The Official Football (Soccer) Thread (v. It's starting again!)

[Evermind]

France's tactic during the final: beat Ronaldo into injury so that he has to leave the field.

My thoughts exactly, but I'm still rooting for France because I really disliked Portugal during the whole tournament.

[Scorpion]

Meh, if it was a repeated thing I could see it, but that didn't look like a deliberate thing at all to me. Sure, I guess they're not exactly crying their eyes out about Ronaldo being out, but I don't see much evidence for it being a tactic.

I still feel bad for Ronaldo, though.

[Elite]

All of that ^

Pretty disappointing match so far, really. Is this really what National football has become? What a shame.

[Evermind]

This match is as meh as I expected so far.

[Scorpion]

Well... at least the game got better in the second half, and was actually interesting for large stretches.

Still, another extra time? No thanks.

[Elite]

Hahaha worst tournament ever

[Elite]

Seriously, I don't even know why I'm still watching. This game is exemplaric for the whole tournament and it's freaking terrible.

[Evermind]

I admit I laughed at Koscielny getting booked for Eder playing the ball with his hand.

[Elite]

Eder is a fucking scumbag son of a bitch, like the rest of that Portuguese team.

[Evermind]

Portugal was like the least deserving team to win this Euro, at least out of the teams that made the playoffs, in my opinion. But hey, whatever.

[MirrorMask]

Hahahaha Portugal winning the Euro Cup in face of the french by equalizing at the 90' mark 6 matches out of seven! 

My football rivality against France makes me LOL so hard, but really, football sometimes is just like life, there is no sense or reason 

[Progmetty]

I was the only person at the bar where I watched the game who were rooting for Portugal, it suddenly dawned on me that I've never met anyone who likes Portugal heh, just never, not sure why. I don't really like Portugal either but I usually root for the team that's playing against the team that defeated the one I was originally rooting for all along, Germany, so whoever played France for the final would have been my preferred winner. The other reason I rooted for Portugal is that I always root against the host country of any tournament.

[Kwyjibo]

Hahaha worst tournament ever

There were times some years ago where Portugal had a really good team but didn't win anything. Now they play like shit most of the time and win the European Championship?
I think this tournament was more about the favoured teams not getting their shit together at the right time than Portugal actually deserving to win this. But anyway, that's life.

[RoeDent]

Portugal winning the tournament is a fair reflection on what has been a dismal tournament, Wales' brilliant run aside. A team that finished in 3rd place in their group, with 3 draws, who only managed to win ONE game inside 90 minutes (against Wales as well  ) are champions. Proves that you don't need to be good at football to win these things. You just need one moment at the very end.

Managers and teams the world over should learn that defensive football is boring. In fact, all defensive sport is boring. What draws the biggest cheers and the biggest euphoria? Goals! The most memorable game of this tournament? Portugal 3-3 Hungary, without question. They should either shorten extra time to 10 minutes each way (or less), bring back the golden goal, or just go straight to penalties after 90 minutes, because time and again we've seen teams just play defensively and waste all of our time. Teams don't play any more positively or negatively than they would if the golden goal rule was there.

[MirrorMask]

If it makes you all feel any better, think of the people, the ordinary portoguese supporters; Portugal never won anything, and back in 2004 they reached the finals in their home tournament and LOST. At least a joy for a nation that didn't really have any so far, for France it stings but they know what it's like to win the Euro Cup and the World Cup.

The other reason I rooted for Portugal is that I always root against the host country of any tournament.

Yeah, isn't it rude to host a tournament and then win it? it's like throwing a party at your house and being the one who enjoys it the most, it shouldn't be that way! 

I'm always out for some drama in football when I'm not personally involved, so rooting against the hosts falls into that category. More generally, I remember being undecided about the Bayern Munich vs Borussia Dortmund Champions League final, then when Bayern scored I started to root for Borussia 'cause I wanted to live the drama of Bayern being catched up with the victory at hand. Seeing the hosts losing falls under this category, when you're not personally involved it's funnier when the stakes are very high.

I think this tournament was more about the favoured teams not getting their shit together at the right time than Portugal actually deserving to win this. But anyway, that's life.

Well, that's the point of the Euro and World cups... it's not a season long tournament when you face everyone and the best one usually comes out, it's a tournament where you have to be on top form for just a month, and then play at max 7 matches when half of them - especially in the World Cup - may be against significantly lesser opponents.

Also in these situations the national feel helps to cement a team, it's easier to keep together for a month a bunch of people of the same nation (Italian CT Antonio Conte was great at this) than holding together for a whole seasons players in a club from different nations.

[Nekov]

Managers and teams the world over should learn that defensive football is boring. In fact, all defensive sport is boring. What draws the biggest cheers and the biggest euphoria?

