Euro 2012 Qualifiers

[minionofmidas]

Germany on normal service. Marginally stronger, cleverer side in a weakish, though not completely boring, game. And win 1-0 thanks to putting good use to a realyl stupid defensive mistake once.
Yawn.

[minionofmidas]

The Euro seems to have become a big deal only in the last 20 years or so.

Nope. Make that a 30.

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Yep.

   

[minionofmidas]

Well people here still call it "EM" (or "Europameisterschaft"), except for complete tools who might say "Euro". I'm pretty sure (though, hey, maybe I'm wrong) nobody called it "Euro" before UEFA started calling it that. Which was in 1996.

[minionofmidas]

I'm pretty sure (though, hey, maybe I'm wrong) nobody called it "Euro" before UEFA started calling it that. Which was in 1996.

snippety-do

Well, nobody here anyhow.

[minionofmidas]

Several funny results yesterday.

[minionofmidas]

Egad? You ended up actually hiring the creep!?

[minionofmidas]

Here is a cool video of the highlights of the Belgium adventure, with real ORF commentary !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiLSnNeBUFQ

Just the goals, actually.

[minionofmidas]

There have been back up plans in place for awhile. I think I remember reading Hungary and Germany might  host some games if this happens which would be interesting. Of course, the whole tournament should just move to Italy since they were supposed to get it anyway but no, we can't have that.

Bit unfair on Poland?

[minionofmidas]

There have been back up plans in place for awhile. I think I remember reading Hungary and Germany might  host some games if this happens which would be interesting. Of course, the whole tournament should just move to Italy since they were supposed to get it anyway but no, we can't have that.

Bit unfair on Poland?

No, no, no. Poland would still host as well. Germany and Hungary would split the games Ukraine was supposed to host. Not that I'd care if Poland was stripped of their hosting duties, too, especially if it meant more games in Germany. You guys know how to host tournaments. It would also give me a reason to actually visit the country instead of four hour layovers in Munich while en route to Italy.

I was commenting on the "move the whole tournament to Italy" thing. Btw, it's not as if Italy's stadia as of right now would satisfy the UEFA.
Though fwiw it's more likely that they'd move as many games as possible to Poland.

[minionofmidas]

Germany won. Somehow. Didn't deserve to.

[minionofmidas]

Germany won. Somehow. Didn't deserve to.

Germany always deserves to win football matches.

Nah, that's the Eintracht.

[minionofmidas]

Germany won. Somehow. Didn't deserve to.

Germany always deserves to win football matches.

Nah, that's the Eintracht.

Eintracht didn't do a good job of defending what's rightfully theirs then

Fucking disaster...

I'm visible in this shot from after the Cologne game.

 Top corner of the stands (center of the image in left-right terms), near a redheaded steward.

[minionofmidas]

I would, were that to happen to me.

[minionofmidas]

Also, of course...

Number of Frankfurt (including a non-Eintracht player in both 34 and 54) players in German World Cup squads vs the result.

1934 2 a third place that was considered a spectacular success
1938 0 disaster
1954 2 world cup win
1958 0 disappointment
1962 0 disappointment
1966 2 second place, and a controversial final
1970 1 third place
1974 2 world cup win
1978 1 disappointment
1982 0 second place, not exactly winning any sympathy at home or abroad
1986 1 second place
1990 1 (plus 1 returning to the club that summer) world cup win
1994 1 disappointment
1998 0 severe disappointment
2002 0 second place, not exactly deserved
2006 0 third place
2010 0 second place

Obvious correlation.

[minionofmidas]

You ought to at least correct to foreigner's Welsh orthography, Alun. These mistakes happen.

[minionofmidas]

And it was the score, for a few minutes. Then Germany scored in injury time again.

[minionofmidas]

What is Estonia?

[minionofmidas]

Deutsch sieht oft viel zufälliger aus. Auch wenn wir nicht ansatzweise so viele Ypsilons haben. Dafür haben wir so wunderschöne Nachnamen wie "Uhltzscht".

[minionofmidas]

A win there and the chances of getting best runner-up and qualify automatically would be very, very good.

Sorry to break the bad news but they aren't doing that anymore for the Euros. The group runners up now plays in a two legged playoff round like in World Cup qualifying.

Except for the best one. There's 9 groups and 14 places, what can they do?

[minionofmidas]

Results so far

Israel - Greece 0-1
Lithuania - Liechtenstein 0-0
Finland - Moldova 4-1
Andorra - Armenia 0-3
Azerbaijan - Belgium 1-1 !
and waiting on confirmation that
Russa - Macedonia 1-0
is indeed over.

[minionofmidas]

It tells me in German and English that it is available in Austria only, for "legal reasons".

[minionofmidas]

Now Kazakhstan has equalized against Turkey... hey, if that result stands I think it means Germany are officially through without any points against Austria, while Austria's campaign is suddenly alive again (if still on life support). Might make for a somewhat interesting game after all...

[minionofmidas]

Turkey re-ignites some of that excitement from Euro 2008 with that last minute goal. And ESPN says the goal came in the seventh minute of stoppage time. I smell some controversy with that one...

There were a red card for Turkey and two yellows for Kazakhstan during the preceding six minutes of stoppage time... I suppose that had something to do with it.

[minionofmidas]

Slovakia's one more game is tonight, against Armenia. Now... an Armenian away win... that'd make things seriously interesting at 17-15-14-14.
Armenia still play Ireland, after all.

[minionofmidas]

Just an observation going into the final day of the Group stage: while I support Belgium for the runner up spot and don't want to see Armenia get through Group B, the former has to be the least deserving team in contention for a playoff spot while the latter is probably to most deserving.

If you think Armenia is the most deserving team to go through, why don't you want them to?

Because he doesn't like it if small teams set up the established order. *shrugs*