June 17th, 2008
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Yes, it is deja vu alll over again.
It's either the '00 Euro Final or the '06 World Cup Final. Take your pick.
Anyway, with only three matches in the group phase it does, as they say, get late early. And thanks in part to a plucky Romanian side (and some dodgy refereeing) France and Italy face off in a winner take all match for survival in Group C.
Unless of course those same Romanians have something to say about it. A Romanian defeat of the Dutch in the other match would all but render Italy v. France an exercise in futility. And seeing how the Dutch have nothing to play for, don't expect to see EPSN's favorite player Ruud Van Persie on the pitch. Nor is Giovanni van Sneijder, Arjen Kuyt, or any of their other stalwarts likely to see time on the field.
So, oops. Fuck. Much like 04 when Italy posted a couple of listeless draws in their first two matches then watch the Scandinavians engineer a result to send them packing, Italy has only themselves to blame for putting themselves in this position.
France, on the other hand, can place all the blame on Domenech. He's an idiot.
Anyway, seeing how Europe doesn't understand that the United States doesn't shut down for these matches, we might have some liveblogging technical difficulties (specifically, if the live bloggamy starts, beware it might cut out at any moment). Still the thread is here to follow along.
And to get your commenting inspiration jumpstarted, it's another Euro haiku:
I'd take Gigi's life
Heroic penalty save
His wife is smokin'
[Tip o' the hat to NY Kid for the line-ups]
The starting XI for Everybody Negates Raymond:
GK - Coupet
DEF - Abidal; Gallas; Clerc; Evra
MID - Makelele; Toulalan; Ribery; Govou
ST - Titi (C); Benzema
The starting XI for Roberto Donadoni (those are my two favorite Mutant Ninja Turtles btw):
GK - Buffon (C)
DEF - Zambrotta; Panucci; Chiellini; Grosso
MID - Pirlo; De Rossi; Gattuso; Perrotta
ST - Toni; Madman Cassano
This match is being played at Letzigrund, in Zurich.
Centre official: Ľuboš Michĕl (SVK)
Assistant referees: Roman Slyško (SVK); Martin Balko (SVK)
4th official: Viktor Kassai (HUN)
T-minus 10: Ugh... Foudy. I can understand an SC anchor stumbling over 'Van Nistelrooy,' but he's only played for maybe the two most famous clubs in the world.
T-minus 8: Okay, good think Henry went to Barca. He's dead to me and I don't have to worry about mixed club allegiances fucking my Nationalism.
T-minus 6: Crowd-wide "Seven Nation Army" chant. Not a White Stripes fan. If you want me to lose my shit, you're going to have give me 50,000 people singing along to "Killer Parties."
T-minus 3: And we have our first crowd shot of hot Italian poon. Followed by "Song of the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey"
T-minus 2: Rain. Repeat of what Cech pulled?
T-minus (-1): Ack... Grosso is going to have to come forward from the left back slot a lot to give some width. Look for France to try to expose that.
0:00: Kick. Italy in white moving left to right on your radio dial. France in blew.
2nd minute: First good push from France. Ribery cuts to the top of the box and fires a shot that is blocked away for a corner. Cleared by Italy.
3rd minute: Ref holds a small summit meeting. France takes a corner that lands at the top of the 18 but there is nobody there. Cleared.
4th minute: Italy looks a little tentative... Oh, on Toni's foot and he shoots it wide. Fail. He should have done much better with that. I'm agreeing with Andy Gray that he should have taken another touch on that before shooting.
6th minute: Really Italy, you're going to play Route 1 football? Counter from France. Ribery from the left side, puts it across the box, but it goes to nobody.
7th minute: Italy with nothing in the midfield. Zambrotta taken down by Ribery and it's Ribery who looks hurt. This would be bad for Ribery and France. Might be his ankle. Stretcher cart is out and he is still on the ground.
9th miunte: Still tending to Ribery. For all the ribbing. As an Italian, I want to take the French down at their best. Nasri to come on for Ribery.
