texanspaniard

I'm so sorry to hear about Dean's passing. Condolences to his family & friends. I was always predominantly a lurker on the various versions of these boards through the years (decades?) but I always loved reading Dean's reviews, writings and thoughts. A huge loss, my condolences again to his family, friends and everyone. RIP Dean.

Unbelievably heartbreaking, poor girl. So tragic. RIP Hana.

Hola! Just wanted to say that Chris De Joseph will be on the Way2Real podcast streaming live tonight in about 20 minutes. I think it will be at this link below.

Spain broke their Italian curse in a PK shootout in the Quarter-finals of the Euros in 2008 and now Germany has done the same 8 years later! Excited to see if the Iceland story continues today. Either way, Germany vs France/Iceland will be a great semi-final (and probably produce the tournament winner I think).

Wow!! What a performance by Iceland and what a disaster for England! These postmatch scenes are incredible! Can Iceland get past France? Would be hard to comfortably bet against Iceland in this tournament I think! Wow!

Well I did expect this result to happen. Italy were definitely the better team and deserve to be in the Quarter-Finals. Will Germany finally break their Italian curse or does it continue? Will be something to find out! The result today stings a little bit but I was expecting it. Ah well, ready to see how the rest of the tournament unfolds!

My girlfriend is part Polish so I was rooting for Poland to win this but I have to say it feels unfair to Switzerland. They played their hearts out and were going for goals while Poland were happy to sit on a 1-0 lead in the 2nd half and then determined to head to penalties. But, that is how football goes and penalties have been cruel to every side under the sun at some point. As mentioned above, Shaqiri's goal was FANTASTIC and this was a great dramatic way to get the Round of 16 off to a good start!

Curses are for being broken amigo! Spain used to have an Italian curse as well and they broke that. Germany needs to kick it to the curb! Though if Spain gets through Italy and meets Germany in quarters.. Maybe the run of bad results against Spain in tournaments can continue. *wink* But no seriously, don't fear curses, they all end someday.

I thought Spain looked good in the first 10 minutes of the match but the rest of it was all Croatia and then some! The equalizer was coming for a while as Croatia had Spain pinned back for so long. When Sergio Ramos' penalty was saved I pretty much knew, the way football karma goes, that Croatia would probably end up winning though before the 2nd goal came for Croatia there was a stretch of 5 minutes were the game seemed to slow down and I thought maybe it would end in a draw. But no, well deserved win for Croatia. They were the better team for sure and deserved the 3 points and topping the group. I have felt for a while that France or Germany will eventually win this Euros so I never entertained Spain going too far into the knock out stages this go around. Facing Italy in the Round of 16, I think Italy will end up winning and la Furia Roja well be exiting soon which is fine. Excited to see how it all unfolds though!

Seven years ago today my mother passed away in 2009 and because of this my heart was very much in my chest about the match today but that was a pretty easy 3-0 win for La Furia Roja against Turkey. Morata bagged a brace and Nolito got one in as well. 1st half was better than 2nd half, 2nd half was a bit just cruising through. Pretty happy with this obviously, especially today!

Payet is having quite a tournament so far! Two great goals by him in two games.

Spain break the "curse" of June 13th (the national team never won a match on the date previously) in a 1-0 win over Czech Republic. While Spain dominated possession there was a lot to be desired on the finishing until Pique's goal. Czech Republic looked dangerous in their counters. I can see Croatia and Turkey possibly getting points off of Spain potentially. I'm glad Spain got three points (and broke the "curse") out of today though because I thought it was going to 0-0 the longer it went on.

I believe a lot of the supporter disapproval directed at Giroud is because he was picked over Benzema for a place in the squad.

After a short break we're back with a "coverless" issue. We cover NXT, Lucha Underground & New Japan! Enjoy! http://markoutmania.tumblr.com/post/145732427828/mark-out-mania-coverless

That was a really good opener for the tournament. Quite the goal by Payet to win it for France. Super excited for this tournament!