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

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Lewandowski, what a player!

Go Sweden! 

[Elite]

That was a very exciting finish for Group F!

I had both games on one screen and watched all of it

[MirrorMask]

The top half of the table looks very heavy loaded, with Italy, France, Belgium and Spain all there (as well as defending champions Portugal).

In the bottom half there's "just" England and Germany and they face off right away.


BELGIUM - PORTUGAL

ITALY - AUSTRIA

------------------------

FRANCE - SWITZERLAND

CROATIA - SPAIN

=======================
=======================

SWEDEN - UKRAINE

ENGLAND - GERMANY

------------------------

NETHERLANDS - CZECH REPUBLIC

WALES - DENMARK

[Kwyjibo]

I can do without the suspense, I'm too old for this shit.

Glad that Germany advances to the next round, but they didn't really deserve it. Not a good game by them and again some horrible defense.

[Elite]

Hungary deserved better thsn fourth place, for sure. In any other group they would have advanced to the next round.

[soupytwist]

In the bottom half there's "just" England and Germany and they face off right away.

You'd expect the winner of England vs Germany to face the Dutch in the semi's.  But football isn't all that predictable!

That Top half is great - could be Belgium v Italy and France vs Spain in the Quarters!

[Zydar]

I'm super happy that Sweden won that game, and now we're off to the next round.

I didn't expect Germany to advance though.

[MirrorMask]

In the bottom half there's "just" England and Germany and they face off right away.

You'd expect the winner of England vs Germany to face the Dutch in the semi's.  But football isn't all that predictable!

That Top half is great - could be Belgium v Italy and France vs Spain in the Quarters!

Exactly, without surprises it could be:

Italy vs Belgium
France vs Spain
---------------
Sweden vs England or Germany
Netherlands vs.... Denmark? Wales?

[MirrorMask]

...definitively not Wales 

Denmark won 4-0 and they fly into the quarter finals!!!

And tonight, Italy vs Austria!!!  I love Austria, it's a beautiful nation and I can imagine myself living there, but when fate puts up a sport rivalry, it's wars of independence all over again so screw you, Habsburg, we're gonna fight you like we fought you in the 1800 and in World War I 

[Elite]

Goodbye Orange

[MirrorMask]

Sorry about that!

I didn't expect Italy to suffer that much against Austria.... I don't know how to see this match - as the difficult one that grounds them, reminds a young and inexperienced group how to face difficulties, or a match that shows that, beyond the initial enthusiasm, they're not ready yet and they might very likely crumble in the quarter finals, against Belgium or Portugal.

We'll see, after all also in the 2006 World Cup Italy played a bad and difficult match against Australia, winning only thanks to a very generous penalty, and then went on to win the whole thing.

[Kwyjibo]

At this point in the tournament anything can happen. I didn't expect Denmark to win that clearly against Wales if at all, I didn't expect Austria to hold off Italy for so long, and I didn't expect the Netherlands to go out. So I won't predict anything for the next couple of matches. 

[MirrorMask]

Aaaand the reigning champions are out. Belgium defeats Portugal.

I was rooting for extra time 

[Elite]

Sorry about that!

Don't be, they played a terrible game

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

That was a great game, Crotia fought so well. 

[MirrorMask]

That was crazy! down 3-1, they drag Spain 3-3 into extra time, when they go down 5-3.

So France - Spain it is! (save some miracle tonight)

[Elite]

Today's games!!!

[Elite]

Oh my God, this is fantastic

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

That was intense! 

[MirrorMask]

WHAT IN THE HOLY FUCKING FUCK OF ALL THE FOOTBALL GODS HAPPENED TODAY!!!!! 

14 goals!!! 3-1, 3-3, and then 5-3 from Spain!

And now Switzerland having a chance to go 2-0, royally screwing it up, going emotionally down 2-1 and then 3-1.... and then clinging back to life with a 3-3!!!! and then victory at penalties!!!!

5 penalty kicks out of 5, why in the blue hell they let the only penalty-impaired one kick the potential 2-0 one? 

Anyway - European champions out, world champions out!!!! Switzerland and Belgium bathed in the blood of the kings 

[Zoom E]

Both matches today were fantastic. So many goals, so much unpredictability and drama.

Good for Switzerland for finally making it past the round of 16 in a major tournament.

[Kwyjibo]

Wow, at both games. Intense, spectacular and unexpected. 

