Portugal's gonna beat Holland up. [img]tongue.gif[/img] At least, that's what I hope. :D </font>[/QUOTE]Oh, i'm pretty sure our players get beat up, fair play never was Portugal's strong point. :D </font>[/QUOTE]Is that so?

Works either way. :D

They had possession most of the time, and didn't give anything away in their defence, that's dominating too. You can win games even if you hardly create any scoringopportunities yourself, all you need is one good counterattack.

Unfortunately for Denmark their system completely collapsed in the second half.

Btw... what kind of superstrikers does Liverpool have if they can afford to keep Barros on the bench a whole season ? :D </font>[/QUOTE]Prideful ones... LOL

Wow... Czechs really are scary in this Euro. I still hope the Dutch goes all the way!!! But if ever they lost to Portugal I would be rooting for the Czechs since I think Greece won't stand a chance anyway [img]smile.gif[/img]

Didn't people say that before the France-Greece match? :D

I think if the Czechs play as they played in the first half against the danes then the Greeks could have a chance.

[ 06-28-2004, 05:11 AM: Message edited by: dplax ]

I think the Greeks stand a good chance against the Czech Republic, even though everyone favours the latter one. There's a big difference between the Danes and the Greeks on the subject of playing style. The Greeks are a very defensive team (good solid defending, weak attackers, playing counter football), whilst the Danes are an offensive team (weak defense, mediocre midfield, and very decent front line; Tomasson just isn't a true striker, that's Ebbe Sand, and he was injured --> that takes the venom out of their attacks). The Czechs were good against the Danes because of that, I think they will have a very hard time with the Greek defense.

The Czech team has some good offensive players and midfielders (Koller, Poborsky, Baros, Rosicky and of course Nedved) but their defenders are nothing to write home about. It's not just plain luck the Dutch got a 2-0 advantage against them, not to mention both Germany and Latvia getting in front in their matches as well.

*sigh*

Uefa slams English press

Uefa has defended referee Urs Meier's decision to disallow Sol Campbell's header in England's loss to Portugal.
The referees' committee has produced television pictures which it claimed supported the Swiss official's verdict.

And it blasted sections of the English media for the treatment of Meier following England's Euro 2004 exit.

"The way some of the English press have blamed Urs Meier after a correct decision is completely unacceptable," said committee president Volker Roth.

"To go into his private life, to show his wife, his car and put an England flag on his house is unacceptable.

"If the press reacts in this way we must reconsider and say clearly and openly this is not a good way."

Some English newspapers published Meier's telephone number and email address after he disallowed Campbell's header in the dying minutes of England's quarter-final defeat to Portugal.

Meier said he had been badly disturbed by the reaction to his decision.

"It is a heavy attack, it's not the right way to deal with such decisions," he said.

"The phone has been ringing constantly all day and night. The email is blocked, the office is blocked.

"I feel it is not the right way to handle a decision, whether it was right or wrong. It is not right to go into the private life of the referee.

"The referee must be protected from the journalists, from all people. He is the only man in the field who is really neutral and I have not been protected from the English newspapers."

The referees' committee said they had viewed the incident many times on video and unanimously agreed that defender John Terry's challenge on Portugal keeper Ricardo was a foul.

"I have had support from the committee, the whole world can see this decision is correct, but not some of the journalists," Meier said.

"You can see on TV it is a clear foul, it's not a discussion point. When you put the arm over the goalkeeper and he can't jump it is foul play and I was really happy that television showed it.

"On the field you have only one split second, to make a decision, sometimes you feel you are not 100% and you are happy to have the TV pictures.

"In this case I was 100% certain it was a foul and it was correct to rule out the goal."

Meier said he was sure the controversy surrounding his decision had not affected Uefa's decision not to award him either of the two semi-finals or the final, which was given to Germany's Markus Merk.

"Absolutely not," he said. "Firstly, Uefa have said the decision was correct.

"There are many good referees here but only three could get the last three games. I am not alone in missing out."

Source

I see that a little different. The Greeks have ALWAYS been a defensive team, simply because they can't do much else. In their entire history, the Greeks faced the Czechs 10 times, only one time they got away with a draw, the 9 other times they got a severe spanking. It won't be any differnt this time, IF they only play defensively. The Czechs have too many weapons to hurt teams from basically anywhere on the pitch. Especially free kicks and corners are a problem for teams playing against.

The way i see it, this team can only be stopped if you play offensively yourself. Did you see how many scoringopportunities Holland got in the first half ? With a little more luck they could have scored 5 or 6 goals in the first half alone. Holland only got in trouble when Advocaat took out an attacker and replaced him with a midfielder. Defensively we don't stand a chance against them, simply because we suck defensively. :D But offensively we have all the tools to make them hurt, because their defensive is their weakness too. Who cares if they score 3 or 4 goals against us ? As long as we score one more than them it's fine with me, and that's the classic Cruyff approach.

Should we reach the finals and meet them again, i'd field 5 strikers, let's see how they deal with that.

Ah, the beauty of the Fleet Street press. And they think we're bad down here in OZ... :D :D :D

Sad day for the ref... he was doing his job. Well if it were myself I wouldn't be concern, but then if you include family that's something different, and that's what he is probably thinking about also... tsktsktsk bad.

As for Holland, yes. Well get sole possession of the ball and SCORE. After the goal, SCORE, and then SCORE... hehehe it's a free for all scoring spree... hope it's enough to down Portugal but then it really depends on the coach's take on things... both sides. That's my opinion. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The coach doesn't have the balls to play an all out offensive style. The players that got us through against the Scots, haven't seen any, or almost none, playtime. Even oldies like De Boer were pulled out of the mothballs against Latvia and Sweden, while the best defender (Bosschaart) wasn't even selected. Makaay, vd Vaart and Sneijder are constantly kept on the bench, while they are the ones responsible for Holland's presence in Portugal in the first place. No matter the outcome of this tournament, the coach will say goodbye after it's over, and for that i'm grateful.

hmmm, I hope Greece win, since the odds are 40:1. So my £50 would get me a fair fortune :D