EURO 2012

[NJReds]

That second golazo by Italy was amazing.

Balotelli is a ticking time-bomb, but also capable of some incredible things.

[Yachtzee]

I don't watch a whole lot of soccer aside from the big events. I don't quite understand the two yellow cards and missing a game thing. When I watch the best in the world square off I want both teams to be at full strength. The last thing I want to watch is a team down their best player for something that happened before the event or something that happened in the group stages.

I realize that those are the rules but I think they make more sense in league play, not big time tournaments.

Well, it might be difficult to understand for Americans. Most of our sports arose from the amateur sporting clubs and collegiate ranks, where there was always a sense of "fair play" involved. Although soccer rules initially developed from the fusion of various rules of football games played at English public (what we call "private") schools, games of "mob football" between neighboring towns were often played with few rules, hundreds of people, numerous injuries, and even the occasional death. The Football Association was formed and initial rules outlawing certain types of foul play were introduced. As the British codified association football as the "no hands" sport we know, they spread it to other countries, where clubs formed across social and political divides and games had significance beyond just the play on the field. Winning had more meaning, so notions of fair play often fell by the wayside. Thus different countries developed their own tolerances for what constituted foul play. By the time the World Cup really started to take off in the 1950s, it was commons for teams facings a high-skill player like Pele or Ferenc Puskas of Hungary to send out their "hard men" to try to take them out of the game. I've heard Pele often got brutalized by teams trying to counter his wizardry with the ball. Add to that the fact that substitutions generally weren't allowed until the 1960s and you can see the incentives there were for injuring star players. Your guy may get sent off, but the other team is down to 10 men as well. The bonus is that your guy comes back but the other team might lose their star for the rest of the tournament. Many accounts of games in the '50s and '60s tell of games turning into all out wars on the pitch and spreading into the stands.

With international matches, part of the problem was arose from language barriers and players not knowing what would and what would not be tolerated. It wasn't until 1970 that yellow and red cards were introduced in the World Cup to provide a non-verbal means of sanctioning a player and attempts were made to standardize notions of dangerous play. That, coupled with increased allowances for substitutions really opened up the game to where we see more teams playing a free-flowing style. The red card for accumulation of yellows is not unlike a pitcher getting tossed for throwing at a batter after the ump issues a warning. The difference is that the player in soccer only gets tossed for warnings he's personally received. Making the player sit out a match for accumulation of yellows guards against teams using "goons" who just collect yellows without fear of repercussions in future matches.

[bucksfan2]

Well, it might be difficult to understand for Americans. Most of our sports arose from the amateur sporting clubs and collegiate ranks, where there was always a sense of "fair play" involved. Although soccer rules initially developed from the fusion of various rules of football games played at English public (what we call "private") schools, games of "mob football" between neighboring towns were often played with few rules, hundreds of people, numerous injuries, and even the occasional death. The Football Association was formed and initial rules outlawing certain types of foul play were introduced. As the British codified association football as the "no hands" sport we know, they spread it to other countries, where clubs formed across social and political divides and games had significance beyond just the play on the field. Winning had more meaning, so notions of fair play often fell by the wayside. Thus different countries developed their own tolerances for what constituted foul play. By the time the World Cup really started to take off in the 1950s, it was commons for teams facings a high-skill player like Pele or Ferenc Puskas of Hungary to send out their "hard men" to try to take them out of the game. I've heard Pele often got brutalized by teams trying to counter his wizardry with the ball. Add to that the fact that substitutions generally weren't allowed until the 1960s and you can see the incentives there were for injuring star players. Your guy may get sent off, but the other team is down to 10 men as well. The bonus is that your guy comes back but the other team might lose their star for the rest of the tournament. Many accounts of games in the '50s and '60s tell of games turning into all out wars on the pitch and spreading into the stands.

With international matches, part of the problem was arose from language barriers and players not knowing what would and what would not be tolerated. It wasn't until 1970 that yellow and red cards were introduced in the World Cup to provide a non-verbal means of sanctioning a player and attempts were made to standardize notions of dangerous play. That, coupled with increased allowances for substitutions really opened up the game to where we see more teams playing a free-flowing style. The red card for accumulation of yellows is not unlike a pitcher getting tossed for throwing at a batter after the ump issues a warning. The difference is that the player in soccer only gets tossed for warnings he's personally received. Making the player sit out a match for accumulation of yellows guards against teams using "goons" who just collect yellows without fear of repercussions in future matches.

