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The 2011-2012 Football Thread

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as the captain he was more or less bound to either shoot the first or last penalty:
the first to either build confidence for the following players or the last for taking the responsibility and take on all the huge pressure

IMHO it was the right decision

edit: looks like i have been massively wrong: Löw yet again changes their starting line up in 3 positions:

Neuer - Boateng, Hummels, Badstuber, Lahm - Khedira, Schweinsteiger - Kroos, Özil, Podolski - Gomez

Kroos as a right winger ? has he even played there once ? what a gamble

edit2: unless of course he is going to be shadowing Pirlo ...
 
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takao said:
edit2: unless of course he is going to be shadowing Pirlo ...
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Germany will have to either man-mark Pirlo or just generally control the midfield to the extent that he sees little of the ball.

EDIT: England fans take heart; your boys kept the Italians out for over 120 minutes, but the Germans have uncharacteristically capitulates after just 20. :D

Neutrals always like to see an early goal. Hopefully this will start heating up.

EDIT2: Kroos seems to be getting forward for Germany but also giving Italy a lot fo space on that wing when they attack.
 
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looks like Balotelli just missed all those other sitters to annoy all the fantasy football players ;) ... he seems to be super effective today opposed to the germans
 
Balotelli got a yellow for his celebration. I think the odds he'll get sent off just got a lot shorter...

Crazy turn of events though. I never expected the Germans to look this shaky. Montolivo is destroying them on Kroos' flank.
 
it's the same every two years, good till they reach the semis and boom everything changes. Putting Kroos on for Müller didn't seem to work out.I would love to see both Klose and Gomez on in a diamond formation, just like Italy are playing it. Very unorthodox, but there really are no other options. I don't seem them coming back from this.
 
The Germans can't complain. Came into the game expecting to walk it. Italy have done brilliantly to expose and exploit their biggest weakness; defence.
 
If they win this one, Italy will go into the final with a lot of belief. They've already fought the Spaniards to a draw AND have won a penalty shootout.
 
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That is what is known as a shock upset.

I'm still backing Spain to win this. Surely they won't underestimate Italy...but it should be interesting.

Jaffa Cake said:
Well, at least they've one thing that's worth boosting their confidence over.
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Heh. :) I'm thinking this final could be decided on penalties.
 
Well as usual in important games Löw's tactics have been exposed. The overall cockiness before and during the tournament was really pissing me off, honestly they deserved to lose. Schweinsteiger doesn't seem fit, clearly for all to see, yet he is declared fit.....
Apparently no lessons have been learned in that department from the big losses against Spain, even four years ago.
 
i think the more problematic aspect was the decision to yet again adjust the own tactics to the opposition
after the break (with the 2 german subs) the germans looked way more dangerous up front thanks especially to Reus (great safe from Buffon on that free kick)

on unrelated note was it just me were the referee today way worse, compared to other game, into both directions ? there 4-5 calls against either side where it was obviously wrong .... luckily it canceled it out and were minor decisions but some of those foul decisions or "non-fouls" were hilarious at best
 
The German coach changed things again to respect Italy's game, which meant they lost their attacking width.

At that point it became a midfield battle which Italy comfortably won since the Germans effectively just stood off and watched, thus allowing Pirlo to conduct his orchestra.

Then there was Balotelli and Cassano drilling the precarious defence upfront. Once the goals were bagged, the infamous Italian-style rearguard took over.

Game over.
 
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Spain will have a bigger presence in midfield, and width, but do not have a striker with Balotelli's quality. I think Spain look better in defence than Germany did today.

Will Italy attempt the same game plan against Spain as they did in the group stage? It would be foolish to sit back against the Spanish, so I'm guessing they will stick with what worked the first time, especially as they have Chiellini back.
 
olup said:
...The overall cockiness before and during the tournament was really pissing me off, honestly they deserved to lose.
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Do you mean a cockiness in their playing style or in their words?

Interestingly this was the first tournament were they themselves said that they could definitely win. The tournaments before they acted different, when asked by the media they always said, we still have a lot to learn...

olup said:
Schweinsteiger doesn't seem fit, clearly for all to see, yet he is declared fit.....
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Was thinking that, too during the game. Would it have changed something, if Löw had brought another player (maybe Gündogan) or would they miss him as a kind of "director".

What was I saying about Podolski before? Wonder every time. Reus was a surprising choice over Schürrle for me (but as it looked, it was the right one).

