Euro2020 1st Round (BALLS, objects, and stuff)........

get all this up at once as put them in aleady. wont be around much this week. 

probably not for this forum but every two years (WC/Euros) our little group posts this amongst another. the kind of humor which beats the 'test of time' was created quite some time ago, from one of our fanatics. since this might be last Euros will put it up here. a little translation but its pretty close. get us in the 'proper' frame of mind.

Euros & World Cup:

Some, like to watch their balls slapped left & right all over the place (tennis)

Some, like balls bouncing up and down all night long (basketball)

Some, just go for the HOME RUN every time. (baseball)   never knew what that reference meant at the time    

Some, toss balls in the air and enjoy others - wearing pants - chase them(american football)

Then theres those maniacs up there in Finland & Russia. take a piece of wood, and hit them.... REALLY hard. and have some guy - HEYY!!! whats he doing wearing one of our Juventus kits???!!!!!! - tosses them on a block of ice. freaks. (hockey)

One of our ladies chopped them off one time, and threw them in the trash. 

it is my FIRM belief that BALLS......
no matter how many times theyve been used.
no matter how many times theyve been played with.

should NEVER be tossed away.

ME?? I like my balls kicked. thats right my friends. theres nothing quite like the experience of someone come running up, swing that athletic leg around and........... bang one home!

RIGHT WHERE IT COUNTS TOO!!!!

it can bring TEARS to your eyes. knees bent, nose touching the floor. (in prayer??)

and unlike all the sports listed above... it only has to be done once per day.

so, its all a matter of personal preference. are you a screamer? ......do you like to share? ......do you enjoy pain?

or...... are you just one BIG CRYBABY?

me??........im a crybaby.

LET THE EUROS BEGIN.

Group A: we might not be favored. or even advance. but one thing we do with passion as good/better than anyone else.... is sing the anthem. and with a heapful of luck and gods good graces maybe we'll be able to sing this 7 times. good luck to everyone.

Turkey/Italy - after 5 years absent from major tourney, toss in Covid, restrictions; judging from whats being heard, looks like we are about to set another tv viewing record. agreed. im suprised this opened sooo low. after being given the reins Mancini wont be judged by how we get the results, we just want a result. missing the WC 2 years ago has put an incredible amount of pressure on our guys from within the borders so its good we have veteran leadership. but I can see us playing very tight the first 45, "thinking" and not "reacting". nobody wanting to cause a brainfart or be caught 2 metres out of position. all the big-boy nations will have to go through this and the ones whom can quickly get through that phase will be better off in the tourney. the reason many believe 'experience counts' with this thing. on flips side of that, the Turks are awful young, but Gunes is a master tactician so he'll have something to stop our "Plan A' - and if I was coaching, most likely be flooding the midfield and mucking it up - this one might take a wee-bit of time to get going. hope we can put on a show but truth of the matter is we'll be glad with a point and get the opener out of our system. . so ill take a shot at the U2.5 @-125

FORZA ITALIA!!!! 

Group B:
Belgium/Russia - 4-5 years ago Waffles got a taste of what it was like going up against a Grade-A coach (Conte) when he's given several weeks to prepare for you. and yet they still pulled off that RARE job of advancing after losing (by 2+ goals no worse). 4 years older and wiser, of all the behemoths, Waffles the only one I can trust to OPEN a tourney to make such a play with; won their WC opener 3-0, tho all 3 were 2nd half. takes them a while to get unglued. but got to admit that backline makes me nervous. taking a chance with Belgium TT O 1.5 @-109 initially wanted to take Russians with the '+' HC but not in mood to pay that much juice.

Denmark/Finland - got to see Fins twice up close, they are pretty organized back there. but fading the Danes in Parken has not been a smart thing to do the past few years. prices cr*p to back them and waited too long to take the under which has flew out of range since opening. PASS.

