At last this Euro Tournament is coming to a conclusion today. My view is that it has been a very ordinary Euro Finals, a few good games and more than enough average games. SO......who will win ........let us hope that there are some goals tonight......0-0 and a penalty shoot-out would be a disaster and sum up what an average tournament this has been. SO..........I'll commit myself to a 2-1 win for Italy.......and maybe extra-time being needed to do the job. Who do you reckon will win and the score and in normal time or over-time or even by penalties. Over to you.
This sums it up perfectly for me: "The paper's [the Telegraph] Richard Williams, usually so full of praise for the Spanish game, also sticks the boot in over the accusations that Vicente Del Bosque's man have made football boring: "So are Spain really killing football? A large section of the below-capacity crowd in the Donbass Arena seemed to think so... There is a soft, frictionless quality to the style known as tiki-taka which makes it feel as though Spain are playing in carpet slippers and which robs the game of the explosive, percussive element that has always been a part of the game." I'm rooting for Italy.......
Just logged on specifically to say I'm going to bed with 70 mins played. Laid in a small amount of emulsion and a roller for just such an eventuality, so I'm off to watch paint dry as a bit of excitement before nodding off. If it ends up Italy 3 Spain 2 I'll be delighted but it's really not worth another 20 mins of 4:6:0, inclusive of even 30 seconds of Busquets, the biggest cheat in world football.
notDistant .....don't forget to touch the paint.....just to make sure it's dry. A bit one sided in the end.........Italy unfortunate to lose a player after their third substitution....one of their subs.....only on for a few minutes. 4-0 was not over the top.....it could have been more
The morning after the event.........A bit over the top notDistant with your comments last night........taking emulsion paint to bed with you.........no no I mean your comments on boring Spain. Not boring at all to be honest notDistant.........Spain really turned up there passing game and may I suggest they turned a so called 4:6:0 formation when breaking foreward into a 4:0:6 attacking style.......goals could of come from any position on the field........the second goal was a good example.... Jordi Alba literally bust a gut breaking foreward to score a great goal........boring football doesn't score 4 goals against Italy........ok Italy unlucky ending up with ten players with half an hour to go......but they were never going to turn that game around. notDistant I hope you didn't put your foot in the paint tin when you got up this morning.....at least emulsion drys quicker than gloss.
Well - I wanted Italy to win - but I have to admit that, despite the misfortune for the Italians with their injuiries, Spain were the better team and deserved to win. I realise that the Spanish style is not to everyone's taste - but ( unlike, say Chelsea in the CL ), Spain play an attacking brand of football. They have shown that, when it comes to short intricate passing, they cannot be touched. They pass their way towards the opposition goal - and the end result is no less spectacular than the more aggressive style of football that you seem to want. There is absolutely nothing wrong in your desire for that type of football, and if it gets you results - well - all the better. But at the same time if you have a team that is so naturally gifted in the art of passing and ball retention, then you have to play to your strengths - and these strengths would seem to be better than the more robust game that you advocate.
I'm not against good passing neither do I favour a long ball game - I don't for example particularly want to see Andy Carroll playing for England for precisely that reason. I do however like to to be accompanied by some penetration - quick players on the wings and dynamic strikers. Too often Spain [and Barcelona] pass it around for no particular purpose. It's been noticeably that Spain look a lot better when Navas came on as sub - at least he's got some pace and takes a man on. My role models in this tournament for an improved England [and boy do we need it] would be Germany and Holland, who I don't think would be classified as uncultured in their approach. Surprisingly Italy, for whom Cassano has looked good and Balotelli great when his mind's right, looked promising but ultimately flattered to deceive. After their display against Germany, I thought Italy might pull it off but they never really got going and it's true that once you give them the initiative, it's hard to get it back, turgid as the result may be. Once they went down to 10 men, they were clearly dead in the water so I don't think we can take a 4-0 result as any sign Spain are actually going to entertain us like that regularly. Two of their goals came from Torres and if the played with a striker [Torres or Villa when fit] at least you'd give them some marks for trying.
Thought Spain were excellent throughout...their sharp passing and getting into spaces totally petrified Italy for long periods in the second half, just as Italy did to England!...Spain will be a major threat in Brazil I think.....