Wonder if that last ball would have been in, if the referee had given the last 30 seconds. Imagine what a shock if Germany had done a 2:2 and gotten it to penalties. It would have been unfair for Italy, really. (though one could have given some 30 seconds or 1min. because of the time lost for Özil's penalty at the end)
 
takao said:
...

on unrelated note was it just me were the referee today way worse, compared to other game, into both directions ? there 4-5 calls against either side where it was obviously wrong .... luckily it canceled it out and were minor decisions but some of those foul decisions or "non-fouls" were hilarious at best
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Agree about decisions going the wrong way, but I also think Klose fouls the Italy defender for the penalty - a shove. :mad:;)

Tactics; bit of a boo-boo. :eek: Germany didn't learn from the game v Greece - how easy it was for the opposition attackers when the Germany defence was near the halfway line.

olup,

Schweinsteiger; didn't see the stats v Greece, but he seemed to give the ball away a lot.

Cheers,
OW
 
Cox Orange said:
Do you mean a cockiness in their playing style or in their words?

Interestingly this was the first tournament were they themselves said that they could definitely win. The tournaments before they acted different, when asked by the media they always said, we still have a lot to learn...


Was thinking that, too during the game. Would it have changed something, if Löw had brought another player (maybe Gündogan) or would they miss him as a kind of "director".

What was I saying about Podolski before? Wonder every time. Reus was a surprising choice over Schürrle for me (but as it looked, it was the right one).

Wonder if that last ball would have been in, if the referee had given the last 30 seconds. Imagine what a shock if Germany had done a 2:2 and gotten it to penalties. It would have been unfair for Italy, really. (though one could have given some 30 seconds or 1min. because of the time lost for Özil's penalty at the end)
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in their words especially, watching the interviews seems like history repeating itself, the same things were said two years ago, when they lost to Spain. How much more experience does this team need to make to finally win something?
In the end this team doesn't really want to win, when push comes to shove. 15 wins in qualifying games and friendlies don't mean a thing, when you lose in the deciding games. That's what sets Germany apart from teams like Spain and Italy. Schweinsteiger only played because he is the 'verbal' leader, during the tournament Khedira totally showed him up. I hope Italy will now go for this, they seem to come out strong with all the mess that is going on in italian football. Again history (hopefully) repeats itself again.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
There's two sides to it, really.

On the one hand, if a club has done wrong financially then punishment is needed – otherwise it's not fair on those clubs who do things properly, live within their means and are generally responsible. What motivation is there to be a well run club if your rivals are bettering you thanks in part to dodgy goings on which they're going to get away with?

Of course though, owners and boards come and go, so do players (as we're seeing at the moment at Rangers as a number of the squad are refusing to transfer to the 'new' club). The one constant are supporters, who are the ones left picking up the pieces after those responsible are long gone.

In terms of relegation, it's a punishment that we can use here as there's a ladder/pyramid structure to our leagues that generally doesn't exist in American sports. For Rangers, this punishment will affect them in a number of ways – besides the ignominy it's going to hit them very hard financially, and as I mentioned earlier it seems likely that their better players are going to be able to walk away – not only weakening them considerably but meaning that they're potentially missing out on tens of millions in transfer fees.

The boil in the bag answer is that they went into administration in the spring due to a very large and very unpaid tax bill, and went into liquidation after failing to get certain arrangements in place.
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good stuff. thanks!
 
Talk about rolling over today. I'm ticked. What a poor effort by Germany they acted as if they didn't want to win today.
 
pachyderm said:
good stuff. thanks!
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I've tried to keep an eye on the whole affair through the papers and lurking in Scottish football forums. What I am seeing is general dismay over the condition of Scottish football, but a strong disinclination among clubs and supporters to work together due to personal and tribal grudges. If the salvation of Scottish football depends on the Old Firm or even the other SPL clubs cooperating, I fear for the future over there. It may need to get significantly worse before it gets better.

On a more personal level I'm concerned over the futures of the American players (Edu, Bedoya, Bocanegra) all of whom are USA internationals. They have not yet left the club, but may very soon.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
I've tried to keep an eye on the whole affair through the papers and lurking in Scottish football forums.
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I don't go near them, hate filled vile places.

The whole issue with Scottish football is too many bodies pulling in different directions - SPL, SFL, SFA not to mention amateur. We need one coherent body. But turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

Lord Blackadder said:
On a more personal level I'm concerned over the futures of the American players (Edu, Bedoya, Bocanegra) all of whom are USA internationals. They have not yet left the club, but may very soon.
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The club left them! Out of the 40 players on their books, only 7 turned up for training today with another 4 indicating they will appear at some stage.

Well done to Italy tonight, great game. Germany disappointing, Italians had a proper spirit. There seems to be a curse on the team playing in white.;)
 
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