The problem is that it's all about winning, not entertaining. And in these kind of tournaments it's really hard to do something else because history has proven that more times that not, it's better not to receive goals than try to go out an make them.
I would love for FIFA to do something like they did in rugby where they grant you extra points if you score certain amount of times, that would make the sport a lot more entertaining, at least where points do matter.

[Kwyjibo]

While I agree that defensive football is mostly boring, I can understand when teams, that can't match the individual strength of the opponent players try to play defensive and hope for some counter attacks and some luck. And football is no beauty contest, there's too much money involved.

[rumborak]

Good to see I'm not the only one thinking that Portugal was NOT the best team of the competition (I've seen sentiments like that online). Not by a long shot IMHO. The Germany-France game and the Portugal-France game were rather settled by luck than by soccer skill.

[Zantera]

I don't buy into the whole "they only won because of luck, the other teams were unlucky" bs. If you're good enough to go to the final and stand as a winner when the whistle blows, you deserve to get the trophy. Portugal weren't amazing, but was there really any other team that was? France looked better going into the final, but they failed to do their job and they lost. A bunch of "favorites" went out before that, and it's hard to argue that a team deserves to win if they can't even make it to the final.

[rumborak]

Come on. I think we all know that soccer has a pretty solid element of chance in it. Check out these stats:

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=2016/matches/round=2000451/match=2017907/statistics/index.html

France dominated in all regards, had more shots on target etc. It's just that one of the few good shots that Portugal had went in, whereas France's many shots didn't go in.
Even before the final, Portugal's advance was a common joke. The game yesterday was a very fitting end.

[Zantera]

Chance is a thing, but I like to believe that you make your own luck. A team that wins needs to have luck with them, because if it's working against them, then they won't win. At the end of a season you often look at the winner and say "they had luck" and the teams at the bottom and say "they had bad luck", but I think ultimately it's an element of its own that you need to have. If you're a good team then you can create your own luck.

[RoeDent]

Portugal weren't amazing, but was there really any other team that was?

Italy? And Wales were pretty amazing vs Russia and Belgium.

[Zantera]

Portugal weren't amazing, but was there really any other team that was?

Italy? And Wales were pretty amazing vs Russia and Belgium.

Italy looked strong but caved mentally against Germany on penalties. It's always a toss up with penalties, and the game was in many ways an early final, but even the mighty Germany got beaten by France, in a game where they caved in. Wales had a great tournament, but nobody expected them to go the final. They did really well going as far as they did, and maybe with a little more luck, they could have beaten Portugal, but it was two fast goals that sealed the deal.

[Nekov]

Chance is a thing, but I like to believe that you make your own luck. A team that wins needs to have luck with them, because if it's working against them, then they won't win. At the end of a season you often look at the winner and say "they had luck" and the teams at the bottom and say "they had bad luck", but I think ultimately it's an element of its own that you need to have. If you're a good team then you can create your own luck.

There is an element of luck. How many times have we seen games where one of the teams shoots 10 times and fails to score and the other team shoots just 1 and score? Griezman had a couple of great looks yesterday that missed by centimeters, Gignacs woodwork shot was also a matter of centimeters, not to mention the several balls the keeper saved.

Regarding Portugal, they played ugly no doubt, but they did exactly what their coach wanted which was trying not to receive goals and they were good at that. As I said before, in these kind of tournaments you don't need to be the best, you just need to keep your goal clear and try and see if you can get lucky and score one. In a league format it's a lot harder to do it because it involves points.

[Zantera]

There's definitely an element of skill involved in a team that focuses on defense and manages to win that I feel is overlooked. You can't just say "we'll defend and then win on penalties", and that's that. I know I'm somewhat alone in the boat of someone who can appreciate defensive football as well, and I know that attacking football is what gets most people pumped, but there's definitely skill required to be able to close down games and come out as the winner in overtime or on penalties. You still have to be good to close off space, make sure that the opponents doesn't get that one brilliant goal chance that will lead to a goal, and Portugal managed to do that well in this tournament IMO. They weren't the most fun team to watch, but tactically I was impressed.

[MirrorMask]

There's definitely an element of skill involved in a team that focuses on defense and manages to win that I feel is overlooked. You can't just say "we'll defend and then win on penalties", and that's that. I know I'm somewhat alone in the boat of someone who can appreciate defensive football as well, and I know that attacking football is what gets most people pumped, but there's definitely skill required to be able to close down games and come out as the winner in overtime or on penalties. You still have to be good to close off space, make sure that the opponents doesn't get that one brilliant goal chance that will lead to a goal, and Portugal managed to do that well in this tournament IMO. They weren't the most fun team to watch, but tactically I was impressed.

