Euro 16 gamethread

[SocrManiac]

I'm totally on Hart's side. It's all about the initial jump on that type of free kick and it didn't read as going anywhere near where it ended up.

The modern ball is getting harder and harder (if not impossible) to read. Physics is just throwing its hands up at this point and giving up. The movement on these things is insane.

 

[fletcherpost]

Wales are gonna get undone if they don't hang onto the ball and play more positive football. Four backwards passes one forward pass then losing the ball on the wing, not a good way to go about things. They need Ramsay and Bale on the ball.

 

[swiftaw]

Party time

 

[SocrManiac]

Wow, the ESPN stream is way, way behind.

 

[Bozo Texino]

It's almost like Vardy should've been playing from the get-go.

 

[fletcherpost]

Knew it. England will win this game.

 

[Schnerres]

Darke & McManaman mentioned that both Bale FK goals should have been saved. I think they may be underestimating just how much of a knuckleball style effect he manages to create. Chaotic little movements that are hard to pick up on camera but really mess with a keeper.

That might be true in general and for today´s goal. But the first was in the keeper´s corner. The Slovakian keeper (Kozacik) guessed a bit and it went into his corner. That was just his mistake, ball fluttering, having a topspin (Magnus-effect) or not. It was at least 1m away from the post. Had he stayed where the freekick started, he could have caught that with his hat.

England is alive!! 5m offside, if the ball came from an England player, but it came from a Welsh player (Williams?).

 

[dirtynine]

Vardy has what the rest of the England team lack - some kind of cocky, foolhardy indifference. They need it.

 

[soxfan121]

Give Vardy a redcoat and I think I might need to fight him to the death. What a quintessentially punchable English face.

Arsene Wenger just threw his puffy coat across the room. Now he's gonna have to pay a premium for England's Greatest Goal Scorer.

 

[soxfan121]

Jonathan Williams (Wales sub just now) stole Art Gunfunkel's hairdo.

 

[coremiller]

England are now playing Kane, Rooney, Sturridge, Vardy, and Rashford all at the same time. How can that shape possibly work?

EDIT: NVM, Kane came off. Still, that's 3 CFs at once plus Rooney.

 

[swiftaw]

England are now playing Kane, Rooney, Sturridge, Vardy, and Rashford all at the same time. How can that shape possibly work?

Kane was subbed out at half time for Vardy

 

[Schnerres]

BOOOOOOOOHHH!

 

[fletcherpost]

knew it

 

[coremiller]

Maybe they should play with 11 strikers.

 

[Zososoxfan]

After all that, lol.

 

[SocrManiac]

ESPN's stream is hilariously behind. That post was stupidly ahead.

 

[Bozo Texino]

Ugh.

 

[fletcherpost]

you have to have something going forwards, and you can't play like it's Derby County V man U in the FA Cup

 

[coremiller]

So what does Woy do for the third game? He can't roll out the same starting XI again right? Who gets dropped?

 

[Dummy Hoy]

Sturridge's stupid dance is fucking stupid.

 

[swiftaw]

So who starts in the next match, surely Kane and Sterling have to be on the bench?

 

[Infield Infidel]

Kompany is excellent on TV so far

 

[ifmanis5]

So who starts in the next match, surely Kane and Sterling have to be on the bench?

Surely, but this is England. Who knows.

 

[teddykgb]

Kane has been completely awful. He was great for Spurs but his shoot on sight mentality isn't doing him any favors right now and the less said about his free kicks the better for him. Vardy should have his spot.

Sterling has been his typical frustrating self. One thing I'm relatively certain about is that he can't play as an inverted winger. He's painfully one footed and looks far better on the right than the left. I share all of your concerns about his ability to play under Pep. I think he might be better paired with Vardy on the right side playing more of a counter game but wouldn't blame Hodgson in the least if he went a different way.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

I don't really think England was that much better in the second half. Wales was a bit too negative just sitting back to defend a lead and England got two fairly jammy goals in a congested box.

England's big problem isn't who plays forward, its the brokenness of the team in midfield, combined with the fact that neither center back is comfortable on the ball. When Wales was pressing them in the first half and contesting the ball a bit higher, they were completely incapable of doing anything. I think if they play Vardy, Sturridge, Lallana up front with the same midfield three behind them against Slovakia, the team will have exactly the same difficulties.

 

[Schnerres]

England's big problem isn't who plays forward, its the brokenness of the team in midfield, combined with the fact that neither center back is comfortable on the ball. When Wales was pressing them in the first half and contesting the ball a bit higher, they were completely incapable of doing anything. I think if they play Vardy, Sturridge, Lallana up front with the same midfield three behind them against Slovakia, the team will have exactly the same difficulties.

That could happen, depending on who´s sitting back, who´s making the game and who´s running counters. Slovakia also could hold back vs. England, but they have the technical ability to hold the ball (longer than Wales).

And that´s what makes this tournament so funny: You play those scrappy teams all over the group and then advance, possibly even with a lot of problems. If you make it to the quarterfinal somehow, you may have a better draw for your playing style, as teams like France, England, even Belgium haven´t shown much in organizing a sustained attack, holding the ball through 20 passes, showing some kind of group attacking moves or practiced/studied team attacks. If they (those favorites) play minor teams, they have problems to organize the game like Spain and Germany (Germany had lots of trouble with Ukraine´s counter, let´s see how this ends tonight vs. Poland, Milik and Lewandowski). So you have to wonder what happens when teams like England will meet France/Portugal/Austria/Switzerland/Belgium/Italy in knockout stages and possibly sit back (or make the argument vice versa), instead of having 55-65% possession vs scrappy, tough teams like Hungary, Romania or Russia.