Thanks for the background info. I guess my problem with the accumulative yellows is that I don't particullarly care for them carrying over into another tournament. Is it two yellows in two games? or just two accumulative yellows?

I watched some of the Champions league final and in one of the biggest soccer events Chelsea was playing with a couple of their best playes out because of what happened in the previous games. The game kinda lacked something without those players. In the Euro events I tend to root for the English and Germans (my heritage) and I just don't understand Rooney being out for 3 games for something that didn't happen in the Euro Cup.

[WMR]

Goal line technology strikes again!

[NJReds]

Goal line technology strikes again!

What's the point of having an extra official on the line if he can't correctly make the one call that he's tasked with?

[Yachtzee]

Thanks for the background info. I guess my problem with the accumulative yellows is that I don't particullarly care for them carrying over into another tournament. Is it two yellows in two games? or just two accumulative yellows?

I watched some of the Champions league final and in one of the biggest soccer events Chelsea was playing with a couple of their best playes out because of what happened in the previous games. The game kinda lacked something without those players. In the Euro events I tend to root for the English and Germans (my heritage) and I just don't understand Rooney being out for 3 games for something that didn't happen in the Euro Cup.

The yellows only accumulate for the competition being contested. Likewise, bans for red cards stay within the competition. So if a player accumulates yellows or draws a red in the domestic league, they have no effect on the player in Champions League play or for National team games, and vice versa. However, cards picked up in qualifying rounds of a tournament can carry over to subsequent rounds. It used to be that cards reset each round, but they found players would go nuts in the last game of a round knowing the cards would reset and they wouldn't receive a match ban.

Rooney originally got a 3 match ban for Euro 2012 on a flagrant red in the last game of qualifying, but it got reduced to 2 games on appeal.

[improbus]

Goooooooooaaaaaaaaalllll Ronaldo. No one is better at heading the ball. He generates more power than anyone.

[NJReds]

I didn't watch the game, but it sure looks like Portugal dominated the match:

Shots on goal: 6-0 advantage
Shots total: 14-2 advantage
Possession: 57%-43%
Corners: 11-6

Portugal seems to be in very good form right now, and a game v. the Spain/France winner should be very entertaining.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Goooooooooaaaaaaaaalllll Ronaldo. No one is better at heading the ball. He generates more power than anyone.

Ronaldo was quite impressive in that game. It's really too bad he hit the post on that ball he brought down in the box in the first half.

[MWM]

It's just painful watching Portugal play. I don't enjoy their games, it's too much for me to take. That was a nice goal by Ronaldo, but I have no idea what that Czech defender was doing. He just stood there while Ronaldo came up from behind and put his head on it.

Czech was awful today. They had no offensive attack at all. They were so far outclassed that they really looked like they didn't belong in the quarters.

[bucksfan2]

Anyone else find the irony in the Germany Greece matchup?

[MWM]

There's a lot of irony in this tournament. Group B was called the group of death, but someone else dubbed the group with Greece, Ireland, and Italy the "Group of Debt."

[Yachtzee]

Anyone else find the irony in the Germany Greece matchup?

The lineups for today's match:

Germany:
#1 Gottfried Leibniz
#2 Immanuel Kant
#3 Georg "Nobby" Hegel (capt.)
#4 Arthur Schopenauer
#5 Friedrich Schelling
#6 Franz Beckenbauer
#7 Karl Jaspers
#8 Karl Schlegel
#9 Ludwig Wittgenstein
#10 Friedrich Nietzsche
#11 Martin Heidegger

Greece:
#1 Plato
#2 Epictetus
#3 Aristotle
#4 "Chopper" Sophocles
#5 Empedocles of Acragas
#6 Plotinus
#7 Epicurus
#8 Heraklitus
#9 Democritus
#10 Socrates (capt.)
#11 Archimedes


Last time these two teams met, Greece won 1-0 on a header by Socrates from a beautiful cross from Archimedes.

[WMR]

Is this a soccer match or a debate on philosophy?

[Yachtzee]

Is this a soccer match or a debate on philosophy?

Well, last time Nietzsche did get booked for arguing with the ref, Confucius, claiming he had no free will.