ReiseReise

Those are great fun, unfortunately there is a number of idiots on both sides and quite an amount of police brutality that comes with those. While I'm happy with St.Pauli avoiding to go down, 32 Points probably won't be enough next year. We had a great defense, allowing only Bayern to conceed less. But our offense was the worst, 28 Goals in 34 games. Especially our home game Points tally tally is shocking. Next year we better improve. My adopted-home-city Club of Kiel went down as expected, although they put in a valliant effort. I hope they didn't overextend, but I thought they were a great addition for the league.

https://youtu.be/C7PSY7KYThk?si=qonJDfQs9YuvPkDW Thirty years have gone, this ist still one of most outrageous things I ever saw in a football stadium.

Just when I was 100% Sure Football can't disappoint me more than it manages on a regular basis...Klopp going Sith-Lord...

Lots of things happening. Former Ozeki handed in his papers after dropping out after two days. Injuries caught up to him, at 28 years. Good, but very short career, hopefully he will get his health back. He will stay in Sumo, first as an assistant Coach, then as an elder since he already owns elder stock. Onosato wins his second Yusho in his fifth top Division Yusho. He will probably be an Ozeki in November.

I actually think Orton is a fantastic pro wrestler period. The thing better about late stage Orton seems to be his behaviour. I can totally see what people might not like about the Match, but for me, this was a very classical wrestling match were every move looked like a struggle and meant something. I will disagree that Gunthers biggest strength is hitting hard and wailing away. His biggest strength is that he knows how to make stuff mean a lot in the context of a wrestling match. Orton is the same.

That was great fun to watch. Good German Postshow Promo from Gunther. He basically said when he was wrestling in Germany together with his friend (Kaiser), WWE called asking him to "get something started." He said OK, but also said he wanted to stay in Germany, because it was always important to him to build something in Europe. HHH told him he can understand, but to build something, first you should become somebody. Gunther closed by basically saying: "I guess I've become somebody."

I always thought Bam Bam appeared softer after switching babyface and for whatever reason, they didn't go with the logical thing of him bulldozing over the lower tier Million Dollar Corp (IRS, Volkoff, Kama) guys until he clashes with Sid or maybe former Tag Team partner Tatanka. Instead he was a 400 lbs Face in Peril in the one match I remember him having with DiBiases Crew.

I think England dealt quite well with those wingers. It's crazy how good Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams are at their age, but Walker and Shaw controlled them for about 95% of the Match, even when England were pushing for the equalizer. Having said that, both Guys were integral to Spain's goals. Just shows you how good they are. The Spaniards will be the team to beat over the next few years, judging by this tournament and their players.

I would be cool with two outcomes of the final... Scenario one: Southgate does his thing with his chosen players and England win the damned thing, grinding out a result. Scenario two: Southgate gives in to all the critics (those I've heard at least), changes around all his personell and England decide to take a positive, offense-minded approach. They go down by five goals at half time being thoroughly outclassed. Southgate corrects everything in the second half, Kane scores a hattrick in the second half ending the score at 5-3 Spain. A pissed Off Southgate tells the Press that "this IS what happens when you try FIFA-videogame-shit in real life."

A friend of mine conflated the very real death of Kerry von Erich (He Said "Texas Tornado") with a beatdown angle from Taker. He was convinced Taker had killed Kerry, putting him in a bodybag etc. In hindsight this sounds horrible, but nobody over here knew it was a suicide. Also, the timelines probably never added up, but he was convinced. I still found it odd since Wrestling "was a show and they didn't Hurt each other for real", so this never made sense to me.

I have to say I have rarely been so gutted by a football result of a German team. While there is of course the semi-final loss to Italy of 2006, but back then it felt more as if our team was outclassed. This time, Germany was at least on the same level and I would argue had the better chances. Spain are a great team though. England are an enigma to me. When they had to, they looked world class for about ten minutes, then they went Back to administration mode WHILE THE GAME WAS STILL TIED AT 1-1. I just don't get it.

