Euro 2012

[smokin_e2011]

Pure class from Shevchenko...the man still has it

[Vortigan]

Pure class from Shevchenko...the man still has it

Yeah that was excellent wasn't it! Great to see the unbridled joy in the home crowd.

[misterbulgarin]

Speaking of Football, check out this picture I restored, I thought it was relevant to the Euro!

[Vortigan]

Great work on that restoration!!! that was the year my dad was born So what do we think about tonight?......historically Sweden have been a bit of a bogey team in tournaments,fingers crossed that's changes now!

[tippexx]

Is it just me, or is tournament football in danger of becoming boring? Once upon a time I'd watch these matches on TV with an involvement that would have me mentally playing every ball.

I admire the sort of skills that Spain and other countries possess, but I've grown a bit tired of tiki-taka. The purists will kill me for it, but watching a million short passes over 90 minutes is 'girls training pitch' stuff and starting to have me wanting to reach for the remote. Spain's patient build against Croatia last night was masterful, but painfully dull and screaming out for something more direct.

And defense, what is that about these days. Seems all a defender is allowed to do is 'face off' a forward, intercept anything going loose or hurl themselves in the path of shots on when some pundit will announce it as a World class 'block'. FIFA fannying with the FA rules governing tackling has not to my mind improved the game in any way, in fact it is in danger of making it sterile. I'm not sure about FIFAs motif either. The idea that skillful players need 'protecting' from hatchet men is a little spurious given that one of instigators of the fannying was Michel Platini, so skilled as a player he need no protection yet so creepy as a FIFA acolyte he carried the flag. Hard, fair tackling is just a matter of timing and wether from the back, front or side done properly nobody gets really hurt. The likes of Bobby Moore or Oscar Mas were master tacklers and rarely gave away or needed to give away fouls, and lets be honest, in their own penalty areas rarely did anyone in an Azzuri shirt. The problem of course was when hard fair might become ruthless cynical. Skillful players can generally look after themselves and avoid involvement, useful characteristics learned as as a kid in playground games where there are no rules and which helps make them the skillful footballers they are. And there was nothing in the old rules which said talented players weren't allowed to tackle, George Best and Franz Beckenbauer were fair and formidable.

FIFAs motives had more to do with the possible cost of insurance paid to clubs for injury to players involved in Tournaments and the Blatters desire to involve more and more Backhander countries to improve his power base. The idea that three inepts from Bongoland could referee an Argentina v Italy match in front of a Worldwide audience under the old FA original rules was painfully ridiculous. Solution, change the rules. Concequence, any defender going anywhere close to a forward risks a yellow card and forwards throw themselves to the floor at the brush of a shadow.

Heaven forbid the day when all teams play the Spain way .... it will become really dull then and I'll opt for the World Hairdressing Championships as being the more manly .... though I will be watching England tonight!

[bfg84]

Wow, has that been on your mind for a while then!
Love a good rant especially one I whole heartedly agree with........

Come On ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!

[tippexx]

To bloody right. Slowly and surely the 'protectionists' have taken an oomph from the game. I've also noticed the word 'yardage' creeping in more and more .... where any nowhere run upfield is turned into a free kick opportunity by forwards falling over if defenders breath on them .... OK professionals are professionals and will pull any stunt to gain an opportunity, but if that's the modern game we might as well change the shape of the ball and call in the NFL .... it couldn't be any less predictable or boring!

[Vortigan]

So we won the group,who'd have thought that two weeks ago??.Well I didn't anyway A sub usual standard Italy next,there for the taking?? Fingers crossed!!

[Simon Bolivar]

So which football stat nut can tell us the last time England went through, top of their group table??????? I am betting it's 10-20yrs.

[TJ:01]

In the European Championships, I'm sure it will come as no surprise that England last topped their group 16 years ago during Euro 96 when the competition was held in England! In that case we qualified from the group stage with 7 points (2 wins and a draw, like this time) and our second place group team the Netherlands went through with 4 points (just like France, with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss).

No I'm not that sad... I was just sad enough to look it up on Wikipedia!

[Monty72]

Overall I think it's been a decent tournament. Obviously I'm dissapointed at how bad Ireland 'performed'. The less said the better!! Anyhow well done to all you England fans on your team getting through.

[Smallclub]

One more time the french were pitiful… they can thank Hugo Lloris (goalkeeper) for their having avoided a 0-4 versus Sweden…

[tippexx]

Sacre bleu Frank, what are you saying .... you might change your mind in a game or two!

[nev coss]

I think Italy are there for the taking

[Jacobwaits]

I think Italy are there for the taking

How much should we pay them?