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The way Germany played the tournament so far I could have seen them losing this match, but Portugal hasn´t looked as if they could score four against any team this tournament. Big thumbs up for the U21 from Portugal. Because of numerous complications, I missed the first half, came back at the start of the second and saw a Portuguese goal right away, which was defended horribly by the German team, so I can´t really say anything about the game.

Does he? I didn´t see any news about this, at least not from reliable sources. Well, tbh, nothing regarding Diego is a reliable source, not even Maradonna himself.

France vs Germany was probably a good game, I watched a little through black-red-gold glasses though and therefore it was way more exhausting than entertaining. The French Ladies had a great first half and should have probably been up by one or two goals. Especially the wingers were crazy good and they had great passing for most of the match. On the contrary, our team had a really rough day in that regard, losing possession quickly and sometimes in really dumb fashion. A mix of French inability and good goalkeeping aswell as strong hustling from the fullbacks Kemme (who was outstanding) and Maier aswell as the CBs Krahn (also with a great game) and Peter helped Germany shutting out France in the first half. The midfield however I was really disappointed with for the first 45 minutes. The second half we got back into the game to what seemed nothing but will and determination, the French didn´t dominate midfield like they did before and it took a lot more effort for them to create less chances. The goal came pretty much out of nowhere, when it looked like the Gerwomen had gained control of the match and were getting more and more threatening up front. Too bad for Peter, Bartusiak´s replacement (banned after two yellow cards), That she headed the ball back into the middle in what I´d consider a lapse of concentration, than hustled back into the play only to deflect the ball, leaving Angerer no chance to make a safe. Not sure if Necib´s shot would have hit the back of the net otherwise. I liked how the team fought back afterwards, although it still had some real trouble creating real chances up front and the passing still seemed subpar. The PK call looked like a bad one in real time, but in slow motion I thought it could have been called, although I wouldn´t have complained if the ref had missed it. Sasic took the very late penalty in a fantastic fashion, well placed, good power and even fooling the gk. France seemed rattled, yet still managed to get a fantastic chance when they missed an open net shortly before extra time. Overall it was a great back and forth match and nobody over here would have complained about the French team advancing. After a rough campaign start they had a great tournament and went out after a good penalty shootout. Yeah, the Lavogez pk was a sloppy one, but nine others were well taken (Necib for France and Sasic for Germany with the best spotkicks I´d say) and usually, in great shootouts, there is the one bad kick that determines winner and looser. In recent time, men´s pk shootouts often had numerous bad PKs, actually. Tried to, but didn´t manage to stay awake for the US vs China. First 15 minutes or so I watched, I recall USA looking pretty good and Rodriguez looked better up front than Wambach did against Columbia. She was way more mobile and should have scored with the first attack of the game. Well, then I fell asleep and had to watch the highlights, from which I gather than China didn´t really create anything remotely thratening to Hope Solo´s goal. It will be interesting to see this semi-final. The USWNT so far has done the job. It didn´t always look great and they didn´t win big, but they won and won against tough opponents. I have no real idea how strong they really are, they seem to have trouble making plays, but they have some great physicality and somehow are always able to slip through a goal. They didn´t seem as quick and as great with their passing plays, though, as France did, so they might be a better suited opponent for our team, but I´m really not sure about that.

So Blatter apparently reminded everyone that he hasn´t resigned yet and seems to be evaluating his options. Good for him, I guess? Meanwhile, Liberian FA-president Bility starts throwing himself into the mix of potential Blatter-successors. Since the African confed has the biggest amount of votes, he might have a pretty good shot if he is able to get Asia to vote for him aswell.

