Photo: AP
WHAT WE LEARNED:
-We could very well be witnessing the greatest team in football history…and Spain can make that official, without a doubt, with a win at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil
-Ronaldo can carry Portugal by himself (the non-penalty take will only make him stronger)
-Teams that have the talent, but also mental blockage, that prevent them from getting to the next level. Croatia: (With the exception of Euro 2008, the Vatreni cannot get through the group stage. Germany: (Zie Germans are proverbial semi-finalists, or better. What do they need to do differently to lift their next cup? Because it’s coming sooner than later.) England: Will they ever win a PK shootout?
-Avoid the Greeks. They manage to shock the world with their ‘never say die’ attitude. Although they play some of the most boring soccer to date, they always play their plan perfectly: park the bus!
-Bad officiating and non-penalty calls. I’ll leave it at that.
-Euro 2012 is the last tournament to play 16 teams. In 2016, it will grow to 24. More watered
-What happened to the Dutch? Some say too much talent, others say there was a cancer in the team. Arjen Robben has been the biggest football bust in recent years, but still doesn’t receive as much criticism as Fernando Torres. Robben’s forgetful résumé includes: a missed breakaway in the 2010 World Cup final, a missed penalty in extra time in the 2012 Champions League Final, multiple misses against Borussia Dortmund in Bundesliga/DFB Pokal Final, which helped Dortmund win the double, and an apparent attitude flare-up during Euro 2012, leaving the field on the far side after being substituted, then taking his time walking around the pitch.
–CROATIA: This group of players left Euro 2012 in the group stage. Most years, this would be a disappointment, but this time it left fans with hope. They not only played with the two tournament finalists, but they held each team to only one goal and executed the game plan perfectly, minus first half versus Italy. They were one Ivan Rakitić header away from rewriting European football history. The squad should be full of confidence entering World Cup 2014 qualifying against Serbia, Belgium, Wales, Scotland and Macedonia. Will Brazil be the place that the Vatreni break through?
(Please add your own comments below on what you learned from Euro 2012.)
http://www.uefa.com/under19/season=2012/matches/round=2000210/match=2010334/postmatch/report/index.html#croatia+england+draw
I thought Bilic had a good grasp of this team going in and throughout the tournament. His loyalty to certain players went out the window and he went with who was ready and fit to play. A lot of that has to do with training and being around the players for a month as opposed to the usual 3 or 4 days before a friendly or qualifier. We are not england, germany, italy, spain, where we can pick from 60 players and still field a great roster.
I was impressed with our defense and overall pressure on the ball. it wasnt our usual leave the other team all the space in the world and lets walk around the pitch. Although it does scare me that we havent had a clean sheet in 6 straight games, including Ireland, Norway, and Estonia. Not exactly offensive powerhouses. Sweden, Italy, and Spain I can live with. Thought Pletikosa had a good tournament as well.
I was in Poland for the Italy game and the game vs Spain. Every Polish person i spoke to said we had the best fans in the tournament and from what i saw, i agree. Yea there are the few assholes, but overall we should be proud that such a small nation has such a strong following. Met Croats there from Australia, Argentina, Sweden, Germany, pretty much from all corners of the globe, and wanna say thank you to the fans, players, coaches and the country for the experience.
HNS bira novog predsjednika i izbornika: Vlatko Marković u četvrtak i službeno odlazi u povijest
http://tinyurl.com/72n2jx9
My post tournament musings…
Rooney and Ozil in their games against Italy were two of the saddest sights in this tournament.
The only time England looked any good was when they were down and desperate in the 2nd half to Sweden and put Walcott on with Welbeck and Young. As soon as their saviour Rooney dressed for games they looked like shit.
I used to complain in the past about the drama around the Italian teams, but at least they always progress and contend in tourneys. Now the biggest underachieving, drama-queen countries are France and Holland. What a bunch of egos!
How nice did we look in our kits out there too?
Zero complaints from me Nike.
We looked awesome on the pitch!
Especially in our whites.
Man, those Spaniards are like rabbits!
You see all the babies raining down from the stands at the end? It looked like they were crowd surfing towards the field.
The commentating is such garbage on the North American feed. At one point I heard him say “beautiful free kick from Pirlo” about 3 seconds befor he even took it. A sophisticated English accent doesn’t fool me. These geezers are way out of touch.
