|
|
Northern Ireland22930 Posts
I believe it was Tim Vickery, BBC’s long-standing South American football writer, and long-time resident of the rather enjoyable World Football Phone-In who made this point re time-wasting.
Rather a lot of it isn’t so much to waste time as it is to disrupt the flow of the game, put your opponent off and frustrate them.
So while stopping the clock does deal with actual time-wasting, it simultaneously introduces the issue where that other kind isn’t really penalised.
I’m not sure I 100% agree with him tbh on this but I thought it was an interesting observation nonetheless, and do recommend his work
|
I'm 100% against stopped clocks. Simply because in less than 3 years after its introduction we would have ad breaks like in NA sports at every opportunity.
|
On June 19 2024 16:44 mahrgell wrote: I'm 100% against stopped clocks. Simply because in less than 3 years after its introduction we would have ad breaks like in NA sports at every opportunity. Rugby doesn't have ad breaks so I don't think there's any danger of that.
|
On June 19 2024 16:44 mahrgell wrote: I'm 100% against stopped clocks. Simply because in less than 3 years after its introduction we would have ad breaks like in NA sports at every opportunity.
Ah I didnt think about this! Well they should have it like in rugby then, not like in that snoozefest NFL games.
|
Norway28484 Posts
So with the first round being over with and people (not saying here, really) coming with predictions based on this, I decided to have a look at every wc/ec that I can remember, to see how strong the relationship is between 'performance' and 'eventual result'.
Starting with 1990, the first tournament I watched. The top 4 here was, in order: West Germany, Argentina, Italy, England. West Germany won their group, opening with beating Yugoslavia (a very good team in 1990) 4-1. They continued with a 2-1 victory against the Netherlands, 1-0 vs Czechoslovakia, beating England in a penalty shootout, and a 1-0 victory against Argentina. Fair winners tbh - there's a penalty shot victory in there and a bunch of 1 goal victories, but they were incredibly solid. Second placed Argentina however, opened with losing against Cameroon, and actually finished third place in their group. Then they beat both Yugoslavia and Italy in penalty shootout. Basically they were really lucky to get 2nd. Italy honestly had a much more impressive tournament performance - going 3-0-0 in their group, and only conceding 2 goals over 7 games.
In 1992, Denmark won the EC. They weren't even supposed to qualify, but Yugoslavia had to drop out because of a civil war emerging. In the tournament (with only 8 teams), they went 1-1-1 during the group stage, finishing second behind Sweden, beating France with a late goal. They then beat Netherlands after a penalty shootout, before beating Germany in the final. Pretty lucky to get to the tournament, fairly lucky to escape the group stage, lucky to beat Netherlands. Honestly the final might have been their least lucky win. The Netherlands imo were the best team of the tourney.
1994 / WC Brazil won by penalty shootout. They were largely considered the best team throughout the tournament. Second placed Italy however only narrowly escaped the group stage, being the fourth best third placed team.
96: Germany won. Once again they beat England in a penalty shootout, and they also beat Czech republic in the final after golden goal. Czech republic made it through their group stage with a worse points/GD than the third placed team, but H2H was the deciding factor. They also beat France in a penalty shootout.
98: France won, they were considered the best team throughout the tournament. 3-0 vs Brazil in the final, 9 points from the group stage. Still - needed golden goal to beat Paraguay in the ro16, and beat Italy in a penalty shootout in the round after.
2000: France won ahead of Italy. Two golden goal wins (semi and final), and lost to the Netherlands in the group stage. The Netherlands trounced Yugoslavia 6-1 in the quarter final as well as going 3-0-0 in the group stage, but lost a penalty shootout to Italy in the semi. Could be argued the dutch were the most impressive team - but at least this is the first winner who did not need a penalty shootout win.
2002: Brazil won, and this was actually a convincing win all the way. They won every match before the full time. Second placed Germany was very mediocre but arguably had the best goalie I've ever seen, at least until the final. (Kahn also got best player award.)
2004: Greece won. They advanced from the group stage ahead of Spain because 4-4 GD was better than 2-2. Then got 3 1-0 wins in a row with some amazingly tight defensive football. Czech republic was imo clearly the best team of the tournament (getting 9 points from a group with netherlands and germany), but lost on golden goal to the greeks.
