Euro 2016

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

...
egocentric superstarts like Ronaldo and Zlatan have never done much good for their countries on big tournaments.
...

good post sniper.
"revolte against zlatan within swedish team"
http://www.eurosport.de/fussball/euro-2016/2016/em-2016-in-frankreich-belgien-reagiert-drei-anderungen-in-startelf-gegen-irland_sto5652908/story.shtml

Zlatan is worse, though. Thinks himself God and is not half the player Ronaldo is. I dislike both, but to be fair to them there's not much they can do when they have relatively weak teams. Ronaldo has done much for Portugal and if it wasn't for him we wouldn't even have qualified for last WC finals (given, to be humiliated like we were, missing the tournament wouldn't have done much harm). Seldom do you see the superstars in all their glory in these competitions. At least these days.

 

[sniper]

Re: Re:

fair points bigmac, by all means.

When Ballack got taken out by Prince Boateng in 2010 that was arguably the best thing that could happen to the German squad. He was too dominant.

Right now when I see a player like Bale, he's neither arrogant nor egocentric, and i reckon it's much easier to integrate him into the national Wales squad and have other players do the dirty work for him.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

When Ballack got taken out by Prince Boateng in 2010 that was arguably the best thing that could happen to the German squad. He was too dominant.

Better Mannschaft captain than Lahm though.

 

[sniper]

pretty scandalous that Ireland didn't get a penalty here:

https://twitter.com/mt2oo8/status/744181638356176896
The game could've ended quite differently.

 

[jsem94]

What about Shane Long marauding Carrasco?

 

[gooner]

Just seen a guy on twitter say no one in Spain bought the rights to games like the Hungary v Iceland one. Only UEFA streaming.

First time I've heard of this. Says it all really.

 

[BigMac]

Did I just see Eddy Merckx in the stands?

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

Just seen a guy on twitter say no one in Spain bought the rights to games like the Hungary v Iceland one. Only UEFA streaming.

First time I've heard of this. Says it all really.

A friend who lives there told me it was because UEFA wanted to charge more money than ever for the TV rights and in the end no-one submitted a bid.

 

[BigMac]

What a dreadful match between Portugal and Austria so far.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

What a dreadful match between Portugal and Austria so far.

Just a matter of time before Portugal scores. The Austrians are terrible, to say the least. In a way I almost hope Portugal is going to score soon, so we won't have to look at Ronaldo's whiny face expressions each time he loses the ball or miss a big chance.

 

[SeriousSam]

lolronaldo

hope Portugal somehow end up losing now

 

[BigMac]

Re:

lolronaldo

hope Portugal somehow end up losing now

Because of a missed penalty? That's weird.

Anyway, another draw another moral victory.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

What a dreadful match between Portugal and Austria so far.

Just a matter of time before Portugal scores. The Austrians are terrible, to say the least. In a way I almost hope Portugal is going to score soon, so we won't have to look at Ronaldo's whiny face expressions each time he loses the ball or miss a big chance.

They played much better than Iceland for most of the game and never worse. If Icelend managed to draw so could Austria, at least.

 

[lenric]

Ronaldo is overrated, especially when we see a guy like Messi, who does everything Ronaldo can do and a lot more. The problem with Portugal is that Ronaldo is such a big star, that all of his colleagues feel a lot of pressure to pass the ball to him (otherwise the guy will get mad and cry).
Problem is: Ronaldo can't do a single thing that's not closely related to shoot the ball. Whether it is shooting to the goal, to other player or to the stars. He doesn't know how to play collectively, he's too individualistic.

 

[SeriousSam]

Re: Re:

lolronaldo

hope Portugal somehow end up losing now

Because of a missed penalty? That's weird.

Anyway, another draw another moral victory.

Missing a penalty is objectively terrible, so warrants a lol at any rate. But then there's his huge ego, relentless whining and moaning and off the charts unlikability. Laughing at his each and every failure is hard to resist.


Draw! What result do we need for the last set of games to get a Pexit?

 

[gooner]

Re: Re:

Just seen a guy on twitter say no one in Spain bought the rights to games like the Hungary v Iceland one. Only UEFA streaming.

First time I've heard of this. Says it all really.

A friend who lives there told me it was because UEFA wanted to charge more money than ever for the TV rights and in the end no-one submitted a bid.

That would be the case with the increase of teams and games to broadcast.

Look at the TV deal coming into effect next season in the Premiership and the huge increase in revenue compared to the previous one. The same with the recent sale of the Bundesliga TV rights which unbelievably got over 80% of an increase on the previous deal. That's because the product and what they have to offer is of a desired quality.

From what I read, it's the Hungary v Iceland type of games that this is in relation to.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Ronaldo is overrated, especially when we see a guy like Messi, who does everything Ronaldo can do and a lot more. The problem with Portugal is that Ronaldo is such a big star, that all of his colleagues feel a lot of pressure to pass the ball to him (otherwise the guy will get mad and cry).
Problem is: Ronaldo can't do a single thing that's not closely related to shoot the ball. Whether it is shooting to the goal, to other player or to the stars. He doesn't know how to play collectively, he's too individualistic.