U21 EURO Group stages done today.Watched booth games at the same time, so I caught glimpses of both, England´s 1-3 loss against Italy and Portugal drawing Sweden with one goal each. England and Portugal respectively gained control of the game early. But while Portugal simply couldn´t score, England found themselves two goals down within 120 seconds, Belotti (25th) and Benassi (27th) scoring for the U21 EURO-record-winners. Italy played a clever match afterwards, England had a few chances to at least pull one back, but they were off target numerous times. With Italy´s third - Benassi scoring again in the 72nd with a header - the match was done, but to the Young Lions´ credit, they put in a shift and pulled back one very late - and very nice - goal. This meant England were out and Italy had to hope for Portugal´s or Sweden´s help. After Portugal dominating the first 20 minutes, they kind of lost grip. Especially in the second half Sweden was the team coming out swinging and having a few good opportunities. After a very late injury for one of Sweden´s centerbacks, the Scandinavians defence seemed disorganized for a few minutes. Portugal used this to score in the 82nd minute after a nice dribbling and shot from Paciencia. Sweden desperately pushed afterwards to get their foothold back into the semi-final and did so: After two good shooting positions, a long ball found his way to the same defender who had been beaten in the dribble who headed it to Tibbling, who with a lot of luck and a deflection equalized in the 89th. Afterwards, both teams seemed to settle for the draw, knowing it would put both teams through. This will probably not sit well with the Italians, and it felt fishy to see a solid defense like the Portuguese giving up chances like that, but this is the same team that came back last minute against France in the play off, so I guess they have some sort of Fergie spirits. Anyway, this means: U21 EURO semi-finals: Denmark vs Sweden Portugal vs Germany This also means that Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and Germany will be part of the Olympic Footie tourney in 2016.

Is this legit or shopped? Nobody can be THAT grammar-ignorant! So Japan advances and makes the European qualifier for the last Summer Olympics spot reality by eliminating the Dutch. Second Japanese goal was a fantastic strike. The Dutch goal was a an awful howler om behalf of the Japanese gk. Maybe Japan are the real deal, they just seem to beat everyone, playing teams that were considered weaker, but always seem quite in control. It will be very interesting, quarters being played on from Friday on with Germany and France opening the final 8. Australia vs Japan is going to be interesting.

Denmark wins U21 EURO´s group A thanks to a 2-0 over Serbia, Germany runner up with a very shaky 1-1 draw against the host nation Czech Republic, not looking all that convincing, but getting the job done. Both teams secure their spots for Rio 2016. This marks the first time for a German team to parttake in the Men´s Olympic Football tournament since 1988. Already there is a problem on the horizon: Eight out of the 23 nominees for the EURO are going to be too old once the Rio-tourney comes around, Olympic rules only allow 3 players over 23 years, though. Czech Republic takes third place of the group, which would only help in any way should England win tomorrow and therefore advance to the semis. Both groups third place will face each other for the Olympic consolation price. In Group B, all the remaining teams battle for a semi final spot tomorrow. I typed a lot about this already, but I will definetly let you guys know how it all played out.

The schedule is so confusing to me. Japan plays Netherlands 4 a.m. CET or something, with all the other game already played. Is this still thanks to Canadian timezones or more a TV broadcasting thing? (Which would mean Japan will be watching the game noonish-early afternoonish, if I´´m correct) USA looked a little worrying after a good 12 to 15 minutes, but the very early sent-off in the second half followed by a quick goal basically decided the game. Columbia never gave up, but they were very rarely picking up the pace and thereby didn´t cause many problems.

That worst part about this is the German announcer trying to establish some sort of narrative which portrays the English manager as some sort of tactical genius. Kudos to the English players who came back after looking dead for about 2/3 of the game, but if this is a win of tactical superiority for the England manager, I should be coach in BPL somewhere. Because England´s "tactics" seemed to include defensive errors in quantity, relying on a good day for an otherwise shaky gk aswell as bad effiency on the opponents´ part and giving away a goal for free due to a substitution during a corner for the Norweginas. That second goal was a fine strike and since you have to apply a different set of standards for a - regularly - shorter female gk it was probably pretty hard to safe. The game itself was fun and a good example for what makes football an interesting sport more because of instead of despite the low amount of goals. Norway´s players will loose quite some sleep over both goals, since they defended quite badly and sat in firm control up until they scored, oddly enough. Canada vs England should be interesting,

Gotta pay for the luck of the draw in the group stages, I assume. At least there shouldn´t be a risk of underestimating any of the opposition. I had to go to bed after the first half of France vs Korea, but pretty much everything was done and dusted after that half. Timezones are going to be my downfall, but I really want to take a nap, then come back for Norway v England and the US game. Japan vs Netherlands I´m probably going to pass, despite being curious. Should the Netherlands loose, France, Germany would secure their spots in the Olympic Summer Games 2016 as UEFA representatives, while Norway could do so by beating England. Not sure what happens if Netherlands and Norway get eliminated, since England is not eligible for the tournament. I would think some kind of elimination tourney between the Swiss, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian team with the winner going through to the tournament. Anyway, let´s see how reality plays out.

France seems eager to add themselves back to the list after their dull start to the tournament. They would play Germany in the QFs, btw.

