Italy. And either they or Spain in the final game will kick us out. No way we're going to break that nice 3rd - 2nd - 3rd series
Bah humbug! England in extra time..... We'll see - Your guys looked *really* good! I guess Greece allowed them to shine, but I don't recall domination like that in the knockout round for quite a while..... (?) Cheers, Ian
I'm not even really interested in football, but from those who claim to be in the know (and there are LOTS of those ), I hear that Italy has some sort of magic power in tournaments Didn't we win in 2010 with 4:1 against Argentinia and... England?
Kind of difficult to avoid it there right now though I guess? May as well join the party!.... Not quite as bad here from the "armchair QBs" - There's a few, but they hear a British accent and generally defer. Can't tell you how many times I've explained offside, and keepers not picking up the ball in the local! [Even better is "how are the Americans doing!? ] As for the Eye-Ties, they *can* sometimes be magical. OTOH, you rattle 'em, like England are capable of, and the wheels often fall off..... Hoping anyway.... At least the games are live, around lunch for me, which works nicely. That was then, this is now!..... Cheers, Ian
Meant to ask; The TV here was showing the party at the Brandenburgh Gate (sp?) - They were saying about 1/2 million in attendance! - Is that true? Are there other "big" street parties going on in other places too? Cheers, Ian
Horrible! There were a couple of guys with black/red/gold clothes, several cases of beer and vuvuzelas partying in front of our office building at 9 AM this morning When I rode home from work on my bicycle at 8pm I think I was the only one in the city who didn't wear any kind of football attire. Starting with the world cup here in 2006, this gets worse and worse from tournament to tournament. There are still fireworks around here now! We'll see that on... Sunday? The tournament completely destroys any chance of a cozy evening in front of the TV here. There's football on one channel, and complete crap on the others... even the state theatre here, where I can go for free, only seems to have boring plays in their program this month *sigh*
I guess there's my answer! Thanks! I *love* it A little surprised you weren't jeered for being anti-German! Cheers, Ian
Everywhere. In 2006 the FIFA had the idea of 'public viewings' (whichever FIFA official coined that term before looking it up in the dictionary should be instantly shot), meaning they set up HUGE screens in the big cities complete with grandstands with the capacity of a medium stadium. That was a giant success and soon catched on - the cities themselves or local event agencies are now doing similar events at every tournament, maybe not as big as in 2006, but it's everywhere. Berlin of course is the biggest, half a million or more people at everyone of our games seems to be usual this tournament. In my town, the bars around the market square have rented a big screen (maybe 10 meters diagonally), set it up in the middle of the square, and the place has been packed even during the rather irrelevant games. Watching a match at home isn't en vogue these days (It's "Brandenburg Gate" or in German "Brandenburger Tor", btw )
Indeed!.... I've been spending *way* too much time in the bar! [Particularly during the two off matches as they've got ~6 TV's showing one or the other - Can't do that at home is my excuse. ] I'll have to ask the boys if they've got any "public viewings" eek going on - I know they often bar it, and last time they were experimenting with 3D TV's too - ~$25 to rent the glasses (discourages em getting nicked of course)..... Thx! I was close. Cheers, Ian
For clarification, the "public viewing" (I really am banging my head against the wall everytime I hear that!) is more than watching the game in a pub - it usually refers to the big parties like in Berlin or in a smaller scale in many many towns. I referred to the bars only because it's just that often the outdoor screens are set up by them (and they provide the alcohol, of course ). Depending on how your team plays against Italy, it may become a public viewing without quotation marks ($25!! )
Gotcha, understood. That's what I'm not sure about in England - I'll have to ask 'em. +1 IIRC, it was the 2002 WC when England fans hung David Beckham in effigy after his missed PK..... Hardly a nice "family friendly" party shall we say!..... Refundable - Can you imagine how many would go AWOL otherwise!.... Cheers, Ian
I'm not sure if such parties really exist anywhere else in that scale as well as in that amount - as I said, you'll have a hard time finding any town where there isn't some outdoor screen set up - as it started with the world cup 2006 and the big FIFA events which didn't happen anywhere else. Anything else would have been very expensive - you can bring your own glasses for that price!!
OK, moving on Spain looked pretty good to me. Not as good as Florian's guys, but "pretty good". OTOH, IMO, France played it all wrong - England used to make the same mistake; Crowd the defense and hope to shut 'em down. Then counter. Trouble they had is no one capable of countering...... England's got Rooney! Cheers, Ian
Nice save by Hart, too. Feeling a little better about Italy now that they've settled, but they look horrible defending England's counter attacks. Buffon's punch save could have been a fiasco...got lucky
I agree - both teams can easily still win it. It's certainly not playing like a premier league game though.
Better than the other quarters, but still not great. Italy is completely out playing England. Either team can still win, but it's obvious who the better team is.