Group C:
Netherlands/Ukraine - as put in thy futures writeup, have Shevs guys pegged as a longshot so getting a result here will go a long ways towards that, we'll see. but Ukranians going home 4 years ago with 0 pts & 0 goals is EMBARRASSING. 18 of their 26 play domestically; 9 from same club (kyiv), two held down starting jobs in EPL, and of course Ruslan - how many players in europe have you seen able to take/score free kicks from either foot? (shaking head in disbelief). since they qualified directly Shev used the UNL as a testing phase for evaluating, so their lineups were mixed; however when that backline are all out there together Ukranians have been a decent bunch. back in march in a WCQ Shev had them all out there when went to Paris, parked the bus, ceded possession and held Didiers full strength side to a draw. thats all i needed to see from them. Oranje are no pushovers either, have them pegged for a deep run in this thing as well and even without Virgil theres a lot of quality in that roster. but laying 200+ juice when youre going up against someone with several weeks to prepare for you gives me ulcers. so ill take a small shot at this. Ukraine +1/2 @+135

Austria/Macedonia - PASS. need to wait and see. Austrians were blown away by the Danes in a WCQ while @home few months ago. played Lions last week and held 61% posession. but that was more of Southgates doing than anything Austrians did. the fact Gareth started a 17 year old in the middle is self explanatory. lot of people in media keep talking about Mac. 'w' vs Germans, but geez, theres some pretty awful results the past 2 years in their travels. lose to Armenians, concede 3 to Estonia/Romania. i think Austrians win but dont want to pay juice to find that out.

Good luck Spec 

Group D: (ignore this one if wish)
the first of two trends (other is Les Bleus, go figure) which have paid off nicely thru the years. dial down the risk cause THIS time they are at home. watch and enjoy.

England/Croatia: took about 3 or 4 Euros + WCs to get this thru our thick skulls. (not to mention a few nice rides up the creek) these two are playing @home, unlike all the other Intls of previous years.

the Lions.....annoyingly & constantly...... start off slow. 
just copying info from our beloved Lion supporter George, if HE can do this? then so can we? right?). and as we've learned, dont ever confuse this with his loyalty. :
Euros:
2016: 1-1 Russia
2012: 1-1 France
2008: not qualify
2004: 1-2 France

WC:
2018: beat Tunisia 2-1 on Harrys injury time prayer as a juiced 200+ fav.
2014: lost 1-2 italy
2010: draw 1-1 usa (got my teeth kicked in with this one, vowed to never again will i pay juice on a -HC with Lions)
2006: beat Paraguay 1-0 on an own goal in 3rd minute (up the creek #1)

and this is nothing negative on the Lions, theyve actually advanced in all but 1 of those tourneys, sometimes even finished on top of group. but holy (bleep) do they ever start slow.

Scotland/Czech draw @+215. this "smells" about right.

Group E: PASS

Group F: th other trend.

France/Germany: and not to be outdone, their rivals south of the Channel are just a nosehair worse; when you take into consideration WHOM THEY ARE, the strength of their opposition + prices. lost my *** with them too till i leaned to adjust still doesnt guarantee anything but, until then...2018: 2-1 Australia. match level in 80th, won on an own goal.
2014: 3-0 Honduras. keep in mind this was 0-0 up until almost the half when Concacaf side got a red. a 3rd place concacacaf side for godsakes.
2010: Uruguay draw

Euros:
2016: 2-1 Romania, 89th minute
2012: 1-1 England
2008: 0-0 Romania
with the exception of Honduras, France hasnt had the lead @ the half in any of their openers.

since its a much tougher task this time around ill take a shot at the Germans pick @+104 for the 1st half.

Hungary/Portugal - i honestly dont know what to do with CR7 & friends. 5 stright draws and win the title; follow that up in WC and 2 out of 3 draws. they consistently play down (or up) to the level of their opponents. with Rossi being old school & one of our own, we already know what to expect from the Hungarians but can they do this for a full 90? the 'cute' play is +1/2, and prices on that draw sure looks tempting. got a week to grow a pair and do it. PASS.

GL to all and have a good week 

Amad    quickly here. good to see you around and tks for stopping by. hope all is well with self/fam 

Great read.  Good luck on the plays.

Good luck Spec.   KDB and Witsel didn't travel to Russia, I hope that dolt Martinez will start Tielemans. Mertens better show something right off the bat, because he was invisible in the last 2 friendlies.....

great writeup as always spec! hope all has been well with you! 

van 

Ganda    just going lightly. the bulk of of our risk is in futures.  i let that dictate the individual plays.  especially when this thing gets deeper, we will be splitting hairs.    will toss up whats sent regarding 1st matches in a bit.     hope all is well with self and fam and tho thisis a few days late, tks fer stopping by 

Lego   good to see you around, where you been?   hope all is well 

just updting and put up what sent out:

Turkey/Italy U2.5 @-125 (L)
Belgium TT O 1.5 @-109 (W)
Ukraine +1/2 @+135 (L)
Croatia +1/2 @+108 (L)

Scots/Czech draw @+215(L)

so-so results.  went lightly, but some of these result are perfect. 

