FOOTBALL XLIV - Mansours, Khelaifis, and Rybolovlevs,... oh my!

[The Iceman of the North]

That was a stupid penalty Brazil conceded, followed by a poor penalty.

[Alcibiades]

Dc united won again?!

[kairparavel]

Saturday should be good?

[mormont]

Might be, but while both teams have great attackers, Uruguay lacks midfield and defence. That's a big minus.

Uruguay lack midfield and defence?

Walter Gargano, Diego Lugano, Diego Godin, Martin Caceres, Maxi Pereira, Cristian Rodriguez... all of these are great players who play for top-ranked European clubs and have won numerous honours domestically and internationally. I'd give my left arm to have just one of them on my national team. As a unit they came fourth in the World Cup and won the Copa America, successes built on the strength of that defence and midfield, conceding only two goals in four Copa America games. They have struggled in the current qualification process, it's true, but anyone watching the match last night would have great difficulty in recognising the description of Uruguay as a team that 'lacks midfield and defence'.

[polishgenius]

Their midfield and defense aren't bad by the average national standard, obviously, but their forward line is truly world class (Forlan's aging, but he's still got a little something) and the rest of the team isn't. That's why they keep squeezing all three into an unnatural formation rather than play real wide players and two of the forwards in a more 442-ish formation, or even a similar one to now but with Suarez in a free role.

Brazil don't have any players as good as Suarez and Cavani but their team is a touch more balanced.

And that's attacking players, coz several of their defenders are brilliant.

[Slick Mongoose]

Italy are playing some fantastic football. Shame about the finishing.

[Mme Erzulie]

You fear Spain will eventually punish them if they don't start converting.

[Jon AS]

You fear hope Spain will eventually punish them if they don't start converting.

Quite.

[The Iceman of the North]

Just got in the door to catch the final 15 minutes of Extra Time. I can't remember the last time I saw players that tired. One wonders if they have enough left in them to get the ball all the way to the goal line during the penalties.

[polishgenius]

That was some incredible penalty taking till Bonucci ruined it.

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

I am disapointed as I wanted another shot at Brasil, but proud of Italy. They played great and controlled the game for larg spells. I think they proved that they are top 4 in the world. They could have easily gone ahead early on. Of course all credit to Spain, they could have easily won it in regulation as well. See you in the final next year suckas!

[polishgenius]

I think they proved that they are top 4 in the world.

Oh stop it. It was a great performance and you were unlucky not to win, but it proved nothing of the sort.

[Winterfell is Burning]

If any side deserved the win, it was Italy, IMO.

[Old-Growth]

You fear Spain will eventually punish them if they don't start converting.

I can't resist: are you suggesting that Spain might revive the auto-da-fe?

[BLU-RAY]

Oh stop it. It was a great performance and you were unlucky not to win, but it proved nothing of the sort.

I'm not quite as sure. Who do you have in your top four? First tier are Spain and Germany, certainly. After that are Brazil/Belgium/Italy in some sort of order, no? I find it difficult to credit Uruguay with being on that level, though they have real talent, but that may be a European-viewing bias; possibly Argentina with a manager who isn't entirely fucking insane, though. I haven't seen an Argentina game since Maradona was manager. And then there's Holland, who I'm kind of discrediting just due to sheer age, but maybe they have a re-load coming.

Hmmm.

[polishgenius]

Spain and Germany are obviously top two, unquestionably, and Argentina third (I haven't seen them recently, admittedly - I'ma try to watch the upcoming friendly with Italy- but they've been kicking arse and taking names since the WC, have finally worked out how to get Messi scoring, and by all accounts look very dangerous).

After that, Italy are in the pack, but I've seen no reason over the tournament or in the game just now to rate them especially over France, Belgium, Brazil or the Netherlands. Of which probably over the last two seasons I've been most impressed with France and the way they've competed with Spain in their group, though come tournaments you never know with France. And Belgium certainly have the best squad list of those on paper.

What's the 'age' you're discrediting Holland for, btw? Even Robben's only 29 and they've got quite a young crop of players around. If anything they're too young, particularly in defence.

[BLU-RAY]

Mostly I just assign Robben an age of 40, because he looks ancient. I thought he was thirty easily back when he was on Chelsea :P

I just looked at the squad, and everyone I thought was old is in their late 20s, so feel free to assign that comment the value of "nonsense."

I would've guessed that all of: Robben, Sneijder, Huntelaar, de Jong, van der Vaart, and Heitinga were on the wrong side of 30; as it turns out, only van der Vaart is, and only just. Oops.

Likely this is due to my starting to follow in earnest back in '06-'07; all of these guys would have been in their early 20s and the up-and-coming Dutch squad then, but as far as I knew, they were all in their late-20s and in their primes.

Are Argentina that good, then? I need to make an actual concerted effort to catch a couple of their matches, the Maradona 4-1-5 was so dysfunctional that it really sticks in the mind.

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

Spain and Germany are obviously top two, unquestionably, and Argentina third (I haven't seen them recently, admittedly - I'ma try to watch the upcoming friendly with Italy- but they've been kicking arse and taking names since the WC, have finally worked out how to get Messi scoring, and by all accounts look very dangerous).

After that, Italy are in the pack, but I've seen no reason over the tournament or in the game just now to rate them especially over France, Belgium, Brazil or the Netherlands. Of which probably over the last two seasons I've been most impressed with France and the way they've competed with Spain in their group, though come tournaments you never know with France. And Belgium certainly have the best squad list of those on paper.

What's the 'age' you're discrediting Holland for, btw? Even Robben's only 29 and they've got quite a young crop of players around. If anything they're too young, particularly in defence.

Spain are undoubtabley the best in the world butI don't think second through fourth is so clear cut. I don't see Germany as that much better than Italy. Their qualifying record is only a game better and they always lose to Italy in big games. You don't win soccer games on paper. Italy are consitantly hard to beat in the second round and Germany has never beat Italy in a major tournament.

A whole bunch Italian players got some big international tournamnet tournament experience..I think it gives Italy a leg up on Argentina as well. Brasil is always dangerous and if they go on to win the Confeds you can give them second to Spain in the rankings.

Italy were a heart beat away from beating Spain. Three of the last four competitive games with them have been draws through at least 90 minutes. Italy is definatley top 4 and could easily be top two or three.

[BLU-RAY]

Ehhhh... if I'm rooting for a 3rd-party team, I would rather play Italy than Germany 100 times out of 100.

[Jon AS]

That was some incredible penalty taking till Bonucci ruined it.

Yeah, I wasn't looking forward to extra time since I had to get up early today, but that may have been the most impressive series of penalties I've seen. 1 miss out of 14, damn.