10th minutes: And it's free kick for Italy on the restart as Ribery did foul Zambrotta. Corner from the free kick... Oh, and it's almost a header from Panucci. On replay that was going in but it was Makalele who put a leg to it to clear it. So close...
12th minute: France working the midfield. Two teams exchange possession on some sloppy giveaways.
13th minute: Perotta on the counter. Tries a long feed to Toni, but it's disruppted by Abidal maybe. France now working back up the pitch. A long cross clears to box and falls harmlessly to the italians.
15th minute: Now Italy counters and Grosso gets deep. But he wastes the cross. It's partially deflected and we're back up the pitch on the feet of France. Low shot from Benzema goes wide of the near side.
16th minute: Ref is getting a little whistle happy. Think he wants a restart on the restart by Italy. Which we get and it's quickly turned over.
18th minute: Both teams are looking to attack but neither team is stringing together any long possessions. Cassano taken down by Evra, hey my least favorite player on the pitch. Pirlo to take the kick.
Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Live Blogs and Precious Roy and france and italy.
Germany 1-0 Austria
It wasn’t exactly an inspiring victory, but Germany have booked their place in the quarter-finals with this win. They’ve made hard work of what should have been an easy group, but now it’s time for them to really get their act together for the knock-out stages. They did at least look much more solid defensively here, although that’s kind of hard to judge against a team as goal-shy as Austria. Joachim Low juggled the back four a bit, bringing in Arne Friedrich at right-back and moving Philipp Lahm to the left in place of Marcell Jansen (supposedly injured, but I wouldn’t be so sure).
The German midfield still looks a bit out of sorts, though, and their strikers are also having problems. Particularly Mario Gomez, who wasted three good chances in the first 10 minutes — including an absolute sitter that he ballooned over the bar from about a yard out. Unbelievable. I’m not really sure how he keeps getting picked, because he’s been equally useless in all three games so far. I think they might want to move Lukas Podolski up front with Miroslav Klose for the next game, and bring in Bastian Schweinsteiger on the left of midfield. At least Podolski has proved that he knows how to find the net.
Oh, right, I’m supposed to be talking about this game. Not a whole lot to say about the first half, really. Austria tried hard, but they just don’t know what to do once they get into the penalty box. The closest they came was an extremely weak penalty shout, when Erwin Hoffer backed into Christoph Metzelder. But generally the Germans looked in control without creating much themselves either.
The main incident of the first half wasn’t even on the pitch but on the sidelines, when both managers were rather bizarrely banished to the stands just before halftime for a bit of nothing. I don’t know if they got into it with the fourth official, or each other, or what, but it seemed like an overly harsh reaction from the ref — Phil Scolari would be very disappointed; nobody even took a swing at anybody. Actually, if anyone was going to be sent off, it should have been Rene Aufhauser earlier in the half, for pushing Podolski in the face. But he was luckier than Schweinsteiger was against Croatia, because the referee didn’t see it and didn’t even book him.
The key moment of the game was right at the beginning of the second half, when Germany were awarded a free kick just outside the box for Andreas Ivanschitz’s foul on Lahm. Michael Ballack stepped up to take it and smashed the ball past the wall and into the net. Best free kick of the tournament. He’s been admitted that he’s been underperforming so far, but he redeemed himself with that goal. The rest of his team seemed to take confidence from the goal, although they weren’t able to extend their lead over Austria. They’ll have to do better than that against Portugal.
Croatia 1-0 Poland
I swear I watched this, but none of it really registered with me. It wasn’t an entirely meaningless game, since Poland still had a chance to go through depending on what happened in the other match, but Michael Ballack’s goal for Germany put an end to that.
The game got off to a fairly even start, but Croatia became more dominant as the first half went on. That continued after half-tim, with Ivan Klasnic scoring the only goal in the 52nd minute, from Daniel Pranjic’s cutback. (Klasnic, incidentally, has made an amazing comeback after not one but two kidney transplants — he apparently wears a fibreglass shield to protect himself on the pitch.)
