sunlore wrote:Portugal were great, but may be lacking in terms of pure psychique. They'll gonna miss Figo in balancing out all the patsies in that team.

Yeah, I can see that.

Talking of patsies and other such slurs against a man's masculinity, there was a good moment in the commentary of Germany v Poland yesterday when Mark Lawrenson said of Mertesacker, who'd gone down like a dying swan after the lightest of challenges:

"He's supposed to be a rough and tumble centre-back.

He's a jesse."

simmo wrote:Mertesacker

Would see an Industrial band from 1980s Berlin called "Mertesacker".

chairman_hall wrote:How many times are ITV and BBC gonna mention the spilt draw for the latter stages?

On a similar note, I can see Germany being taken apart by any team that has any strength going forward. A couple of times last night Poland exposed their weakness on the left hand side of defence. Someone like Ronaldo would have a field day.

I imagine that Löw will have to shift Podolski to one of the striker spots and field an actual LM, one who can track back and help the defense, if this is ever the case. If that happens, we also might get to see Jansen going forward more often, which is his best quality.

Portugal looked very decent on Saturday. They seemed to be a real headache for the Turks on defense. Very organized in midfield, and the back line looked water tight. Turkey put them under some decent pressure here and there, but a better side will ask much more of them.

Can't wait for the matches later today. Unless Romania gets a good result against France, it's starting to look like it won't be much of an underdog's tournament for sure.

Word around the card room is that Van Persie will play tonight. Nice.

This was on the morning paper.



Now what kind of cock-handed...

YAWN.

My word France-Romania was dull. France have started slowly in the past, but they really didn't look like they were giving the shits at any moment in that game.

Fair play to Romania, they defended very well. Looked a lot like Greece four years ago.

Hmmm, worth a cheeky fiver...?

France 0 - 0 Romania.

Now that, my friends, was a shit game of football.

Absolutely dire. And the French - I've seen sides play poorly, but never a side so packed full of great players play as badly as that. It almost made me wish I was watching England - that's how bad it was.

What was Domenech doing? Why did he take Benzema off, when his interplay with Ribery was the only thing the team could manage that looked even remotely threatening? Why was he playing a midfield with two holding midfielders? And Malouda - why are you so enormously, uninspiredly crap? Crap, crap, crap.

Fair play to the Romanians. But France - pull your finger out, lads.

EXCELLENT

My coupon came off for the first four games. I picked Portugal, Croatia, Germany and the Czech Republic to win. They did. Now, through the magic of gambling, my £5 has become £63.

France look shit. Absolutely no need to play two holding midfielders against Romania. Nasri should have started playing just behind Anelka and Benzema.

simmo wrote:France 0 - 0 Romania.

Now that, my friends, was a shit game of football.

Absolutely dire. And the French - I've seen sides play poorly, but never a side so packed full of great players play as badly as that. It almost made me wish I was watching England - that's how bad it was.

What was Domenech doing? Why did he take Benzema off, when his interplay with Ribery was the only thing the team could manage that looked even remotely threatening? Why was he playing a midfield with two holding midfielders? And Malouda - why are you so enormously, uninspiredly crap? Crap, crap, crap.

Fair play to the Romanians. But France - pull your finger out, lads.

TERRIBLE GAME!

Fuck Domenech in the eye!
Fuck Ribery hu where you can!

simmo wrote:Why did he take Benzema off, when his interplay with Ribery was the only thing the team could manage that looked even remotely threatening?

And, more to the point, why does Ribery always look like he just had a face transplant?

Dude got some right medieval shit going on about the old mug.