EURO 2024

[Robert S]

11 hours ago, Raziel said:

That exciting lad Own Goal is on pace to win the Golden Boot.

That's the only guy who has scored for la Grande Nation so far.

[Robert S]

Well, Mr. Own Goal scores the goal of the tournament (the 2-0 of Portugal against Turkey).

[odessasteps]

They need to bench CR7 just to keep the pitch invaders to a minimum. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

Oh boy...

 

[odessasteps]

So many draws 

[ReiseReise]

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. 

[Robert S]

I never thought that I would experience in my lifetime a KO-phase game at an international football tournament, where Austria might enter the game as a favorite, but here we are. Austrian coach Ralf Rangnick currently can do no wrong. Both before the Poland game as well as before the Netherlands game people thought Rangnick has lost his mind because of the changes he did in the starting line-up, but both times he was right. Against the Netherlands, he brought in Querfeld and Weimann, regarding both I would have bet money that they would not see one minute of play in this tournament unless it is in a game that is not completely meaningless for the further tournament, Weimann even more so than Querfeld.

[odessasteps]

 

[ReiseReise]

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. 

[Raziel]

ITALY DOWN!

 

The Swiss strike again. 

[SirFozzie]

Arrivederci, Azurri!

 

[odessasteps]

Hopp Suisse 

[SirFozzie]

https://x.com/beINSPORTSUSA/status/1807138524321431944/photo/1

 

GAWDDAMN that lightning(s) shot.

[odessasteps]

With Denmark eliminated, I can fully turn my rooting interest to Anyone But England.

[DangerMark]

The Thinking Person's choice.

[SirFozzie]

ABE fans in shambles.

 

Jude Bellingham 95th, and Harry Kane in extra time.

 

That's two shots on goal, two goals.

[DangerMark]

35 minutes ago, SirFozzie said:

ABE fans in shambles.

You say that, the true connoisseurs of ABE know that the further they get, the sweeter it'll be, especially because of all the teeth gnashing about Gareth Southgate who - lest we forget - is the only person to lead England's men to the finals of a major tournament since colour TV.

[SirFozzie]

Speaking of Shambles.. Spain losing to Georgia? I guess an $8 million bounty would be a motivating factor

 

[odessasteps]

Glad I left where I was watching at halftime. I knew they couldn’t do it for 90 minutes.

[ReiseReise]

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. 

[Robert S]

23 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Glad I left where I was watching at halftime. I knew they couldn’t do it for 90 minutes.

They did, just not for 95 minutes.

[ReiseReise]

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. 

[Robert S]

On 6/26/2024 at 7:35 PM, Robert S said:

I never thought that I would experience in my lifetime a KO-phase game at an international football tournament, where Austria might enter the game as a favorite, but here we are. Austrian coach Ralf Rangnick currently can do no wrong. Both before the Poland game as well as before the Netherlands game people thought Rangnick has lost his mind because of the changes he did in the starting line-up, but both times he was right. Against the Netherlands, he brought in Querfeld and Weimann, regarding both I would have bet money that they would not see one minute of play in this tournament unless it is in a game that is not completely meaningless for the further tournament, Weimann even more so than Querfeld.

I knew that I will eat my words as I was typing them. The combination of a stupid goal within the first minute, Turkey getting confidence and playing way better than they did in the group stages, Austria having the worst half in at least a year in the first 45 minutes, Austria missing some big chances and especially the Turkish keeper having a Gordon Banks moment in injury time was too much.  But then as Austrian football fan, you get what you expect. There is a reason why the majority of Austrian national team games that I would call historic were losses (German Wikipedia has pages for six games, three losses (the "Disgrace of Gijón" at the 82 World Cup against West Germany, the 0-1 against the Faroe Islands in 90 in their first official competition game and the 0-9 against Spain in 99), two wins (the "Heatbattle of Lausanne" at the 54 World Cup against Switzerland and the "Miracle of Cordoba" at the 78 World Cup against West Germany) and a draw (a 1-1 against Israel in 2001 - the circumstances of that game were memorable for sure, but I would not call it historic)).

[ReiseReise]

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. 

[Robert S]

I have lived through the era when Austria was coached by Hans Krankl (who has to be one of the worst coaches among players who had good to great careers) and was like #100 in the FIFA world ranking, I'll be fine, no worries. I just don't that there will be much upwards movement in the next couple of years. Basically the whole midfield as well as a couple of defenders were in peak form the last half year or so with little room for improvement, we are lacking good strikers maybe since the days of Vastic and Polster (Baumgartner had a good streak (which I doubt he can keep up), but apart from that, Gregoritsch is fine as a number 3 or 4 guy, Arnautovic is too old and seems to be retiring from the national team anyway) and there don't seem to be many big talents in the under 21 age group coming up.