UEFA EURO 2012 - Poland/Ukraine

[yoyo913]

I think Germany could suffer a Bayern hangover. 8 of the starting 11 could be Bayern players, and as many as 6 will be. Who knows where their heads will be.

I have a feeling the loss will motivate Germany to push even harder. I feel the Bayern players would feel vindicated to the club if they do well since Bayern is such a German nationalistic club. And I feel it will negatively affect Robben. Just an intuition, I might be wrong.

 

[RobbieD_PL]

Well you have more chance of screwing up an NT if you have 8 players opposed to just the one in the Netherlands. If that was the case then Ribery would also have problems for the France squad too.

 

[Waldo1639]

Group C, thoughts, predictions...

I say Spain, Croatia, Ireland and last Italy. I would like to see it that way. Spain are without Puyol and Villa, but they have wide range of quality players to cover them. With Germany they are favorites and they will most likely pass the group stage, offcourse. If Ireland beats Croatia in first match I think they may end at 2nd place at the end. They are pretty hard to break. And Italy... Well, you never know Italians... Their team is much different, and after WC 2010 break they surely want to go back to the path of former glory. Things are so quiet around them and I don't like that.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Croatia playing a 4-4-2?

 

[ShiftyPowers]

I'm trying to write a preview for an American sports blog my friend runs. Holy ****! Let's see, I've talked about the stereotypes and a couple players for each of the 7 favorites and I'm at... 4500 words.



Not a single mention of tactics yet. Not that I want to get in depth or anything, but

EDIT: Does anyone have a good way of doing this? I figured the best way to keep it readable instead of completely dry is to go through the teams with stuff like "worst diver", "most exciting", "most unappreciated", "craziest", "breakout star", and "impact sub"... plus "old guy still around", "overrated", and "greatest player for his team ever" when appropriate. As I said, I did that for the 7 favorites (Spain, Germany, Holland, England, France, Italy, Portugal), and I'll probably do a truncated version for all the rest of the teams (just sort by award and then list a few guys), but again, any ideas?

 

[Arnau]

Spain 23

GK: Casillas, Valdés, Reina

Defenders: Arbeloa, Piqué, Ramos, Juanfran, Albiol, Jordi Alba, Javi Martínez.

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Cazorla, Cesc Fàbregas, Silva.

Forwards: Mata, Navas, Llorente, Pedro, Negredo, Torres.

 

[Waldo1639]

Croatia playing a 4-4-2?

Yes. I think Bilić played 11 out of 12 qualifications matches for Euro with 4-4-2 formation, and that one time was 4-3-3 against Greece when we lost 2-0.

Only in qualifications for World Cup 2010 Bilić played most of the time 4-2-3-1. That ended with us not going to Africa. He finally brought back 4-4-2 in which we played all the Euro 2008 campaign and now Euro 2012. That obviously suits us better.

I guess Croatia should look something like this:

Bilić have troubles with defence cause Lovren is still not fully recovered. Schildenfeld and Ćorluka as CB pair (like we played against Estonia, friendly) could also be as much as strong. There are also Iličević and Perišić, who showed great performance so far and will definitely be significant boost for our midfield. Oh, and Kranjčar and Dujmović are here also. I think Mandžukić and Jelavić should be main attacking pair due to their great seasons, and if that doesn't go there are always Eduardo, Olić and possibly Kalinić if he's going to be on the final list of passangers to Poland and Ukraine. LB (Strinić/Pranji&#263 is the weakest link in our team. Norway is next "test" opponent.

 

[fender]

Soldado not selected for Spain hmm....

 

[Sir Calumn]

Spain 23

GK: Casillas, Valdés, Reina

Defenders: Arbeloa, Piqué, Ramos, Juanfran, Albiol, Jordi Alba, Javi Martínez.

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Cazorla, Cesc Fàbregas, Silva.

Forwards: Mata, Navas, Llorente, Pedro, Negredo, Torres.

Terrible

 

[Back Door Skip]

I'm trying to write a preview for an American sports blog my friend runs. Holy ****! Let's see, I've talked about the stereotypes and a couple players for each of the 7 favorites and I'm at... 4500 words.



Not a single mention of tactics yet. Not that I want to get in depth or anything, but

EDIT: Does anyone have a good way of doing this? I figured the best way to keep it readable instead of completely dry is to go through the teams with stuff like "worst diver", "most exciting", "most unappreciated", "craziest", "breakout star", and "impact sub"... plus "old guy still around", "overrated", and "greatest player for his team ever" when appropriate. As I said, I did that for the 7 favorites (Spain, Germany, Holland, England, France, Italy, Portugal), and I'll probably do a truncated version for all the rest of the teams (just sort by award and then list a few guys), but again, any ideas?

If it's American, you're pretty much forced to do your blog like that. If you make it more technical you'll probably lose most of the readers unless it's some hardcore tactics blog.

 

[Back Door Skip]

Spain 23

GK: Casillas, Valdés, Reina

Defenders: Arbeloa, Piqué, Ramos, Juanfran, Albiol, Jordi Alba, Javi Martínez.

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Cazorla, Cesc Fàbregas, Silva.

Forwards: Mata, Navas, Llorente, Pedro, Negredo, Torres.

Torres instead of Adrian. For shame. Other than that, pretty predictable.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

If it's American, you're pretty much forced to do your blog like that. If you make it more technical you'll probably lose most of the readers unless it's some hardcore tactics blog.

Yeah, I started with Spain and just started typing out history and stuff and was like "I wouldn't even read this". So now I start with stereotypes.

 

[Xifio]

I'm trying to write a preview for an American sports blog my friend runs. Holy ****! Let's see, I've talked about the stereotypes and a couple players for each of the 7 favorites and I'm at... 4500 words.



