EM kicks off
despite being the better team, the Swiss lost 0-1 to the Czechs,lost captain and team talisman Frei to injury in the first half. one mistake, one goal.
that is football.
i didn't really watch the game, but from whatever little i saw, the Swiss played with a lot of spirit, as would be expected, but just lacked the luck and the quality. not that the Czechs were any better. yet, given the way this evening has turned out, they may well go through to the next round.
Portugal saw off Turkey 2-0. in the first half, even though Portugal did hit the post once, Turkey largely kept them at bay. Turkey were organised, and even caused a few scares, whereas Portugal were largely sleeping.
there can only be one word to describe Turkey in the second half- naive. actually there were already hints of that in the first half. if you remember, tuncay was cutting through the defence, and just as he prepared to shoot, nihat came in and tried to shoot, but kicked tuncay's leg instead. that, to me, is the dumbest thing that can ever happen, and it speaks volumes of the player's awareness and decision-making, because wad nihat did was totally uncalled for.
anyway, wad did i mean by naive? first of all, the defending was naive. they were all over the place. it is like they decided they would stop doing whatever they were doing in the first half. and when you look at portugal's first goal, that it was scored by a defender running through the midfield, it tells you what kind of defending they were up to. naive defending. and the attackers were naive as well. what i can't stand is attackers fouling defenders 4 out of 5 times. what is that for? you chase after that defender, you put the pressure on him, you don't need to foul him, because once you foul him, free kick and your pressure is over. he can breathe again. the other thing was how they keep lookng for fouls on themselves. they were never going to get it. and they allowed themselves to get frustrated at it. they made themselves believe that the officiating was biased. they were sulking, whining.
when you let such thoughts creep in, you have lost.
i said that turkey would be the surprise package. they really surprised me with their ineptness. the wingers were really crap. nihat and tuncay got into each other's way. the midfield gave away too many silly balls. and of course this naivete.
i accept that i have made a wrong call. but i stick to my opinion that this is a weak group. portugal will go through. whoever goes through as runners-up won't go far, because they simply don't have the quality.
that is football.
i didn't really watch the game, but from whatever little i saw, the Swiss played with a lot of spirit, as would be expected, but just lacked the luck and the quality. not that the Czechs were any better. yet, given the way this evening has turned out, they may well go through to the next round.
Portugal saw off Turkey 2-0. in the first half, even though Portugal did hit the post once, Turkey largely kept them at bay. Turkey were organised, and even caused a few scares, whereas Portugal were largely sleeping.
there can only be one word to describe Turkey in the second half- naive. actually there were already hints of that in the first half. if you remember, tuncay was cutting through the defence, and just as he prepared to shoot, nihat came in and tried to shoot, but kicked tuncay's leg instead. that, to me, is the dumbest thing that can ever happen, and it speaks volumes of the player's awareness and decision-making, because wad nihat did was totally uncalled for.
anyway, wad did i mean by naive? first of all, the defending was naive. they were all over the place. it is like they decided they would stop doing whatever they were doing in the first half. and when you look at portugal's first goal, that it was scored by a defender running through the midfield, it tells you what kind of defending they were up to. naive defending. and the attackers were naive as well. what i can't stand is attackers fouling defenders 4 out of 5 times. what is that for? you chase after that defender, you put the pressure on him, you don't need to foul him, because once you foul him, free kick and your pressure is over. he can breathe again. the other thing was how they keep lookng for fouls on themselves. they were never going to get it. and they allowed themselves to get frustrated at it. they made themselves believe that the officiating was biased. they were sulking, whining.
when you let such thoughts creep in, you have lost.
i said that turkey would be the surprise package. they really surprised me with their ineptness. the wingers were really crap. nihat and tuncay got into each other's way. the midfield gave away too many silly balls. and of course this naivete.
i accept that i have made a wrong call. but i stick to my opinion that this is a weak group. portugal will go through. whoever goes through as runners-up won't go far, because they simply don't have the quality.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home