The only teams that looked better than us to me were Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany. I can live with that…
Italy did have some bad moments but let’s make it clear that they were rightfully defeated against Spain. They didn’t pose much of a treat at any moment of the game. Other than a few shots right at Casillas, Italy didn’t show much in the final. It should have ended 2-0 instead of 4-0 is the only argument.
@ Denis Svircic
I very much agree; if Di Natale had any juice left from the group stage game, then Di Natale could have been considered a priority for a substitution, if not the only priority of the match.
Maybe if Prandelli waited 8-10 minutes to bring in Motta or another player, it could have been better. Despite being 2-0 down, bringing in two players very quickly must have then meant that these two players were much better than Cassano and Montolivo. Sadly, I didn’t see much of a difference, though possibly Di Natale could react better with Pirlo than Cassano. Hmmmmm
I’m also guessing that’s what Ziva meant about “the right call.” But subs could work against the team using it; it’s not just sugar-free candy without repercussions. During the Arsenal vs. AC Milan CL game from the previous season, many Gunners fans blamed Wenger for subbing off the OX after Arsenal’s 3-0 lead. Then, Arsenal could not get to the 4th goal (RVP failed to score his second). That’s not a direct effect of Arsenal’s loss, of course, but subs also have a negative effect if chance happens to manipulate it. I’m still sticking with “right intention.”
Even though they made the finals, Italy had to be the most unlucky team in the tournament. 1) They could have easily been up 2,3, zero against us at halftime. 2) Had no luck against England in the quarters. 3) final: a) Chiellini injured 21st b) Spain scores on just about their first real chance on goal. c) Italy couldnt equalize in the following 15 minutes after having spain backed up in their own half. d) Motta injured after 90 seconds.
The Italians did have some luck against the germans though.
Hell, a little bit of luck and croatia make the final.
@Mainzfeldski,
You make a good point about the 3 Italian subs. When Thiago Motta was subbed in as the third and final sub I figured that Italy had one more sub. I forgot about Giorgio Chiellini in the 21st minute.
At halftime I would have brought in DiNatale and then I would have used my final sub in the 70th minute instead of the 57th minute. Reason being, in the 57th minute, most players are still fresh from the halftime break. In the 70th minute, they have been running around for 25 minutes.
Besides DiNatale, I cant think of any “must have on the field players for Italy to score a goal” on the bench.
As far as “the right call” or “right intention” Ziva meant “it was the right call” at the time without knowing what will happen. I think it was too much of a gamble too soon. I would have given them another 13 minutes. Italy had their best 11 on the field(minus Chiellini) and you can make an argument with Cassano vs DiNatale.
@JP,
Im not sure if a 4-3-3 formation would work for us. Our strikers dont play defense. Mandzukic should have been getting back on Pirlo in the first half.
I like our traditional 4-4-2(4-1-2-1-2) or 4-5-1 formation.
Mr. Aleksander Holiga did an evaluation report on croatia’s tournament for theguardian paper/website.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jul/02/euro-2012-experts-network-verdicts
~@You are my moon
“we are still the best small country in world football”
Yeah we are one of the better smaller nations to compete in world football. But uruguay whom are ranked #2 in the world, have 2 world cups and have a population of just 3.3 million takes the crown for the best small nation.
refs in general were good…yes you can argue Croatia deserved a penalty in the Spain match, but then you completely forgot when Schildenfeld hacked down Keane in the Ireland game.
Only Greece can really have a beef with refs, with Croatia and Denmark (could have gotten a penalty against Germany) having a case.
People still complaining about refs is pretty sad. I thought the officiating was pretty good in the tournament as a whole. I didn’t see many bad calls other than Spain-Croatia and Russia-Greece also England-France was pretty bad. Still it was pretty good officiating in the Euros compared to the damn NBA playoffs.
I really enjoyed tournament and it really got me back to loving the sport. This tournament easily blew away World Cup 2010 regardless of Croatia in terms of overall quality it was way better.
Couldn’t spain have just played against italy this way in the first game.
