, deliberate hand ball red card? What happens to the Polish, they played brilliant in the first half against Greece then fell to pieces and the same tonight again, oppurtunity missed.
Group A was always going to be a farce considering the way it was seeded and the lineup they ended up with, but how the **** did Greece scrape their way through and Russia go home? How has that happened?
I can't believe they've used a head-to-head format, Russia deserve their place in the quarter-final with their GD, it's a stupid rule.
I was thinking the same but after pondering on it for a week I've decided it's logical, gives you that extra incentive to win every match rather than settle for a draw or sit on a one goal lead and keep attacking for more goals because with such small groups every result and goal counts. They use the same system in the world cup too. Makes the games more entertaining.
I don't get how it works anyway. It has been said that Holland can still qualify despite being on 0 points with Denmark and Portugal on 3, and Germany on 6. Obviously by beating Portugal tonight and Germany beating Denmark there'd be 3 teams joint on 3 points (Holland, Portugal, Denmark) but Denmark have beaten Holland, Holland would in this scenario have beaten Portugal and Portugal beat Denmark. So how the **** do you sort them three using a head-to-head? I kind of agree with Bob on this, but I just don't see how head-to-head can be implemented.
After a bit of searching, I found a decent article which explains this head-to-head thing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18454917 Basically if it's more than two teams who are joint on points, then the results of those teams (Portugal, Denmark and Holland in my example) are made into a kind of mini-league and it's whoever has the most points from those games. So effectively ignore the results against Germany. However in my example that would still have all 3 joint so it would go down to goal difference.
The reason head to head was brought in was to make teams go out and try to win every game. However Russia clearly don't deserve to go through, 30 shots 2 on target? Pretty poor going, there are two sides to every game defending and attacking. Any English fan talking about Greece not deserving it is being a bit hypocritical surely? Chelsea and England have done it the past few weeks to the best of their ability.
If you're talking about being defensive, that isn't really the issue with Greece, it's that they are total horseshit. They were absolute gash in their first two games but somehow Poland didn't finish them off. I watched the Poland-Czech game last night instead of Greece (partly because Greece are so painful to watch) and I've only seen the highlights but Russia still had way more chances. You're right though, the chances mean nothing unless you finish them. The one thing that's disappointed me about the tournament so far is the lack of teams having a real go when they are losing or going out of the competition. Like Poland last night, they didn't seem to mind being knocked out at all. EDIT: The real farce in all this is the seeding of the group though, I know I've said it before but it just seems so stupid having 3 groups packed with good sides and then group A with no one of any note in and 3 of the worst sides in the competition.
that was confusing me too , couldnt work out how holland could still go through but it will just move on to goal difference in this instance..
surely thats what goal difference does tho? rewards you for not sitting on 1 goal leads and go for the kill...
