Euro 2012 - Official Discussion Thread

[minionofmidas]

Okay.

Russia 9
Poland 4
Czech 2
Greece 1

Germany 7
Netherlands 5
Portugal 2
Denmark 1

Spain 7
Italy 5
Croatia 3
Ireland 1

France 5
England 4
Sweden 4
Ukraine 3

Russia < Netherlands
Germany > Poland
Spain > England
France < Italy

Netherlands < Spain
Germany < Italy

Spain ? Italy

[minionofmidas]

Czech Republic and Greece are both awful at the moment, and with a bit of luck Poland can definitely beat Russia. Poland has some terrific players (Lewandowski, Piszczek, Kuba, Szczesny) and with home field advantage I think they'll do well.

In 2008, Russia and Turkey got to the semifinals. In 2004, Greece won. Funny things can happen.

Heck, with all those Dortmunders there and the Bayern in the German team, I think I need to revise my quarterfinal prediction.

[minionofmidas]

Krakow not being picked as a host city... makes absolutely no sense to me.

This.

(But that would be a strange form of "protest" indeed.)

[minionofmidas]

Yech, mutual result outranks goal difference. Makes for more moot games.

Yes. I hate that dumbinks rule too.

[minionofmidas]

This means that Germany can knock out the Dutch by beating them in the next game!

I can just see it.

Denmark - Netherlands 1-0
Germany - Portugal 1-0

Germany - Netherlands 1-0
Portugal - Denmark 2-1

Portugal - Netherlands 2-1
Denmark - Germany 2-0

Denmark 6 4-2
Portugal 6 4-3
Germany 6 2-2
Netherlands 0 1-4

1992 Redux

(Yes, it works out in that order with the direct comparison rule as well.)

[minionofmidas]

Ballack predicted the same score line as I did!   He's the only non-dumbass on the ESPN set.

I am scared to think what kind of utter dumbinkses you must be comparing him with.

[minionofmidas]

Euro fun fact: Every team that ever got a penalty or a red card (only one of those, though) against it in a Euro final has ended up winning.

[minionofmidas]

And Italy score.

Excellent pass.

[minionofmidas]

Three points is dead, but I can still win two.

[minionofmidas]

Ooh, a second North African poster!

Great footwork from Buffon there.

[minionofmidas]

And the Academy Award goes to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n468msD5Oec

Disgraceful.


And excellent goal by St Ledger.

Words cannot be found to describe this... thing... of a post.

[minionofmidas]

And the Academy Award goes to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n468msD5Oec

Disgraceful.


And excellent goal by St Ledger.

Words cannot be found to describe this... thing... of a post.

Diving is the absolute worst thing about the sport, IMHO. Certain nations, cough, have seemed to refine that aspect of the game and turned it into an art form.  You would have thought there was a sniper in the stands.

That nation, in this tournament so far, being Ireland. On three or four occasions in the first half alone. Including the free kick that led to the St Ledger goal.

Meanwhile, that guy got a sole on the shoulder*. That happens to hurt. But not to cause injury (unless you fall stupidly and into the other guy, obviously). He also cost his own team a chance by not getting up as fast as he perhaps might have, and then had to be "treated" off the pitch due to silly regulations as a result.

[minionofmidas]

Lol, nice goal there, Shay.

[minionofmidas]

So he waited for the pain to subside before getting onto his feet and dusting himself off. Big effing deal. (He then got landed with bitch karma when his side won the ball back much faster than he must have expected.)
Anyways it's not the same thing as diving. He clearly didn't tumble over nothing to win a free kick, unlike certain other people, and he clearly didn't stay down and fake injury in order to gain time which is of course the other common complaint subsumed under diving.
(Though, obviously, I also doubt the literal truth of your claim. )

[minionofmidas]

Not really. Hits the ball as well as the man (and nothing whatsoever with the other foot.) Couldn't have complained too much if it had been given, though, either, and these things do get given often enough. Filed under "incompetent defending / attacker's cleverness" in that case. (Which of course is just pc for "understandable dive".)

[minionofmidas]

Already sort of doing that - could have fallen apart, but are instead fighting back fairly well in the last quarter of the game. And would deserve to get a 2-3 by now, actually.
"Intakte Moral" - is there an English equivalent to that phrase?

