EURO 2012 Official Thread

[Ja Rhule]

Chamberlain should of subbed for Young... Can't believe he was on bench the whole game.

[SOJA]

What talent? I won't go through a breakdown of the team, because I'm sure nobody cares, but this is the least talented England side I've ever seen. That's down to injuries, age and a lack of good young players coming through.

Hodgson set out the team the correct way. If we had tried to play football with the Italians we would have lost. Same with the French.

rooney, carroll, gerrard, hart, terry, cole- I could also go on- all of these players play big minutes for the best clubs in the best league in the world- most of Italy's team is from serie a - a less competitive league

[Guest Bwood]

I was at work for the Italy-England match, can anyone give me a summary of the PK's?

[B.B.S]

I was at work for the Italy-England match, can anyone give me a summary of the PK's?

So they dont have TVs at McDonalds in Cali?

[Guest Bwood]

Keep trying buddy B)

[SOJA]

[Ken]

rooney, carroll, gerrard, hart, terry, cole- I could also go on- all of these players play big minutes for the best clubs in the best league in the world- most of Italy's team is from serie a - a less competitive league

Most of the players you mentioned are overrated and past their prime. Also FYI epl isn't that much better than the serie a. This England team is not good compared to the other big countries.

I was at work for the Italy-England match, can anyone give me a summary of the PK's?

Italy missed 1st, Pirlo scored with a deft chip and England hit the bar, then saved by Buffon. Italy convert theirs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM-UjUK0ufQ&feature=g-hist

[SOJA]

To say England doesn't have talent is asinine

[Ken]

To say England doesn't have talent is asinine

Yes they have talent but they don't have top level talent like say a Spain, Germany etc etc.

Ask yourself this, what England player would start on Spain/Germany?

[KendrickPanther]

You don't need Spanish/German talent to go out and try to win a match vs. Italy. The Americans beat them 1-0 with a JV squad and drew them 1-1 in a World Cup that they won. Rooney is a great player. Danny Welbeck is a nice player. Gerrard is old but one of the finest players in the world. Terry is aging out but he was one of the best for years. Ashley Cole and Glen Johnson might be the two best fullbacks at the Euros.

Were England faltered was it's tactics. If you want to concede 2/3 of the pitch then so be it but eventually you have to pursue and make a tackle. If you are going to play counter attacking football then Theo Walcott needs to start. James Milner is a slow donkey. When they won the ball they should have built from the back and put crosses in. Booting the ball up to Carrol worked great until the ball arrived at his feet. He needed to make special passes to retain the ball and he couldn't. Rooney is not a counter attacking striker, he's best at slow build up and quick passes.

If I had to blame the tournament on any player it would be the wingers. Both were inept, I knew Ashley Young would miss his penalty before he struck it. He played the entire tournament as if he was already beaten. Gerrard was the only Englishmen that could create and he just had a poor match against the Italians. The English have a terrific league but so many young Englishmen are on the bench watching the French and Brazilians. That is another long post about economics we won't get into.

[Panthers128]

England doesn't have as much talent because the Premier league is a foreigner's league. Spain's La Liga and Germany's Bundesliga allow the local talent to grow. Both La Liga and Bundesliga also have plenty of foreign players, but it hasn't prevented the development of their own local talent.

La Liga is 75% Spanish while the EPL is only 33% English and many of those are older players. England's national team is only going to get worse.

Let this be a lesson to the NBA. Take the best foreigners, sure, but don't sign mediocre foreigners just because they're cheaper.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/07/09/2016999/la-liga-president-foreign-players-in-premier-league-have

[Ken]

@KendrickPanther

1. Glen Johnson is nowhere near close to being the best fullback at the Euros

2. US beating Italy meant nothing as it was a friendly and Italy has a history of not taking friendlies seriously if it means nothing, especially leading up to a tournament. Italy > England and this game showed it.

3. England couldn't keep the ball because apart from Gerard thier midfield is POO. Absolute poo. Parker, Milner are hard men and Young is way overrated. Rooney usually under performs for England on the big stage. Welbeck(lol) he has talent but England doesn't have the midfielders for him to be effective.

4. The reason England has ton of foreigners is because their local players lack technical ability, so in order to compete in Europe, the teams started buying players with such ability and it spiraled out of control. The other leagues have no problem with that because they have players with technical ability.

England gets hyped up by media before every tournament, which is laughable because they are usually crap in most of them. Fun fact, they have NEVER won a Euro cup elimination game in their history... NEVER. That speaks volumes.

[SOJA]

Yes they have talent but they don't have top level talent like say a Spain, Germany etc etc.

Ask yourself this, what England player would start on Spain/Germany?

spain and germany are arguably the best two teams in the world- by this logic the Panthers have no talent, because Cam Newton wouldn't start for the Packers

to clarify, I don't like England- I think they play horribly together and can't find the same connection Spain has (due to most players coming from Barcelona and Real), while Germany having cohesion from Bayern.

The original argument was that England has no talent, which is stupid. They do have talent, but don't play well together

[Ken]

tried to quote but its not working on my phone :(

Ok, I can tell you no one on England would start on Italy except Ashley Cole and to a lesser extent Rooney.

I never said England has no talent, all I said was compared to the big nations they are lacking tremendously.

This was the most organized England team I've seen in awhile, so I'm not sure how you can say they haven't played well together.

Germans play well because they are Germans, they don't give a poo about ego, which was the problem of the very talented English teams in the past.