ponsaelius

The joy of the Euros has curtailed a lot of my interest in top flight club football. Going to try following Whitley Bay this season. Never had a local non-league team before (Prudhoe Town doesn't count).

Aye I'm proper sad it's over. I've found it so, so much more enjoyable than club football in recent years.

The thing with yellow + yellow = red is that it basically means players have an option in their locker to do one of those a game and get away with it. You don't really get away with it, because it means a yellow card is against your name for the rest of the match reducing your capacity to make more risky challenges, and of course places you at risk of further suspension for later games. However in the context of the final few minutes of a final there is basically no cost to such a decision in terms of jeopardy for the rest of the match and further suspension. So it makes it an absolute no brainer to do it if you're in Chiellini's situation. I think there is a legitimate argument to be made that cynical challenges with no attempt to play the ball should perhaps be a straight red card. It would probably make for more flowing games and more attacking football. But you are further reducing the role of defenders in the sport. There's already been a lot of concession this way over the last few decades. Quite rightly when you watch the way players like Maradona used to be assaulted on the pitch. However I feel it would personally be a step too far.

By the letter of the law it was a yellow card - unless you make an argument that it was dangerous play (which while tenuous could perhaps be argued). Whether or not it SHOULD be a red is another question altogether. But this would require a rule change. And indeed if those rules were in place then Chiellini would simply not have made the challenge.

Cocaine use is not something that is exclusive to football culture. I know plenty of people where it's a regular and normal part of any night out or event they attend.

Turns out that UEFA Team submitted earlier was a fake. This is official team:

This kind of stuff is disrespectful to other teams tbh. The idea that nations in the top 15 in the world like Germany and Denmark are just walkovers. Especially in a tournament that was full of big upsets.

I totally get the advantage thing but I absolutely hated the ABBA system personally

Not a fan of putting Maehle in at right back when he played on the left, as excellent as he was and despite being able to play there. Seems a cheat.

Yeah this was always the fear really going into this game. Same thing happened against Croatia in 2018. Part of it is the psychology of going ahead - but equally it's not having players who can dictate the dempo of a game and keep the ball in midfield. Even though Rice had probably the best game I've ever seen him have - he's just not a player who's ever going to dictate the tempo of a game. Midfield is the biggest problem going into Qatar. Unless Bellingham can progress quickly, which is a lot to ask of a 19 year old (as he will be by next winter), I don't see an obvious solution. So then the idea perhaps has to be to find a way to play and win without that control.

I think Italy were only slightly the better team over 120 minutes personally - even though they had a lot more of the ball. For Italy it was basically a reversal of the Spain/Italy game which was also IMO extremely tight overall despite Spain's possessional dominance. However - Italy swept through group stage playing entertaining football, showed all sides of the game to knock out world #1 Belgium, edged one of their traditional rivals and recent bogey teams in the semis, and then edged the hosts in the final. They're fully deserved winners when you consider the whole competition, which is welcome, especially after Portugal last time.

Yes Ronaldo as he has 1 assist to Schick's 0.

Yeah he won Player of the Tournament. Pedri was young player.

Donnarumma has played in 5 shootouts in his career and won them all. The bloke is a freak.

To be fair in that Europa League shootout the two goalies might as well not have been in the net - so useless they were.

Watching the footage of fans kicking fuck out of people trying to jib into the ground. What an odd thing to go vigilante for.

I'm gutted and think that game was mismanaged. It was there to be won with the right substitutions. Feels like a missed opportunity considering the early goal. However I also think Italy are worthy winners of the tournament. Came through the harder side of the draw and edged the final overall IMO. Quite a few players in their squad that I'm pleased for. Overall it's been a great tournament that I've thoroughly enjoyed. Cannot be fucked with the return of club football.

UEFA tried to twist a pan-European tournament as a 60 year celebration one-off when actually it was because they just couldn't find somebody willing to host it at the time with the financial situation Europe was in. Turkey was the only real candidate but didn't put together much of a bid. Problem with the expanded tournament is it makes it very hard for anybody other than a few big countries to host. You're probably going to need 3/4 smaller joint host countries in some cases. Admittedly with 24 teams it also becomes less of an issue to have so many automatically qualify.

3 Italians too. I thought we were doing one for each country?

Yeah that's spot on. It's like how Liverpool, Man United and Man City get loads of borderline penalties in the PL that cause fans to cry foul. If you have loads of players who dribble at pace and constantly make runs in behind you're going to get penalties. It goes with the territory.

I hate VAR with a visceral passion but it's been far better at this tournament - purely because of how hands off it has been. 'There needs to be more transparency to viewers' and 'the ref should spend more time looking at the screen' seem to be common takes that I see people make that I couldn't disagree with more. It's been so much better because it's been quicker and with far fewer long stoppages. Before players/fans could even argue with decisions or the directors have been able to replay things for TV the check is over and play has resumed. Offsides where the player is basically level have very gone quickly to the attacker. And people move on the way they used to before VAR. The fundamental problem with VAR in football is that decisions are so subjective, and the more you try to analyse them, watch numerous replays slowed down, the more you time you spend destroying the flowing nature of the game. It's an extremely difficult balance to get right. Going with the on-field, full-speed decision for soft penalties is absolutely the right thing to do in most cases. They've definitely been closer to getting it right at this tournament than in any league football I've watched (PL and Serie A mainly).

It was a soft penalty but I'm not even sure it was a dive. It was a player going at full pelt who was clipped by two tired defenders in the box. I don't think it was a pen - but it wasn't quite as scandalous as made out.

Loads of teams get dodgy decisions on the way to winning tournaments. Few people other than Aussies really remember Grosso's dive in 2006. They remember them winning the tournament. Even when they are remembered like the hand of god it never takes any of the shine off the victory or the legacy.

Yeah I mean we had a left wing problem for years. Now we've got loads of high quality, tactically flexible wide players. Same at full-back - far better depth than in previous years. Definitely less 'star names' than the so called golden generation - but I think that partly reflects the nature of this generation of players rather than necessarily their quality. It's like before the tournament my lass (who knows nothing about football) was struggling to name a single England player - but could reel off loads of the 2004-2010 era squad. Because they were celebrities as well as players. This St George's Park generation are more known for being excellent but grounded footballers, and have come through playing in the youth teams together. It's all very German tbh. Which is a good thing.

Sommer Maehle Dragovic Chiellini Dumfries Pogba KdB Pedri Sterling Schick Ronaldo Very hard to do. Notable that there has not been that many good right back performers, but loads of good left-backs/wing backs (Spinazzola, Shaw, Gosens, Maehle, Zinchenko, Zuber).