[minionofmidas]

In hilarious slightly related news, Tahiti (or French Polynesia) has defeated New Caledonia (who defeated New Zealand) to win the 2012 OFC Nations Cup, and will now be playing such teams as Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and whoever wins the Euro (France) at the 2013 Confederations Cup as a result.

Let's hope someone repeats that performance for the World Cup. I really want to see Vanuatu or the Solomon Islands there.

The Spanish-Italian rivalry is always interesting to hear about since it's taken quite seriously by those concerned and very little known or cared about in more northerly parts of Europe.

[minionofmidas]

Not as boring as I thought, though. Well the first half wasn't apparently - which I haven't seen.

[minionofmidas]

Eliminating Italy from the tournament is all in Ireland's hands now, and as we all know, Trapattoni has some experience when it comes to knocking Italy out of tournaments.

Spain's and Croatia's. But I guess they will no more miss the situation than Denmark and Sweden did eight(?) years ago. 2-2 draw and Italy are out.

Oh, and by my count a 4-3 (or 5-4 etc) for Denmark would see Denmark and Germany progress no matter what the Portuguese do. Can't they just abolish the damn stupid direct comparison rule already? It's not working.

[minionofmidas]

Nice rain.

[minionofmidas]

LOL, Jogi Löw is the best

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[minionofmidas]

Game to be reopened "not before 8pm" (local time; 7 here, 6 in England, 1 in NY.)

[minionofmidas]

Eliminating Italy from the tournament is all in Ireland's hands now, and as we all know, Trapattoni has some experience when it comes to knocking Italy out of tournaments.

Spain's and Croatia's. But I guess they will no more miss the situation than Denmark and Sweden did eight(?) years ago. 2-2 draw and Italy are out.

Oh, and by my count a 4-3 (or 5-4 etc) for Denmark would see Denmark and Germany progress no matter what the Portuguese do. Can't they just abolish the damn stupid direct comparison rule already? It's not working.

But it makes for such bizarre scenarios
And in fact only 3-2 is needed

In case of 3-2, the German and Portuguese result against the Netherlands would be compared as the de facto tiebreaker. There's no further direct comparison of just Germany and Portugal. (Not according to a literal reading of the official rule text, anyways.)

[minionofmidas]

I think Lewis is saying that a 3-2 win for Denmark would see both teams through (well, he said 4-3, but still).

And I remember watching that Sweden-Denmark game and it never felt particularly rigged.

To be precise: My recollection is that the game was played seriously, and was in fact a very good game, until the needed score happened to happen anyways, at which point all the players visibly ceased to care. (There was a single scoring opportunity after that and the player who wasted it pretty much tripped over laughing.) That, however, was in I think the 88th minute. This is what happens when a game is not rigged in advance but there exists an outcome that everybody likes. In the notorious case of Germany vs Austria, Gijón 1982, the needed score (Austrian win by one goal) came to be after 8 minutes...
Anyways, Italy played very badly against Bulgaria at the same time and only won 2-1, and actually would have been eliminated under normal rules as well. Though whether they would have played like that if they knew they needed to win by three - the normal rules - is a matter of conjecture, and is somewhat unlikely.


Denmark-Germany 3-2
Portugal-Netherlands 2-0

Denmark 6
Germany 6
Portugal 6
Netherlands 0

Spain-Croatia 2-2
Italy-Ireland ∞-0

Spain 5
Italy 5
Croatia 5
Ireland 0

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3 all, no decision; 2 all, no decision

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0 all, no decision; 0 all, no decision

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Denmark 5 and group winner, Germany 3, Portugal 3 - no decision between those two; Spain 3, Croatia 3 - no decision between those two, Italy 2 and eliminated

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Portugal +2, Germany +1. Germany eliminated. Spain +4, Croatia +2, Spain group winner.

[minionofmidas]

Haha, I just found it. There's some kind of circular by the UEFA, dated may 21st, on how it will interprete the rule, and that indeed states that the earlier steps are to be repeated if there's a partially-broken tie after step three. So 3-2 for Denmark would indeed see Germany through.