EURO 2012

Nani hasn't got the brain power to make such a decision.

So I guess Ronaldo isn't a good player or something.

the dink is so passé now. the scuff is where its at.

there's about a quarter-inch difference between Alves' and Fabregas' penalties, probably fair reflection of the game tbh

Nani running up may have been a weird psyche-out move

alves' face broke my heart, poor guy

lineker struggling, haul im off

lineker clearly about to collapse, what time is it there, 2:30am or something?

I was reading an interview with Panenka himself earlier where he was taking great joy that every commentator, in every country, calls that 'a panenka'. Hope he wasn't watching bbc tonight.

I figure Nani was chased forward by his coach for that - as soon as it happened the Alves miss was inevitable, not that he looked confident in the first walk-up.

commentators more boring tonight than Spain

What'd they call it on BBC? xps

is it against the rules that having announced your penalty takers to the ref they go in the wrong order?

'the dink' iirc xp. Foreign terms never catch on here, everything else is called 'little flick'

yes but otoh the day lawro tries to use 'trequartista' on commentary is the day i give up paying a license fee

feels weird saying it but that was a great shootout

game was fuckloads better than Lineker and Hansen made out, I really dislike the entry-level notion that if Spain are on anything less than sparkling form it renders the whole spectacle a dud

to these inexperienced eyes portugal were fucking tremendous, right up on spain like white on rice

so when did everyone decide to abandon the fantasy league and leave me looking daft at the top? dick moves.

otm Portugal were fabulous. In a way it's slightly depressing, because nobody can keep that up for a full 90 mins and beyond. Germany'll rip Spain in the final though (if they get there).

spain's lack of striker truly is a bizarre way to play; i know torres has his issues but lacking villa don't you need SOMEBODY who doesn't mind trying a little forward fuckery?

they played a striker in the first half

i mean fielding a team that includes fabregas but nobody for him to
flip it to should be prosecutable behavior

i find the lack of striker thing really overegged. it's not like it means they're playing with 10 men or something. and it's not as if they don't have tons of goalscoring potential in the team.

also... is it me or were bbc way harsh on ronaldo? surely it's not that uncommon for a team to have the best player on the last penalty? am i completely wrong?

Dunphy went HAM on him naturally

can imagine. also when has a player got to pick the kick he takes? blame it on the bento imo.

ok ok maybe i am drinking the kool-ade. but i do think they miss villa.

thread otm. that was a good and proper game.

Giles mumbled something about the manager being responsible but was shouted down

really feel portugal blew that.

surely you want your best penalty takers on the first pens as it gets statistically less likely the penalty will actually be taken the deeper you go, as happened there.

spain don't need a striker, fine, but then they need not to play it wide and cross it to the guy that's not there.

Llorente has more to complain about than torres imo

important penos are first and fourth iirc

son, it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done. xp.

is ronaldo even such a great penalty taker?

surely you want your best penalty takers on the first pens as it gets statistically less likely the penalty will actually be taken the deeper you go, as happened there.

yeah tho in my mind teams often leave a particularly good taker as the last one. isn't this fairly common?

He's near enough infallible with kicks in normal time. Shoot-outs he's a little dodgier

23 out of 24 for real is pretty impressive actually. i just can't tell with bbc cos they made it out as though every free kick he takes was going to be a goal

xxp. maybe, he's going to regret that for the rest of his life tho, is the bottom line.

son, it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done. xp.

― second only to popcorn (or something), Wednesday, June 27, 2012 10:08 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and by the way, tell your mother....ZLATAN

nice ;)

is it just me or was that ramos pen shite? didn't execute it properly, not delicate enough.

A penalty that hits the net is never shite.

It was fine.
xp re Ramos (especially considering his one vs Bayern.

Spain are so awesome defensively. Good match, Portugal played Spain straight up and concentrated on playing their game the best they possibly could rather than solely concentrating on nullifying Spain.
Meireles pass to Ronaldo on 90m was so so terrible.

na don't get me wrong it was a good'un obv. but as panenka pens go, it was underwhelming! you're supposed to momentarily stop breathing as you realise 'wait, wtf, he hasn't... fuck me he has.' time's supposed to stand still. went in though so who gives a fuck.

i find it hard to say that portugal were that great. like italy they took the game to spain, rather than parking the bus, as everyone else has done against them this tournament. like italy they at least matched spain for most of the game (in this they overachieved, they're nothing as good of a team as spain on paper), but faded at the end (last quarter of an hour of the ninety minutes for italy, the entire period of extra time for portugal). spain often start slow, but del bosque got it wrong tactically and this compounded it. negredo didn't look like he had any idea of what his role was, and was largely ineffective when the ball did manage to arrive at him. silva and xavi both underperformed massively in the first half imo. i didnt think fabregas was that great but an improvement on negredo? absolutely. navas looked livelier than silva but going for the byline and whipping in crosses - for who? - which invariably hit the first man and at best went out for a corner, as if spain know what to do with one of those, just isn't a good enough plan b. thought arbeloa had a bit of a torrid time and should've been sent off. thought pedrito was great and if only he'd had more playing time - this season, this tournament - he might just have gotten something.

i feel like the spain backlash is so fucking strong that we give portugal so much credit for containing them and stopping their play, and yet ignore the fact that despite portugal never gave spain control, neither did they look like scoring, or have a shot on target.

but faded at the end (last quarter of an hour of the ninety minutes for italy, the entire period of extra time for portugal)

Yes, teams are noticeably falling off against them - it's really heavy going to not have the ball, especially when you choose to press as Portugal often did.

xp.ha some terrible english in there, you'll decode it.

yeah, but i think you have to press spain to beat them. it's the best tactic. you just need to be better than portugal going forward - which germany are.

thank fuck somebody who used to play in England scored to enliven this otherwise by-the-numbers encounter