[Mentalist]

So far, I've only had time to catch one game. England - Russia.

After first half, I thought England might be one of the strongest teams. Then half-time happened.

Dier's goal was a beauty. But Stirling pissed me off to no end because he wouldn't ever pass the goddamn ball.

Russia's equalizer was... upsetting. But a great header regardless.

Ukraine is playing Germany tomorrow. I'm all about UA, but realistically Germany and Belgium would be my favourites to win it all. I'm really hoping that UA can hold tight for a draw, because we still don't have a proper good striker- our strength comes from midfield, especially the wingers Yarmolenko and Konoplyanka.
I've got ton of Polish friends, and they're super-pumped, because Lewandowski and Milik have been playing top form.

[Gorefest]

There's a European cup tournament?

-disgruntled Dutchman-

[Binder of Demons]

I've found the games to be entertaining so far. How England managed to throw away that result is criminal. But, that seems to be the way of English teams over the years, and the management falls into the trap of playing star names rather than trusting the players best suited to play the system.

At this stage i can't remember which friendly game it was but England played without Rooney, and had Kane and Vardy in the same side and the England attack looked fantastic. Then next game, Rooney is back in, players get shuffled around, Vardy is dropped and the midfield and attack seems clumsy again. And yet the lesson from that was to stick with Rooney in the side, while playing him out of position? Weird. Since I watch so much English football, I kinda want the mto do well, but they don't half make it hard on themsleves.

The real tournament begins on Monday when Ireland kick off against Sweden, and our collection of nearly good players try their best to overachieve. I'm wondering if we have any actual World Class players in our squad at all, except for maybe Seamus Coleman? James MacCarthy has the potential to be excellent but hasn't really shown it, and Shane Long is very fast, and tough and will try all day for you (but isn't really prolific which is a problem for a striker). The rest are all very ordinary. We'll see how far organisation and effort can get us. Fingers crossed.

[Siergiej]

Only watched the France and England games. Romania surprised me with how well they held their ground against the Frenchmen. Their squad is mediocre, they don't really have much to show either in the back or in the front, but they were an extremely disciplined side. It took a touch of magic from Payet to break through. And kudos to Deschamps for taking Pogba off. Brave decision, had they drawn I think there would be ferment in the team because of that, but Deschamps proved he was right.

England game was the best one so far. After the first half I thought that the last time English played football like that you could only watch it in black and white. But yeah, halftime happened. Hodgson gets a lot of criticism for his subs (or lack thereof) and I agree, but Lallana... never understood what people see in him, he has nothing but speed. And yesterday he should have sealed the game in the first half, but his strikes were terrible. On the other hand, Dier and Delle Alli are fantastic. I doubt Tottenham will keep them for long, but they'll make some big bucks on selling them to City or Chelsea one day. Also, Rooney surprised me. Especially in first half he looked great in the middle.

Poland is playing today, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Our side looks decent on paper but it's similar or only slightly stronger than 4 years back when we had Euro on our soil and everyone was so pumped. UEFA even gave us the luckiest group draw possible, and we still ended up humiliated and left the tournament after 3 games without a single win.

[Mentalist]

First half impressions on Poland- good, but need more pressure in N. Ireland's half. NIR is playing long balls exclusively, so push on the person passing to disturb accuracy and try to get a turnover to release Leva. both Milik and Kapustka are great supporters, but there's not a whole lot of creativity, beyond "keep doing set pieces and hope Levandowski gets the ball"

[amphibian]

The breaking of a defensive team like NIR or Romania this early in a tournament is a very big ask to make of even higher level professionals who are coming together for the first time in a while.

That kind of complicated linked movement takes time to develop (probably see it by the end of the tournament in the last few teams left) or extraordinary star performances from the midfield in particular.

It's why Greece won the Euros a while ago and why the Euros in particular are vulnerable to that type of team (lower level teams can counter well the lack of talent with coordinated practices easily reached because Europe is small).

It's still easy to see how good Lewandowski is by how he moves and creates space for Milik and the others. Very, very high level player, but a pure forward and not a Messi or Cristiano type to start long runs from the midfield.