Am I the only one still watching? Anyway, Brazil eliminated by Australia. The only way this would count as an upset would be if you haven´t seen either team play this tournament. The match didn´t really deserve a winner, it was mostly played between the two boxes. Brazil got a little unlucky, striking the post on a Formiga header midway second half, but like in the games against Spain and South Korea, they didn´t really create much up front. Even when the two fullbacks got subbed off for more attacking players, it was basically just long balls hauled up front. The Australian goal came from a horriffic goalkeeper spill. I´m not even sure if this was the first serious attempt on target against the Brazilian team (I mean in total throughout the whole tournament), quickly followed up by the second one from shortly before subbed on Simon on the rebound, which found the back of the net. If Australia had more killer instinct and drive towards goal, they might have taken a lead even earlier, they were winning balls through pressing for the majority of the first and early second half, but seemed to be running out of the steam in the later stages of the match. Australia will meet the winner of Japan v Netherlands in the quarter final.

Very late goal gets England´s U21 the win over Sweden, who stopped doing anything on offense for the second half. Shame for the Tre Kronor, who should have at least taken a point today. Depending on Portugal´s result today, both teams might be in need of a win in their last group game.

Watching Women´s WC parallel to the U21 EUROs match of Germany and Denmark. Germany looked really good against Sweden so far. The Swedettes have been quite disappointing yet again, but were on the verge of scoring shortly before halftime. Good performance by the Gerwomen, who could have had a bigger lead. Second half will be interesting too watch, with Sweden having to attack more. Luckily the U21 match is done and I can concentrate on the Ladies now. Edit: Germany win 4-1 with an impressive performance against a disappointing Swedish team. Sweden looked to be on the verge of getting back into the game with a huge chance right after they scored the goal for 1-3, but overall Germany never looked in too much trouble. With performances like that, the Gerwomen can set claim to a role as favourites on winning the title. Still, it looks like you have to think from game to game so far, no team has been great in every match so far and I have a really hard time calling anything.

In what I consider a moderate surprise and a frightening event, the Czech U21 is stomping a mudhole in Serbia, beating them 4-0 with about 15 minutes to go. And I considered drawing the traditionally strong Serbs a good opening result for the German squad. Germany plays Denmark, who beat the Czechs 2-1 in their opening game, later on and even though I know football doesn´t work that way, I´m somewhat worried for our chances of at least making the semis and advancing to Rio 2016. I guess all the talk beforehand was typical German sports media arrogance, pointing out how strong the U21 was while totally ignoring the strengths of the other squads. EDIT: After a shaky first 15 minutes and one or two decent Danish chances, Germany took over the match. First they seemed to stabilize at the back, then passing got better and better. After quite a few "almost perfect" combinations, a well worked Volland goal broke the deathlock. The German U21 followed with a few more chances up until the half-time whistle, but couldn´t double the lead. After the break however, the team seemed to have learnt some lessons from watching the first Danish game (Denmark turned a 0-1 half-time deficit into a 2-1 win) and pushed on straight away. Two goals in quick succession decided the match: Volland scored a second from a wonderful free-kick, Ginter made it 3-0 with a nice header that was set up perfectly by Younes, who had a great day. The last half-hour of the match I watched parallel to the Women´s World Cup, so it was hard following, the match. Denmark had a few nice chances for a consolation goal, and Germany could have probably gotten a fourth or fifth here and there, but ultimately I´d say 3-0 is a just result. Germany and the Czech Republic have a chance to advance on their own merits, but they are playing each iother in their last group game. A point would be enough for the Germans, Czechs need a win. If Serbia and Denmark draw or Serbia beats Denmark by 6 goals or less, a draw would suffice for both, Germans and Czechs, to advance. If Denmark wins, the Czechs would need a win against Germany. It will be an interesting final matchday to say the least. Tomorrow will see England playing Sweden and Portugal vs Itally. A win for Sweden and Portugal would mean both teams advance. I hope to catch at least one of the games, preferably Sweden vs England.

0-0 draws and relying on pks perhaps? The one in the campaign opener was converted very well.

