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

[Santander]

Nobody cares about the Gold Cup, lol. And the new Euro format is a disgrace, as proved by Portugal winning after winning 1 game in the entire tournament.

The Centenario was a fantastic tournament, they need to merge the two Americas confederations and switch to that format.

[Santander]

It is nice to have the inaugural match of this multinational edition of the European Cup being played in my country, precisely at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, and even nicer to have Italy being one of the two teams in the match. I am quite excited for Italy - Turkey tonight!

Mancini's record at the helm of the Italian national team so far has been beyond spectacular. Let's see if we can keep on that track when the stakes become the highest. I certainly hope so.

I bet Turkey and Italy to draw LOL. Don't worry, I have far worse predictions for England.

[Santander]

It is nice to have the inaugural match of this multinational edition of the European Cup being played in my country, precisely at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, and even nicer to have Italy being one of the two teams in the match. I am quite excited for Italy - Turkey tonight!

Mancini's record at the helm of the Italian national team so far has been beyond spectacular. Let's see if we can keep on that track when the stakes become the highest. I certainly hope so.

I bet Turkey and Italy to draw LOL. Don't worry, I have far worse predictions for England.

Well, I have been told our most prominent football-watching English poster actually supports Germany by virtue of family ties. Lol
By the way, do you root for Scotland among European national teams?

I support the team I bet on, and I always bet against England. (although part of that is a rational decision, because there is always a ridiculous amount of money backing England, so you can often get good odds betting against England)

I will not, however, be betting on this Scotland team to beat England though, LOL.

[Santander]

I threw a bet on the Netherlands to win. They have an easy group, some good players, and the odds were really good.

[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.

[Santander]

Lukaku is so good.

[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.

[Santander]

You are never going to convince me this isn't spot/match fixing.

[Santander]

The funniest thing is that Italy had never scored more than two goals in a single match of the final phase of the European Cup before, and now it has done twice consecutively. That's not unexpected from this current squad, however.

The Italian squad, with the possible exception of full-backs, is extremely well-balanced, and will only get better when Verratti comes back, although let's face it - Switzerland is quite bad. Sommer is the only player who would get within a mile of even the Italian bench. Still, an impressive win.

[Santander]

Turkey has been extremely disappointing. The group was not that hard, and other than the Italy game, it's not like they didn't have chances. With their quality at the back, they should not have shipped anywhere near 8 goals in 3 matches.

Then again, they've had horrible results against horrible teams leading into the tournament, so perhaps not surprising...

[Santander]

I think the reason for the fighting spirit in the German team is due to the fact this championship is the end of Joachim Löw's 15 year tenure as coach. Yesterday, it was very close to being ended by a humiliating defeat against Hungary. (Probably he should have left in 2014 at the peak of his popularity and the world championship)

It is shocking that he has been allowed to preside over 7 years of decline, especially given the level of talent he has at his disposal. I can't see that happening at any of the other world giants or any top half UEFA country.

[Santander]

Lol, ESPN is calling Denmark's run a "fairy tale", completely ignoring that they were in a group with 2 useless teams and one of the weaker "big teams", 2/3 of teams progress from the group stage, and they played one of the worst teams on paper in Wales in the Round of 16.

Portugal 2016 - winning the tournament after winning only 1 game against Wales - was both a fairy tale and a bit of a disgrace.

[Santander]

Spain probably deserve to go through, but that was the perfect knockout round match.

[Santander]

Good to see overrated France go down, and strange to see such a terrible Swiss team go through, but they scored 6 goals in the last 2 matches, so hard to argue they don't deserve it. (they usually just play to 0-0 draws) As long as England doesn't win, I'm happy.

[Santander]

Southgate is going to play 5 at the back against Denmark or Czechia and lose. 🤣

[Santander]

U.S Gold Cup squad list out

It's a very MLS-heavy squad (no Pulisic, McKennie, Musah, Reyna). The only players based outside of the United States on the team for the Gold Cup will be Shaq Moore (Tenerife), Nicholas Gioacchini (Caen) and Matthew Hoppe (Schalke).

The United States does come into the Gold Cup riding high, having defeated rivals Mexico to win the CONCACAF Nations League last month, but that was with a very different squad.

Why did the likes of Pulisic not make the squad?

Because not even US Soccer cares about the Gold Cup.

[Santander]

🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹

[Santander]

Looking forward to Denmark/Ukraine.

[Santander]

Southgate seems to choose his starting XI and formation on a whim. Sancho starting is good, but no Grealish after he was the key man vs Germany?

[Santander]

England might be the weakest team remaining in the tournament even if Spain looked worse this week. Just relax.

It's coming home

The team is coming home, yes. The trophy on the other hand...

[Santander]

Sterling is a disgraceful diver and Kane is sh**t.

[Santander]

How ******* blind does the referee have to be to not notice that there are two footballs on the pitch?

He probably did see, but didn't judge it to be interfering with play. If two balls on the pitch automatically stopped play no matter what, a team could just throw an extra ball on to the pitch whenever they thought the other team was about to score. In this case though, the balls were practically next to each other at one point, so it's much harder to explain the referee's decision...

[Santander]

How ******* blind does the referee have to be to not notice that there are two footballs on the pitch?

He probably did see, but didn't judge it to be interfering with play. If two balls on the pitch automatically stopped play no matter what, a team could just throw an extra ball on to the pitch whenever they thought the other team was about to score. In this case though, the balls were practically next to each other at one point, so it's much harder to explain the referee's decision...

And if a team did that in a soccer match and I was refereeing, I'd award their opponents a penalty. That kind of situation should be re-viewable by VAR (to determine how the second ball got on the field. If it was thrown on the field by someone on the England/Denmark bench than England/Denmark-whichever side didn't throw the ball, should get a penalty kick)

Well, that's why you are not a referee. They would get a yellow or red card depending on the circumstances.

[Santander]

A laser was also being shone by an England fan in Schmeichel’s eye as Kane was taking the penalty. Tbf, not the referee’s fault, just the typical awfulness of England fans.

Awful, but sadly not uniquely awful.

[Santander]

Brazil is so much better than Argentina on paper, it isn't even funny. I mean, I know Argentina isn't exactly known for having great defenders, but that back line is embarrassing compared to that beautiful Brazilian back line of Danilo, Renan Lodi, the best central defensive partnership in the world in Marquinhos and Thiago Silva (matched only perhaps by Chiellini and Bonucci), and Casemiro in front. Plus, there's that Olympic gold medalist diver called Neymar...

Might be one of the more likeable Brazil squads in recent memory too, despite Neymar's antics.