Player2 said:
Wyrdness said:
Player2 said:
Regarding Greece's 2004 Euro I have a better theory: Ottmar Hitzfeld stole the three German traits and imbued the Greek team with them. If their defenders (and goalie) were so great all the big european teams would've tried to sign them.
Football isn't an exact science, you can score in a corner/freekick, play like trash for 89 minutes and still win.
I didn't want to believe it, but it seems to be true: Brazil began to change after their failures in the 82 and 86 World Cups and eventually fell to the dark side. Apparently now there's offensive and defensive football, and Brazil choosed the latter because it's the faster and easier way to win. That's why they have coaches like Scolari and Dunga and their midfield has been full of Paulinhos, Felipe Melos and Gilberto Silvas in the last ten years, meanwhile creative players had to give up and play for another country.
|
Problem with that theory is in practice it works in one or two matches but not in a whole tournament, Greece beat Portugal twice on their home ground, Czech Republic who were the second best team in the world at the time, France who were the holders and had the likes of Zidane, Viera, Henry etc... and held an upcoming Spanish side to a draw. They were playing strong football even if it wasn't attractive. |
So they defeated a bunch of teams that (at the time) had never won anything and France, which was a shadow of its former self despite the presence of overhyped Arsenal players (it was knocked out in the group stage of the previous WC and had lost key players like Djorkaeff and Deschamps (and other players were too old, like Desailly and Lizarazu)).
Czech Republic lost his star player due to a knee injury in the match against Greece, which supports my theory. |
The French team then was one of the strongest teams by far (Zidane, Viera, Makelele, Henry, Thuram, Trezaguet etc...) what are you on about? That same team reached the final of the WC 2 years later and the was only two or so Arsenal players and in regards to Henry and Viera they were world class, Holland has never won a WC does that take anything away from any team that beats them? No fact is like it or not Greece were the better team even if their football was negative, Nedved also got injured at the end of the match. The best football is not necessarily the most attractive.
