Genie Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 For most this will probably be a tournament to forget. Very few entertaining games. A team like Portugal who finished 3rd in the group and have been consistently average find themselves in the final having only won 1 game in normal time. Then there's the fighting and agro with the English, Russian, Croatian fans inside and outside of the ground. One to forget I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 The most exciting thing about this tournament was Iceland beating England, and I'm English and wanted them to win. Overall pretty dull and seemed to lack something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan. Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 If Portugal get hammered in the final and I get to see Ronaldo cry I'll feel romantically nourished again 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 41 minutes ago, rodders0223 said: If (insert thing) happens I will be livid. Fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 50 minutes ago, Genie said: For most this will probably be a tournament to forget. Very few entertaining games. A team like Portugal who finished 3rd in the group and have been consistently average find themselves in the final having only won 1 game in normal time. Then there's the fighting and agro with the English, Russian, Croatian fans inside and outside of the ground. One to forget I think. Yes my bank balance indicates that currently! I think for me the highlight of this tournament has been the fans (well once Russia disappeared). Amazing support from the Welsh and Irish fans and also that incredibly death clap from the Icelandic followers. Great support from other nations. Then I look and what are Uefa doing...playing the next tournament in about 12 cities. Maybe it will work but I think tournaments need an identity and a host country where you can base yourself and drive around it gives you that. Next three major tournaments in Russia, various cities and Qatar. Where's 2024 going, Stoke?! Not very fan friendly really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Shit tournament Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 1 hour ago, dont_do_it_doug. said: Fixed. A team that couldn't beat Hungary, Iceland and Austria, needed ET to beat Croatia and penalties to beat Poland has got to a final. Come on now. I know there is something to be said for winning ugly ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 11 hours ago, Zatman said: I wouldnt say France have shown that much flair. last 2 games a lot of their goals came from long balls up to Giroud Well I find them more interesting to watch than Germany or Portugal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 1 hour ago, VillaChris said: Yes my bank balance indicates that currently! I think for me the highlight of this tournament has been the fans (well once Russia disappeared). Amazing support from the Welsh and Irish fans and also that incredibly death clap from the Icelandic followers. Great support from other nations. Then I look and what are Uefa doing...playing the next tournament in about 12 cities. Maybe it will work but I think tournaments need an identity and a host country where you can base yourself and drive around it gives you that. Next three major tournaments in Russia, various cities and Qatar. Where's 2024 going, Stoke?! Not very fan friendly really. Yes Chris the highlight for me has been the Icelandic HUH chant or whatever its called. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Perhaps the secret is to enter a tournament with very low expectations? As opposed to having pundits announcing that they have a funny feeling 'we' could win it. I think the highlight for me was having so many friends over there that I was able to experience a lot of the atmosphere vicariously through their constant texts and photos and, something I hadn't even been aware of previously, periscope. To sit in a clubhouse full of mates being sent back pictures via skype etc made it all very immediate and very real. We went from never having a real interest in such tournaments to being represented at every stage right up to the semi finals. Fantastic. To see pictures on the TV of our local club players in the crowd. Freeze frame, text it across to them in the stadium and get live pictures back. The number of shirts, badges, stickers and flags that have been traded with people from all over (Belgium in particular as it happens) has been truly heart warming. Then stuff which is 'nice' but totally out of anyone's control really. South Wales Police have been over in France for the whole tournament and are currently saying that there wasn't a single arrest of any welsh fans at any stage of the tournament. Now, you leave yourself a hostage to stats if you believe that and boast about it. But as a piece of mood music, issued by the police, it's great. By the end of the tournie, whoever was running the South Wales Police twitter account over there was clearly very much, erm, in the spirit of things. The actual games? I thought we had two stand out games, Belgium and Russia. We had a few great goals to look back on. We proved we weren't a one man team, clearly there are at least two or three. It wasn't technically excellent as a tournament, but hey, I watch a lot of non-league so it looked pretty bloody good to me. The one thing I would say, is that I eventually got to watch a few games on a few different channels. The BBC coverage at the group stage was depressing, mostly just Shearer mumbling about how poor England were and their panel of experts just not appearing to enjoy football. ITV were hamstrung by constantly needing to cut away from anthems or celebrations of the moment to sell beer and gambling. S4C clearly made a decision to crank up the crowd noise and that really added to the atmosphere. BBC tried that last night, or somebody somewhere did, turning the crowd noise up, down, on and off. It was like they'd put Lee Scratch Perry in charge of sound quality. So hats off to S4C for best coverage. Couldn't understand much of it, which probably helped no end. Most importantly of all, most importantly, it's narrowed down the gap between seasons.. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted July 7, 2016 Moderator Share Posted July 7, 2016 And to add to all of that @chrisp65, there is the fact that as a Welsh fan - and similarly Iceland, Albania - this was a first for most people (post-'54). There's no way a German or a French fan for example can get the same thrill from getting to the knockouts or a semi final. They expect it. Yes I'm sure they enjoy it, but it's a qualified joy. A calculated joy. Not the sheer unbridled madness that comes from treading into the unknown for the first time. Compare Man Utd fans as champions to Leicester fans as champions. It's nowhere near the same. That's why I think most people love an underdog. Because you see the purest form of joy from the achievement. Unadulterated enjoyment that you don't get from everything simply going to form. Well done, but I hope you do terribly in the WC qualifiers 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 1 hour ago, rodders0223 said: A team that couldn't beat Hungary, Iceland and Austria, needed ET to beat Croatia and penalties to beat Poland has got to a final. Come on now. I know there is something to be said for winning ugly ... It was a joke I agree that the quality shown in this tournament has been dreadful. To an extent Portugal have been unlucky that Ronaldo left his shooting boots at home for the first couple of games, but regardless they have been dire to watch. That said if they can do a job on France or Germany on the big day then I will gladly admit they earned it and have done it the hard way. Croatia and Poland were two of the toughest teams in the tournament so credit is due for finding a way through those, never mind how they did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 2 hours ago, PaulC said: Well I find them more interesting to watch than Germany or Portugal. They haven't played a good team at all whatsoever as yet, I really expect Germany to expose them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 it must kill Portugal fans that their Golden Generation werent born 5 years later so they could play more with Ronaldo probably their greatest ever player. Ronaldo with Deco, Figo, Rui Costa, Couto in their peak would have dominated Europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Come on Germany!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 6 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said: They haven't played a good team at all whatsoever as yet, I really expect Germany to expose them. I think the reverse is true. Its because France have played nobody of substance they will be really fresh and up for this one against a weakened German side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Can is a gamble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelVilla Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Think Germany will have fun against that French defence. 3 - 1 Germany. Muller is bound to score at least one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 That's a nice looking stadium. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Someone get Deschamps to a dentist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts