Reply With QuoteOnly 2 good games in the Tournament so far Wales Belgium, and Germany France. Completely true, its been a terrible tournament. Obviously excluding our enjoyment of the welsh team.
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I think they're right in many ways. If it were not for the novelty and excitement of having Wales there, I think the overwhelming verdict on here about Euro 2016 would be that it was all a bit of a bore. Let's be honest, Wales relied on what was, essentially, a defensive approach, but I would say that the fact that they were pretty good at a counter attacking game and had players in forward positions with flair meant that they were one of the more entertaining teams in the tournament.
Portugal can still overtake us, but it looks likely that we will end up as the second highest scoring team in the tournament and before anyone says we played more games than most, it should be noted that our scoring rate of 1.67 goals per game can only be beaten by France and Belgium at the moment.
However, a really telling stat is that thirteen of the twenty four teams failed to average a goal a game at Euro 2016 and I'm of the opinion while you would expect the "minnows" involved (e.g. us, Northern Ireland, Albania and Iceland) to have a negative approach, I'd say the truth was that they all added something to the tournament in their own ways.
For me, it's many of the "middling" teams taking part who really stank the place out - what did, say, Ukraine, Sweden, Austria, Romania, Russia and the Czech Republic bring to the table during the tournament? I'm sure they'll all have excuses for why they struggled, both in terms of results and providing entertainment, e.g. injuries to key players in Russia's case, but I'd say none of those teams justified the decision to increase the number of finalists to twenty four.
Last edited by the other bob wilson; 08-07-16 at 09:19.
Only 2 good games in the Tournament so far Wales Belgium, and Germany France. Completely true, its been a terrible tournament. Obviously excluding our enjoyment of the welsh team.
Personally i have really enjoyed the tournament.Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
I think the extra teams made the group stages more exciting, we did not see dead games at the end of groups, and from that we saw some exciting games at the end of the group stages.
I saw an interview with Daniel Sturridge and he was saying the difference these days in international football is that now all the teams are well drilled, and you do not get easy games any more. I dont think the top teams like this and want an easy ride to the semi final where they can turn on the talent and win the tournament.
What we are seeing is hard fought tournament football, and i've enjoyed this tournament more than most.
What i have enjoyed most about football over the last 12 month is the unexpected element of it.
Sour grapes? More like sauerkraut
Portugal v Hungary
I've enjoyed the tournament, but to be fair mainly due to the exploits of Wales, and to some extent Iceland.
I really enjoyed the Hungary v Portugal game, but there hasn't been much to savor as a neutral.
i was writing a reply in my mind and read yours, you are bang on
No easy teams to beat anymore which meant right down to the final group game, everything was up in the air and a goal for either England or slovakia in the final minute would have meant they topped the group, thats got to be a good thing
teams these days know they need to not concede goals, thats just the current state of modern football, look at Portugal ( if it wasnt for a few mins against us, it was heading for another draw ) the flair appears to have been sucked out of the game
Enjoyed Italy's games with Belgium and Spain and their match with the Republic of Ireland was watchable for different reasons, Iceland v England was great and I enjoyed their match with Hungary, but too many of the games just merged into a single entity where caution reigned and specialist strikers were a luxury that most teams didn't think they could afford.
I enjoyed Croatia in the groups, but then they were scared in the knockout games.
We saw a cagey knockout stage, but isnt that pretty much always the case.
what do they expect the other team to just turn over for them and let them batter them. they was obviously not good enough to break teams down probably because they only took one striker and how he put draxler in the side before Reus is beyond me. just bad losers imo
Italy v Spain, Ireland v Italy, Portugal v Hungary, Germany v Italy, France v Ireland theres been plenty of good games
There hasnt been that many games going to extra time and penalties apart from the odd stinker the knockout games have been pretty decent.
Wales v Russia.
Wales v Belgium
Wales v Russia
Wales v Slovakia
My favourite 3 games
Reus is injured
Wales Slovakia
Wales Russia
Wales Belgium
Italy Belgium
Belgium Hungary
Italy Ireland
Italy Spain
Croatia Spain
Croatia Czech Republic
England Iceland
France Ireland
France Romania
Germany France
Germany Ukraine
Hungary Portugal
I've enjoyed all of the above games either for the contest or the good football on show. Really enjoyed this competition.
The smaller teams such as us, Iceland and Hungary have been the best part of the tournament
NI, Albania and Iceland (and us) finished in the top 2 of their qualifying groups (NI winning theirs) so even in a tournament of 16 they might have qualified fair and square (although a couple might have needed play-offs). And yeah look at all those minnows who defended deep, like... France.
That article is nonsense. Germany just haven't played particularly well. They need only look at themselves.
England v Iceland was good too.
Overall, there has indeed been quite a few decent matches, but I really do think that Wales - and Iceland - added the spice to the recipe this time..
Lowe has been manager of Germany for 10 years and 2 years prior to that was assistant so he's been involved in 6 qualifying campaigns and finals.
That's a long time to be an involved with an international team.
Nice and safe job when he's managing a country with one of the best pools of players in the world.
If the competition is not up to the standard why doesn't he get out of his comfort zone and try and pit his wits against the best in the business at club level.
Easy to criticise the quality and tactics of others when you get to manage probably the best squad in the tournament.
It's sour grapes. This has been a middling competition. Better than some but worse than others. I have absolutely loved it.
Agree with those that mentioned 'the minnows' and the fact they would have qualified under the previous rules. Also, many teams that got through as winners were unspectacular.......Spain, Portugal, Czech Rep, Austria......whilst other teams who qualified as runner's up or through play-off's were great.
As far as the games go, there have been a fair few decent games. SpainVCroatia , IcelandVEngland, PortugalVHungary, WALBEL, GERFRA, CROvCzech... and more. I don't remember there being that many 0-0's....one or two maybe. I bet there have been tournaments in the past with more 0-0's. Also, surely you'd have to at least give it another go under the current incarnation before drawing the conclusion that more teams = a lesser of quality football. It sounds almost as if it's something someone has said without much forethought after having lost an important match.
It also generates a lot of interest from within (and beyond) some countries that previously might not have taken such an interest....or weren't able to because of the exclusivity of the tournament. I suppose Lowe would also be in favour of a European super league for clubs as that would also guarantee an elite standard of football not the dross that Bayern and Dortmund have to put up with when facing the other teams in the bundasliga.
Lastly, I hate that argument that a team who attacks plays pro-football and a team that defends plays anti-football. If you are a genuinely talented team you should be able to break through most teams.....unless of course you play without an out'n'out striker (duh). For me, whilst it might be the case that, as the german manager, you would prefer to see nice football being played at all times, it is more of a general observation and not anything that has affected his teams progression in the tournament. They lost fair and square to a good team in the semis. It just seems a little bit of a scornful thing to say. Let the lesser nations have their moment. Git.
It's very hard to separate how you feel about Wales from any assessment of the tournament, but I stick to what I say in my first post - a tournament in which more than half of the finalists average less than a goal a game has to be a poor one overall in my book.
Even the worst finals tournament is going to produce the occasional good game, but too many of them have been much of a muchness with few teams being willing to try and force the issue. Yes, there is an art to good defending and a game doesn't need to have stacks of goals in it to be very watchable, but if all teams had the same attitude as the majority have shown in this tournament, then football would have major problems.
A question for those who are defending the tournament - say Bosnia had pipped Wales for second place in the qualifying group and we'd gone out in the Play Offs, would your attitude towards Euro 2016 be the same as it is now? Mine certainly wouldn't.
There's been good games , there's been some bad games.
So on reflection , I'd say it's been average
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