I think the players, outside a few exceptions, can keep up / improve over the next 4-5 years, simply because they are still around the best footballing age. There are tons of factors we can't predict, though, and I agree Arnautovic is going to be a big loss. Keeping my fingers crossed for you, Robert. International football is always more fun if your team is capable and in the mix. Although I get a kick out of the DFB team under Ribbeck, it was always more fun when you thought it was possible to go deep in the tournament.

Don't be to discouraged, they 100% underestimated Türkiye and had some really bad luck. Nine out of ten matches who go like the one yesterday Austria would win even if both goals are conceeded, they had like a bazillion great chances. Austria is still a team with lots of potential. If they take the right lessons out of this campaign they can have another two, three really good campaigns in major tournaments, I think.

Cristiano virtually having a complete breakdown after missing the pen in extra time was something. He used to be a insurance policy for Portugal, yesterday he looked like a liability.

I can totally see that, actually. Always came across as a bit of a prick. I thought at first that he tried to emulate the WWF / WWE hype man role in German, but once the US commentary became available, I learned that there was a difference. Never went back, even with how bad it got.

Zapf was the likeable of the two guys, I will always love him calling every dive to the outside a "flip", and he was making Schaefer angry sometimes while not even giving a damn.

The scenario of Kimmich VS Williams frightens me. I have no idea how we are going to stop Spain's wingers. On the other hand, Spain was vulnerable at both fullback positions aswell. Kudos to Georgia, their match plan was well executed, Spain were just way better.

I thought this Austrian site could be one of those overhyped dark horse teams, but they actually are very good. Looked on par against France, dominated Poland. Only saw highlights of Austria v Netherlands, but they looked really good in those. The brackets look comedically imbalanced namewise, but I do think the presumably weaker side of the bracket has teams bringing on the heat actually. Two days without matches is going to be tough, though.

I actually kinda like England and after "my" teams I'm okay with them winning. That being said, they were really underwhelming, yet somehow are on a side of the tournament table where they are favourites to get through to the final, probably. Germany vs Denmark... Denmark historically trouble us in big tournaments, although we won the last time (2012). Hope we don't underestimate those guys.

As expected Hungary were tougher opposition. Germans looked shaky on the wings when Hungary attacked with pace sometimes which could be an issue playing teams like France and England. But there is also lots of positive, lots of strong players up front who seem good to great in one on one situations, something our teams were always missing in the past. They weren't perfect today, but they didn't need to be. They still have room to grow, yet they have 7-1 goals and six points and should basically be safe in the knockouts. With homefield advantage, they might actually have the outside shot at winning this some people assumed they would have. It may help that Germany perform better than they did over the last three tournaments, but even the other matches are mostly fun to watch. I have mostly seen first halves of the evening games while training Cardio, but the footie seems good, games are competitive and the atmosphere is crazy. Some great goals aswell. So far, if you don't know what to check out, go for the highlights of Türkiye vs Georgia.

I would even add EURO 2004 to the list, England were really good back then and could have won that tournament. Although it was not their home advantage, they had a really good team and the path to the title seemed manageable.

Red was the right decision, although I don't think there was intent. I watched the first half on the treadmill and it was pretty much one way and one way only with well worked goals, I reserve judgement for the next two games though. Füllkrug's goal was a fine strike.

Men's Semis are Alcaraz v Sinner (seems like a final) and Ruud v Zverev. I would say Alcaraz is the absolute favourite, but that might be Spain on sand clichée.

I will blame you for jinxing my guy. Onosato looking impressive and earns himself his first Yusho in his third Makuuchi Basho. He may be on an Ozeki run...

. Honestly, Orton vs Gunther was one of the best matches I've seen in years. Botched finish, acknowledged as a controversial call, gives Orton an out, albeit a mini-out. But the way they worked was just perfect, involving the crowd at the right points with both guys playing their part perfectly. Gunther's short promo was really good. King General for the win! I will never understand how WWE got behind Liv the way they did. Good for her though. Logan Paul is an amazing athlete, but what really makes him stand out is his personality. He has the mannerisms down aswell. The match between him and Cody was just right. I don't think Nia has gotten significantly better since her first push. And Lyra Valkerie hasn't done anything to convince me she is above NXT level right now. That being said, the match was fine and a really great and great looking finish. It's weird how different the Saudi shows are from how they went down at first. Remember when the first few rows were filled with beduines?