Now, I don't think this is the best England side we have but don't forget we were playing a good French team who haven't lost in 22 matches. England were organised in defence, played with 2 rows which is tough to break down and have some pacy players to break out with, although imo Wellbeck was poor as an outlet and failed to hold the ball up quite a few times. Rooney would do this job much better. Also, consider that the referee (sorry to blame the ref) failed to stop the French from cynical fouls on at least 10 occasions which allowed them to regroup from dangerous situations. Given that England cut them open early on and Milner failed to score - it's this sort of break they were vulnerable to and had we been protected from that sort of cynical foul by the ref we'd have had a few more chances like that. What we do not know about is consistency. Sweden are not a strong team but they play differently, I think we will win it. Ukraine are a worry because they are hosts - god knows what sort of ref we'll get for that! :rolleyes:

Running down the clock.

Where is Bongo when you need him?

Here! there you have a first hand example, hehe.

And Osprey, you take those games waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to serious!
A pity we probably won't have a Germany-England match to settle those debates. ;)

Wha?....what's happening, someone called?

Too bad that you missed the first half. IMHO Germany played nearly perfect football in the first half. 61% (!) ball possession for the Dutch and two goals for Germany. As a matter fact the Dutch played with themselves as there was no way to get through (except one lucky chance). They looked like fools and not like the vice world champions. And you could see in their astonished faces that saw what they wished to play..... Too sad that van Marwijk did not have the b*lls to send Huntelaar and van der Vaart right from the beginning.

P.S.: Whose older? John Terry or Mark van Bommel? ;)

Just a little example above in regards to our usual german-british debates, hehe.

So, Italy Croatia and Spain-Ireland tonight. Croatia may surpirse us, any tips in regards to Ireland vs. Spain? I suspect a slaughter, but I could be wrong.

Oh....I hate football with a passion....so I don't care who wins.

meh... im betting on easy wins for both spain and italy.

Regarding england, i think i agree with Osprey, they did pull a great match against france, They did some great plays, and their goal was very good. The frech goal was individually very good too, but i think i prefered the british goal.

wait and see... wait and see

Well ... Germany is now reaping the rewards of what was started in the dark days after the World Cup 1998. Then the focus was shifted towards better training methods and environment for the youth teams, with the DFB supervising. All national teams (from the U15 up) were reorganised, the trainer staff was made more professional and the philosophy was harmonized. Most of the current and coming national players went through this school - Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Badstuber, Hummels, Boateng, Özil ... It takes a lot of time and investments - and even more patience - but it does work well.

As for England. I do see the greatest problem of England in the form of the Premier League. Right now it's not more than a totally overpriced economical comedy totally focused on squeezing every pence out of the fans. For over a decade money was blown out of the chimney for expensive "superstars" (most of them not from England) by rich people who treat the football clubs as their personal toys - or by greedy club bosses who financed everything from loans. Where would Chelsea be without Abramovitch? Or ManCity without their Sheikh? Bancrupt, the pieces sold and playing in some local amateur league. And the english national team is paying for these developments - and have been paying for them for a few years already. As long as the insane procedure of pumping a few million pounds into a few foreing football players every year continues the national team will continue to decline. We in Germany had this in the 90s and the World Cup 1998 and the Euro 2000 showed drastically where this road led.

With the advent of the "financial fair play" as the UEFA calls it this way of operating is going to end, anyway. It'll be a crunch for a few leagues, most notably the Premier League and the Primera Division, but in the end it will lead to a healthier football and less economical gamblers.

Don't get me wrong here, I think Germany are a better team 'on paper' than England, but England are capable of beating them should we meet, if we got a spot of luck. We have a new coach and he's drilled in some organisation, we were solid for most of the game versus France and dangerous on the break. Holland were very poor value but you could see that if you have a couple of pacey players against Germany then holes appeared. Sneijder and Robben got behind the fullbacks a few times, but the side was a bit of a mess and couldn't make anything of it. Germany though are very patient and keep possession really well which I think is their biggest asset.

Portugal had a better team a few years ago imho when they had that little dirty dog Deco playing in central midfield plus the only real 'striker' they had in Luis Figo. They now rely on Nani and Ronaldo, and the latter doesn't appear to be playing at his best right now. For me Spain are still very strong. They played an excellent Italian side and punched holes in them at times, I think they are still the team to beat - the Irish will get a pasting tonight :D

Regarding the long term problems in English football, csThor is dead right but it's going to get worse. Because EPL clubs don't develop many players themselves last Summer they have bribed the majority of the 72 EFL clubs below them to vote in the EPPP, which is a system where the EPL can take any young player from any club at any time for a nominal sum. They got this through because 3/4 of the 72 don't have academies and are unlikely to ever get into the EPL so they voted for the cash. My club, Crystal Palace, have an excellent Academy so what will we do? Possibly Abolish the academy because it won't be worth it. Our present side has several academy player in it - 2 players to watch for the future are Jonathan Williams and Wilfried Zaha

there, this thread is the living proof i suck at predictions, and why i dotn bet lottarys......

croaci 1 -1 italy. Another great goal for the Euro, the italian one.

EDIT:

soooo Torres scored... and the only portuguese player did manage to create one hell of an opportunity for the spanish team (After taking down a irish player),


shame the portuguese is the referee