Too bad tables are decided by points for wins, loses or draws instead of "hustle" and "hard work". Either way I couldn't care less about who wins a table but who wins the tournament.
You guys were on the verge of losing this game and Croatia came extremely close multiple times. Then you score in the last minutes and say you didn't struggle? Spain played very mediocre at group stage this time, except for the Ireland game and they don't look like favourites right now.
REEKO_HTOWN - aggressive! Surely it's not an insult to say that Spain did not play well? Nothing wrong with that - they still have the best individual players at the tournament and they have performed in the past. Even the coach and players have voiced their concerns after the Croatia game. Spain were lucky not to get a penalty against them in the first half. How's the mood in Spain at the moment? I can't imagine the press and people being happy about the performance! I expect them to crank it up a notch in the next round. Also, I think Balotelli is a complete idiot. Yes, he's funny with his antics but I would go mad with him on our squad (though I concede we have a terrible squad full of egos at the moment, back to traditional Dutch). After scoring he doesn't celebrate like a normal player, instead he has to gesture to the bench. Can't imagine this is good for morale. Am enjoying watching the intensity of the Italians - you can really see the emotion and 'playing for the shirt' with guys like Buffon. Quite cool, not something we often get in Holland!
Ace are you living in the US again? Spain didn't play good in the group stages. But they do have the most talent, and in many tournaments a team that doesn't play well in the group can do great things in the tournament.
1.) Try to shoot some penalties. If you make more than you miss you are likely German. 2.) Assemble your family and let them play in a team vs. some other guys. If all your family members start to play selfish and can't seem to hit the goal you're likely 100% Netherlands.
Not the real situation, I looked at it and ref association explained it like I would: Navas was offside on the original chip, but it didn't matter because Iniesta got the ball. Navas therefore didn't have any effect on the chip, neither did he confuse the keeper. This ends the first situation. Then he was behind Iniesta when he passed it across, which is a completely new situation. The goal is legal.
Navas was in the offside position at the start of this play but the original pass was for Iniesta. Jesus didn't touch the ball when he was offside, he didn't distract the goalie by standing in front of him (say hello to Ruy Costa in Champions League Final between AC Milan and Juventus) so ref was right on his decision to ignore it. It's called passive offside. Nothing to be worry about, it happens all the time
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WKv2SidSfWQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> This is when "passive" offside become "active" and generates the whistle by an official. It's pretty simple rule
I'm not saying we didn't struggle, hell half the time we didn't know what to do with the ball in the box. Stupid pass after stupid pass but they defended well and only allowed ONE goal in group stages. If you know anything about this squad and Big tournaments it's that Group stages don't mean ****. Remember the World Cup? Germany looked great in Group stages right? Italy was a hard nosed side. They have the best Defense at the Euro's IMHO. Croatia was tough but they absolutely NEEDED that win and we dominated the ball and they probably came close to really scoring 3 times. Hey, to me making the finals would be close to a miracle since we are missing our best Forward and top notch defender but I wouldn't put it past them. THEY ARE CLUTCH. Best Football team in the last decade. FACT.
Sorry, I guess it was confusing. My original "him", I ment Iniesta. I guess I didn't understand that people were confused on the "passive" offsides part. Being dutch and watching van Nistelrooy make a living by pitching a tent offsides and just waiting for the backwards pass makes me pretty numb to that being an issue.
let's gp england tonight, shrek back in line to start tonight...no theo either in the starting line up. I predict a 3-1 win for england here today
You ever hit the Islands? I have a good friend with a condo on Majorca, he is always trying to get me to use it but it is such a long way to fly for the entire family. DD