U21 first matchday done. The Danes beat the hosts Czech Republic coming back from a 0-1 half-time deficit by 2-1. Good start for the Danish team got even better when Germany and Serbia drew 1-1 in the evening game. It was a tough affair, the Serbs were strong on the breaks, but only rarely got through and Germany with a lot of possession without creating much. A great Emré Can goal equalized the tremendous solo run from Djuricic. Later in the second half, the German fullback Günter got sent off for being an idiot (diving, okay) after getting his second yellow. Next matchday will see Germany vs Denmark and the Serbs vs Czech Republic. Sweden scored somewhat of an upset by beating U21 EC-record holders Italy 2-1 after being down to ten men between the 28th and 80th minute. Good heart by the Scandinavians, although their second goal came from an apparently debatable pk. In the second game of the evening, England played Portugal. After a decent but goalless first half with a few good opportunities for England of shots from outside the box, the game got a little more dull in the second half. Portugal broke the deadlock around the hour-mark, and the Three Young Lions lost their track up until the last ten minutes when Pritchard came on and they got around to creating chances, but nothing big enough to really threaten Portugal´s lead. England will face of Sweden on Sunday, Portugal play Italy.

Sad that Costa Rica got eliminated. They were so much fun. Although I have to admit I missed out on their last game. I was just way too tired. Germany and Sweden compliment each other quite well. Sweden is physical and more leaning towards countering and set pieces. Germany is a team wanting the ball and trying to control it. It will be interesting to see if the Swedes will try to attack the ball in a more high presure manner. Sitting deep like they did against the US and partially against the Aussies looked like it could cause trouble against the Gerwomen. Most interesting Round of the Last 16 match to me besides this one has to be Norway v England. Also, if the Swiss are able to play like they did in the first half against Cameroon all match long, they have a serious shot at eliminating a seemingly pedestrian Canadian side. Brazil hasn´t shown anything that makes them odds on favourites against Australia in my book. Basically I´d say, there is no uninteresting game on paper as far as quality goes. All of the 16 teams seem to have a serious shot at advancing, judging by the way the respective teams played in the group stages. Looking forward to this - and feeling sad about the fact that there is a two day break now. Too used from the "matches every day up until the quarters" from the men´s mundial.

At least he left his stupidity on the pitch. The stars in this tournament don´t seem that much into it. Is this Brazil´s first loss since the World Cup? I remember talk about their unbeaten streak...

Showed up just in time, I reckon. Mexico is getting pummeled. England seems pretty much in charge aswell. Remember: GD and goals before direct matchup´s result as a tiebreaker, so if England manages to put a few more past the Columbians, they are still able to win the group. Same goes for Columbia should they be able to turn the match around. As of now Columbia would be among the top third place teams.

So Jack Warner says he is looking forward to face corruption charges in court. He is really the funniest and at the same time most infuriating person in all of this. Everything seems to have died down a lot, I really hope this isn´t going to slide under anyone´s radar so FIFA can go back to being its usual self. Which is probably going to happen anyway.

Arturo Vidal apparently arrested in Chile for driving under influence and being involved in a car collision. I guess two goals in a 3-3 draw against Mexico were enough to party like crazy.

Checking out the "who advances and plays whom in the process"-stuff on wiki and it´s a mess. From what I gather, a Germany v Sweden matchup in the Round of the last 16 is almost a done deal. Only thing preventin this would be Sweden dropping out of the best third place spots. Canada is definetly playing Switzerland from how I understood. Thailand is eliminated. Sweden could be if either Spain or Korea get a win aswell as Costa Rica beating Brazil goes down and France at least draws Mexico with England and Columbia drawing. This would put all remaining third places on four points meaning only Thailand had less than Sweden. Managed to get through the first half, but slept through the second. Not much was happening after the two goals in the first, to be fair.

I wouldn´t be too worried. USA will very likely at least draw Nigeria from what I´ve seen this tournament. Nigeria is by no means light work, but the US equals out their strength (physicality) and is probably better in tactical and technical departments. They seem to be in a good form aswell. The theoretical chance of them getting even in third place would be to loose by at least 2 goals, which I simply don´t see happening. USWNT look like strong candidates for the Gold this year, if I´d take into account all the games played up until now. They had trouble beating Australia, but those guys are strong opposition. It will be interesting to see if Sweden can beat them even...

Anyone going to check out the U21 European Championship, starting tomorrow? It serves as an Olympics qualifier for 2016 aswell. Group A Czech Republic (hosts) - Denmark Serbia - Germany Group B Italy - Sweden England - Portugal The semi-finalists will advance to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Should England make it to the final four, the two third placed teams in the respective groups will square off in a tie breaker for the fourth spot. Reason for this is the UK having a unified Olympic team which would mean the four respective F.A.s would have to nominate a team representing the UK. This didn´t happen and there we are.