That goal basically killed off any remaining hope for Poland, and Croatia were happy to just pass the ball around and wait for the clock to tick down the remaining half an hour. Anyway, Slaven Bilic should be happy with his team, as he made a slew of changes to the lineup but still won pretty easily, making Croatia the first team into the quarter-finals with a perfect 3-0 record.
Next up: Germany play Portugal on Thursday, in a replay of their bronze medal match from the last World Cup, while group winners Croatia face Turkey on Friday
Bad hair of the day award: Vedran Runje, Croatia’s backup keeper, who made his first — and probably only — appearance at the tournament with a half-ponytail and lime-green scrunchie. (Sadly I cannot find a good picture of said scrunchie.)
Written by Jen on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Austria and Croatia and Euro 2008 and Germany and Poland.
This is an open thread for conversation/comments during the France - Italy match, since no one is available to liveblog it. Feel free to discuss how much of a douche Marco Materazzi is, or delve into why the bulldog Gennaro Gattuso is an overhyped douchebag. Any anti-French comments will immediately be removed. How can you be mad at my people when we produced this:
Damn you, Johnny Depp!
The starting XI for Les Bleus of Raymond "Astrology Excites Me" Domenech:
GK - Coupet
DEF - Abidal; Gallas; Clerc; Evra
MID - Makelele; Toulalan; Ribery; Govou
ST - Titi (C); Benzema
The starting XI for Roberto Donadoni:
GK - Buffon (C)
DEF - Zambrotta; Panucci; Chiellini; Grosso
MID - Pirlo; De Rossi; Gattuso; Perrotta
ST - Toni; Madman Cassano
This match is being played at Letzigrund, in Zurich.
Centre official: Ľuboš Michĕl (SVK)
Assistant referees: Roman Slyško (SVK); Martin Balko (SVK)
4th official: Viktor Kassai (HUN)
Questions to ponder:
(1) Why does Domenech hate Samir Nasri?
(2) Why isn't Fabio Grosso fatter?
(3) Why is the official UEFA observer for this match from England?
(4) If the French are eliminated, yet Domenech is not fired, how long until I have a heart attack?
Amuse yourselves below. I may pop in from time to time if the game is going well. If you don't hear from me, I may be playing in traffic.
UPDATE: Precious Roy has taken it upon himself to liveblog the first half of this match. Please join him upstairs. I will leave this thread up with that amazing picture for...other purposes.
Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.
Chelsea are the latest name to be linked with a summer swoop for Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitic, who has already attracted strong interest from some of Europe’s heavyweights…
by Mike Maguire from Goal.com
The 20-year-old has been one of Croatia’s standouts at EURO 2008 thus far, more than holding his own in a midfield containing the likes of Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar.
The Schalke playmaker has been pushed out to the right side of midfield by Slaven Bilic, where his technique, vision and link play have attracted significant attention.
Juventus have tagged the former FC Basel man as a potential successor to Czech legend Pavel Nedved, while Internazionale have also expressed an interest.
And now The Sun reports that Chelsea have been checking out the Swiss-born Croat, who is expected to cost around ₤12million.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has been in Austria to watch his native Russia compete in Group D, and will no doubt have kept a close eye Rakitic’s efforts as Croatia topped Group B.
Incoming Blues boss Luiz Felipe Scolari may also get the chance to have a good hard look at the exciting youngster, as his Portugal side could well meet the Vatreni in the semi-finals.
Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Chelsea and News.
In the spirit of the competition, UF is trying to bring in fans to write about their country's ups and downs throughout the tournament, and with the Dutch being the biggest story of the tournament thus far, we are bringing back Joep, a Dutch native enjoying the Oranje run in the tournament, who previously recapped the Dutch perspective after its stunning 3-0 victory over Italy. Holland has already clinched its group and faces its final match against Rumania today with the prospect of having both Italy and France knocked out with a Dutch loss, but I don't think the Dutch are thinking that way.
Below is Joep's perspective leading up to and after the France match. I imagine the trepidation he felt then is not present now. And, don't forget to cheer for the Dutch because everytime they score Joep gets to do the above with a random hot Dutch women.
