Euro 2016 verdict

Behrooz_C

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2005
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#1
Overall, a very stale, uneventful, easily forgettable tournament. I am talking from a purely footballing point of view. There were no magical moments that will live long in the memory. Too many sideways and back passes, too many teams playing cautious football. Even the few big name players were overly conservative.
 
#2
Totally agree , over all it was a very delicate tournament but again in general this sport is depleted. there was a time we had tons and tons of star players in each country anywhere from Russia to Spain. teams like Holland and Germany or even Italy and Portugal had all ace players , who do we have now ?
 

Behrooz_C

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Dec 10, 2005
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#3
Part of the blame goes to UEFA for the stupid group format. The best third teams qualifying meant so many teams laid low and expected to draw and go through that way. In fact, the 24 team format is ridiculous. It's nice to have teams like Albania there but they offered nothing.
 
#4
Part of the blame goes to UEFA for the stupid group format. The best third teams qualifying meant so many teams laid low and expected to draw and go through that way. In fact, the 24 team format is ridiculous. It's nice to have teams like Albania there but they offered nothing.
but at the same time with the new format teams like wales and Iceland were discovered
 

TeamMeli

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2014
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#6
Time will tell if it was a discovery or just once in 50 years. I don't see any if them making it to Russia
True Wales and Iceland could just be one hit wonders. Behrouz C is right overall I found the tournament to be lack luster and goals were hard to come by. The last time I remembered it being this boring was when I was eight years old. That was 1990 Italy, that was a boring tournament as well. However, one reason why they do not score as many goals is because they play good defense. However most of those games were brutal to watch.
 
Oct 18, 2010
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#7
Part of the blame goes to UEFA for the stupid group format. The best third teams qualifying meant so many teams laid low and expected to draw and go through that way. In fact, the 24 team format is ridiculous. It's nice to have teams like Albania there but they offered nothing.
well the joke is on you and the punch line is one of those
3rd place teams won the cup!
 

byebyenow

Elite Member
Jun 3, 2006
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#9
The best two teams knocked each other out, Italy and Germany. That should have been the final, not this garbage yesterday. It was a horrible format for this tournament, I liked it better when there were 16 teams.
 

TeamMeli

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Feb 5, 2014
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#10
The best two teams knocked each other out, Italy and Germany. That should have been the final, not this garbage yesterday. It was a horrible format for this tournament, I liked it better when there were 16 teams.
Sometimes, these things unfortunately happen. One bracket is loaded or sometimes one group is the group of death. I agree Germany and Itay had a much tougher road to travel than Portugal but give Portugal credit. They cannot control who they play next, they just have to play the tame. They constantly won ugly but as I always say, "An ugly win is much better than a pretty loss." It is what it is but they should change this for next time. You should not have France, Germany and Italy a in one bracket. Of course England was there as well but they were crap, Iceland was better. Both Germany and Italy will be back and they should be two teams who have a legit shot at Russia. My way to early top four prediction for who will win the World Cup.
Germany, Italy, France and Argentina(even without Messi they are still pretty dam good). I do not see Portugal making a repeat performance, they will not be as lucky in Russia. I had to pick ONE South American side and I still say Argentina is more skilled than Chile or Columbia.
 

byebyenow

Elite Member
Jun 3, 2006
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#12
Sometimes, these things unfortunately happen. One bracket is loaded or sometimes one group is the group of death. I agree Germany and Itay had a much tougher road to travel than Portugal but give Portugal credit. They cannot control who they play next, they just have to play the tame. They constantly won ugly but as I always say, "An ugly win is much better than a pretty loss." It is what it is but they should change this for next time. You should not have France, Germany and Italy a in one bracket. Of course England was there as well but they were crap, Iceland was better. Both Germany and Italy will be back and they should be two teams who have a legit shot at Russia. My way to early top four prediction for who will win the World Cup.
Germany, Italy, France and Argentina(even without Messi they are still pretty dammed good). I do not see Portugal making a repeat performance, they will not be as lucky in Russia. I had to pick ONE South American side and I still say Argentina is more skilled than Chile or Columbia.
It's too early to say what will happen in the next two years, but I think Germany will still be the favorite, Italy is the question mark, we have to see what Ventura does, even though I believe he was the best choice for the job, but he won't have Barzagli and De Rossi anymore, however, players such as Berardi, Insigne, and Veratti are the future. France will still be a great team with many young stars, the key is to get them to play a system that works for them, in this tournament Pogba played out of his position as a distributor and was the total failure, Pogba should have played in much more advanced role, in few years Martial will take the main striker role and it will be a much different team than having Giroud at top. Argentina needs a real coach, someone like Conte would bring the WC to Argentina but without it, Argentina is just bunch of individual stars that try to figure out the game plan among themselves in the pitch, there is not much organization, Chile is much more of the team than Argentina! Dybala is the future for Argentina though and I can't wait to see this kid playing in that jersey. Spain is still a strong football nation and they should also be a favorite, Portugal will not get lucky like this but they also have a very promising young generation coming through their ranks so it will be interesting. Belgium also with a better coach could be a threat, and please nobody ever bring the name England.
 