[Siergiej]

We win our opening game for the first time in 40+ years, so yay for that! Lewandowski, Kuba, Milik, Kapustka shown good performance but they were enabled by how poorly NIR played. They have nothing to offer beyond spirit and physical prowess and their kick and rush is a medieval form of football. The reform that increased the number of teams in Euro to 24 was a bad idea. I'd much rather see a competition for the top teams only than suffer through games of Albania or Northern Ireland, even if that means Poland missing Euro more often than not.

[Macros]

Have to agree.
I think Oniell got it wrong this time, you cant invite a team with Lewandowski in it on to you for 90 minutes and not expect to concede.
Raw stats should have dictated a more dari g start, at least with 2 out and out attackers. Poland scored 33 in qualifying, Lew 13 of those, sitting back and hopi g for dead ball situations will not work against that.
Ukraine game is massive now. Will be there

[Coltaine -]

Deserved victory for Poland.

Germany:Ukraine will be interesting I think.

Hummels and Schweinsteiger are missing. Götze instead of Gomez. Could be interesting. Not sure how good the defense will be without Hummels.

[Mentalist]

Well, fuck. Fuck Boateng, specifically. So. Much. "AAAARGH" when that happened.

The second one was totally unnecessary. Yeah, I get it, hooray for the German veteran getting his say against the underdog, but, no. Fuck that.

To be fair, ionno what Fomenko said @ half-time but UA phoned it in in second half. HARD. Our only opportunities in second half were Rakitskyy's (admittedly, perfectly placed) free kick, and that mistake where German d headed it to Neuer who was waaay out of position. Beyond that, we played like crap.

If UA can bring its first half top form, they have winning chances agoinst both NIR and Poland. But unless they want a freaking W, they may as well pack their bags home right now.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 13 June 2016 - 01:27 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

England were... well, England! So much hope and hype, then... disappointment!

If Wales do better than us, I will never hear the end of it...

[Macros]

Oh man. I would love a wales win.
Specifically a wales win without bale scoring, just to watch the english media explode.

[Gorefest]

Mentalist, on 13 June 2016 - 01:26 AM, said:

If UA can bring its first half top form, they have winning chances agoinst both NIR and Poland. But unless they want a freaking W, they may as well pack their bags home right now.

Don't forget that (I think) the first three teams go through from this first round, so you only need to keep N-Ireland under you. But if you can return to the level of the latter part of the first half, you should easily end 2nd in your group.

[Macros]

We're going to bring Healy back for the next two games.
Goals.galore, top of the group

[Gorefest]

Macros, on 13 June 2016 - 12:28 PM, said:

We're going to bring Healy back for the next two games.
Goals.galore, top of the group

How do you rate your chances after the Poland defeat? I know you guys came into the tournament on an impressive run (12 matches undefeated, or something like that?) but it is a bloody tough group to be in.

[Mentalist]

Gorefest, on 13 June 2016 - 10:44 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 13 June 2016 - 01:26 AM, said:

If UA can bring its first half top form, they have winning chances agoinst both NIR and Poland. But unless they want a freaking W, they may as well pack their bags home right now.

Don't forget that (I think) the first three teams go through from this first round, so you only need to keep N-Ireland under you. But if you can return to the level of the latter part of the first half, you should easily end 2nd in your group.

There's 6 groups, so math suggests top 4 3rd teams go through. So every game needs to be won.

[Tapper]

Mentalist, on 13 June 2016 - 01:26 AM, said:

Well, fuck. Fuck Boateng, specifically. So. Much. "AAAARGH" when that happened.

The second one was totally unnecessary. Yeah, I get it, hooray for the German veteran getting his say against the underdog, but, no. Fuck that.

To be fair, ionno what Fomenko said @ half-time but UA phoned it in in second half. HARD. Our only opportunities in second half were Rakitskyy's (admittedly, perfectly placed) free kick, and that mistake where German d headed it to Neuer who was waaay out of position. Beyond that, we played like crap.

If UA can bring its first half top form, they have winning chances agoinst both NIR and Poland. But unless they want a freaking W, they may as well pack their bags home right now.

To be fair, Germany seemed to bring their A-game, something they apparently haven't done for a while.

