Page 270 - The Beautiful Game Thread

None of us qualified, so no trash talking


Sure does. A great result: any tournament needs these sort of results to keep 'em interesting. Holland v. Italy being another surprise, but not on the same scale. To be perfectly honest, I had thought that since Romania were being written off all the time, they could well cause a surprise, leaving the Dutch bottom of that group (what with their dodgy defence and loads of injuries).

Yea the Croatia/Germany match was kind of a suprise but only in the way Germany played. I really expected better of them.

They looked far better in the first game. I must admit I missed the first half of the Croatia game. Interesting that the two changes from Klinsmann's back five were the ones responsible for the goals (Jansen has replaced Friedrich and Lehmann has replaced Kahn).

An absolutely nonsense red card for Schweinsteiger though: a yellow card for a push and leave it at that.

The first half was kind of slow. It actually put me to sleep. I woke up just in time to see the first goal. And I agree on the red card. Overkill.

i saw the Germany/Poland game and they looked good in that. Today I only followed the game via Guardian UK blogger.

Ish, yah, yah you didn't qualify go cry in your beer. I live in Canada .... no Euro ever, one trip to WC in what '84? and we got no goals right?

Oh and Reading outclassed themselves near the end of the season, dropping fixtures left and right and got relegated.

I know not the joys of winning, though lived in a Portuguese area of Vancouver when Brazil won '94.

Don't get me wrong: we're not exactly used to qualifying for things ourselves: we've been to the Euros once, and that was in 1988 (when we did manage to beat England ). Just that there's little enough trash talking to be done when nobody's team is actually in it. I've been watching as many of the games as I can.

Having had two Spaniards working in my office for the last World Cup, I found myself supporting them for that tournament. I've decided to stick with that this time out too.

I'll say it's a toss up between them and the Dutch for the "just when things look bright they go horribly wrong football match award" don't you think?

And no, no offense at all, and none directed your way. Just a bit of fun is all.

I've got a friend covering the matches. He took Croatia in the game yesterday but only 'cause his wife is Croatian. So he looks smart and his wife will be happy when he gets home.

20 years and 1 day ago, to be precise, not that we'd bring that up at every opportunity, or anything, like ....

That's what makes them so much fun! You just can't tell when they'll totally collapse. There's little enough point picking one of the smaller teams, as your interest only lasts 3 games. The Spanish may implode at some point, but they *should* be still involved in a big game or two at the business end of the competition.


I want his job!

Too bad can't see it, content is blocked outside of UK it appears. I see the result at the top of the page though.