VeeshanVault

Drolgin Steingrinder wrote:Those $40 I put on David Villa as tournament topscorer - at odds 22.5 - are looking like a fairly sound investment.

Boogahz wrote:bah! just got home from jury duty and missed all play up until the second half of play between Sweden and Greece. I had seen the score online during a recess, and realized that I had not set the DVR to record today's games ><


btw, is this REALLY the same Greek team (as in, same players/coach) that won Euro2004? They are looking sooooo shitty so far. Their passing efficiency alone blows. They have had at least one clear breakaway that was lost to a pass straight to a defender with no Greek player near him.


Oh! Goal! by Sweden while typing this...nicely struck!

*edit* hhahaha, the second goal rocked!

Opinion: Knock-Out Round is a Disservice to Teams, Fans

For hardcore soccer fans, there's no better tournament than the European Championship. Too bad, says DW-WORLD's Jefferson Chase, that the bracket system pits the best teams against each other too early.

For me, the Euro 2008 officially started when I filled out an Excel file with my match predictions for the office pool. Defending World Cup champions Italy, I thought, were a good bet to make the finals, and as a dark horse, I figured I'd take the Netherlands.

Utter nonsense -- as I discovered when I had a closer look at the brackets. Despite facing each other in the group stage, in ultra-tough Group C no less, Italy and Holland would meet in the semi-finals, should both teams progress to the quarterfinals and then win their matches there.

That's because soccer's European governing body, UEFA, divides the sixteen-team draw into two halves -- with the winners and runners up of groups C and D (and A and B) playing each other, and then the two survivors meeting up one round later.

Holland thus could survive the Group of Death but still have to beat Italy again to reach the finals -- which seems a bit harsh. Meanwhile, Germany or Portugal could cruise to the big show without necessarily having to face another of the top European sides.

Soccer shouldn't copy tennis


Euro 2008 organizers clearly didn't understand the implications of the system used to determine who plays whom.

The top bracket/bottom bracket system is employed in other sports -- most notably tennis. But in tennis, individual players are seeded with relative precision on the basis of past results so that the system works to prevent the top two seeds from having to lock horns before the final.

Soccer ranking systems aren't at all precise. Indeed, at times they're absurd. In 2006, for example, soccer minnows the United States were ranked fourth-best in the world -- for reasons inexplicable to everyone concerned, including the Americans.

What's more, in big tournaments, host nations are not only given automatic berths, but also seeded among the top teams. The nominal top seeds in Group B, for instance, are not three-time world champions Germany, but co-hosts Austria.

The result is three top European sides (Italy, Holland and France) in Group C but only one (Germany) in Group B. And this year, the seeding imbalances have been magnified by the brackets.

In need of repair


The solution to the skewed system is blindingly obvious -- pair up the winners of the Group A/B quarterfinals with those from the other two groups. That way, teams that faced each other in a strong first-round group could only meet again in the final.

It's difficult to see why UEFA failed to see this easy remedy -- perhaps the draw was plotted out by mascots Trix and Flix.

Holland's historic win over Italy on June 9 was a great contest between two top teams -- and no real fan would object to seeing a sure-to-be-ill-tempered rematch in the final on June 29.

Unfortunately, due to organizational myopia, that fixture is not on the cards.

43' If Jansen isn't removed at half time then I'll eat my oddly shaped mouse. In fact, just draw a curtain round him on the pitch and end it. Awful.

47' The expected change, David Odonkor is on for the hapless Jensen. Lahm switches to right back.

Boogahz wrote:I just happened to go to the cafeteria to see the first goal. It was preceded by some simply sick one touch passes leading to a nice cross from Podolski to Schweinsteiger. Then I got to see the free-kick to Klose for the second goal before going back to my desk.

I got home to see Gomes score after the German back 4 seemed to be playing too far up on the attack. Having missed what happened in-between, I wonder if this was just a side-effect of the switch from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 on the German side. It sucks that I won't be able to stay home for lunch long enough to see the rest of the game >< Maybe I can make some excuse to work in the cafeteria. If not, I still have the DVR recording!

*edit* hahaha, the replay after Ronaldo went down in the 47th minute was classic. Yes, it was a foul. When you spend a few seconds looking around to see if you are going to get "rewarded" with something more severe and THEN start writhing in pain, you suck.

Drolgin Steingrinder wrote:But if you're talking about the one where Friedrich stepped on his foot, that one was actually fair enough. Slight delayed reaction from Ronaldo, but completely understandable. He wasn't acting, maybe exaggerating but every single fucking player in the world does that.

Truant wrote:The camera angle that we had here on ESPN didn't show his foot being stepped on, it was just out of frame. So it looked like Ronaldo started crying for nothing.

The commentators pointed out that he was stepped on, and showed it again explaining where and when.

Drolgin Steingrinder wrote:Accumulated yellows are wiped after the quarter finals for whatever fucking reason.