TeamMeli

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Feb 5, 2014
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#14
It's too early to say what will happen in the next two years, but I think Germany will still be the favorite, Italy is the question mark, we have to see what Ventura does, even though I believe he was the best choice for the job, but he won't have Barzagli and De Rossi anymore, however, players such as Berardi, Insigne, and Veratti are the future. France will still be a great team with many young stars, the key is to get them to play a system that works for them, in this tournament Pogba played out of his position as a distributor and was the total failure, Pogba should have played in much more advanced role, in few years Martial will take the main striker role and it will be a much different team than having Giroud at top. Argentina needs a real coach, someone like Conte would bring the WC to Argentina but without it, Argentina is just bunch of individual stars that try to figure out the game plan among themselves in the pitch, there is not much organization, Chile is much more of the team than Argentina! Dybala is the future for Argentina though and I can't wait to see this kid playing in that jersey. Spain is still a strong football nation and they should also be a favorite, Portugal will not get lucky like this but they also have a very promising young generation coming through their ranks so it will be interesting. Belgium also with a better coach could be a threat, and please nobody ever bring the name England.
Fair point about Italy but from my experience, when you do not expect Italy to do much, that is when they play well. Of course losing Del Rossi and Barzagli hurt but look, they lost some key guys and still played well. They lost Pirlo and others but like you said they have guys like Beradi, Ingsine and Veratti as their future. You know more about the Italian team than me, good stuff but we both agree that they still have a shot. We just have to wait and see. Oh and we don't know if GG Buffon will still be the GK, I say digeh time to hang up the cleats. In 2018, he will be 40 years old.
Now on to France. I have no idea why in the hell Giroud is starting and why Arsen Wenger hasn't put this guy on the bench yet. Does he have incriminating photos of Wenger? I agree with you that Pogba should not have played the distributor role that is not his strength, maybe put him up front, where he can be more impact to the team.

As for Argentina, again good analysis. Even WITHOUT Messi, they are a good team BUT I see a bunch of individuals. I do not see a Germany, where they come together and play as a team. It seems like everyone wants the glory and you have a bunch of individual stars but no team. However, if they get a guy like Conte or a top flight coach Argentina will be back. The reason why I picked them is because I did not want to just pick ALL EUROPEAN TEAMS, I wanted to throw ONE South American team in there so I picked Argentina. I also do not think Portugal will get lucky like they did last year and I totally forgot about SPAIN. I think now that they are getting younger, they will get better we saw some changing of the guard but they were unlucky. They got placed in the tough bracket and bumped into Italy. As for Belgium, well a good coach might help but they need better payers. Guys like Hazard, Luakau are good but THEY DO NOT HAVE A 2nd gear. As for England, I did not even MENTION them, I would mention the USA before I mention England.
 
Apr 15, 2016
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Suisse
#18
I was partly impressed by that 18 years old kid Sanches but other than that it was a uneventful tournament and most teams were rather about not conceding than scoring goals. The modus was bullshit and encouraged teams to play like this. If you invite so many teams then at least dont raise the number of teams to reach the knockout stage. Let them fight to become first or second in group to advance. I would even make more groups with fewer teams and let just the group winner to advance. That would be a lot more fun.
 

IEI

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 10, 2002
14,500
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#19
For me the best moment were when Iceland beat England and Italy beat Spain.

Overall it was OK tournament ... I don't think it was horrible as some described it
 
Last edited:
Oct 18, 2010
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#20
did ANYONE impress you guys in this tournament? like anyone who could be the next CR/Messi ?
players like those don't come too often.so nobody who can have the
same impact in the future emerged in this cup.
but personally i was very impressed with candreva of italy.and i think
his injury was the main reason italy did not go far enough in the cup.
he is 29 but he might emerge as a star in the next wc.