There was always that lingering insecurity when we looked forward to
the next game. Boisterous and confident we belted to "bring on the
French already!" But not very-deep-down it was apparent to all of us
that our growing sense of confidence was a front, and in reality
nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to hide the fear that what
he had witnessed against the Italians was nothing but a one-off. The
word fluke was not to be mentioned by anyone, but the sense that our
3-0 against the World Champions was exactly that had taken root with
everyone I spoke in the days after the game.
We started looking at the tables, and when the Italians drew Rumania
we started covering ourselves by saying that even a loss to the
French, losing finalists only two years ago after all, wouldn't even
necessarily be that bad a result. It would get our heads out of the
clouds that had gathered around them on Monday, and we would see all
the more clearly for the remainder of the Euros. So win, draw or loss,
we, being about 17 people crammed together in a student room, managed
to find half-hearted pros and cons for all of them.
Even going up early against the French didn't really ease the tension.
The French always have the habit of scoring exactly when I don't want
them to, and I don't think I've ever wanted them to blow every single
chance they'd get as much as Friday night – meaning they would surely
win. And indeed, after the halftime break, they started piling on some
nerve wrecking pressure and looked sure to score. And then San Marco
intervened.
Before the tournament started and our hopes of surviving the group
stage were slim at best, we had argued for fielding all of our best
players, in a formation that would surely leave our back four so
incredibly exposed, we would be home after a couple of days. These
players, we thought, were van der Vaart, Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie
and Van Nistelrooy. We daydreamed about this quintet on the field at
the same time, realizing it probably wouldn't happen because none of
them would track back and defend. But with 1-0 up against the French,
our defense under enormous pressure and with Sneijder, van der Vaart
and van Nistelrooy already on the pitch, Marco brought Robben. And
then van Persie.
What happened next you've all probably already seen; van Nistelrooy,
who has been forever dogged by nay-sayers about being nothing more
than a poacher, the lowest of the low, a limited striker who couldn't
score a goal from outside the 6 yard box if his life depended on it,
launched Robben on the left wing with the exact bit of skill the
French have come to see as their national heritage; Ruud's pirouette
on the ball allowed Robben to cross for van Persie for our second
goal.
The French did come back, once, but I had to wait longer for the line
for the bathrooms in the clubs of Utrecht later that night than it
took Arjen Robben to restore the margin to two. This sounds like an
overstatement but actually isn't. By the time Sneijder performed
his last minute hommage to Dennis Bergkamp, none of us had any air
left to scream. As it turns out, it takes quite a bit out of you to
see your country beat both finalists from the last World Cup 7-1 over
180 minutes of play.
We gaan naar Wenen toe. Get used to the idea and mark your calendars
accordingly.
Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Netherlands and guest post.
Goal.com has reported that Barcelona management is very much keen to bring the Spartak Moscow forward Roman Pavlyuchenko to Nou Camp. Roman Anatolevich Pavlyuchenko performance in Euro 2008 is reported to be the reason why the club is interested iun him. It is also reported that Real Madrid and Sevilla are both intersted in signing him. Barcelona could sign the striker for 10 million euros and that makes him more favourite than the 38 million Euro Adebayor. He is not a bad striker either. He joined Spartak in 2003 and has scored 67 goals in 136 appearance.I think he was the one who scored both the Goals against England in their Euro qualifying match. Apart from these reports, the transfer rumour regarding Barbatov is emerging as the front runner.
Barcelona sports chief Txiki Begiristain is supposed to fly to Brazil to continue talks with Hernanes club Sao Paulo. It is reported that barcelona has already struck peronal deal with the player, which will see him pocketing ÂŁ1.5 million per year. Ok, Now to the biggest surprise - La galaxy is interested in signing Ronaldinho. They will table an offer which will result in Barcelona getting ÂŁ18 million for the striker. Ronaldinho will be pocketing ÂŁ12 million-a-year PLUS another ÂŁ12 million for his image rights.
