EURO 2012

[John McClane]

This cover of Thriller is terrible, sacrilegious.

 

what were they thinking.

[Jhinge Machha]

agree to think we had them 4 in our team and know where linked with players like sinclair davis and othere no marks shows how much we have slid as a club

 

it seriously hurts. those 4 and masch, gerrard, carra,agger..what a team that was. imagine if rafa would have been allowed to bring in silva as well..

[gumps]

Three people have now text me saying John Terry putting his Spain shirt on.

 

Hahaha! Well I laughed!

 

 

This cover of Thriller is terrible, sacrilegious.

 

what were they thinking.

 

What's this about?

[fowler9]

it seriously hurts. those 4 and masch, gerrard, carra,agger..what a team that was. imagine if rafa would have been allowed to bring in silva as well..

 

if we'd have got Silva instead of Keane we'd have pissed the league that season and then who knows what after, having said that being shite probably enlightened more people to get Hicks and Gillett out

[John McClane]

Hahaha! Well I laughed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's this about?

 

BBC credits had a montage of all best moments but with a very odd version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" sung by a depressed female.

[Gym Beglin]

I'm surprised people don't see the cynical side of thenSpain team?

 

Countless times they take the man out when other teams look to break into space, but no card. Oh can't be a foul, it's them Spain lads, it's all beautiful...

 

A tug of the shirt here, a clip of the heels there, it really grates on me to watch them and hear all this bullshit about how pure they are, Arbeloa should have had about five yellow cards in each game of this tournament. Alonso as well, usually gets to his man a second too late and then barges into the back of him, nothing ever given.

 

Italy got a bumming, Spain passed the ball brilliantly, and that's all that will be remembered, but it's never the whole story. Thankfully it also spells the end of the Pirlo wankathon, and the push to make him World Player of the Year. I hate it when stupid people talk about football, it just offends me.

 

Also worth noting how nobody is calling Del Bosque a managerial genius, but jumped in with both feet to proclaim Guardiola the king of managers. Del Bosque has to pull players in from all around Spain, get them playing marvellous stuff, manage the egos, manage the Barca/Madrid rivalry, he's been amazing.

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Anyone now how many goals were in the total tournament ?

[WaltonRed]

Fucking immense

 

Spain I bow down to you, unreal

[Captain]

Well done to Spain. They were the best team, and they are extremely hard to beat.

 

Nice touch by Torres when he served Mata the last goal. It seems Spain have a very good team spirit.

[King Gheedorah]

Anyone now how many goals were in the total tournament ?

 

I got 74.

[gumps]

BBC credits had a montage of all best moments but with a very odd version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" sung by a depressed female.

 

Cheers.

 

Sounds dreadful.

 

Thought the BBC had a bit more class. That sounds like an ITV style stunt.

[Ezekiel 25:17]

I got 74.

 

Cheers Mo, thats what I thought but when I count on bbc it comes to 76, 76 would have made my bet up, I think it is 7i though and im counting one game twice.

[kalasoma]

Congrats to Spain for an incredible achievement. Italy will be a team to watch in 2014.

[G Richards]

I thought Spain were fantastic. More and more people were criticizing them before the final for all the pretty possession football, with some even going so far as to say it was all getting a bit boring. Their performance in the final, adding goals galore to their usual dominance in possession, was the perfect riposte. They could have score even more and were well on top. They have a great chance of winning the next World Cup too.

 

Did I also see it straight with Mario Balotelli storming off at the end? That's not on, the big baby. You have to be dignified in defeat. Shake hands and be a man!

[G Richards]

duplicate

[Faustus]

What a performance that was from Spain. Unreal.

 

One of the best things I read today was a critique of them in the Guardian and the lad writing it basically made the point that why if you criticise are you deemed a philistine, but if you applaud you're a pseudo-intellectual?

 

For me, there's defo been a middle ground this tournament as for the most part in that respect, it's felt as though they've been playing with the hand brake on and been more concerned with keeping possession for possession's sake, rather than waiting to strike at the opponent as was the case in 2008 and 2010, but there's no argument with that tonight. Utterly fantastic and everything I've been expecting from them this tounrment.

 

Also, quick thing this- me and my mates were talking about this in the pub tonight- why is Del Bosque never mentioned as one of the greats; be it modern day or all time? 2 La Ligas, 2 European Cups, a World Cup and a European Championship. Hell of a CV that.

[WaltonRed]

He's defo up there in terms of great managers of all time, defo defo defo

[lifetime fan]

What a performance that was from Spain. Unreal.

 

One of the best things I read today was a critique of them in the Guardian and the lad writing it basically made the point that why if you criticise are you deemed a philistine, but if you applaud you're a pseudo-intellectual?

 

For me, there's defo been a middle ground this tournament as for the most part in that respect, it's felt as though they've been playing with the hand brake on and been more concerned with keeping possession for possession's sake, rather than waiting to strike at the opponent as was the case in 2008 and 2010, but there's no argument with that tonight. Utterly fantastic and everything I've been expecting from them this tounrment.

 

Also, quick thing this- me and my mates were talking about this in the pub tonight- why is Del Bosque never mentioned as one of the greats; be it modern day or all time? 2 La Ligas, 2 European Cups, a World Cup and a European Championship. Hell of a CV that.

 

Fair point mate.

[neopulian]

more concerned with keeping possession for possession's sake

 

There's no such thing "keeping possession for possession's sake". The correct analogy is "keeping possession = denying opposition possession". You can't lose when the other team doesn't get a sniff of the ball.

 

It's fair to criticize Spain, but I feel much of the negative stuffs was purely because they are no longer the "exciting new things" and people want something "different".

[neopulian]

Just saw the stats. Spain haven't conceded a goal in 900+ minutes of knock out football. That's not a coincidence. That's the terrific defensive power of tiki-taka.

 

Boring? Fair enough, but people haven't really been able to articulate why they found Spain boring or why Spain are boring. If you look from the human factor, it's natural that people tend to do what they do well often and what they they do not as well less often. And when they do something really well like the Spaniards at keeping possession, they're even more risk-averted at doing something else different. A good neuron surgeon wouldn't risk looking foolish trying to do an open-heart by pass.

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Can't believe Tom Ross was right, again, fact.

[Faustus]

There's no such thing "keeping possession for possession's sake". The correct analogy is "keeping possession = denying opposition possession". You can't lose when the other team doesn't get a sniff of the ball.

 

It's fair to criticize Spain, but I feel much of the negative stuffs was purely because they are no longer the "exciting new things" and people want something "different".

 

Yes there is and it comes when you build an attacking move and when something opens up like the chance to either play a ball to somebody making a run off the ball or have a chance the to shoot yourself, you kill the move completely with a sideways or backwards pass that doesn't need to be played at that moment. It's happened plenty of times this tournament- especially in the game against Croatia and in the 90 mins against Portugal (thought they stepped it up in extra time and started moving it around quicker and with more purpose in extra time, to be far) when it felt like they were playing with the hand brake on and just seemed to be intent on doing the bare minimum to win. Both games could easily have gone either way.

 

The knocking it around the centre halfs or between Busquets and Pique and the like I don't have issue with because that's the 'keeping possession= denying the opposition possession' stuff right there and, plus, they're great to watch when they're playing the ball out from the back in tight situations.

 

No knocking last night though. That was the Spain side of 2008 and 2010 that was a just incredible to watch right there.

[Guest davelfc]

[xerxes]

A tremendous performance by Spain, and in Rodgers we have someone who can aspire to that style.

[LFC 6 Times]

Fucking unreal team and squad of players, take it in boys we'll probably never see better absolutely breathtaking performance.