posted Jun 20, 2008

I like Portugal and the way they play football but the horrors of the biased commentary during every Portugal game was too much for me and I was praying they would get knocked out. How sad is that but i couldn't help it. Wonder who the commentators are going to support now? They were so grudging about Germany's win and I couldn't decide whether it was the old German grudge thing or the fact that they wouldn't have Ronaldo to drool over anymore.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 20, 2008

Renzo_23:

"would have" not would of, that doesn't exist, duh!

The refree was fine yesterday, but as always, Germany are never the deserved winners, no, nobody knows why they are winning these important games, always rubbish, don't know why they won three world cups and Euro Championships, must always be lucky. It's time people stopped being jealous (pathetic) and accepted Germany for what they are and always have been - one of the best football teams in the world.
Semi-final, again, congratulations!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 20, 2008

Portugal lack of killer instinct let them down, far too many shots from the second line, (maybe this was down to the germans) but germany have proved they are a tournement team, they get better as tournement progresses, wouldnt suprize me if italians win against spain, hope not as i would like to have 2 attacking teams on 1 side of the draw.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 20, 2008

Good game, some luck and better tactics of Germany. Let´s wait who will survive at Turkey-Croatia (bonecracker game...). The remaining rest of the winners team will face the germans. Croatia played well, but the germans want to get revenge for the qualification game they lost.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 20, 2008

Germany fully deserved to win, I think Portugal were better going forward, but the Germans were solid at the back, not amazing defense from the Germans but at the end of the day they didn't let in two shocking goals. The first German goal was brilliant, but what happened to the Portugese defense on that second goal? They all seemed to lose their markers. And I think Ricardo deserves an assist for Ballacks goal. And there was no push in my eyes, seemed like the defender misjudged the ball completely and stepped forward from him. The score should have been 2-1 to Portugal, but the Portugese fully deserved to lose if they are going to defend like that.
--------------------------------

u are talking rubbish you. defender step 4ward. which game were u watching?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 20, 2008

comment by Bernardho (U10794063)
posted 26 Minutes Ago

I would like to say once again that the Portuguese players and their supporters should all be ashamed of themselves for making a mockery of fair play and turning each match into a contest full of petty tricks, diving, and tactical fouls. You should not be proud of primadonnas like Ronaldo, you should all be ashamed of yourselves. I hope Ronaldo leaves Man Utd. because I will not support them as long as he is there.

-----------------------------------------------

Don't forget, Germany did their fair share of diving too. Ballack fell like he'd been stabbed when he got an arm across his chest.

Forgetting the 'diving', I thought the game was pretty good otherwise. Portugal's first half hour was poor by their standard's and gave Germany far too much roomm which they punished them for. Anytime Germany broke over half way it looked like they might score but once Portugal got their first goal, the space disappeared and it allowed for a more 2-sided game.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 20, 2008

All Portugal had was a lot of hot air. And no winning prowess to back it up. Everyone was saying Portugal would win because they beat 2 average teams. The Germans overall used their tactical thinking and superior defence to overcome the likes of Deco, Nani etc

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 20, 2008

As a half-Scot, half-German living in England, i can't quite decide whether having Germany to fall back on when Scotland fall just short of glory (again)is a good thing. Such is the influence of the grudging attitude of the English sporting press towards "the GERMANS" (wonder if they'd try and get away with constantly saying "the TURKS" in the same tone?) that i think twice about venturing into my local to watch the game, and I don't know if any other nationality would feel such negative vibes. I was dead happy after the 2006 world cup to finally hear and read some positive opinions on not only the German team and their style of play (which was a revelation of attacking flair) but also so many people coming back from having enjoyed a fabulously-hosted tournament. Truth is, a lot of Brits realised that summer what some of us know already - we're far closer to the Germans in temperament and taste than most of the rest of Europe, we just can't bring ourselves to admit it!

But then here we go with Euro2008, England aren't in it, so let's drool over everyone who isn't "the GERMANS" and go back to grudge,grudge,grudge. If the German players sound or look confident, it's arrogant (anyone else - it's passion, or pride). If the German team are well organised and fit, they're a robotic machine (anyone else, they're well-prepared). And so on. And worse, when will they stop the cheap trick of couching match commentary or write-ups in war phrases. The lads playing in these teams (and most of the supporters) are 2 generations removed from all that. Give it a rest, those gentlemen (and ladies) amongst the English press who display this bias, and try using 'flair' and 'brilliance' and 'running your socks off' for the likes of Schweinsteiger and Lahm. What wouldn't you give to have the standard of those 2 in your favourite Premier team?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 21, 2008

Hmmm… I don’t know what you all want!

Sure Portugal was playing attractive, but so did Germany.

Sure Ballack pushed Ferrara, but I’m really astonished to her statements like that from the English who are so proud about their hard and aggressive Premier league. Honestly that was always something I really admired at the British teams and fans – that they were not always complaining because of some small tackles or “love tap”

Sure Klose’s and Ballack goals were results of a bad defence, but so was the 2:1, too. Have you seen how stupid Friedrich behaved at the pass to Ronaldo just before the goal? And, hey… You just make goals if the opponent makes mistakes (It was a mistake of the English defence not to stop Maradona in 1986, it was a mistake of Bayern Munich not to fight till the end against ManU in 1999 and so on). Just a few percent of gaols scored in football can be called “undefendable” or are a result of wrong decisions of the Ref.

Sure Germany was only defending the last 15min and it looked like Portugal will score the 3:3, but therefore you hardly could see the Portuguese team playing during the first 20 or 30 minutes.

From my point of view this was one of the best matches till now. Not because Germany won but because we saw two teams who both played an attractive and attacking football. A match with 5 goals – in a quarterfinal!!! A match which was thrilling and fascinating for 93 minutes. A match with an good Ronaldo (he still caused the German defence some trouble), Deco who played far better then for Barca, an amazing Nani who might have come a bit to late in this game and a strong Simao on the one side. On the other side you saw Lahm who was running his heart out, then Ballack who was a real leader, Podolski who – again – played a really good game on a position he never played before this tournament and of course an outreaching Schweinsteiger, who might have found his favourite opponent – don’t get me wrong, I don’t think “Schweini” is as good as Lampard, Ronaldo, Schnijder, Pirlo, Ribery or Iniesta… not by far. But this time he played excellent!!!

This game had everything ON BOTH SIDES: Goals, Mistakes, breathless suspense, nice individual class, wonderful team play, good tactics, even a not-so-good Referee you can rail. And that’s not only my opinion… I watched that match together with friends from Holland, France, Spain, England, Norway, Turkey and Austria and they all agreed.

Please just except that this was a wonderful match to watch.
We only can hope that the other games will be as attractive.
I wish you all a nice EC 2008

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 21, 2008

if i could actually get onto a betting website in afghanistan, my money is on a german repeat performance against spain in the final.

add comment | complain about this comment