Not a single mention of tactics yet. Not that I want to get in depth or anything, but

EDIT: Does anyone have a good way of doing this? I figured the best way to keep it readable instead of completely dry is to go through the teams with stuff like "worst diver", "most exciting", "most unappreciated", "craziest", "breakout star", and "impact sub"... plus "old guy still around", "overrated", and "greatest player for his team ever" when appropriate. As I said, I did that for the 7 favorites (Spain, Germany, Holland, England, France, Italy, Portugal), and I'll probably do a truncated version for all the rest of the teams (just sort by award and then list a few guys), but again, any ideas?

what type of blog is it? as in, is it just a simple sports editorial, or does it cover the quirky side of things, or does it go technical?

if it's about drawing new football-savvy readers, there's no point in doing yet another generic EURO preview with stereotypes ... unless you're going to talk about how they don't apply any more: like how Italy is supposed to be the catenaccio-based defensive unit, but instead the defence is at an all-time nadir, and their game under Prandelli is all about possession and passing; how Spain is supposed to be the entertaining side, but their World Cup was won on the back of 1-0s, and they may not get away with it again; how the cold, calculating Germans always win on penalties, and how England always lose on penalties, until the Champions League final changed all that; and finally how England always blindly self-hype their chances to win it, but have no reason for optimism under Hodgson ... until Chelsea's Champions League win, which provides an easy excuse to re-establish their self-hype status quo -- coz some things never change ...

 

[ARIAGA II]

Yeah, I started with Spain and just started typing out history and stuff and was like "I wouldn't even read this". So now I start with stereotypes.

I think I saw one of those 'stereotypes' blogs on the awful ESPN Euros website. I would have suggested doing a American team equivalent to each participating team but that always comes out wrong.

Maybe a guide to Euro 2012 for idiots similar to this series on nymag could work.

http://nymag.com/tags/absolute-moron's-guide/

 

[ShiftyPowers]

what type of blog is it? as in, is it just a simple sports editorial, or does it cover the quirky side of things, or does it go technical?

if it's about drawing new football-savvy readers, there's no point in doing yet another generic EURO preview with stereotypes ... unless you're going to talk about how they don't apply any more: like how Italy is supposed to be the catenaccio-based defensive unit, but instead the defence is at an all-time nadir, and their game under Prandelli is all about possession and passing; how Spain is supposed to be the entertaining side, but their World Cup was won on the back of 1-0s, and they may not get away with it again; how the cold, calculating Germans always win on penalties, and how England always lose on penalties, until the Champions League final changed all that; and finally how England always blindly self-hype their chances to win it, but have no reason for optimism under Hodgson ... until Chelsea's Champions League win, which provides an easy excuse to re-establish their self-hype status quo -- coz some things never change ...

Yeah, it's for Americans who aren't necessarily football fans. But that's already good ideas. I just texted my friend who runs his blog asking if I could do a Euro preview and he was like "ABSOLUTELY!" and now I want to make it good. Like you, I think stereotypes are good for comedy, but nothing much after that and it's much more interesting about how the teams are different. Spain is actually one of the least interesting to me in the sense that in the last 4 years they have completely erased every "furia roja" stereotype that used to exist. But the Germans, Italians, and French seem to be defying their national stereotypes while the English and Portuguese seem to be living up to them as best as they can (Pauleta, seriously?).

 

[Waldo1639]

Lovren staying home. Jurica "The Cropper" Buljat instead of him.

 

[Help?]

Guys, can we get some prediction/analysis here? I need to submit my pool soon

 

[Sevillista]

FRANCE:
Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris (Olympique Lyon), Steve Mandanda (Olympique Marseille), Cedric Carrasso (Girondins Bordeaux)

Defenders: Gael Clichy (Manchester City), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Philippe Mexes (AC Milan), Adil Rami (Valencia), Mathieu Debuchy (Lille), Anthony Reveillere (Olympique Lyon)

Midfielders: Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle United), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Samir Nasri (Manchester City), Alou Diarra (Olympique Marseille), Yann M'vila (Stade Rennes), Marvin Martin (Sochaux), Blaise Matuidi (Paris St Germain)

Forwards: Hatem Ben Arfa (Newcastle United), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), Olivier Giroud (Montpellier), Jeremy Menez (Paris St Germain), Mathieu Valbuena (Olympique Marseille).

No Gourcuff! Nice to see Blanc have the guts to leave him off the squad despite his name

Spain 23

GK: Casillas, Valdés, Reina

Defenders: Arbeloa, Piqué, Ramos, Juanfran, Albiol, Jordi Alba, Javi Martínez.

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Cazorla, Cesc Fàbregas, Silva.

Forwards: Mata, Navas, Llorente, Pedro, Negredo, Torres.

I'm a Sevilla fan, and it's a joke that Negredo is going. He is a diving, egotistical pakete. He loves himself and his goal tally, not his team. I hope he stays on the bench. I would have preferred Soldado, despite his quiet end to the season, or Adrian despite his youth. Hell, I would've taken Ruben Castro before taking Negredo.

Arnau, I told you Jesus Navas would make it

 

[Help?]

Wouldn't the choice be between Torres and Llorente to play anyway. The rest are just making up numbers in case **** happens?

I'm guessing Spain will have 5 mids or Mata as an AM/CF to Torres

 

[ShiftyPowers]

It has to be Llorente. He has experience playing in a quick passing squad, but his height adds another dimension to the Lilliputians making up the rest of the team. The other option is what Arnau suggested in 2011 with David Silva or maybe Juan Mata playing as a False 9.