Imagine a game for Italy now, where they have problems with Ireland. Their knockout scenario would be an attacking team like Belgium, where they can sit back, run a few counters and finish them off (I would hate a matchup Germany vs. Italy...).

 

[soxfan121]

Terrific post, Schnerres. That is why this tournament has been so much fun to watch thus far. Teams forced to play in multiple ways really tests how good the "team" is.

 

[SocrManiac]

Perhaps more than testing the team it's testing the manager's ability to plan, adapt, and counter.

Does anybody think Italy beats Belgium if their managers are reversed? Conte didn't have to do much with BBC/Buffon, but certainly the rest of the tactical organization has his fingerprints all over it.

 

[LondonSox]

The movement of the England team was a joke. So many times the midfield just stood around, waiting for the ball, with a defender close by. I've never seen anything like it. England had nothing to fear from Wales, they couldn't do anything. But as ever England played down to their opponent and pretended it was a training match where they shouldn't use to much energy or something.
I do think that simply awful Sterling miss early took some wind out of them. Brave for Roy to make the double change at half time, Kane looked SLOW. I kept saying something like it looks like he's in quick sand.
I hope Vardy starts the next game, Be it 4-4-2 and drop Sterling, Or up front for Kane and someone else for Sterling.

 

[Infield Infidel]

Sturridge's stupid dance is fucking stupid.

 

[Dummy Hoy]

I ought to block you for that.

 

[Infield Infidel]

Gorgeous header off a set piece gets Northern Ireland on the board 1-0

 

[soxfan121]

JFC, what the hell God?

HAIL?

 

[Catcher Block]

That has to be a first.

 

[Infield Infidel]

Northern Ireland player got a card for time wasting because they were making a sub and they didn't know who was coming on or off. Color commentator said it was embarrassing

 

[Schnerres]

AFAIK, you have to write a paper with the numbers on it, so there´s no misunderstanding or wrong numbers shown (which would help a leading team like North Ireland waste time). I don´t know how the 4th official makes a sub without knowing who´s going off, but if the coach sends the guy back in and stops the change, he basically wasted 30seconds for nothing, which helped him, so the ref had to do something about it. I don´t know if it´s in the rules to give the guy who came back a yellow.

As uncoordinated as it looked here, what do you wanna do, i bet in South America that´s part of a strategy.

 

[Schnerres]

Hummels to start for Mustafi next to Boateng, no other changes (Götze up front, Draxler on the left).

Kapustka out and Kamil Grosicki in for Poland as AM, as well as Fabianski in goal for injured Szczesny.

 

[OCST]

 

[dirtynine]

If you’re Northern Ireland and dreaming of advancing, the game about to kick off presents an interesting scenario (if I've thought this out correctly). You could hope Germany wins big and pushes Poland’s GD down, and then hope Ukraine can get points off Poland next round (NI have to play Germany). You’d need help if you’re NI but it’s not unrealistic.

…or, you could hope Poland pulls the upset, which puts NI’s fate in its own hands, against Germany. Probably a much smaller chance to go through but it would be fully in NI’s control.

edit. wait, I guess there's some wiggle room because of the qualifying third-place teams. So I'm not sure what's best from a NI perspective.

 

[Schnerres]

So if Poland gets a(t least a) point tonight, Ukraine is the first team that drops out, right?

Edit: Overthinking it...Poland is the only team, which could lose the head to head with Ukraine. So if they have 4points, they are out of reach. No matter, if GER end up at 3/4p tonight and how the last two matches end, if Poland get to 4p., Ukraine is out and N.I. has a decent chance of advancing as a 3rd team. They have to get at least a close loss to GER, so 3points +/- 0 GD could be enough to advance.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Poland-Germany has been pretty even through 30 minutes. Poland has the quality of up front to threaten the German defense and Germany has been somewhat cautious in the match so far and hasn't been able to really gain control.

 

[OCST]

Yellow for Ozil.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Germany really got on top in the last 15 minutes, dominating possession, but didn't create anything out of it.

 

[OCST]

Germany is Germany and you can tell that they're the better side, but Poland has not flinched. Their defense has been very well organized and hasn't given Germany much to work with. Poland also putting good pressure on the ball in midfield.

Germany is going to have to work for their points.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Very interesting half. Poland came so close to springing that breakaway.

 

[Schnerres]

Poland is well organiset, everyone other than Lewandowski is around their own box to defend the middle.
Germany controlling the ball, Poland running a few counters. No real chances so far.
Poland looks really good, comitted to their tactics.
Germany needs either patience to break them open when they´re tired or a change. Müller has been invisible, but I don´t know if he comes off (Pep would take him off, as he had more options). Draxler seems like he doesn´t know what he should do with the ball, when he runs into the defender (a general problem for this team: who plays on the left, no LB other than Hector; in LM there´s Podolski, Sané and Schürrle and each has their flaws, being better suited as subs or being inexperienced). Özil hasn´t shown any creativity. And Götze doesn´t get the ball where he needs it (at his feet, running), so maybe Götze goes to a wing and Gomez comes in some time (for Draxler) and I think Schweinsteiger could come in earlier (60th?) to get minutes and because of Khedira´s early foul trouble.

I think Jogi Löw would be okay with a draw, as it basically secures entry to the knockout-rounds.

HA, what a chance for Milik!

 

[Dollar]

Wow, how did he miss that one?

 

[OCST]

Poland almost scores (should have scored) :25 into the second half.

 

[Kliq]

A striker of Lewandowski's ability has to bury that chance, clear path at the net and he slowed down allowing Boaeteng to challenge him.