[MirrorMask]

Tonight is going to be one of the very rare occasions in which, when England and Germany are involved, I root for the germans 

[Kwyjibo]

And that's the end of the era Joachim Löw. I hoped for a better ending. Congrats to England.

[MirrorMask]

It's my fault. I went and grabbed my german flag (memento of one of my many trips to Germany). I didn't even have time to sit in front of the TV and England scored 

Anyway:

Reigning champions out
World champions out with Switzerland
Spain dragged into extra time by Croatia

Suddenly Italy's difficulty of getting rid of Austria doesn't look so worrying, there are no more easy matches from now on and I assume every match will be a story of its own.

[XJDenton]

Must say, its nice to not lose to Germany on penalties for a change.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I'm not the biggest follower of fotball in general except for cups like this but one thing I always enjoy alot is seeing good teamwork like clever passes between several players that pushes a situation forward even if it dosen't lead to a goal it's still such an exciting part of the game for me. Almost more exciting than seeing a specific goal. However seeing passes back and forth between players is boring but I guess in most of those cases they might look for an opening.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Looked like a battlefield for a minute!  Well we're out! Congrats Ukraine!

[Elite]

Christ, this was a terrible game.

[Stadler]

Wait, where's Tom Brady???

[XJDenton]

That game was messy as hell come extra time. Unfortunate we conceded that goal last minute. Olsen must be kicking himself.
 

[MirrorMask]

So, shit is about to get real.

Kingslayers Switzerland will face a Spain that is no longer the invincible armada of a decade ago.

Italy on the wings of enthusiasm will face Belgium, the "best of the world" who never won anything.

And then tomorrow it's the match of the relative surprises, Czech Republic and Denmark, one of them will be in the toup four!

And finally, if England really wants it to "come home" and have something more to boast about beside inventing football and winning in their own home a single world cup, they have to show they won't pull a Croatia 2018 and defeat Ukraine.

[MirrorMask]

...well, that happened, and so we're down to the final four:

ITALY vs SPAIN
--------------
DENMARK vs ENGLAND

I dunno, I was always cautiously optimistic and in "let's take every match one by one" mode, but..... I'm - kinda - possibly - maybe - starting to believe that Italy might win this thing. Not that they WILL, but.... the chance is definitively there.

Ah screw being scaramantic: the final is gonna be Italy - Denmark, there, I said it 


And now, for some random folkloristic discussion, which kinda belongs in this thread - In Italy during the '70s and '80s some cult comedic films were made by Paolo Villaggio, one of Italy's most famous comedians, about a down of his luck accountant, Fantozzi, whose ill adventures of being beaten down by life, evil bosses and personal misfortunes became part of Italy's pop culture.

In one of many situations that everyone in Italy knows, the "mega CEO" of the company mandated everyone to attend his boring movie nights, to see artistic films, on the very night Italy vs England was on TV, so everyone tried their best to listen to the match with those portable radios being confiscated while entering the CEO's personal movie theater, in order to not let them be distracted by the match, and of course in that situation everyone tried to get a hold of news from the match, with word of mouth being blown up to epic proportions 

"In the dark of the room [while the movie the mega CEO forced everyone to see was playing] rumors were running crazy and uncontrolled. It was said that Italy was winning 20-0 and that even Zoff [the goalkeeper] had scored with his head on a corner kick" 

The goalkeeper scoring with his head on a corner kick was basically a meme before memes were invented, you'll hardly find anyone in Italy who doesn't know what it means.

Another legendary scene is when, en route to the mandated movie night, Fantozzi heard on a crappy radio that the post was hit, so he stopped the car to ask to the first window he found who hit the post (that's what he actually asks, "Sorry, who hit the post?", with the results you can see for yourselves 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFDthUbJclg

[Elite]

Italy - England is going to be the final. And I have no idea who'll win. Earlier on I predicted Italy would win this thing, as they played well and I enjoyed watching them, but after that stupidly unsporting behaviour in the last 10-15 minutes against Belgium, I'm not really rooting for them. Besides, being half English I kind of have to root for England anyway. Going past Denmark might actually prove slightly difficult, but playing on home territory will probably give them the edge.

Italy - Spain is going to be fun to watch as well. I think Spain isn't going to stand a chance, but who knows. They might surprise us for once.

[MirrorMask]

NOT THIS TIME 

And now we wait for Denmark