Greece - Portugal Final

redspider

Originally posted by Stekelly
you cant do that ... If a country isnt blessed with a world class team ... but haveone or two in the team, they have to play to their strenghts to win anything and avoiod getting hammered. If Greece were faced with that they would have gone out. ... Tou cant discriminate against a team because they dont play the type of football you want to see.

I don’t think that adding a way of giving credit for attacking play is discriminating against teams. The rules are the same for all teams. At the moment, the game does credit attacking play, as when a team scores a goal, which is the ultimate expression of an attack, it is the team with the most goals that wins, not the team with the most goalie saves, tackles, etc.

You must accept as fact therefore that football currently awards the teams that score goals and football as it develops as a sport and entertainment should be about winning with creativity, not negativity. Therefore we should all be in favour of changing the rules to encourage attacking football, and we should not be against that.

I agree that teams such as Greece who are perhaps limited in attacking options would have gone out if they would have played with different and attacking tactics. I think that Rehhagel played a German-style of football that we have seen in the past work with success for Germany such as in WC1990, although even in that tournament they had more flair going forward. Indeed, Ireland’s tactics in 1988 and 1990 were closer to that of this Greek team (“put em under pressure”) than that of Brazil in 1970 or Brazil in 1982.

But I think the vast majority of fans are waking up today and thinking that ok, Greece won it, but the way they won it was not good to watch.

I personally think that Greece had a lot of luck to win this tournament. They could have easily gone out and survived several woodwork incidents against CZ. They themselves think it’s a miracle and it may not happen ever again.

For all our sakes, I hope that a team with similar tactics doesn’t win a tournament in a manner like this again.

phenom

I did not expect them to win. Greece played well as did portugal. After Greece scored Portugal missed too much chances and could have became level. Fair play to Greece.

BaZmO*

What is wrong with some people here. Greece won!! Get over It!! They deserved to win in the end, we all know who they had to beat to get there and it was no easy run out.

Somebody stated that Portugal had more chances on goal and that Greece’s only chance came from a Portuguese defensive error. How hypocrytical is that? The Greeks didn’t make any defensive errors, and when they attacked they did look menacing.

All too often when a team looses a match the first thing people do is analyse all their defensive errors.
I thought that the match wasn’t the best match I’d ever seen but it definitely wasn’t the worst either! Some nice touches of skill on the ball in particular the Greek defender Dellas, that guy looks so comfortable on the ball, selling the dummy to incoming attackers every time, pure class. Think he plays for Roma??
And can nobody remember that nice little bit of skill from the Greek guy who wrapped his leg around his other leg to chip the ball into the path of his incoming player. Excellent. If that was Zindane or Henry you’d all be going on about it for years to come. The fact that I can’t even think of the Greek player’s name is probably one of the reasons why so many people are disappointed with the tournament. Every knows all the big players from seeing them week in week out in their respective leagues and know their capabilities and I suppose feel a bit let down when they don’t perform on the big stage.
I think one of the biggest problems this tournament and the last World Cup to some extent is that too many “Big” teams reckon that they can just come along and win a Major Tournament on reputation alone and they all got found out.

Fair play to Greece they deserved it and their fans are a credit to them.


B.

smemon

this is a sensational upset, nobody would have predicted.

for all irish people that dismiss our chances of winning anything before a ball is kicked, this should be a wake up call.

someone mentioned in an earlier thread how the euro's are miles above the world cup. for me, this tournament has highlighted europe's weaknesses. portugal are a good side, but not worthy of winning that cup. their defence was absolutely shambolic, they had a 'david beckham' in goal, (loves himself) and players like deco just dont deserve to be in football full stop.

greece are a crap side, anybody who says otherwise are fooling themselves. virtually any side with german tactics and big solid defense will do well as opposition defences nowdays are useless in europe, bar maybe italy and england. for effort and determination greece couldnt be faulted.

the fact we see them in the final, never mind winning the thing shows european sides dont know how to defeat the underdog. they only have one style of play and if they come up against a brick wall their game plan goes out the window. portugal and teams alike create space and overlap, have players running from midfield, but greece are so compact they dont get pulled out of position.

pickarooney

Originally posted by smemon
virtually any side with german tactics and big solid defense will do well as opposition defences nowdays are useless in europe

Except maybe Germany. Or Italy. Or England.

smemon

yea, em didnt germany get to the world cup final 2 years ago against all the odds playing dreadfully dull football?

italy and england have good defenses but lack a manager that has respect of the players and dont stick to counter-attacking style, plus the media attention goes to their heads. they defend with a back 4 plus 1 midfielder max, they dont have a 9-1 formation.

eirebhoy

Originally posted by pickarooney
Except maybe Germany. Or Italy. Or England.

I don't think England's defence can be compared with Greece's. I know when you hear the word defence you think of the back 4 but when you play the way England and Greece did the whole team need to form a defence. England conceded 6 in 4, Greece conceded 4 in 6. Its nothing against the players, more to do with the players Sven had out with the tactics he was playing.

ButcherOfNog

I really enjoyed the game, glad Greece won it as Portugal didn't deserve it, they only gave one good performance during the tournament. Teams of the tournament were the Czechs and the Greeks. The standard of play apart from those two teams was pretty poor, probably the worst I've seen at a Euro finals. Some of the players just didn't seem that bothered if they won or lost, has the European club scene killed the European dominance in world football? I predict that the next world cup will again see alot of surprises with small countries overtaking the old powerhouses of european football. Hell if Ireland had of made the championships I'd have fancied their chances of winning it.

PHB

I ain't angry that Greece beat Portugal, I'm angry that they beat the Czech's.

If you saw the Greece vs. Czech game I personally think it was clear that the Czech's were the better team and deserved to win, and I'd argue that Greece got lucky in the end, and that their defenive football was quite clearly the weaker side.
But ya need a little luck to win stuff like this.


None the less, I couldn't help thinking after watching this I fancy Ireland's chances to do well in the next world cup, maybe we can finally get to a semi

cournioni

Just goes to show that if Greece can do it, Ireland can do it.