Group A
Germany 5-1 Scotland
Yeah, it was that bad. Germany has been kinda down lately but I think this squad is ready to kick ass. Throw in that Scotland may well turn out to be the worst team in this tourney and, yeah, 5-1. Scotland bunkered from the git-go but Germany quickly whittled them down, kept edging them back to where any tiny hole in the wall was close enough for a quick strike and in the 10th minute () did just that with a rip from the top of the box that the keeper couldn't corral. The game was over there but Germany kept up their ball control attack and () scored a few minutes later off a rip from about 10 yards out. Scotland just missed giving up a penalty when the initial call was reversed to just outside the box (the right call), but just a few minutes later couldn't avoid the penalty (definitely the right call) and the red card (also the right call) just before halftime. So by halftime, it was just a matter of how much effort the Germans felt like putting in to kicking Scotland's ass and the Scottish fans pretty much knew this was just a drinking afternoon. The Scots had their best run of possession just out of halftime, but after about 10-12 mins, Germany was backing them up all over again. When Sane came in for Germany, it felt like a signal that the Germans were happy to just run out the clock; but when Fullkrug, Muller and Can came in, suddenly it felt like the Germans were smelling the blood in the water and everyone wanted a goal. Fullkrug scored on a moment of brilliance, gathering the loose ball and ripping one to the far post in one motion. Fullkrug connected again a coupla minutes later just muscling the ball into the goal, but that was called back for offside (the right call). Scotland were able to coax an own-goal off a free kick into the box that doinked off Rudiger's head. But cutting into the lead just meant that the Germans were gonna go for one more and Can was able to rip one from the top of the box, too, to end up with the largest winning margin in the history of the Euro. (Largest win in the history of the Euro....really? First 4 goal victory in the history of the tournament? That seems a little odd....) Scotland wasn't very good no offense at all, couldn't sustain possession, couldn't turn to counter effectively, just kept backing up and backing up on defense, I don't see much Cinderella potential in this squad. Germany looks really good to me in all phases of the game, I'm curious to see if anyone else even comes close.
Hungary 1-3 Switzerland
(Didn't see it, don't have Fubo TV)
Group B
Spain 3-0 Croatia
Interesting game: Spain had about 15 mins before halftime where everything they did worked. But the rest of the game....I dunno....Spain wasn't wildly better than Croatia. Its easy to look at that scoreline and think a) Spain is ready to kick some ass again and/or b) Croatia is the old team (every tourney there's at least one squad that tries to wing it with the old guard one tournament too long). But I'm not ready to go to either of those conclusions. Spain did what they needed to do, had a great day and set themselves up to get to the next round, but I'm not all in on them or anything. And as for Croatia, well, they didn't get off to a good start but I'm not ready to bury them just yet.
Italy 2-1 Albania
Got to this game 15 minutes late....and missed all the goals. Italy had just scored their 2nd goal when I turned it on and from that point on, Italy pretty well dominated possession til halftime. They held possession well but I wasn't particuarly impressed with their attempts to get to the goal. In the 2nd half, I thought Albania was largely the better team, both teams had a coupla heartbreaking missed opportunities but for the most part I thought Albania's offense was probably better. So Italy got the W, recovered from an early disaster and had moments of looking like a for-real ball control offense; but, they did open with a disaster and most of the 2nd half it felt like they were spinning their wheels, so not sure I'm that into Italy. Albania played spunky, had some nice moments, looked better than Scotland, say, but I doubt they've got enough firepower to make much of a show this year, but we'll see.
Group C
Slovenia 1-1 Denmark
All four of these squads look exactly the same to me. England has the W and the 1 goal lead now, they're in the driver's seat, but all three other teams feel like they can score and/or hang. This group is still wiiiiiiiiide open.
England 1-0 Serbia
A brilliant goal by Jude Bellingham, coming out of nowhere to connect on the looping corner kick. Otherwise, I thought the two sides were pretty similar, England was better in the 1st half, Serbia probably better on the attack in the 2nd. The W and the 1 goal advantage should push England through to the next round.
Group D
Poland 1-2 Netherlands
Pretty even match. I thought the Dutch had more opportunities and ultimately they did finish more than Poland, but I wasn't overwhelmed (yet) with this Dutch side. As for Poland, they got a bunch of big burly athletes and took an early lead without Lewandowski (so is he playing? I missed the update), I guess that's a pretty good effort from them. I dunno, I'm not one-way-or-the-other about either of these teams. Netherlands definitely got the better result, but I don't think its over for Poland just yet.
Austria 0-1 France
Well, France had a lot of chances that they should've scored, so I guess I'll overlook the fact that their one score was a fluky own goal and that they really did not impress on this day. And the real danger: Mbappe took a hard hit, looked like a broken nose to me and that's gotta be tough to play with, curious to see if they leave him out of the group games. As for Austria, the defense was okay (errant French shooting helped out) but they never seemed particularly scary around the goal. We're supposed to think that France is way better than Austria--and they probably are--but this game didn't really show off that dynamic.
Group E
Romania 3-0 Ukraine
(Didn't see it, don't have Fubo TV)
Belgium 0-1 Slovakia
(Only caught the 2nd half) Slovakia scored an early goal, made it stand up, good work. In the 2nd half, I thought Belgium blew so many opportunities and look likely to fail to live up to their hype (again). As for Slovakia, well, I didn't see them do much, but they got the W and that's good.
Group F
Portugal - Czechia
(Missed it, had to take the cat to the vet (he's fine))
So far, Germany looks awesome, no one else looks that great just yet. Spain got the best W; Italy, England, Netherlands and France just did enough to win. Slovakia is playing on house money, could turn interesting. Croatia does not look done to me. I was not particularly impressed with--but not completely out on--Slovenia, Denmark, Poland, Albania or Serbia. I'm done with Belgium. Austria is not particularly good. Scotland looks pretty awful.
I still haven't seen Hungary, Switzerland, Romania, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Portugal, Czechia--so there's still a third of the teams I've missed so far.
Right now I'm going with Germany. We'll see if I still think that next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment