Euro 2012

C

crackerjack

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
My understanding is that when Uruguay won the world cup the English team didn't even bother to enter despite having by far the best team in the world at the time
Click to expand...

Is that verifiable? Legend has it that England took it as read we were best until we actually started entering things (and inviting Hungary over in 53) and found out otherwise.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"heh...yeah, sorry, Zlatan v. Sweden. don't know how I got that mixed up, wasn't that long ago"
Click to expand...
I still think it was against France.

"Is that verifiable? Legend has it that England took it as read we were best until we actually started entering things (and inviting Hungary over in 53) and found out otherwise."
Click to expand...
No I guess not. Maybe one could check the number of players in various countries in 1930 or whatever it was and the number of professionals but that's about it.
 
P

paolo

Mechanical phantoms
Pretty good tournament overall I'd say. Looking back it seems daft to have thought that anyone apart from Spain could have won
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
but if Alves hadn't hit the bar, Portugal could've easily won the penalty shootout. Football is too finely-balanced a game scoring-wise for it not to be dependent upon slices of luck, however good the team.

Spain are definitely one of the best teams ever, but they didn't win three tournaments on the bounce without loads of luck (what would've happened if they'd lost to Italy on pens in 2008? it's hard to tell). Tournament football is a funny game like that.

Edit: Great article, hadn't read it before I posted the above!
 
Last edited:
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Pretty good tournament overall I'd say. Looking back it seems daft to have thought that anyone apart from Spain could have won"
Click to expand...
I can't agree with that at all. Isn't there at least a chance they might not have won that penalty shoot out? Football has a very fine line between success and failure, that's probably part of why no team has won two Euros and a World before.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Interesting article Droid - presumably after the latest tournament Spain will have moved to the top. Or, genuine question, is it about sustaining greatness or hitting some incredible peak however briefly? On the former measure (which I think is actually what we are all implicitly talking about) Spain will be top of that list for sure.
In related news, England move to number 4 in the Fifa World Rankings on the back of the Euros. Brazil fucked up by being from the wrong continent and are now down to 11 whereas the Italians who only reached the final are up to 6.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jul/04/england-rise-to-world-no4
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
IdleRich said:
I think we said almost exactly the same thing independently there Baboon.
Click to expand...

absolutely. i thought the article was making that point too, though they undercut it (or maybe their points system undercut it) by generally privileging those who won the trophies in their top 30, eg putting 70s West Germany above 70s Netherlands. And while both teams probably belong in the top 5, surely Cruyff et al should be higher even if they lost one final by arrogance and another by the width of a post (and hampered by lack of Cruyff)?
 
Last edited:
P

paolo

Mechanical phantoms
Yeah OK point taken, I'd actually forgotten that Spain weren't so great against the Portuguese
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top