2015/16 Soccer Thread

slazev wrote:

Is Russia the worst team in this tournament? They were bad, so bad.
And Wales was good, so good.

I'm looking forward for Spain x Croatia.
I'm hoping for a great match.

Depends really if Modric is healthy. I haven't seen enough of them but apparently Croatia is night and day when Modric is pulling the strings which isn't surprising.

Really weird that the only team England beat is the team that topped their group. Happy for both teams. Hoping the Three Lions can find some chemistry and do something in the knock out rounds.

Crap. Won't be able to see the game tomorrow. Maybe that's for the best.

USA - Argentina tonight! 8pm Central, here in H-Town!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

USA - Argentina tonight! 8pm Central, here in H-Town!

That's going to be a fun game to watch!

The Germans are pummeling the Northern Irish right now. It's 1-0, but McGovern has made four really good saves and Muller has hit both the post and the bar. Possession percentage figures put Germany in the high 70s range.

At 1-0 the Irish have a neutral goal difference, which could be enough to put them through as a third place team, depending on other results.

85 minutes gone and this should be five or six nil to the Germans by now, but McGovern is having a world class day in goal - a clutch of really, really good saves.

3rd place Slovakia is through.
I don't think Albania has much chance with a -2 GD.

Sign a player who plays in the strongest positions in the squad, why not?

Edit: Apparently Nolito has a £13.8m release clause in which case I guess, "why not."

Nolito was previously at Barcelona while Pep was there, so I guess he knows enough about him. City currently only have 2 functioning forwards (Bony will be gone by the time the next season kicks off), and Itchy is only 19 and may miss the start of the season if he ends up going to the Olympics with Nigeria, so some cover/options would be nice. Particularly if Sergio comes back from the Copa America fatigued or injured.

Besides, I'd rather pay £13.8m for a Spanish international than £30m for Troy Deeney, for crying out loud. I'd almost say I'd rather have Wilfred Bony, but I wouldn't, really. Still, if anything shows that too much money isn't necessarily a source of wisdom, then that's it.

Now £11m for Wanyama, that's a good deal. Pity it's Spurs who made it, though.

slazev wrote:

Crap. Won't be able to see the game tomorrow. Maybe that's for the best.

Argh missed the game also.

Spain now has to play Italy already. ;D

Croatia beats Spain to win their group and put Spain and Italy together in the first knockout round. Turkey's win over the Czechs also confirms Northern Ireland will be through, meaning all three home nations made it through the group stages. Fantastic stuff!

Mr Bismarck wrote:

Croatia beats Spain to win their group and put Spain and Italy together in the first knockout round. Turkey's win over the Czechs also confirms Northern Ireland will be through, meaning all three home nations made it through the group stages. Fantastic stuff!

Looking at the bracket the Croatia win also means they avoid Germany in the quarters.

Massive. They now potentially play Poland/Swiss instead.

Well done, Croatia. Who needs Modric? (Everyone, eheh.)
Pjaca showed some skills with the ball. It's Piqué and Ramos defending, but still.
With this, we'll have a Spain x Italy.

Turkey helped Northern Ireland go through too!

Portugal will go through with just a tie. So sad if this happens... So much worse if they lose.
On the other hand, if they win, they'll avoid Spain, Germany, Italy, France and England.
A gamut of emotions.

Irish fans being good fun.

davet010 wrote:

Now £11m for Wanyama, that's a good deal. Pity it's Spurs who made it, though.

Wanyama is great for 11m... as cover. Surprised another team didn't come in for him at that price.

I'm not convinced by him and wasn't upset when Arsenal never signed him for the absurd numbers being punted around.

I think the problem in signing guys of his level sometimes is that you can only have a certain # in your squad. If the guy isn't top 4 class you have to really question is it worth it then.

Hey Ronaldo.... Messi is cementing his case for being better than you (he is) right now over in the US of A.

What a f*cking goal.

