Summer of Football thread: Euro 2020(1), Copa America, CONCACAF Gold Cup

[NewYorkExpress]

And what do you think of the Copa America?

I find the Copa America to generally be a lot harder to predict than the Euro.

It seems to me that any of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay could feasibly win it.

Brazil traditionally has the most overall talent, Uruguay usually is the Dark Horse, and Argentina the past decade or so has been Lionel Messi and then eleven other guys. Messi is a singular talent, but football is a team sport.

Also, I can't help point out that Chile has won two of the last three Copa's (2015, and 2016 Centenario), so it's not like South America only has three teams that are good.

It's not a CONCACAF situation, where every major tournament invariably ends in a U.S/Mexico final.

[Lechasseur]

And what do you think of the Copa America?

I find the Copa America to generally be a lot harder to predict than the Euro.

It seems to me that any of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay could feasibly win it.

Brazil traditionally has the most overall talent, Uruguay usually is the Dark Horse, and Argentina the past decade or so has been Lionel Messi and then eleven other guys. Messi is a singular talent, but football is a team sport.

Also, I can't help point out that Chile has won two of the last three Copa's (2015, and 2016 Centenario), so it's not like South America only has three teams that are good.

It's not a CONCACAF situation, where every major tournament invariably ends in a U.S/Mexico final.

I'm very aware of Chile's past successes.

But Sanchez and Vidal are getting old and the rest of the team doesn't seem as good as previous Chile teams.

Obviously they can win again, but I personally wouldn't be betting on them this time.

But yeah at anyrate there isn't an obvious favorite for the Copa America the way there is for the Euros this time round imo.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

The inaugural match of the Europeans ended with a 3-0 victory for Italy over Turkey! Very nice for me, probably less nice for Santander's bets.

[Santander]

The inaugural match of the Europeans ended with a 3-0 victory for Italy over Turkey! Very nice for me, probably less nice for Santander's bets.

Well, at least I was looking like a genius at half-time. When you back underdogs for value, you know even on a really good day you won't him them all.

[afleitch]

Very very sad scenes at Denmark v Finland. Hoping for the best for Eriksen.

[Alcibiades]

Eriksen is reportedly conscious and stable. Huge respect for the professionalism and courage of the medical staff to revive him under such immense pressure, and for his teammates for shielding him from the prying eyes of the media, and referee Anthony Taylor for immediately spotting the severity of the situation. This is what every football fan hopes they will never have to witness

[NewYorkExpress]

Eriksen has is reportedly conscious and stable. Huge respect for the professionalism and courage of the medical staff to revive him under such immense pressure, and for his teammates for shielding him from the prying eyes of the media, and referee Anthony Taylor for immediately spotting the severity of the situation. This is what every football fan hopes they will never have to witness

If I'm the Danish FA, I'm looking at solutions that would allow my team to withdraw from the Euros with no penalty.

They shouldn't be forced to play after watching a teammate nearly die on the pitch.

[GenerationTerrorist]

Horrible scenes watching CE collapse like that. Life is precious.

[Conservatopia]

The Danish team showed real class shielding Eriksen from the cameras.  Credit too to the Finnish fans chanting his name.

They don't call it the beautiful game for nothing.

[Alcibiades]

The match will resume in 12 minutes. This hopefully means that Eriksen is no longer in a serious condition.

[Santander]

Lukaku is so good.

[AelroseB]

Strong start by England so far vs Croatia

[AelroseB]

Was bullish on the Dutch before this competition, but at this point if you're struggling to stay afloat vs (an admittedly good) Ukrainian squad, how can you fare vs England, France, or Belgium?

Of course it's international football, anything can still happen.

[Lechasseur]

Was bullish on the Dutch before this competition, but at this point if you're struggling to stay afloat vs (an admittedly good) Ukrainian squad, how can you fare vs England, France, or Belgium?

Of course it's international football, anything can still happen.

It will be one of those 3 winning the competition.

I'm predicting it will be France, but I could see Belgium or England doing it too. Anything can happen of course, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of those 3.

I thought the Netherlands could potentially be a dark horse, but after that, not really no.

[NewYorkExpress]

Was bullish on the Dutch before this competition, but at this point if you're struggling to stay afloat vs (an admittedly good) Ukrainian squad, how can you fare vs England, France, or Belgium?

Of course it's international football, anything can still happen.

It will be one of those 3 winning the competition.

I'm predicting it will be France, but I could see Belgium or England doing it too. Anything can happen of course, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of those 3.

I thought the Netherlands could potentially be a dark horse, but after that, not really no.

If Germany manages to make it out of their group, they certainly could win it all too. They have the talent to do so, they just need to all be in form at the same time.

