2018 - 2019 Football Thread - Page 256

On June 07 2019 06:52 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:
Maybe a different Memphis shows up in the final otherwise we gonna need Portugal to gift us two goals too.

The stupid thing is we had some pretty great controlling play at phases but it resulted in almost zero threat because there was no end product on the field today. Dutch pundits are really hyped at the quality of the controlling play but meh we pretty much almost lost here if not for one shoulder blade offside.

In the end Memphis even though being terrible still forced the goals somehow by his constant pressure and running. So I can't even properly hate his performance even though I want to lol

On June 07 2019 06:52 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:
Maybe a different Memphis shows up in the final otherwise we gonna need Portugal to gift us two goals too.

The stupid thing is we had some pretty great controlling play at phases but it resulted in almost zero threat because there was no end product on the field today. Dutch pundits are really hyped at the quality of the controlling play but meh we pretty much almost lost here if not for one shoulder blade offside.

In the end Memphis even though being terrible still forced the goals somehow by his constant pressure and running. So I can't even properly hate his performance even though I want to lol

On June 07 2019 06:25 Pandemona wrote:
Embarrassing, champs league final is fucking stupid to play this so soon after. Why can't this be played next week ?? Means our manager makes right call not playing nay of them from the start, but the issue was the midfield we had without Henderson dont work. We saw it in the world cup it dont work without Henderson.

Now we get our cbs playing out with no options and in stones case making a fucking idiotic decision to turn like a twat.

Oh well. Onto the Euros.

There was a moment of double-take deep into the second half of a steamy, slightly wild Nations League semi-final at the Estádio D Afonso Henriques. Frenkie de Jong took the ball in his own penalty area facing the Dutch goal and straight away heard the thundering hooves of Fabian Delph at his back, the white shirts sensing a turnover.

De Jong did something surprising. He slowed to a walk, floated left, half-turned, then flipped back the other way. Without looking up, but sure in his movements, he fizzed a hard, flat pass out 40 yards to a free orange shirt, the weight of the day, the breath of Delph, the dying moments of a semi-final, falling away from his shoulders like an evening mist.

It was a moment of entirely natural grace and a glimpse in microcosm of a sporting culture. De Jong was not following a plan or acting under some earnestly undertaken notion of DNA and blueprints. He does not have any other way to play. This is the only way he gets on the pitch from academy to first team, as the guy who takes the ball and keeps it and finds the space around him.

In the first half he had done something similar in the centre circle, taking the ball and changing direction three times before deciding which way to move, feet moving at different angles from the average human biped. Some footballers run like thoroughbreds. Some run like carthorses. De Jong is like a footballing unicorn, all magic dust and rainbows and feet that barely leave an imprint. By the final whistle he had touched the ball 108 times, and had a 97% passing accuracy, not so much running the game as elegantly ushering it along.

On June 07 2019 07:00 Acrofales wrote:

Oh well, Portugal has a shocker of a defense too. It's 10 stooges and Ronaldo