It is a small wonder your bright young talent behind the striker got the ball that much to begin with, but he found nice spaces regardless. Yarmolenko was good, but there seemed to be no tactical answer for Hector pushing up high apart from Yarmolenko tracking back all the way. Konoplyanka by contrast didn't track Höwedes much and instead cut inside, but seemed to always run into Khedira or Kroos there - staying wide would have provided an outlet and perhaps a 1-on-1 against Boateng?
Your striker disappeared completely and his replacement was even worse ([subjective rant]I don't care that Milevskiy has no movement, is nearly 95, has not served out a contract in ages and crashed all his cars, bringing a look-alike from the bench instead of the real thing was a let-down - that man had a beautiful first touch[/subjective rant]).

On the bright side: your dangers come from the flank, and I highly doubt Poland or NIR can force the UKR wings as far down the pitch like Germany did, or challenge the deep midfield as much. Question is more if you will play higher up the pitch against those teams - I wouldn't want to invite Lewandowski to enter the box often.

[Mentalist]

Tapper, on 13 June 2016 - 02:24 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 13 June 2016 - 01:26 AM, said:

Well, fuck. Fuck Boateng, specifically. So. Much. "AAAARGH" when that happened.

The second one was totally unnecessary. Yeah, I get it, hooray for the German veteran getting his say against the underdog, but, no. Fuck that.

To be fair, ionno what Fomenko said @ half-time but UA phoned it in in second half. HARD. Our only opportunities in second half were Rakitskyy's (admittedly, perfectly placed) free kick, and that mistake where German d headed it to Neuer who was waaay out of position. Beyond that, we played like crap.

If UA can bring its first half top form, they have winning chances agoinst both NIR and Poland. But unless they want a freaking W, they may as well pack their bags home right now.

To be fair, Germany seemed to bring their A-game, something they apparently haven't done for a while.

It is a small wonder your bright young talent behind the striker got the ball that much to begin with, but he found nice spaces regardless. Yarmolenko was good, but there seemed to be no tactical answer for Hector pushing up high apart from Yarmolenko tracking back all the way. Konoplyanka by contrast didn't track Höwedes much and instead cut inside, but seemed to always run into Khedira or Kroos there - staying wide would have provided an outlet and perhaps a 1-on-1 against Boateng?
Your striker disappeared completely and his replacement was even worse ([subjective rant]I don't care that Milevskiy has no movement, is nearly 95, has not served out a contract in ages and crashed all his cars, bringing a look-alike from the bench instead of the real thing was a let-down - that man had a beautiful first touch[/subjective rant]).

On the bright side: your dangers come from the flank, and I highly doubt Poland or NIR can force the UKR wings as far down the pitch like Germany did, or challenge the deep midfield as much. Question is more if you will play higher up the pitch against those teams - I wouldn't want to invite Lewandowski to enter the box often.

UA has no strikers. This comes from the fact that any club in Prem'yer Liha with any money buys a Brazillian striker. This dates back to the Shakhtar ascendancy in early 2000s. Goddamn oligarch owners showing off their money- "Brazilian striker" is a mark of prestige, same as a Lambo, or smth.

Zozulya is a pressure forward- literally all he's good for is forcing mistakes on D and trying to win breakaways.
Seleznyov is also garbage, but he's got the uncanny ability to find himself in the right place in the right time, for entirely wrong reasons--and scores a ton of flukes as a result.

I think at one point there were attempts to groom Yarmolenko into a striker--but due to the above mentioned domestic situation this was abandoned (b/c if he played winger on Dynamo, but striker on the national team, that'd just end poorly)

[Mentalist]

Saw the last 60 min of the Belgium-Italy game (right before the goal, basically)

Belgium were pretty lost when it came to creativity. They have a good roster and some real talent everywhere (including some phenomenal defending), but they were not a very cohesive team. Italy, otoh, played D almost perfectly, blocking off all avenues of shooting inside the box. Belgium had a few great chances they could not finish, but their D was sloppy and unorganized at times. A few times Courtois pulled them out, but not every time.

[Tiste Simeon]

Russia given suspended disqualification

Glad UEFA are taking this seriously!