Euro: UEFA U-21 in Poland 2017

[cgf]

I feel for the slovaks.. they've been dynamite so far. England not that impressive. Nice to see Czechs shaking it up. That's without 3 of their starting midfielders.. Still think Portugal will advance ahead of them considering they play Macedonia next. Germany takes the tournament

Very pleased to see the way the Slovaks & Czechs have played...even if slovakia have been shooting themselves in the foot by not using Hamsik 2.0 more...

As for germany taking the tourney...eh. Kuntz is stubbornly sticking with Selke up front instead of trusting Philipp; and refusing to abandon the 4-2-3-1 instead of a 3-4-1-2 / 3-1-4-2 that would let us use all 3 of Dahoud, Amiri & Arnold in the midfield by vacillating between a:

Meyer/Selke - Philipp
Amiri/Meyer
Gnabry - Arnold/Amiri - Dahoud - Weiser
Kempf - Stark - Kehrer
ter Stegen

and

Meyer - Philipp
Gnabry - Amiri - Dahoud - Weiser
Arnold
Kempf - Stark - Kehrer
ter Stegen​

Even then spain has more proven top talents in Poland, and Portugal could easily win against us with their physical/counter style...although Gnabry, Arnold & Meyer can really shine at this level; I love Dahoud, Amiri, Philipp & Kempf; and Kehrer's one of our bigger CB talents.

EDIT:
If we must keep the 4-2-3-1 I'd at least like to see:

Philipp
Gnabry - Meyer/Amiri - Meyer/Oztunali
Arnold/Amiri - Dahoud
Toljan/Arnold - Kempf - Stark - Weiser
ter Stegen​

With Philipp shifting to the right if we're forcing Selke into the lineup...and if Meyer isn't shifted to the right to make space for Amiri...since Weiser bombing forward would allow our RW to play much narrower and more like a 2nd AM or supporting striker on the attack.

 

[Hesher]

Well, we did our part. Whatever happens I'm proud of the boys. It was good to see us play some actual nice football.

 

[Bures Elbow]

Portugal is ****ed.

We need to beat Macedonia by 4 goals or win 4-1/5-2

Bruno Fernandes will be a big miss.

I guess just go 4-4-2 with Ruben Neves-Sanches in the middle, Bruma and Iuri Medeiros outwide, and Guedes/Podence as the two forwards.

It's not going to happen.

 

[YNWA14]

How good is Kempf anyway?

 

[cgf]

How good is Kempf anyway?

I'd compare him to Veltman. He's very strong with the ball; but he's not much of a standout as an athlete and is just adequate positionally against the ball. Ultimately I don't see him as a starter for a CL side in one of the top leagues, but he could be a very good starter on a EL level team. That said, I like him more than Stark; who's very mediocre with the ball.

Kehrer is the big german CB talent in this side; he's less experienced than Kempf or Stark, but he could become a CL caliber starter and possibly even push himself into the senior NT picture as more than just a depth guy.

 

[Bures Elbow]

tarting line-up against Macedonia:



----------------------------Varela----------------------------------
---------------Ie----------------------Tobias-----------------------
Cancelo------------------------------------------------------Rebocho
------------------Sanches---------Neves------------------------------
Iuri Medeiros-------------Podence---------------------------Bruma
-----------------------------Pacencia-------------------------------



To be honest that's the best line up we could have put out. Our defense will suck but that's to be expected.

Guedes as an impact sub off the bench.

None of the other CM's are good enough to make a difference, and Kevin Rodrigues and Joao Carvalho have been poor.

I would have personally played Jota instead of Paciencia (really poor goal scoring record)

Mission Impossible though. Unless we score 2/3 in the first half we won't be able to do it. This new format is dumb, 2 of the top 4 teams in group A?

 

[Bures Elbow]

Also why is the referee Slovakian when we're in direct competition with Slovakia for the best second place team?

 

[Bures Elbow]

4-2

We were up 2-0 within the first 20 minutes.

Unforgivable to concede 2 goals to that team.

Too many missed opportunities.

Also FIFA is so corrupt, we need one goal with a few minutes left to bypass Slovakia, and the Slovakian referee gives a straight red card to a portugeuse player when he himself was fouled.

