UEFA Euro 2020 Football Championship

Shadowyzard wrote: Well done Slovakia and Sweden. I'm especially happy that Spain couldn't win. By far, the most boring "big" European team for me. So much control, but hollow rather than with passion. Even Greece's defensive strategies are far more interesting for me.

I actually find it always very interesting to see Spain play. They play this very characteristic concept football, and I'm always curious how well it works out, why, or why not. The illusion of total control - how do they do it, how can the opponents spoil it, will they use it for their own good, and what if the opponents try the same thing? Deep questions of life treated here.   The players they now have on the pitch are surely not the grandmasters of the past (Iniesta was maybe never the best player of the planet, but surely for many years he was the one I loved most to watch, a true genius), but apprentices. For this style they make too many mistakes and often they don't think fast enough. I'm curious how fast they learn, or whether they ever will. Still on a good day they can shred a lesser team to pieces (as they've done with Germany not long ago).  Sweden had the two biggest chances in the game (which clearly shows that the concept didn't fully work out), but Spain had about six pretty good ones; a win would've been OK as well. It's not that generally I want Spain to win, still, they always put up something out of the ordinary, and I can appreciate this. 

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: Scotland created lots of changes, some pretty good, Czech scored 2 great goals, keeper should never get beaten from that far out on the second.

My initial reaction to the second goal was that Marshall would have been struggling to save that shot even if still on his line but having seen it played back (umpteen horrible times) I think yeah, brilliant piece of audacious skill but an international keeper should be saving that. The most annoying thing for me was that Schick aside, the Czech republic are bang average at best and were there for the taking. Once the Scots went behind and had to chase the game, we were always vulnerable to counter attacks (it could have finished 5 v 3 to the Czechs all told) Tierney was missed and Steve Clarke surely regrets playing Patterson at RWB and not starting with Che Adams up top to assist Dykes. It was, as I anticipated, route one 'Stoke' bollocks most of the time. I'm dreading the England game as I fear we might get a real slapping.

Shadowyzard wrote:   I laugh at the people who always say that playing offensively is more valuable than playing defensively.

...which, as you probably know, was totally not my point.

Well, maybe one can say the Spanish style alone won't win them tournaments, they need genius players on top of that, and it doesn't look like they have them this time (in 2018 those who were there were clearly past their prime, and I enjoyed Croatia tearing them apart as I had enjoyed Spain in their best days, say 2012 Euro final). But at least they have some style. Not many teams can claim that. 

And Germany do Spain's style without the style... 

OK that was against the world champions. One lucky point against Portugal and a 2-1 last minute win against Hungary is my plan to get out of the group.