Probabaly the same people who think Spain is “boring” to watch.
i want to know who voted F for croatias grade in the tournament, i don’t think we were watching the same games
I think we showed ourselves well in the tournir, with a little luck we’re easily in the quarters, and from there who knows. But that’s the way it goes or at least that’s the way it always seems to be for us. Nonetheless, I think the NT should be in fairly good shape for the upcoming qualifiers, I don’t know much about Stimac’s potential approach but hopefully it’s significantly different than Bilic’s, just for the sake of a fresh approach. I don’t see why a 4-3-3 couldn’t work for us as it did for Spain.
Pranjic to Everton deal close —> Partners with Jelavic
One second, I was cheering for the EUROs, and now… it’s gone… It felt just like yesterday the whole thing was starting…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Bah. Euros are over. That was a forgettable finals match (much like the one four years ago). However, the overall tournament was fine.
Now to make like Rakitic and take off for Cro. Be back in time to bitch about Igor Stimac and the shady callups who coincidentally have Damir Stimac as their agent.
Sammir je Damir!
@ Ziva
“They got fucked by the injury, but making the three subs was the right call.”
You mean, the right intention. If it was the right call, the Italians would be on the verge of winning.
It’s like saying that on paper, subbing in Dujmovic for Eduardo would significantly contribute to the Croatian defense and ultimately, victory, if Croatia could just hold on to a 1-0 lead. But once on the field after the substitution, he concedes an auto-goal after senselessly flicking his foot up, which deflects past Pletikosa, and he also headed a ball in an awkward direction backwards, leading to a second own goal (similar to Olsson’s header in the Sweden/Croatia friendly).
The Croats lose the game. Out of the EURO. Was this a right call? After all, the intention was “good.” Wrong. People want results, not intentions.
Performing a sub must take into value the positives and negatives of the new player coming in AND the player coming out (What will the new player contribute that the subbed out player cannot?). Montolivo < Thiago Motta in this 2-0 situation?
After all, Montolivo was threatening against Croatia. Why not against Spain?
Let's see here… Motta has a tendency to get injured quite a bit. That's a nice bonus…not.
Shame for Prandelli, chance made the team catch cold.
But I have no compassion for it: a manager can ask for a sub, but it comes as a simple trade-off. A player switches spots with another player in exchange for a single sub ability. If the substitution backfires, oh well. You wanted a sub. Here are two more. Oh, want to use more…?
Just like in chess, you could castle your King and Rook if you want, but there's a trade-off: you put these pieces in different locations (it's like performing two moves in one), thus changing the flow of gameplay and the opponent's mindset for his next attack or build-up. But it's a change of fresh air, not necessarily "a good move."
That's the risk of a substitution. If Motta really were to change the game, putting him in at 60' would have been much better.
You can probably find a way to score in 30 more minutes.
@ Ziva Istina
“what did you want Italy to save their subs for??? It was already 2-0”
Wow, were Montolivo and Cassano THAT horrible? Please, tell me how dandy Thiago Motta and Di Natale were during the match.
Think that Di Natale will score again like in the group stage? Why didn’t Prandelli start him instead?
I have not seen any tragic negatives in Montolivo and Cassano during the match. If anything, Balotelli had to be replaced, or Prandelli had to change tactics rather than players this early.
But were those two “key” subs NECESSARY to improving the offense (or defense)? I honestly haven’t seen an inkling of a difference. Spain were the much better team (even in group stages) at the start of the first minute.
Prandelli should’ve had an idea of the Spanish style since the group stages. If you will treat this as a final, score the first goal with your best players and then create a difficult-to-penetrate wall against the Spanish.
This is what happens when you sub players in too early (which didn’t make a dramatic difference to me, imo). Motta doesn’t warm-up well enough, gets injured, and Italy have shot themselves in the foot. It’s a nasty trade-off, and it’s a trade-off at best.
Again. Were Di Natale and Thiago Motta so instrumental? I didn’t see a change in the Italian playing style. In fact, it went from bad in the first half to worse in the second.
But, since the coach knows the best, then start these players. Oh no? Too bad, waste the subs early and face the consequences of thinking that their attacking style will replicate a draw or a win at best.
