Euro 2016

Atro

Who?,
20 Year Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2002
Posts
9,209
It was a hard battle.

We were short on good players from the GO.
Bernardo Silva, injured. Fabio Coentrão, Injured... and so on.

It was the "team geist" that won. It couldn't have been a spectacular football like previous generations of Rui Costa, Figo, João Pinto, etc.
But they fought with what they had. And after the group matches, Portugal didn't suffered a single goal. The defense was good, along with a bit of luck too.

It's good to see the french swallow their nasty arrogance. And even if we won, nobody tells me that Germany is not the best national team in the world. They simply didn't had the luck they should in the semis. For once, Lineker's say didn't work. "Football is 11 vs 11 and in the end, Germany wins".

We lost in 2004 at home and we didn't treated the greeks like the french did yesterday. Bunch of sore losers.
 

Takumaji

Master Enabler
Staff member
Joined
Jul 24, 2001
Posts
19,029
Yeah, they also booed and hissed a lot during our game against France, fucking annoying. It's this self-righteous snobbery mixed with artificial ressentiment pour l'ressentiment that I really don't like in French footie.
 

evil wasabi

The Jongmaster
20 Year Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2000
Posts
60,434
It was a hard battle.

We were short on good players from the GO.
Bernardo Silva, injured. Fabio Coentrão, Injured... and so on.

It was the "team geist" that won. It couldn't have been a spectacular football like previous generations of Rui Costa, Figo, João Pinto, etc.
But they fought with what they had. And after the group matches, Portugal didn't suffered a single goal. The defense was good, along with a bit of luck too.

It's good to see the french swallow their nasty arrogance. And even if we won, nobody tells me that Germany is not the best national team in the world. They simply didn't had the luck they should in the semis. For once, Lineker's say didn't work. "Football is 11 vs 11 and in the end, Germany wins".

We lost in 2004 at home and we didn't treated the greeks like the french did yesterday. Bunch of sore losers.

Congrats on winning, but a lot of people around the world hated Portugal because they played anti football for most of the tournament. This is not the same team from 2004, or even 2006, that was exciting and fun to watch. And maybe that's because Figo isn't there.

I think the only game where Portugal tried to play football was against Wales. Otherwise they were just playing turtle matches like SF2 CE.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_spot...terrible_european.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top
 

RAZO

Mayor of Southtown
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Posts
8,788
Congrats on winning, but a lot of people around the world hated Portugal because they played anti football for most of the tournament. This is not the same team from 2004, or even 2006, that was exciting and fun to watch. And maybe that's because Figo isn't there.

I think the only game where Portugal tried to play football was against Wales. Otherwise they were just playing turtle matches like SF2 CE.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_spot...terrible_european.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top

Fernando Santos had to play to this team's strength and all though it wasn't pretty or exciting to watch, it worked. That 2004 team was stacked with talent and some might argue that it might have been one of best Portuguese teams we ever had even with aging stars like Couto, Figo, Costa, Pauleta, and rising stars like Ronaldo, Deco, Carvalho. That team was stacked to the gills. They had a strong defense, midfield, and attacking front. The Goal yesterday came from a Eder, a player who did not play in the tournament at all. Of course that team could do things that this team obviously couldn't but they never won anything and this inferior team. It took some Luck, Strategy, Coach and team who believed in one another to win this tournament. It's about time.
 

Atro

Who?,
20 Year Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2002
Posts
9,209
Congrats on winning, but a lot of people around the world hated Portugal because they played anti football for most of the tournament. This is not the same team from 2004, or even 2006, that was exciting and fun to watch. And maybe that's because Figo isn't there.

I think the only game where Portugal tried to play football was against Wales. Otherwise they were just playing turtle matches like SF2 CE.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_spot...terrible_european.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top

Do you really think Italians cared when they won all their cups playing catenaccio? Obviously not!

It was about time we dropped the "Played well like never, lost like always" thing.
Teams want to win. It's a supporter thing to enjoy a good spectacle. Sincerely, they didn't had the means to do better.
 

Takumaji

Master Enabler
Staff member
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Jul 24, 2001
Posts
19,029
Haha, the old "they don't deserve it because they played safe" song. We Germans heard that one for decades, Lineker's famous line was based on just that - efficient, sometimes dirty and quite clear-cut (or overly simplified, if you will) football that wasn't nice to watch for non-Germans, played by legends like Beckenbauer, Gerd Mueller, Guenther Netzer, Paul Breitner, later on Rummenigge, Kalz, the Hoeness brothers, Briegel (the very definition of German tank footie) and many more. It wasn't before the dark years between 1998 and 2000 when the old style was discarded in favour of a more artistic and most importantly more athletic footie as shown by Holland and Brazil, and this is where we are today.

Sure, the old style had its problems but was efficient enough to make us win 3 world cups (plus one in the new style era) and 3 euros and that's not a small feat. The new style is something for the aesthets and it has its merits but it's also a bit of a symptome of things that aren't right in football today. I mean, most of the athletic aspects and rule changes over the past 20 years were done with TV rights trade, sponsors and lucrative advertisting partnerships in mind and that's not good for a sport that still is bread, butter, heart and soul for millions of people and gets played by kids all around the world who are made to look up to all those overpaid mega stars who spend more time in the studio shooting fotos for ads than on the pitch.

That said, I think the strategical approach of Portugal wasn't pretty but effective, and hey, the goal is to win the cup. As long as it's not overly dirty, the end justifies the means.
 

Rot

Calvin & Hobbes, ,
Joined
Jul 8, 2003
Posts
11,441
The Final was boring...

I'm in 2 minds about Portugal winning... but hey... that's life and there's more important things to worry about:D

xROTx

PS. Germany... didn't win... Tak didn't ban me... I am UNTOUCHEABALLS!
 

xsq

Thou Shalt Not, Question Rot.,
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Posts
7,414
that french fan wasn't a sore looser - unlike his team.
nice vid.
 
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