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CASSSSIIIILLAAAASSSSS! The guy doesn't let shit by. Nerves of steal. I love how right before the kicks started, he almost looked bored. Not that boredom is a virtue, but he just did it like it was nothing. He's a total stoic.

And poor Ronaldo didn't even get to take a shot. The commentator made a great point... "Surely Ronaldo is not THAT good of a player where he is saved for last... where he has somehow got the right to take the 'winning' penalty." I'll never like Ronaldo; though did finally actually SCORE a little in the two games before this, he's all show. Can't take the pressure of major tournaments.

Spain deserved to win this game and I hope they win the whole thing.

C

I think if Spain would have played like they did towards the end the whole game they would have gotten a goal. I can't help but say I'm upset as I wanted Portugal to win so badly.

I don't think Ronaldo played too poorly either, certainly no worse then any of the Spanish players. Now Portugal's manager (don't know the name) deserves to be sacked for the boneheaded way he handled the shootout, that was just moronic, any 10 year old who had an ounce of knowledge about soccer could have handled that better

I think if Spain play like they did today in the championship, Germany will dominate them.

Wes Mantooth wrote:I think if Spain would have played like they did towards the end the whole game they would have gotten a goal. I can't help but say I'm upset as I wanted Portugal to win so badly.

I don't think Ronaldo played too poorly either, certainly no worse then any of the Spanish players. Now Portugal's manager (don't know the name) deserves to be sacked for the boneheaded way he handled the shootout, that was just moronic, any 10 year old who had an ounce of knowledge about soccer could have handled that better

I think if Spain play like they did today in the championship, Germany will dominate them.

Spain only played so bad because Poartugal didn't let them do their thing. Which was a grandiose show to me. It might not have been a good game to watch if you want lot's of exciting and beautiful scenes, but from a tactical standpoint it was awesome. It seems that Portugal was the only team to play Spain that actually went out looking to sack them. They totally destroyed the game of the spanish and purely by will and force. Most other teams would have been out of breath by the second half and Spain would have dominated like they did in the last 20 minutes. The tactic was smart but Portugal would have needed a player like Pirlo (nothing against João Moutinho, but he didn't play that well in this match) to play "the deadly pass". Destroying the spanish game is no use if you don't score. They could have done much better in front of the spanish goal. There were some breakthroughs and the spanish defense was flattened by the opposition just like the whole team especially in the first half. Oh well, they put up a much better game than I was expecting especially from the morale standpoint which has always been the achilles heel of the portuguese team. I hope Paulo Bento doesn't get sacked, he did a great job of uniting this team and of making a variable tactic unit out of so few good players. (There aren't that many, apart from the 14 that played yesterday maybe Quaresma and Hugo Viana, but even those aren't top notch.)

And in the end the whole penalty kick thing is a lot of luck too. So I think they can fly home with their heads up high. Nothing to be ashamed about even though a horde of portuguese that I've seen on my way home said something along the lines of "que vergonhoso", that was all I heard.


Edit for what I really feel:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVvmbd43RhM[/youtube]

boy that was a strange game.

Spain is in the final for the third time in a row. Im very surprise this time as we´ve been playing without 2 of the most important players, Puyol and Villa.

lets hope for a good final on Sunday..

Checkin' this shit out after work for the final match I'll actually be able to catch. I was able to see nearly every game of the tourney during my two-week vacation, but I'll miss the final on Sunday. Wah.

I agree that Portugal has been the most successful against Spain so far... the first half of the second 45-minutes was all Portugal... just pressure pressure pressure, and Spain was frustrated. They couldn't finish it, though.

I've got a lot of German in my blood, but I can't help but ROOT for Spain... it would really be something to win not only two back-to-back Euros, but a World Cup in between as well.

C

phantasmagorovich wrote:

Wes Mantooth wrote:I think if Spain would have played like they did towards the end the whole game they would have gotten a goal. I can't help but say I'm upset as I wanted Portugal to win so badly.

I don't think Ronaldo played too poorly either, certainly no worse then any of the Spanish players. Now Portugal's manager (don't know the name) deserves to be sacked for the boneheaded way he handled the shootout, that was just moronic, any 10 year old who had an ounce of knowledge about soccer could have handled that better

I think if Spain play like they did today in the championship, Germany will dominate them.

Spain only played so bad because Poartugal didn't let them do their thing. Which was a grandiose show to me. It might not have been a good game to watch if you want lot's of exciting and beautiful scenes, but from a tactical standpoint it was awesome. It seems that Portugal was the only team to play Spain that actually went out looking to sack them. They totally destroyed the game of the spanish and purely by will and force. Most other teams would have been out of breath by the second half and Spain would have dominated like they did in the last 20 minutes. The tactic was smart but Portugal would have needed a player like Pirlo (nothing against João Moutinho, but he didn't play that well in this match) to play "the deadly pass". Destroying the spanish game is no use if you don't score. They could have done much better in front of the spanish goal. There were some breakthroughs and the spanish defense was flattened by the opposition just like the whole team especially in the first half. Oh well, they put up a much better game than I was expecting especially from the morale standpoint which has always been the achilles heel of the portuguese team. I hope Paulo Bento doesn't get sacked, he did a great job of uniting this team and of making a variable tactic unit out of so few good players. (There aren't that many, apart from the 14 that played yesterday maybe Quaresma and Hugo Viana, but even those aren't top notch.)

And in the end the whole penalty kick thing is a lot of luck too. So I think they can fly home with their heads up high. Nothing to be ashamed about even though a horde of portuguese that I've seen on my way home said something along the lines of "que vergonhoso", that was all I heard.

True, Bento did a good job during the game but how are you going to put a player in to take a pk, pull him last minute then put him back in again, that was moronic. Don't even get me started on not having Ronaldo close to the top, that could have easily swayed the penalties in their favor. That said, its still such a disappointing way to end a knockout game with penalties

Word.

During that last penalty kick, Ozil stepped up, and I was like


"Oh yeah... Ozil."



I literally forgot about him the whole match.

Oh well... sometimes you just can't do it.

C

I said earlier I thought the German defence looked shakey when put under real pressure, and so it proved. Germany had two days more rest while the Italians had the stress of extra time + penalties in the game before, but Italy just comprehensively outplayed Germany. It could easily have been 4 or 5-1.

To watch this game in the middle of 100 cheering italians was kinda weird. But definitely worth it. This way at least there was SOMEONE happy around.


Edit:
Oh, look there was a newspaper around. I'm somewhere behind the guy in the white Tee.

ESPAÑA!!!!!!

Meh....

adrianlee wrote:Meh....

wordless... I guess