2006: Italy won. Argentina was hailed as probable winners after the group stage, (their 6-0 beating of Serbia and Montenegro is one of the best team performances I've seen), but lost to germany on penalty shootout in the quarter final. Italy themselves needed extra time vs Germany and a penalty shootout vs France, following Zidane making a grand exit. France ended second from the group stage. I think both Germany and Argentina impressed me more during the tournament than both finalists did.
2008: Spain won. That was fair enough - they waltzed through the group stage. Did need a penalty shootout to beat Italy in the quarter final.
2010: Spain won again, after 4 1-0 victories, the final after extra time. Started by losing their first group stage match. Germany on their end beat England 4-1 and Argentina 4-0 before losing the semi. (That said, Spain could easily have won that game by more goals). Fair enough that they won.
2012: Spain did it again. Did need a penalty shootout to beat Portugal in the semis. Won the final 4-0 against Italy.
2014: Germany won. Best remembered for 7-1 vs Brazil in the semi. However, needed extra time to beat Algeria in the ro16 (and also in the final vs Argentina). Fellow finalist Argentina needed extra time against Switzerland, and beat the Netherlands in penalties in the semi.
2016: Portugal won. The only team to ever win a championship without winning a single match in the group stage - they had 3 draws, in a group with Hungary, Iceland and Austria, finished third place and advanced as the third best third place finisher. Then beat Croatia in extra time, Poland in penalties, and France after extra time in the final. Easily could have bombed out during the group stage instead.
2018: France won - the second team of this list to do so without extra time or penalties, and also did not lose any group stage matches. Could've lost to Argentina in the ro16 - that was a tight game.
2020: Italy won. Dominant group stage performance, but needed extra time in the ro16 vs Austria, as well as penalties in both the semi final and final.
2022: Argentina won. Needed two penalty shootouts to do so, both vs netherlands in the quarter final and france in the final.
Tallying this up - 17 winners total during my time as a football fan. 11 of those needed one or more penalty shootouts to win. Only twice do we have a winner who did not need extra time. Brazil 2002 is probably the only one where I think replaying the tournament would be likely to leave us with the same winner. On three occasions the finalist or winner ended third in their group. So - sure. Germany and Spain have looked good after the first round match. But nobody should really be shocked if the final is Italy vs Portugal.
|
After 2004 nobody should be surprised by anything in the EUROs. All hail Otto Rehhagel and dance the Rehakles
|
|
I regret captaining Kramaric
|
Technically Italy in 1982 also won the tournament despite having only 3 draws during the (first) group stage.
Also, if (and that's a big if as it stands) croatia is going to advance from the group as one of the 3rd place teams, I already feel sorry for any group winner who might face them in the ro16.
|
On June 19 2024 22:16 DropBear wrote: I regret captaining Kramaric
I even regret getting him ..
|
2006 France was the most impressing team by far and 2010 it was Germany...
|
On June 19 2024 22:16 DropBear wrote: I regret captaining Kramaric
Well maybe not that much regret! ^^
|
On June 19 2024 23:32 gTank wrote:Well maybe not that much regret! ^^ Only moderate regret now :p
|
That is some very good analysis Drone, just one complain about 2004.
Portugal was the best team there if i recall correctly, no bias :p. We lost the opening game against greece and then the final against them as well.
Portugal went through a good english side and a good NL team and also Spain in groups.
Team was built on the basis of the Porto team that won thr champions league that year and the uefa cup the year before (Mourinho Porto years)
|
Lol. Those last 10 minutes were hilarious. That said, a draw helps neither of them. I really don't think a draw is enough for either of them to advance.
|
What an intense game! Not as great as turkey vs georgia but still really great!
|
I am sorry to say but Neuer is a liability instead of a great keeper anymore. Lucky it was offside...
|
Dunno, Neuer had two great saves earlier. If he was our biggest issue, we'd be 3-0 up with neither save from Neuer being necessary. It was an entertaining first half but from a german perspective, this isnt the kind of a performance that is good enough to get you past multiple co-favorites in the knockout stages. Rather it reminds me of the 2010-12 version of germany that might not only defeat you, but crush your spirit at times, but also might look very pedestrian when facing a skilled opponent with a decent plan.
|
I think germany plays well, also doing what they must for 6 points.
|
Nagelsmann did everything correctly with Gundogan
|
|
|
|