The commentator, who are trained and told to be as unbiased as possible simply said "Thats a extremely puzzling decision"

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/6j3z3t/diogo_jota_straight_red_card_vs_fyr_macedonia_u21/

That says it all.

This team was better than the top 2 teams in Group A.

Bruma is going to be a beast if he continues to grow an actual brain.

 

[Hesher]

That was never a red card but it's not the ref's fault you conceded two goals.

 

[Bures Elbow]

Our defensive brain farts are what cost us.

Semedo the last second vs Spain, and then Tobias somehow ignoring an open Macedonian. Also Rui Jorge really made some poor substitution choices throughout the tournament, Guedes remains on the bench and Pacencia the pylon does nothing...Ricardo Horta seems to be the typical coaches favourite who gets playing time for no reason.

The tournament format isnt great either.

 

[Pouchkine]

The tournament format is great. It forces team to play to win. What a sore loser.

 

[Bures Elbow]

The tournament format is great. It forces team to play to win. What a sore loser.

the format is dumb because it really emphasizes how lucky you need to be during the draw like in group A because it will come down to goal differential and yellow card comparison almost everytime.

And playing to win? Tell that to Macedonia who put on 2 defenders after 25 minutes when they were losing 2-0.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Looked like a good German goal ruled offsides. Really nice free kick delivery but poor marking from Italy.

 

[Incubajerks]

Happy to be in the semi, but they need to change the format.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Happy to be in the semi, but they need to change the format.

What do you think about Gagliardini and Caldara?

Two of my favorite Italian players.

 

[Incubajerks]

What do you think about Gagliardini and Caldara?

Two of my favorite Italian players.

I want to see more from Gagliardini, specially during the important moments of the game. Sometimes I feel he's a little too slow. Caldara is simply something else, i don't know if you watched the semi against Germany...

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I want to see more from Gagliardini, specially during the important moments of the game. Sometimes I feel he's a little too slow. Caldara is simply something else, i don't know if you watched the semi against Germany...

Didn't watch it, but I suspect it was more of the same.

He'd be wise to make the Atalanta move permanent, and then transfer to a big club app road when he's ready. Juve has too many CB's, Rugani can't even get a game.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Didn't watch it, but I suspect it was more of the same.

He'd be wise to make the Atalanta move permanent, and then transfer to a big club app road when he's ready. Juve has too many CB's, Rugani can't even get a game.

Meh. Chiellini and Barzagli won't be Juve quality forever. Having Bonucci, Caldara, Rugani, and Benatia as a top 4 doesn't seem like too much.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Meh. Chiellini and Barzagli won't be Juve quality forever. Having Bonucci, Caldara, Rugani, and Benatia as a top 4 doesn't seem like too much.

True, but its a long time to wait.

When you are that good, do you want to be sitting on the bench and not playing for a few seasons?

Juve isn't that good that you'd wait it out a few years for Chiellini and Barzagli to retire or leave.

Caldara at least is out on loan. Rugani barely played this season.

 

[Deficient Mode]

True, but its a long time to wait.

When you are that good, do you want to be sitting on the bench and not playing for a few seasons?

Juve isn't that good that you'd wait it out a few years for Chiellini and Barzagli to retire or leave.

Caldara at least is out on loan. Rugani barely played this season.

Barzagli is 36. No way will he last "a few years" at this point. Chiellini turns 33 this summer. Same for him.

It's a big overstatement to say Rugani didn't play at all.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

An exaggeration, sure, but he played in 20 matches in all comps. Obviously not enough.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Meyer looks really good today

 

[Live in the Now]

It bothers me a little bit that a big country like England only has a strategy of putting 10 behind the ball, launch it to Abraham and hope for the best.

 

[Deficient Mode]

It bothers me a little bit that a big country like England only has a strategy of putting 10 behind the ball, launch it to Abraham and hope for the best.

It's pretty dumb for a youth tournament too. No need to go try hard to win an U-21 event. You should prepare these kids for the senior team. I bet the coach feels a lot of pressure to save his job by winning at any cost even at this level though.

England saved by a pretty suspect offside call

 

[maclean]

No need to go try hard to win an U-21 event.

That was the Germans' attitude in their game with Italy too