Thanks for reminding us I really hope Germany will win this tournament, they have played the best (and beautifull) soccer. I'm glad van Marwijk quit, we need fresh blood. But Please please please do not hire Ronald Koeman.
From an outside perspective, it seems like van Gaal would be best for you guys. My friends at Bayern still say he was one of the best, if not the best, coach they ever had. Difficult, stubborn person, but great coach. I'm sure you will bounce back. Actually, I made an interesting observation while flying to Amsterdam two weeks ago - there seem to be SO MANY football fields in Holland - I think the secret of your success has been the really great youth camps/schools and talent sighting. Germany has learned from that, I believe...and then it sort of becomes a numbers game, larger population to choose from.
I'm also sure we will bounce back, talentwise we still have one of the best teams in the world (just ignore our defense). But they need to be a team. There are also a couple of great young players. I'm not sold on Van Gaal. Last time he failed to get us qualified, and the problems we had during that time are very similar to the problems today. He is a great coach, but IMHO nbot the right one for this team.
The potential for a blowout today seems really high to me. Italy can't score very easily and is mentally fragile. England had plenty of opportunities against their back line but they had terrible touch and passing. Germany does not. Unless they melt down, I don't see the Germans having much trouble with Italy or Spain. As others have said, they deserve to win but it will also be nice for such a beautiful offense to be rewarded and subsequently copied more and more. Resting on your heels and waiting for a lucky quick counter is stupid.
I find it incredible that people still manage to find ways to underrate this Spanish squad. I thought Portugal had the best chance to upset them, and it looked that way for a while yesterday, but once they settled in and Del Bosque ended his failed experiment with Negredo, they returned to their old ways and Portugal couldn't really trouble them anymore. Do you realize that this team has not conceded a goal in a knockout game since 2006? That is just sick. 900 minutes of regulation play without conceding a goal. Everybody keeps talking about how their strikerless formation will eventually doom them, but they continue to prove otherwise -- they have looked worse when they try to force in a striker, be it Torres or Negredo, and decidedly more dangerous with Fabregas instead. They do what they do and it has worked against all opponents. I expect Germany to be their toughest opponent yet should they make it to the final, but I do not share this idea that somehow they should be underdogs in that game. Not at all.
They got knocked out in the Confederation cup by the USA 2-0....how did they not concede a goal when they lost? DD
Just heard a lot of police cars outside. Looks like they found a bomb or something? I hope nothing bad happens.
Mentalily fragile? That has to be one of the dumbest things I've heard about that team. Italy has World Cup Champions on the squad. Their calling card is mental toughness
Yea: Warschau – Die polnische Polizei ist wegen eines Sprengstoff-Fundes vor dem EM-Halbfinale zwischen Deutschland und Italien in erhöhte Alarmbereitschaft versetzt worden. Medienberichten zufolge soll eine Patrouille auf dem Bug, einem Grenzfluss zur Ukraine, ein Floß mit Sprengkörpern, einem Foto des Warschauer Nationalstadions und einem Handy an Bord gefunden haben. Floße werden auf dem Bug häufig von Schmugglern benutzt.
Am I the only one that thinks it's strange how there never is a successful bomb detonation or something like that at these tournaments(Ec, WC, Olympics, etc.)? Just seems strange to me that they always find the bombs and the terrorists always fail.
I would take Ozil over any of those players. He is really something special and he is still very young. The graceful manner in which he moves, sees the play develop, and creates for others, reminds me of Zidane. A very high IQ player. I am looking forward to Pirlo and Ozil orchestrating the offense for their respective teams.
Neuer - Boateng - Hummels - Badstuber - Lahm - Kroos - Khedira - Özil - Schweinsteiger - Podolski - Gomez