Pending:

Germany pick @+104 for the 1st half.

last of the props, decent run with another typical 1st round 6-3, but 7-3 if count ours)already have the stats (10-6 in WC, 9-3 previous euros), which came away with nice profit past few years; something of a growing trend but its historically been the same pattern. along with the writeup in thy futures threads of how these 1st rounders tend to be played out. big difference this Euro was the fact so many get to play at home, so it was hard to gauge.but after seeing the way the Turks came out, Danes, Lions, Oranje, Azzurri came flying out of the opening whistle and created chances but timing was off.
Hungary/Port will there be a goal in first 30? no @-120
France/Germany will there be a goal in first 30? no @+110

@specimen24

 Suerte mi pana, me encanta alemania para hoy

alfha  hope all is well my friend. Copa is a mess.  will put up a thread for that but not much. 

some thoughts on these 1st games which were discussed - of course, Azzurri most in depth). & being mindful that youre never as good/bad as the last match. different opponent. different pitch sometimes. and depending on table, sometimes different strategy.

Group A:

Turkey - terrible gameplan. i get playing for the draw but with the type of midfield we can put out there, you cant concede that much space as well. personally, i thought they played too tight, that "thinking and not reacting" thing, didnt stop coming out of break eiter. for all teams, losing is one thing (and expected) but now theyre @ -3 and pretty much have to win their remaining matches to get through. they are FAR better than what they showed and immediately looking at their prices vs Wales.

Italy - experience and veteran leadership showed. we got goals from the guys whom are supposed to give us goals so everybody happy about that, it helps their minds and can now just "play". the connection from our MF to up front was probably the biggest take out of this one (A+).yes, the Turkish GKs brainfart will be talked about, but for those whom follow the Azzurri faithfully will agree, Cirro electing the drop that off to Lorenzo was SHOCKING, he typically sends lasers on target from there. and not only that, if you watched closely his awareness to ease up on that assist to allow Lorenzo to use his right foot,...... cohesion.      every coaches dream/nightmare. we are in deep sh*t if he keeps starting Lorenzo on the left tho. 
but lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, futbol is MUCH easier to play when you dont have to worry about your opponent attacking you. when your backline has their heels inside the midfield? thats the definition of "dominance", not what the scoreboard reflects.
lets see how we do next match when someone - with speed up front - actually tries or wants to score against us. everybody going bonkers over the way we played, but they seem to ignore the fact that we were able to play that way because of the way Turkey played. nothing more, nothing less. positives all around tho:
1) 3 pts - huge. but also because Mancini now has the luxury of rotating in that 3rd match.
2) no injuries
3) no yellows. wooooooooooo!!!!!

Wales - i love watching these guys. that was a good point they grabbed, that a sweet set piece strategy. felt they played too tentative in 1st half; but as always, above average in the air; dont really do anything special but sound and tend to not turn it over much. but they are going to struggle mightily with speed. and and one thing I do NOT like seeing was several of their players bent over pulling their shorts during injury time breathers. that humidity/temps in Baku really affected them, and just dont have the bench.

Swiss - not wanting to take anything away from Wales performance, but a part of me thinks they just blew this one. had their chances but couldnt convert. Embolo will be problematic for our backline. not much to say here, a few mental mistakes, obvious one was heading ball over touchline conceding the corner where Wales scored; you have space/time? kick it to the side son, always to the side. this experienced side will remain a tough nut to crack as they have all the shifting down pat.

Spec!  Great read as always, best of luck to you

Denmark/Finland - god bless you & a speedy recovery Christian. nothing. NOTHING.. should ever be valued above life and ones health/well-being. and when you live long enough, you learn to appreciate those values more. im suprised they went on with it. analysis need not be made.

Russia - pretty much what I expected from futures thread. no need to repeat. they take forever to get up the pitch.