Karma for Italia as they didn’t deserve to move on after the bad calls by Stark kept us from advancing over one or Italy or Spain, oh well time to move on
Good luck to Stimac and the boys in Sept
It’s not like we outplayed Italy or Spain. We did enough to have a chance against each team, but we don’t have the needed parts to make that breakthrough. At least not yet.
What we didnt have is the ref doing his job. That cost us nothing else. either one of those penalties is called and Spain isnt the Champ today and thats a fact.
When its all said and done we still did not get out of the group stage. Yes plenty to be proud of in the way we played. I think we exceeded expectations with our play and that is why some are going overboard. We already have people posting we can get to the quarters at the WC. Easy folks!!!!
It’s not like we outplayed Italy or Spain. We did enough to have a chance against each team, but we don’t have the needed parts to make that breakthrough. At least not yet.
We have a tough draw for WC qualifying. I don’t think our play at the Euros will have much of a positive or negative impact going into qualifying. New coach coming in and we have no clue what expect from this budala in Stimac.
@Mainzfeldski….what did you want Italy to save their subs for??? It was already 2-0. Yes, it if it was tied or a one-goal game you save that sub for the final 10-15 minutes, but Italy needed goals. They got fucked by the injury, but making the three subs was the right call.
@Jersey Cro:
I agree with your assessment of England.
I thought Robben left on the far side of the pitch to help get his sub on quicker.
Too many dubious calls/non calls against the “lesser teams”.
I guess nobody would watch a hypothetical Denmark versus Croatia game. UEFALONA is all about television ratings and $$$$$$$.
hopefully the team can go into their first game against Macedonia with full of confidence and support.
With a new coach and president, I am excited to see how they will play in months to come.
VATRENI!!!
I think that the EURO 2012 was a brilliant tournament.
Plenty of action from all teams, and there is no team (besides France) that did not deserve to be in the EUROs.
This was my first full tournament I witnessed after knowing much about certain individual players and teams (I discovered soccer during the 2010 WC).
Though there were problems with some referee calls, that did not subtract much from the EUROs. Much better than the 2010 WC referees.
I’m sad that Croatia’s strong performance went for a short while (3 games), but this makes 2014 WC qualifying all the more exciting. I honestly cannot wait.
Spain played a brilliant game, the best in these six games. Bringing on Fabregas, Pedro, and Torres really gave an attacking edge to their team. If Croatia were playing THIS team, I think we would have oodles of trouble, even with Bilic’s strategy. Prandelli did not manage the game well; if he looked a bit more on Portugal’s tactic against Spain or if he used the two subs a bit later, Italy might not have conceded 4 goals.
But Spain was awesome. Great final.
I thought England were more boring than Greece honestly…
Group stage was really good in general, 14 of the 16 teams had something to play for in the final match. Every match with the exception of the Ireland matches were competitive. The quarters were a let down, all 4 matches were boring with one side completely bunkering in each. Italy-Germany was a good game. The final was a good game when it was 11 v. 11, once Italy played with 10 men it became pointless.
About 2014….I worry if Stimac is coach, that will only end up in disaster. As soon as there is one poor result, he and Mamic will be bickering again. I would rather have a “boring” manager like Ivankovic, Kuze, Katalinic (one who won’t make headlines) rather than Stimac who will cause too many problems, especialy during the Serbia matches
As for 2012 not too many of us had confidence in our vaterni and now we say today 2 teams that we could have and should have beat we are still the best small country in world football so only Mamic Suker and Stimac can fuck what Bilic did his last 6 years With finding players and giving it his all for croatia i do not blame Bilic for 2010 WC in JAR we really didnt have any talent and i am glad that we should see the last of Olic Simunic thank God, what scare we is sammir and Mamics influence for the future in 2014 i except to qualify first and then at the tournamet a 1/4 final!!!! And Spain can thank Wolf gang stark his name should be mentioned and they can thank Rakitic.
Spain were great no question, but what if…..
I think this qualifying group is what we need, tough battles… I don’t care what team serbia is or croatia is doing on the world scene when we collide its going to be a battle. I don’t believe anyone in the world will play us as hard.
I see it as beating turkey in playoffs… i think if we won the group we actually would have played worse at euros…
Hopefully Stimac can coach us to Brazil
How bout our young talent. Since we qualified for under 19 euros, any of these kids have what it takes to step up soon??