I agree with this. I appreciate as any other bloke matches that end with 4-3 as the final score, and I'm bored as well with bland 0-0 matches, but I understand and respect the use of tactics, and making the most out of what you have.

Maybe the example is a bit exagerated and out of context, but if everyone should play to attack because it's fun, maybe back in ancient times people would complain as well "Waiting out a siege in a well furnished castle is so boring... they should ride out in the open fields even if they have half the soldiers of the attacking army!" 

[Train of Naught]

That was probably very expectant as a final for this tournament, but still a very very boring match. I had a LOT of fun watching it on the big screen in Lille and standing in the middle of the crowd though, wouldve been more fun if theyd won.

I see where people are coming from, but if you want exciting football why would you watch international tournaments like these? Just watch the Serie A or something, thats fucking exciting. Euros and the WC are mostly fun for supporting your own country, not for absolute world-class entertainment. Mainly because these players dont play nearly as much with eachother as they do with their clubs.

I'd say theres a certain degree of skill involved in parking the bus, but lets face it, Portugal were no monstrous defensive force either. It was probably the lamest possible way to lose as I was already anticipating a nerve-wracking penalty shootout which wouldve atleast given me something to cheer for.

Congrats to the portuguese dtfers, if there are any. Cant say im a huge fan of them but i think its great that CR finally has a euro cup to his name in what could be his last full-time starterposition euro tournament.

[Evermind]

Euros and the WC are mostly fun for supporting your own country

I guess that depends on your own country, because for me this is the very definition of not-fun.

[Train of Naught]

Touché!

I bet it was more fun 8 years ago, before they got asspounded in almost every major tournament.

Theyre all so isolated from the rest of europe too nowadays, not more players playing for big english teams anymore like some used to.

[Nekov]

There's definitely an element of skill involved in a team that focuses on defense and manages to win that I feel is overlooked. You can't just say "we'll defend and then win on penalties", and that's that. I know I'm somewhat alone in the boat of someone who can appreciate defensive football as well, and I know that attacking football is what gets most people pumped, but there's definitely skill required to be able to close down games and come out as the winner in overtime or on penalties. You still have to be good to close off space, make sure that the opponents doesn't get that one brilliant goal chance that will lead to a goal, and Portugal managed to do that well in this tournament IMO. They weren't the most fun team to watch, but tactically I was impressed.

I agree 100%, there's a lot of skill required to keep the other team from scoring goals, however, look at what happened in the UCL final this season, both teams went defensive and it was one of the most boring games ever. I think even you have to agree with that, no matter how much you enjoy defensive game.

[Zantera]

I think Train of Naught brings up a good point with how the players don't play with each other that much internationally, so it's hard to really get a great team going where everyone finds each other well with passes and so on. Even when Spain were at their best a few years ago, their main core was Barcelona players who knew each other in and out from Barcelona. A midfield with Iniesta-Busquets-Xavi would still be as dominant in Spain as they would in Barcelona. But most national teams don't have that luxury and you end up with 4 midfield players from 4 different clubs. It's hard to get something amazing going and you're mostly relying on individual skill to carry you through, even if teams like Wales or Iceland showed great team spirit.

[Kwyjibo]

There can be and there were very good and exciting games in euro and world championships and there can be and there were boring games in every league across the world. Just because the players know each other better in a club doesn't automatically make a good and exciting game.

And for Portugal, when you win a tournament you have done a lot of things right, no one is taking that from them, but they also had a lot of luck. It's not that they were that good in defense that the opposing teams didn't get any good chances, that was a mixture of skill and luck, and the wins in overtime or penalty shootout can't be planned in advance, there's also a mixture of luck and skill involved, every one of these games could have gone the other way. So they probably deserved the win, but they weren't the best team, not by a long stretch.

[Train of Naught]

Well no, it doesnt automatically make the game more exciting, but it does raise the overall skill level by quite s bit.

I'm convinced that if a team like, say, Napoli, were to participate in the euros, hypothetically of course, they would be one of the favorites to win the whole tournament. A few star players but definitely not in the absolute top of european clubs yet.

[Kwyjibo]

I don't know if they could win, I seriously doubt it because teams like Spain or France or Germany or Italy (and maybe others) have probably a higher level of individual player skills, regardless of how good they know each other, but that's not really my point.

Would they (Napoli) play exciting and offense orientated soccer, or would they too prefer a defensive strategy that may raise their chances but isn't that exciting to watch?

[Train of Naught]

Oh yeah, this is the kind of team that would play against the likes of Spain/Germany and give it a 100% and probably would create some grerat chances and maybe win. That's probably not the case with every good european team, I took this one as an example because I love that team, some of my favorite players are on it aswell (Dries Mertens/Marek Hamsik/Gonzalo Higuain), but there's a lot of teams that would park the bus too, fair enough.