That goal was incredible!

slazev wrote:

Crap. Won't be able to see the game tomorrow. Maybe that's for the best.

I'm onsite at a client.
When I went to lunch, I saw so many cases of beer and tremoços and peanuts, even a warning in the fridge to open it slowly. Everyone is going to watch the game.
Yay! (It might turn into a nay depending on the result.)

Just been told by a friend that we are now garunteed a team in the final who has never won the Euros before. Best bet is on Croatia, I'd say!

Yeah I think it's pretty cool that there may be a chance for a team to make it that hasn't gotten this far..ever.

Lol.

Iceland bumped Portugal to third.

Not sure what that means quite yet for the bracket.

Instead of England Croatia or Germany.

Edit: if wiki is right looks like Portugal vs Croatia.

I ended up streaming both games, side-by-side and while the Portugal-Hungary game was bananas, the tension in the Iceland-Austria game was incredible. By the last five minutes the Iceland players were out on their feet, running on fumes and muscle memory and desperately holding on.

Then the Austrian goalie came up for a corner and when that led to a throw in the Goalie went back but no one else did. So when the ball broke to Iceland it was suddenly three of them and one Austrian running back toward a completely exposed Goalie and the ref blew his whistle almost the second the ball hit the net.

Wales were the smallest nation to win a game at the Euros for five days before they lost that to Northern Ireland. The Irish got to hold the title for six days.

Iceland dealt with the Netherlands in Qualifying and didn't lose a group game, but if England fail to find a way to beat them we should just burn the FA down and start again.

So is Iceland going to be this year's Greece from 2004?

No team on Earth can be as undeserving of a tournament victory as that team. The veritable kings of anti-football.

Conte shows that he fails to learn the lesson from Roy Hodgson...make loads of changes, get beaten by an Ireland side who were utterly abject against Belgium, get a last 16 game against Spain and lose all momentum.

Bet Chelsea fans are really bricking it now.

You make it sound like Italy had a choice not to play against Spain.

Hungary x Portugal.
That was something. Bad defending for both sides. Beautiful goals. Lousy last 10 minutes where both teams wanted the draw.
Portugal's manager wanted to play against the title contenders before the final. The man's got balls and plenty of stupidity on his lil' head. Iceland had to kind of save us right at the end. Kind of, because Croatia is one of the better teams so far and I'm not hopeful against them. But, should they go through, it's not a bad side of the knockout stage to be in.
I'm just hoping against all hope that after 3 lousy games he can use the correct midfielders instead of using 3 (plus Ronaldo) out of position.

On the bright side for Portugal, if they get their act together, is they do end up on the easier side of the knockout rounds. I was hoping Iceland wouldn't end up in the side with Germany, Italy/Spain, and France.

Chile scores against Colombia in the 7th and 11th minutes! They are making strong statements during these knock-out games.

Same final as last year. Argentina already beat them in the groups stage.

slazev wrote:

Same final as last year. Argentina already beat them in the groups stage.

2-1 without even playing Messi, although with Di Maria, who has been injured.

Still, that was the first game of the tournament, and Chile have definitely improved since then. Both teams have. I expect Argentina to win, but I won't be surprised at all to see Chile hanging with them. Those guys are warriors. I find them more admirable as a whole than I do La Albiceleste.

Speaking of rematches - the third place game is also a rematch from the first round of group games. Pretty random. I didn't feel Colombia beat us in convincing fashion (one corner kick and one penalty), and I don't think they've been terribly impressive during this tournament. James and Cuadrado have it in them to be excellent, but they haven't really been so far. This is the match-up I was hoping for, and I think the US has a good chance here.

A rematch against Colombia definitely gives the USMNT a chance to show whether they've grown in this tournament or not.

I'm less optimistic than Fed, but would love for us to pull off an upset - or at the very least, push Colombia into extra time (I know it went directly to PKs in earlier rounds, but think there's extra time in the third-place / final games).

There's definitely extra time in the final. I assume it's the same in ours.