[Lechasseur]

Was bullish on the Dutch before this competition, but at this point if you're struggling to stay afloat vs (an admittedly good) Ukrainian squad, how can you fare vs England, France, or Belgium?

Of course it's international football, anything can still happen.

It will be one of those 3 winning the competition.

I'm predicting it will be France, but I could see Belgium or England doing it too. Anything can happen of course, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of those 3.

I thought the Netherlands could potentially be a dark horse, but after that, not really no.

If Germany manages to make it out of their group, they certainly could win it all too. They have the talent to do so, they just need to all be in form at the same time.

I'm really not impressed with this Germany team, and I've always been someone who rated Germany highly up to this point.

I think the reason people think Germany will do well is simply due to their historical track record, but don't forget 2018 when they had a considerably stronger side. Germany are currently in reconstruction.

[Santander]

Germany is an extremely strong team, possibly stronger than France on paper. They don't really have a real striker, but Gnabry up top should be good enough, especially with the quality of the rest of their squad. Kimmich is easily one of the 5 best players playing at the Euros. Kroos isn't that far behind, and Neuer is still the best goalkeeper in the world. Their main problem is coaching.

You can never write off Italy in a tournament either. This squad has exactly what you would expect in an Italian team - top goalkeeper, stalwart central defenders, cultured midfielders, and a top poacher.

I honestly can't see Belgium or England winning. Both are rather poor at the back, and have coaches that are a poor fit for the players at their disposal. Ironically, I think Southgate would be a better fit for Belgium, and Martinez would be a better fit for England.

[Lechasseur]

Germany is an extremely strong team, possibly stronger than France on paper. They don't really have a real striker, but Gnabry up top should be good enough, especially with the quality of the rest of their squad. Kimmich is easily one of the 5 best players playing at the Euros. Kroos isn't that far behind, and Neuer is still the best goalkeeper in the world. Their main problem is coaching.

You can never write off Italy in a tournament either. This squad has exactly what you would expect in an Italian team - top goalkeeper, stalwart central defenders, cultured midfielders, and a top poacher.

I honestly can't see Belgium or England winning. Both are rather poor at the back, and have coaches that are a poor fit for the players at their disposal. Ironically, I think Southgate would be a better fit for Belgium, and Martinez would be a better fit for England.

On paper I definitely agree that Germany is a strong team, but there's been a lot of dysfunction with the Germany team for a while now, and this, while being a strong team, is not as strong as previous Germany teams, so I'm not sure that any quality can really make up for the dysfunction.

But we'll see.

Italy I haven't given much thought to. I'll need to look more into Italy. But again, I don't think they're a favourite, they'd be more a dark horse team.

[NewYorkExpress]

Great starts for Brazil and Colombia in Copa America action, as Brazil easily defeats Venezuela, and Colombia defeats Ecuador.

[urutzizu]

So, according to Serbian media (grain of salt etc.), Austrian striker with serb origin Marko Arnautović, screamed "**** your Albanian mother!" after his goal against n. macedonia to his marker Egzon Bejtulai (who is a albanian minority in n. macedonia).

Switzerland v Serbia was bad enough, but Austria against North Macedonia really just has to be about kosovo lmao. Best part about it is that with the name Arnautović, is literally turkish for albanian just serbified, so if true that guy is really dense.

[NewYorkExpress]

So in what I would describe as two modest upsets, the Czech Republic easily beat Scotland, 2-0, and Slovakia beat Poland 2-1.

Meanwhile, I'm watching the Spain/Sweden game, and I've got to say, Robin Olsen looks impressive in goal so far for Sweden. He's shut Spain's offense down through 45 minutes, in a scoreless game.

[AelroseB]

So in what I would describe as two modest upsets, the Czech Republic easily beat Scotland, 2-0, and Slovakia beat Poland 2-1.

Meanwhile, I'm watching the Spain/Sweden game, and I've got to say, Robin Olsen looks impressive in goal so far for Sweden. He's shut Spain's offense down through 45 minutes, in a scoreless game.

Absolutely superb job by Olsen up through the start of extra time.  Just look at the possession difference!!!

[NewYorkExpress]

So, I'm watching the Argentina/Chile game, and while Lionel Messi looks great (he just scored on a free kick to put Argentina up 1-0), the rest of the Argentinean team doesn't look as good. That doesn't bode as well, should Argentina have to face Brazil in the Copa America final, or facing Uruguay later in this group stage (as Uruguay might be a stronger opponent than Chile).

[President Johnson]

I'm actually watching Germany-France now, usually don't watch football that often.

I expect we'll lose though.

[Lechasseur]

France beat Germany, good result