Euro 2012 Tournament.

Only 45mins in and it's more abysmal refereeing decisions!

Alan S.

Just said that.

Poland should of had a few and finished it in the first half .

Part two.

Nice one,

Greece just slipped one in with ten men.

Then the Gooners keeper gets sent off and Greece get there penalty saved.

A 1 all draw and good opening game.

Bad f ing reffing though.

Over to ITV HD for the next one.

Stu

Better than I thought it would be - parking the ol' Trojan Horse in front of the goal was clever. 

Thought Greece should have won - was that other goal offside

Trojan Rabbit.

What struck me was the number of players feigning injury. God knows what it'll be like when Portuguese, Spanish or Italians hit field.

Typical dumb nationalism and repellent racism on display in this tournament as expected.

Winky,

  You have been watching the news and not the two opening games.

Stu

It didn't take long for you to roll this one out again.  Is this going to be a regular theme of yours whenever an international football competition kicks off?  

We know you don't like football so don't watch and don't get involved.  

So we won world soccer tournament four times because of feigning injury?Hard to belive...

Fabio,

If you are talking about Italy?

Still the most fixed/ bent football league's in the history of the game though.

Stu.

Gale,

yes,I'm talking about Italy.

Agreed.Its a shame...I think I'm not watching AC Milan games any more next season.I finally decided...Not one cent cent from me next year,Enough is enough.

But World Tournament is not Serie A...though

Oh come on. I haven't dragged this old one out for ages and ages. It was time. And in any case, my beef is not about football per se; but rather about tribalism in all its repellant and destructive forms. Football fanism is often the most public display of this.

That is true, Stu. Fair cop.

What I meant was it took exactly 6 hours/8 posts for you to chime in with the same argument you started last time there was an international football competition.

Yes I know that it is the tribalism that you find repellant, we argued about this at great length last time around.  Personally I find the history of drug cheats (and the lenient sentencing) in cycling equally repellant.  I even dislike the packs of cyclists who terrorise runners and motorists in my area while displaying an arrogant self belief that rules of the road do not apply to them; yet I don't feel the need to bring it up every time there is a major cycling event.   

A good start to the games, Greece should feel hard done by with that ref but then again should of scored from the penalty,, Russia looked superb in attack it will be interesting to see how the cope with a defensive playing side such as Italy etc.

Hopefully the English media will stop looking for problems and concentrate on the football, The omission of Ferdinand , give it a rest ,he isnt fit and can only play once aweek according to fergie . time to move on as have the media regarding rio juming through  a changing room window to avoid a drug test. allegedly !

As for tribalism in football, so what ?, if you dont like it go and watch rugby where fans from each team can stand together drink themselves into a stupor and watch their respective teams beat each other up on the field. 

Apologies Fabio

Every national football team contains players who feign injury and dive. It's just that some national teams are better at it than others.

I suspect Italy won the world cup 4 times because they produced 4 very good teams.

There are threads about football on here all the time. I don't comment on them much at all. And I will heed your gentle advice and shut-up about footy fans and their behaviour. But in response to your comments...

Surely it is the operators of the vehicles that through their carelessness and agression, kill hundreds of thousands of people on the world's roads every year that are the "terrorists" (your word) here.

It is wasn't for motorists holding each other up, they would break the speeding laws pretty much 100% of the time. Try driving at the actual speed limit to observe this in actuality (i know, I know, you already do - great, you're one of a tiny minority). Also try sitting quietly by a stop sign and count how many cars actually stop. That's right, NONE (unless absolutely required to avoid a collision). Spend a few minutes watching cars at a set of traffic lights and see how many drivers stop on orange , rather than accelerate. That's right, very few. Keep a tally of how well motorist comply with the requirement to use indicators. Patchy compliance at best. (When riding a bike you tend to observe all this behaviour fairly keenly, as your life depends on predicting what cars will do next.)

FYI, I am a lycra lout and ride regularly in a group of 15-20 riders with my club. Believe it or not, we (and most clubs) regularly (several times on every ride) discuss how we should ride to minimise inconvenience to motorists and maximize safety. These are actually the same thing. We will ride 2 abreast maximum, often single file in busy areas. We stop at red lights 100% of the time, but roll carefully and slowly through most stop signs  (like EVERYONE else) when it is safe to do so. I am not sure exactly where the animosity comes from. In the grand scheme, motorists are slowed down, run into, inconvenienced, killed and injured by other motorists, far, far more than they are by cyclists.

I personally can't stand shared-use footpaths when cycling, and although there are many kilometres of then around here, I tend to avoid them so as not to conflict with runners, dog walkers, pram pushers, sundry pedestrians and kids. I also walk and run regularly, and have so for 40 years. I have never been hit by a bike or even had a close call that sticks in my mind. I wonder why my experience is so different to those who claim cyclist "terrorise" them when on foot. Here in downtown Vancouver, riding on the footpath is not unknown (perhaps even common) but even so, I have never felt that a cyclist was about to hit or harass me in all the time I have shared the footpath with them.

I too, find drug cheats in cycling (and other sports) repellant. The penalties are ludicrously light - but actually more severe in cycling than in most other sports. The testing regime is more pervasive in cycling, too. I will agree that this may be a reflection of the size of he issue, but without systematic testing at the same level in other sports, how would we know?

Hey, feel free to bring cyclists and their behaviour up as much as you like, whether during major cycling events or not. I enjoy the discussions. Now let's take this outside of this thread.

Rumour that Greece are through whatever; apparently if they don't amass enough points, Germany are required to donate some.

First time I put RVP in a fantasy team!

Cheers,

OW

Thanks for your considered reply, I agree that not all motorists are perfect and that ideally what is needed is respect for fellow road users from all sides.  It sounds like the cyclists in Vancouver are far better behaved than they are in Auckland.

Anyway, time to get the thread back on track.  No one has really impressed so far, the Dutch in particular seemed intent on boring the Danes into submission and probably got what they deserved.  It's early days yet but will be interesting to see how that group turns out.

Russians looked good ... other teams did not so far. 

However, I'm far from sure who the runners-up to Spain will be. 

I hope England are going to give it a go and play a lot more direct - long balls to Andy Carroll or in to the corners and scrap for corners and throw-ins. Bring up the big guns and hurtle every corner and throw in to the box. None of this tip tap passing nonsense and no short free kicks: load them all in to the box; I'm sure somebody big and awkward, Steven Gerrard for instance, could block off the goalkeeper, and we could bundle in a goal. If you're 20-30 yards from goal have a crack. Then if we get in front revert to the flat back eight. Oh and play Downing and Henderson in their best positions - on the bench. Shame Wayne Rooney will only be able to play one match in the tournament; still he should have known Rule 42 - clobbering opponents from behind for not justifiable reason is no nice. 

That's the way to do it - as the man above would have said, whilst quoting from Deschamps  Descartes. 

I'm afraid the days of the greatest manager in England's football history are behind us

It was 50 years ago this year that Sir Alf Ramsay achieved the greatest moment in English football history and it seems like only yesterday. Those were the days. 

As he is encased in Carbonite can't we just switch it off, and have him back?

What happened in 1962 ???

Newly-promoted Ipswich Town won the league.