The Euro 2012 thread

[Barozi]

lestatdark said:

Barozi said:

Wh0t Schürrle plays for Leverkusen.

Besides I wouldn't trust most of the Dortmund players either. There's simply not much reason for it. They play great for Dortmund, but mostly suck in the national team. This was Hummels best game by far, because usually he is the reason why Germany can't win with a clean sheet. Schmelzer plays equally bad
and Goetze had maybe two great games... out of 15.

And you know how those friendlies turn out when Löw experiments too much...


As for the game Germany was the unlucky one, not Portugal. Gomez scored a perfect goal, but the referee called a foul like 2 seconds before Gomez takes the shot. Ever heard of the advantage rule ?
Then the referee also denied us a clear red card. Fist into the face of Badstuber and no one can tell that this was an unintentional move. Not a very hard punch, but still easily enough for a red card.

Overall well deserved victory and at the same time still lots of room for improvements. Portugal only tried to score a goal after they were in behind starting in the ~80th minute. Before that they didn't have more chances than Germany.

Gomez only scored that because everyone just stopped playing after the referee signalled the fault, not only the portuguese players but also the rest of the german players, it was only Gomez who continued. That can hardly be called a "perfect goal", especially since it happened over 10 seconds after the referee signalled the fault, though I agree that he should have given the advantage rule given that the possession continued on Germany's side. 

As for that so called red card, that was an invonlutary move by Meireles, in which he immediatly addresses both the line referee and the german player because he saw what he did. That's hardly a case for a red card, otherwise, how many red cards would have Van Persie gotten on the previous game since he did at least three times against danish player.  

And Portugal only tried to score a goal after being behind? Who had the best chance in the first half? Was it not Portugal's with Pepe's shot against the crossbar? And starting the second half, we had 4 strikes in the first 15 minutes of the second half. If anything, Germany had much less chances on the second half than Portugal. 

Germany was more effective than Portugal, that I give you, but to say that Germany was more unlucky than Portugal, that's a downright lie. Two shots against the crossbar, one miraculous defense by Neuer when Varela was in front of him, a massive defense by Boateng which also left him down for a while against Ronaldo's chance. 

http://www.footytube.com/video/germany-portugal-jun09-120839?ref=hp_ozeit_mp

watch at 1:30
it's 2 seconds and the defenders even tried to stop Gomez albeit with not as much effort. Though I doubt that anyone had blocked his shot or that the goalie had saved that pretty well placed shot.

Therefore Portugal only had the second best chance in the first half.
Involuntary move my ass. He deserved to be banned from the UEFA afterwards. A shame you try to defend him. Makes me sick. (you not so much but the player)

No good videos for that yet but here some opinions from a live ticker:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/gamecast?id=334183&ref=espnfc&cc=5739
"That was naughty. Meireles and Badstuber were tussling for the ball in the corner when Meireles appears to have hit the German player in the face. Looks fairly deliberate on replays. Lucky man."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/euro-2012/9316039/Germany-v-Portugal-live.html
"Meireles and Badstuber tustle and the Portugal man is lucky that the ref didn't see that he slapped his German rival in the face. "

The second "shot" a the crossbar was not a goal opportunity. Just a failed cross attempt that fell on the crossbar. Chances were even til the 80th minute, then Portugal was forced to change something. Any other opportunities were poor anyway, so quantity doesn't matter much.