Euro 2012 [congrats to España!]

I actually watched this game! My landlady invited me to come up to watch it with them, with wine and cheese. We were all supporting Italy -- I, because I was there for a week earlier in the month, and they, because their son-in-law is Italian. So a bit disappointing.

I just loved it at the end when the kids came out to play. I just love seeing dads with young children.

I spent yesterday with my girlfriend and so had to record the final. I did my best to avoid all social media and such and came into watching it today without a clue to who had won . . . and I must say: I'm a happy guy.

Certainly no one'll complain about Spain's boring tactics for the final.

Bad luck befell Italy, unfortunately. You have to admire their grit, though, for chasing down the ball half an hour into fielding just ten men. I just wish Balotelli acted maturely. At full time he stormed off, shouldering people on his way to the locker room. I understand his frustration, but I'm not sure he shook hands with Spain at all.

Así es la vida.

Wonderful tournament throughout. Glad to watch the champions repeat and make history.

Barcelo said:

Certainly no one'll complain about Spain's boring tactics for the final.

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No, they won't. Italy had some play, but honestly, the Spanish combination play was brilliant, direct, and always with purpose. Two very fine goals in the first half.

It really is a shame that Italy had to finish with ten men -- made the last half hour or so anticlimactic, to be sure.

But there can be no doubt that the best team won -- which in football, is not always the case. But that's one of the things that makes games so interesting.

Great news! England are the fourth best team in the world. We're better than France, we're better than Holland, we're better than Portugal and, yes, we're better than Italy. And we're better than Scotland.

Only one of the above statements is actually true, but this is FIFA we're talking about.

mirandashell said:

WTF?

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We're better than WTF as well, but only when Rooney is suspended.

England are ranked highly because, although they never win anything, they rarely lose games either. They are a consistent 'quarter finals, lose on penalties to a good team' team. A lot of the other teams around us don't have that consistency. Italy, for example, finished bottom of a World Cup group involving New Zealand then got to the final of Euro 2012. Portugal had some bad results in qualifying and France and Holland are notoriously inconsistent. So, if these nations want to get above us, they need to stop losing silly ranking points by losing games they should win more consistently.