I've made my feelings known previously regarding the pass pass pass thing with Spain and often it is boring. There has to be a purpose to passing the ball but with them there just doesn't seem to be. However, I actually thought Spain did have a purpose last night and whilst still passing the ball around there was an end product for a change. Spain were mesmerising in this match. Sharp, passed well and finished brilliantly. I thought I was going to be bored to tears but I wasn't. If Spain continue to play that way then firstly they will win more than they have already and secondly they will be great to watch as well. I cannot agree with you on this one notdistant. I got some paint ready, no really I did, to do my front door. Got up at 7am this morning to do the work and it wasn't anywhere near as enthraulling. There is no doubt that Spain are the best around at the moment. The Italians weren't bad but I do't think any side would have beaten them.
They won't though Sensible, will they? They won't be playing against 10 men in every game and even though Torres, who scored 2 of the 4 is fully fit, he didn't get picked for most of the games, with Spain being content to play 4:6:0. I'm not saying that they don't have good players, that the way they play isn't effective in winning things or that there is anyone who can stop them at the moment. That isn't the point though, the question is, is it good for football? Do you want everybody to start playing 4:6:0 tiki-taka?
I already answered that one notdistant and it's no. But, Spain had already won that game before it was 10 men and they looked good going forward without a forward. Normally they are boring but I just don't think they were this time. If teams can play like them in this match then I'm all for it. I know they will go back to being hard to get the ball off again sadly.
The game has moved on since the days of designated strikers.......that stand in forward positions and so are easily identified to be marked by the opposition. Spains second goal was by a player bursting through from a deep position and so was not being policed by a defender as would be normal. OK that can happen in any formation a team uses......but how do defences mark the opposition when you cannot identify who is going to be the final striker because of continual inter-passing before that moment of scoring. The days of Rory Fallon have come to an end........why did we have to wait so long to find that out.....we always draw the short straw so it seems.
But answer the question Sensible, forget a one-off against 10 men, would you like every team to play like Spain & Barcelona have over the past few years? That's complete rubbish Plymborn, playing so slowly only allows the defence to get organised - provided they know what they are supposed to be doing. In Torres, Spain have a top-quality striker who scored 3 goals in 135 minutes of competitive international football but he needs quick accurate passes in behind the defence, exactly what he doesn't get from Spain. How many chances has Fabregas missed in the last few weeks? At the moment, Spain look unbeatable but if they had better opposition up against them - Argentina with Messi in form for example - they'd have to take every chance they get and that's why they need proper strikers like everyone else. And don't bring Fallon and his ilk into it, that's not the kind of striker I'm talking about.
Well thank you for your opinion notDistant........I didn't realize that you were the font all knowledge.......I shall know my place in future and keep my thoughts to myself and not share them if your so right everytime. Just one thought before I go in my hole with my tail between m legs...... Torres is a top striker is he.......shame he can only get the occasional game for Chelsea........how many goals has he scored for them......he certainly missed a few,........ in the Euro's he scored two against Ireland and one as a late sub against a tiring ten man Italy.... plus one assist and he is crowned top scorer of the tournament......wow.
It doesn't matter how many times you ask me the same question notdistant my answer will be the same and I've already given it. I do not like watching any team pass for passing sake with no end product. There I've said it again for the upteenth time. In this match they did pass but with a purpose and with goal threats and scored thrown in. The pass that put Abarloa in was sublime and the finish exceptional. Incidentally I agree with plymborn to a certain extent. Torres being the golden boot boy is a bit of a joke really and he has hardly been prollific of late either for club or country. The fact they won the competition often without playing an out and out striker shows that it is perfectly possible. Brazil are good as are Argentina but there is no evidence that Spain would particularly struggle with their style of play. The point is that anyone can score from any position. If you think back in Argyle terms this was indeed the case for them when they were promoted twice in three seasons. The goals came from all over the place. I'm not agreeing that out and out strikers are a thing of the past totally. I am saying it is possible to play without one and still do well. It depends on the class of your players and the opposition they have to beat. Plymborn stop being a diva and get out of that hole.
Torres looked like the best in the world when he joined Liverpool, I kid you not. I remember he went past one defender with such embarrassing ease that the defender stuck his arm up for offside when Torres had had the ball throughout, that's how desperate and stupid he made the guy look. Where that form went, I don't know but class is, as they say, permanent. He has been coming back into form lately and his strike rate in these Euros confirms he can do a job at the very top level. He's a player who thrives on quick accurate passes played into the channels so he can run behind the defenders. Maybe his loss of club form was due to not getting that sort of service but you'd have thought Spain would be the very team who could provide that with ease, given the quality of the midfield players they have. So why not play to that strength rather than phaffing about for 20 minutes between attacks? In any event, you have to compare him with the next best option. Fabregas missed some absolute howlers in Arsenal's season climax - he's not a striker and he'll always miss ones that Torres would put away.
