Official Football Thread

Albie said:
As for the national anthems - The Germans have the best one, surely. :D
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The "Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles" one? :D

National anthems seem to attract gaffes: the Croatian naughty word at Wembley, and some country had a neighbour's anthem played recently too.
 
Albie said:
Pretty much the same in that league as well, it's a pen and red card - if the defender denies the attacker a real goal scoring chance.
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That is the rules and they are the same everywhere, but is this also how the refs practice it?

Actually I think the rule should be changed. If the foul results in a penalty, give a yellow card only. One (radical) idea could be to always give a penalty and a yellow card if the attacker is denied a clear scoring chance, even if the foul happens outside the box! This would make it less attractive to foul somebody who is through. I might be a little influenced by ice hockey as I watch that regularly - if a player is on a clean breakaway and is fouled, he always gets a penalty shot, regardless of position.

As for the quarter-final, the Germans were more effective and seemed more "up for it" than the Portuguese and no matter if they meet Croatia or Turkey now I hold them as firm favorites to reach the final.
 
The Portugese lost on the free kicks.  You think they'd come up with a better strategy than they did.  Also I wonder if the Ballack goal should have been allowed.
From uefa.com

'Tournament team'
Germany have contested the semi-finals of the World Cup and UEFA European Championship an incredible 16 times. On eleven occasions they have made the final. They have lifted the World Cup three times and the UEFA European Championship three more. What is the secret of their success? On Thursday was it coach Joachim Löw's masterstroke of changing formation to accommodate Michael Ballack in a more forward role; was it experience; or did Portugal just come up short? According to assistant coach Hans-Dieter Flick, the answer is straightforward: "Germany are a real tournament team and can be very focused when it comes to the crunch."

Starting off with Schweinsteiger and leaving off Gomez was also a smart thing to do.
 
Genghis Khan said:
The Portuguese lost on the free kicks.  You think they'd come up with a better strategy than they did.  Also I wonder if the Ballack goal should have been allowed.
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Well, if the ref had seen the situation more clearly I think he would've disallowed it. You can clearly see Ballack is pushing Ferreira in the back. But I'm thinking - isn't this happening all the time inside the box on set pieces? I've seen both defenders and attackers get away with much worse, and although the decision seems incorrect it is definitely no scandal. The real problem is that the refereeing in such situations seems to be quite random. Sometimes you get a penalty for being climbed on, other times a defender acts like a wrestler without being punished.

I think refs should simply whistle for any holding they see. Of course some players are better than others at hiding their dirty tricks, but if the practice is that any holding results in a free kick/penalty, then it will no doubt become much less frequent. But when players are contesting for the ball without any unfair use of the arms, I think the refs should allow more physical play. We don't want basketball rules either, do we?
 
national acrobat said:
Germany for me. I'm sticking with my pre-tournament prediciton of Germany beating Italy in the final.
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I've heard a prediction about a Germany -Italy final two minutes ago, but it's rather unlike to me
I have the feeling that Spain will not shit it up this time  :D
 
y said:
(..... ..... shit it up...)
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:D



edit:

Well, what a showdown. All I can say now is that the Croatians partied too early. They were a bit overconfident in my eyes. The Turks did it again, fighting 'til the very end.

Well Perun, EW was right:

Germany - Turkey in the semi-final!
 
My bet is on that Germany will be that team. Croatia were not daring enough today - they had several good breakdown opportunities but most times they had only 2-3 players going forward fast. Which meant the Turks got time to get back in positions, every time. Still the Croats created more chances. I don't think Germany will fall into the same trap. When they get the chance to catch their opponents in a moment of unwariness, they take it. And should it go to penalties ... well, we know the Germans.

A question for Perun: A Swiss TV station had displayed the lyrics to the national anthem of Germany during the last match of group B. The problem was they displayed the lyrics to the first stanza ("Deutschland, Deutschland über alles ...") instead of the third one which is usually sung. To the point: A Norwegian newspaper (Dagbladet) described this as that the Swiss had shown "Nazi lyrics" and I reacted to that. I mean, the song was written even before Bismarck unified Germany and I understand that the first stanza calls for German unity, not German world domination.

The question is: Is the first stanza generally viewed as "Nazi"? Is the stanza useless because the Nazi leaders used it - even though it was really written long before Nazism existed at all?

Another thing I reacted to was that one of the Norwegian TV commentators dubbed Michael Ballack "Der Führer" during the match between Portugal and Germany ... now, that is nasty.
 
Eddies Wingman said:
Another thing I reacted to was that one of the Norwegian TV commentators dubbed Michael Ballack "Der Führer" during the match between Portugal and Germany ... now, that is nasty.
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Well, that could also mean "the leader", but indeed, when a non-German says this, it probably has to do with the man with the mustache. I'll now step back for the Berliner, who knows more about this and the other question. :)
 
I don't know about the other question but "Der Führer" does means leader in deed, and Ballack is the natural (born) leader of the Deutch
 
I know what Führer means - I can read German (but I'm really crappy at speaking and listening). But in Norway everyone knows that when you say "Der Führer" you are talking about a certain Austrian corporal, and when you say "der Kaiser" you are talking about Franz Beckenbauer :)
 
Turks had all luck in the world today. We missed couple of 100% chances, they equalized in 122 minute, altrough time was already up when the game was stopped due to offside, referee permitted one last action, which resulted in panical goal.

Modric, Rakitic and Petric are known as great shooters. They missed penalties.

Now i'm supporting Russia.
 
Forostar said:
Those penalty missers, they were all the young guys.
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If they missed penalties is not because of their youth !

As soon as I saw Turkey score I knew it would win on penalties -because penalties is a question of psychology
One could see Turks smile after the end of extra time, while Croatians they just couldn't believe it, while the (extra sympathetic) Croatian coach was shouting and complaining (quite fairly IMO) to the 4th referee

Turks had all luck in the world today.
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They have it since the beginning of the tournament

altrough time was already up when the game was stopped due to offside
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I've noticed it. That guy who commited off-side (Petric I think) he did absolutely nothing since the time he entered into the game he turned to be the "fatal" player of Croatia
 
y said:
If they missed penalties is not because of their youth !
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It's indeed not so that the young players always miss, but it surprised me very much. It's not the most ideal situation, to put 3 (who knows even 4) very young guys on that spot.

The most odd moment was the big party when they thought they had won. I absolutely had not the idea that the match was already over. I have seen Turkey's previous matches. They simply can't be underestimated when they're only one goal behind.

Talking about luck: The Croatians were not less lucky, since Rüştü made a huge blunder.
 
Just a comment on the time. There was added 1 minute to the 2nd half of extra time and play continued past that. But the reason for adding more than the minute was quite understandable; the Croats spent quite a lot of time celebrating their 1-0 goal. As soon as I saw the clock go past 1:00 of added time I thought "if the Turks score now, there's gonna be some reactions towards the ref". They did, and there were reactions for sure. But remember, everyone - 1 minute is _minimum_ added time and should be interpreted as everything between 1:00 and 1:59 ...

And as for young players missing penalties. Take the Champions League final. The players who missed for Chelsea were both experienced players and they had some young guns take penalties as well. They scored. For United, Nani scored and he was the youngest player in the squad for that game.

What matters is the ability to focus on putting that ball in the right place. If you don't have that ability at 22, you probably don't have it at 32 either.

The best way of putting away penalties is simple. Be a German.
 
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