Belgium - after watching Serie A for 2 straight years lets keep this simple: Luk get ball. Luk kick ball. Luk run camera. with his good friend on the mend and Kev expected back, his head will be on straight from here on out, not a good thought for everyone else standing in their way. missing regulars in the middle? cant get too overly critical of them. wait till Waffles meet someone with size not easily pushed around; but their backline looked like a railroad map; need to get the communication straightened out, one of those "fixable" problems. fortunately for them a bunch of leadfoots on Russias frontline. said this in futures and say it again, Waffles are bloody murder to setup a defensive gameplan against. as Aless says, "cant sit back. best way of stopping them on offense is to attack them. worst way to stop them? attack them." on a side note, no way. i am not conceding  Im still going to win our wager , Luk was where he usually is when that ball landed on his flippers...... offsides. why did that russian touch the ball. (with a case of our finest on the line, this is important)

Group C:

England/Croatia - tho lost the small play with Croats, put these two together. thought it was a GOOD result for both sides. Lions got the first game anxiety out of the way and came away with the 'w' vs what will be their toughest opponent in Groups. tho was suprised at how Gareth eleccted to sit back and protect that lead; risky with such a veteran opponent. but in hindsight its what youre supposed to do anyways in these openers. for Croats the -1 differential is golden for them to secure 2nd. can win remaining two - might not even need to actually - and more likely than not have the advantage with differential cause im getting the feeling Lions going about set to go on a tear offensively   agreed, we could not have asked for a better result. might finally have the Lions tamed with futures. score bunch? hit the parlay, struggle? hit group prop. and above average shot at both. we'll see how it unfolds.

Austria/Macedonia - only one didnt get chance to watch, will take your wor on it. looked like went as expected. Macedonia 0 corners, 0 offsides, 40% possession, and just 2 on target.

Dont 

actually, that was Group C/D.  heres other half of each 'C/D' (proof positive of the past few days 

Netherlands/Ukraine - disappointing result but sitting nicely with the big futures. two things? 1) Oranje cant protect/defend leads, their shifting and setup in the back is a bigger problem than I initially thought. but as this tourney goes on, their cohesion/timing us front is only going to get better; which is a scary thought as they created tons of chances for themselves. Ukraine TOO cute back there, sometimes its just better to kick it upfield and reset the defense instead of passing your way out. Shev paid the price with his MO conceding the late one. stop complaining about the GK's blunder guys, he kept them in the game first 45. Marco, spot on. as put in writeups Ukranians one of the better teams at free kicks, how about Mal ehh? best at free kicks in this toruney. doesnt get any better than that, pace & accuracy right on the melon with a few inches window. cazzo!!! chr*st im missing Andrea already.

Scotland/Czech - immediately. that old tourney saying kicks in: 'youre never as good as your last game and youre never as bad as your last game' Scots will get torn apart for their defending, lot of positives from them in their hard working and they did create a lot of chances for themselves. people critiquing the GK but keep in mind Schick had the awareness to glance up while running full speed to check his positioning before blasting that shot.great result for our futures, unless Clarkes side can pull off a massive upset in one of their remaining games. we dont need to do much else here.but like what I saw from them.

Group E:

Poland/Slovaika - as always, Lew just not getting the service with that midfield hes running with. in these tourneys you'd expect reds from youth, not experience. so that was a pretty dumb unnecessary challenge. and a bad result for Poland whom now need to pray the other match in round 2 ends in a draw. and tho this result is a massive help to thy Slovaks future, a BIG thumbs down finishing a match in the manner they did. with the lead + man up, you dont sit back that far deep.and you definitely dont allow your opponent to get behind you and concede set pieces, their youth & inexperience showed.

Spain - theyre only going to get better. this wasnt a bad result for them, however, lot of ?? before this thing started and their performance didnt help matters.  on top of that, they created more ??. simple problems, just need to pass quicker, move that ball around and create lanes. but i can see them blow up just as easy as can see them bang in  5 their next match.  will  wait and read reports from their camp. 

Sweden - a thing of beauty ehh?? Anderssons boys picking up right where they left off in WC, and as mentioned, they only conceded 3 in our group with Belgium 4 years ago. we sure do love a good horseshoe back there ehh?? as discussed in detail, not going to go over ALL of it again, Swedes slightly different in that the defend the passing lanes better than anyone. concede blasts from outside the box, and dare you to cross from the air. as our 'savior' stated, Swedes were best in europe goals conceded via header and the best % of clearances out of box. ure not beating these guys from the air. and yet again, we witness what 2-3 weeks of preparation can do vs a Grade-A tactician. put themselves in a very good position to advance.