Euro 2016: Championship Game - Portugal vs. France, 3:00pm EDT, ESPN
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
The time to reset play after a goal is a big one. It can take over a minute to get going again, which is a huge deal if it's late in the game. That should be factored in.
I don't think it's necessary for them to go to a countdown clock (that might eliminate last-minute chances) but they do need to redefine what constitutes stoppage time.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Jebus that was close
Someone put this tournament out of its misery.
Portugal needs to take it in 0-0 PKs. Nothing would sum things up more perfectly than a third place team without their star player beating the hosts.
I'm not a big soccer guy but u am watching and I hope Portugal loses cause fuck sitting back... Even if it is the best strategy for them
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
that accelerating clap is an old European tradition. I first heard it at an organ concert in a Budapest church--it's how the crowd asked for an encore.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Apparently, those familiar with Sissoko over the past year share my disbelief in what he's shown in the Eurosl.
Great goal by Eder
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
I don't know if there is a sport in which the final score is so little indicative of the actual game than soccer. This game is total garbage--refs pretty much just handed it to Portugal.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
How did the refs hand them the game?
The hand ball was absolutely BULLSHIT. But they didn't score off of that.
Put the ball on that side of the field. It was the next sequence after the handball.
All sports have a bad call that may move the ball...you still have to stop them.
It wasn't a direct result of a goal. Just because the ball happened to be on the France end doesn't mean they were at some big time disadvantage. It's soccer, you have to defend you end of the field.
It's like a ref gives a bad spot and a first down at the 45 and you blaming them because the other team ran the ball down your throat and scored a touchdown on the same drive.
One could argue that the bigger injustice on that play was that Koscielny was given a yellow card in addition to the phantom handball, which would mean, in theory, that he couldn't defend as aggressively. He was then marking Eder when Eder scored.
Having said that, you really shouldn't give up a goal on such a long-range shot. Lloris had a great game otherwise but I don't think he should have let that one get through.
JUSTICE!!! Newcastle gets paid. France loses.
No surprise. Portugal is battle tested. They took out Iceland, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Poland and Wales to get here. Hell of a run.
Got outplayed 119.5 minutes out of 120, and they're "battle tested"? The hell kind of sport is this?
Portugal hasn't gotten outplayed for 119.5 minutes, they've been hanging back intentionally. I hate parking the bus as much as the next guy, but it's a successful tactic. This is all on France for failing to capitalize on their chances.
The real masters of controlling a game without possession of the ball is Italy.
This is a chess match.
They "hung back" just so they could put in a garbage goal in extra time?
Sure. That's exactly what they were doing.
No one in any sport ever has decided "You know what? I don't think we should score, let's just try to wait until it happens."
Clearly you don't watch Michigan vs. Penn State 2014.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
You let an opponent over-commit and take advantage of tired legs on a counter attack. Downvote all you like, it's a legit tactic. The US did pretty well with it in Japan/Korea. It's what lesser teams do to negate a superior team's advantages. Soak up pressure, and then counter. Just like that, garbage goal or not, you're winning.
You don't trade punches with a guy who is bigger, stronger, and has an iron jaw. That's just stupid.
You hang back until extra time? You risk not getting a chance and having the game essentially go into coin-flips in PKs?
I'm sorry. This isn't rope-a-dope. There isn't a single reasonable explanation for why a team would willingly into the 110th minute still scoreless game as a strategy to take advantage of "tired legs."
Sport with a ball happening in real time at running speed =/= a board game.
Even if you're stronger, it's still a workable strategy. Italy's been winning cups that way for decades.
It's not easy to score against an organized defense packed into their own end. You need to find some way to get them stretched out of shape, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to invite them onto you. You think of chess; I think of judo.
kendo here actually.
Was this your first soccer match?
I honestly don't think the US is ever going to win a World Cup. Not in a century. There are too many people here that think it's unmanly to do what's necessary to win a match, would rather be "on the front foot" and "positive" and all that crap than bear the shame of being "pragmatic" and lifting a trophy. We're fucking England, but with a smaller pool of talent.
I would rather lose 5-4 than 0-0 and 3-4 in PKs. If the US ever had a version of the Entertainers, soccer would truly take off.
A lot of other people here prefer losing 5-4, too. That's why we're what we are and why it isn't going to change.
The kind where #4 and #6 are playing each other in the final because of the new format and a technicality penalty against Germany.
France is #4? Who are the three that would be higher-ranked? Germany, maybe. Who else? Italy?
Germany, Italy, Spain, though Spain didn't play with the necessary urgency to win against Croatia and that cost them.
Croatia was better than Portugal.
I honestly don't get the France love. They were incredibly poor in the group stages, played one good game against Iceland and then got outplayed by Germany until the ref decided that he was going to give a technicality penalty after denying two to Germany.
Spain lost twice in four matches - there is no plausible argument for them in the top three.
Italy lost to Ireland and looked worse against Germany than France did, if anything. They conceded a goal and didn't create much offensively before they got the handball and didn't do much after.
As for the France-Germany match, let's not forget that the final was 2-0 - France put in an insurance goal in the second half while keeping Germany off the scoreboard. Germany controlled play in the first half, but not necessarily in the second.
Spain outplayed Croatia thoroughly and then got hit by a late goal. They then played Italy.
Italy lost to Ireland because they were already through as group winners and didn't take the game seriously. They went out to Germany.
France didn't play a serious team until they faced Germany, got played off the park for 45 minutes, got their cheap penalty which changed the game and then lost to Portugal.
We'll disagree because you seem to think France is really good for reasons I don't understand, but I think if you put any of those three teams on a neutral field vs. France they win. Croatia would probably have played them about even as well.
The 24 team tournament was a poor idea.