Written by Bibin on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Barcelona Transfers and Transfer rumours.
“All consider it a great player, but this does not mean that or easy to take it, however contacts with the Chelsea creed are. Attacking? Mourinho us of it has not asked.
Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Football-Player.
The Milan is on the traces of Miguel Veloso, centrocampista of the Sporting Lisbona. The interest regarding Veloso has been confirmed from the general manager of the rossoneri,
Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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Moratti returns to speak, to esternare. As well as, of all, as it has always made before the tormented days of the storm-Mancini and the advent of Mourinho. The future, the market, the trainer, Ibrahimovic: the patrons interista have not hidden behind the omissis. Here, point for point, its thought:
LAMPARD AND THE MARKET
“All consider it a great player, but this does not mean that or easy to take it, however contacts with the Chelsea creed are. Attacking? Mourinho us of it has not asked. Deco puo' to serve but or arrives he or an other. Aquilani? To who it does not appeal to but, I repeat, we will take a solo median. Xavi does not interest to us”.
ADRIANO
'' Certainly that he returns - it has assured the president nerazzurro-. Mourinho wants to understand well as it is and also which are its objectives in making part of that which sara' however an important rose for the next year ''.
IBRAHIMOVIC
“We exclude the surgical participation, will be enough a beautiful period of vacation and rest. I refute that cisiano crazy figures in the agreement, I confirm instead that the agreement is and is born its will to direstare in order to gain Champions League and being riconosciutocome the best player of Europe.
I RENEW OF IBRA
“Ibra has signed the rinnovodel contracted? Creed of yes, I do not sign them the contracts… ”. It is the average admission of the president of the Inter, Moratti Maximum, on I renew of the contract of the Swedish forward, but not to “crazy figures”, he emphasizes. “I refute that there are of average crazy figures, I confirm instead the agreement that is born its pleasure above all to remain to the Inter, from its desire, than then it is also ours, to gain the Champions and to become, with the mesh nerazzurra, the important soccer player piu' in Europe”, has said Moratti before its participation from the theater box of Woorkshop 2008 of F.C.
BALOTELLI
'' In a caused moment exceptional from the succeeding surprise for an unexpected one, us puo' to be the temptation to difarsi of the exceptional plans, but lavita is made of little ones steps. Now Balotelli has a grandeallenatore, and is the occasion in order to make to see what it is worth. Then guadagnera' what it deserves ''.
MOURINHO
'' It is not that to this we had studied it before thing, but once forced to having to change I have thought had to be taken number one. The subscriptions to +30%? Mourinho enters there, there is curiosita', the wait and therefore a greater push. For the market we have made two various lists… joke, obviously. Or Mourinho that Mancini before he problems have not never created on the campaign acquires. The attempt is obviously that one to put on a Vincente square. Mancini is successful, Mourinho has up to now not made demanded impossible ".
MANCINI
“Creed is margins in order to recompose the issue, gia' is felt. We will see…”.
Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Internazionale.
The Milan is on the traces of Miguel Veloso, centrocampista of the Sporting Lisbona. The interest regarding Veloso has been confirmed from the general manager of the rossoneri, Ariedo Braida, to the Lusitanian daily paper “To Bolus”. After to have excluded an immediate transfer to the court of Ancelotti (“Veloso not creed is a great player but that we will see in times breviums to it with the mesh of the Milan. In future instead yes”), Braida however has emphasized that “all the scenes are possible”.
“I will remain to the Arsenal for many years”: thus the forward of the Gunners, Emmanuel Adebayor, seems to close every speech of market with the Milan. The rossoneri in the last weeks have not hidden the interest for the player of the Togo having raised the offer to 35 million, but the forward has sworne to the Londoners on tabloid “The Sun”: “My future in the Arsenal never has not been in doubt and I want to reassure the tifosi: I will remain here for many years. I am trying an agreement for I renew and the tifosi must be calm”. Words of circumstance, obvious, that they must but be recorded in this long summer of negotiations and schermaglie.
Written by Darkvader on June 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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Yes, it is deja vu alll over again. 