Messi cannot do everything Ronaldo can, they are different players each with their own trademark attributes. That said, this perception that Portugal plays for Ronaldo is totally wrong and tired to be honest. I'd be willing to bet the farm, if someone can find such stats, that Nani and Quaresma received as many passes from the midfielders and, in the former's case, wasted twice the opportunities by being too selfish. Ronaldo is more of a team player than 80% of others in our team, so please don't throw around this typical Portuguese anti-Ronaldo propaganda based only on prejudice towards the guy, it gets really tiresome. By all means, criticize him when it's due, but too much, especially when uncalled for, takes away all reason from your argument.

 

[The Hitch]

To be fair, who in Spain would want to spend a Sunny June Saturday afternoon, inside watching Iceland vs Hungary

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

lolronaldo

hope Portugal somehow end up losing now

Because of a missed penalty? That's weird.

Anyway, another draw another moral victory.

Missing a penalty is objectively terrible, so warrants a lol at any rate. But then there's his huge ego, relentless whining and moaning and off the charts unlikability. Laughing at his each and every failure is hard to resist.


Draw! What result do we need for the last set of games to get a Pexit?

My comment was more about the 'now' part of your post. As if it was Ronaldo missing the penalty that suddenly made you wish Portugal lose. Seemed like a petty reason, just that. Yes, he is insufferable and it's pretty easy to dislike him (I do) but if we want to be objective, Portugal, the team, deserved to win by most people's standards. He is one among 23. Now, we pretty much only have ourselves to blame for today's result. Austria played an open game during the first half and it was during that time that Portugal played its worse.

 

[jsem94]

CR7 rekt.

 

[lenric]

Re: Re:

Ronaldo is overrated, especially when we see a guy like Messi, who does everything Ronaldo can do and a lot more. The problem with Portugal is that Ronaldo is such a big star, that all of his colleagues feel a lot of pressure to pass the ball to him (otherwise the guy will get mad and cry).
Problem is: Ronaldo can't do a single thing that's not closely related to shoot the ball. Whether it is shooting to the goal, to other player or to the stars. He doesn't know how to play collectively, he's too individualistic.

Messi cannot do everything Ronaldo can, they are different players each with their own trademark attributes. That said, this perception that Portugal plays for Ronaldo is totally wrong and tired to be honest. I'd be willing to bet the farm, if someone can find such stats, that Nani and Quaresma received as many passes from the midfielders and, in the former's case, wasted twice the opportunities by being too selfish. Ronaldo is more of a team player than 80% of others in our team, so please don't throw around this typical Portuguese anti-Ronaldo propaganda based only on prejudice towards the guy, it gets really tiresome. By all means, criticize him when it's due, but too much, especially when uncalled for, takes away all reason from your argument.

I never liked Ronaldo. Messi can score 50 goals per season and still assist like hell. Ronaldo doesn't.
Either way, it's my opinion, as valid as your, thus with as much reason.

 

[BullsFan22]

It's seems that most of the games have been a case of one team creating all the chances, keeping possession and being the aggressor whereas the other is either outmatched skill wise and/or chooses to play defense as to not lose and come away with a point. As much as I despise Ronaldo, you gotta feel a little sorry for him and especially the rest of the team. Their first two games, Portugal have shot the ball around 50 times, and the combined effort of Iceland and Austria, around 10. That's 5x as many shots, roughly, as your opponent in just two games alone. That's ridiculous. The nice thing for them, and for the other three teams in that group, it is now completely open. Anyone could win this group and apart from Hungary, anyone could fail to get out of the group. Hungary is, by my calculation, already through, though which place they'll end up is still in the air. They could win the group, as could Portugal and Iceland. Austria have to beat Iceland to advance. Portugal can win the group if they beat Hungary, would be out if they lost and funnily enough, could advance with three ties, but that might be a stretch. Would love to see underdog teams advance, so that means Austria, Iceland and Hungary. I know we are all harsh on Uefa and the current set up with 24 teams, but it does give everyone a chance and should keep all the fans interested, even if the actual quality of play doesn't.

 

[Brullnux]

24 teams is just such an awkward number. I'm not a fan of seeing 3rd place teams go through.

Meanwhile, Italy qualify as first in a group for the first time in a major tournament since 2006.

 

[gooner]

At least our Irish team isn't as bad as Mexico.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re:

pretty scandalous that Ireland didn't get a penalty here:

https://twitter.com/mt2oo8/status/744181638356176896
The game could've ended quite differently.

The moving images tell a different story I think. Perhaps an indirect free kick.
But it wouldn't have been very deserved. I hate teams that don't even try to play and that stall the game whenever possible from minute 1 on.