Euro 2012

[manker]

Rather that than the pink sock you gave to that homeless man who'd passed out.

[cinephilia]

Please.. i keep my statement. I've never seen a good game from Italy for a very long time. Boring, but efficient and that's not actually bad in matters of results.

comon let's be honest, admit you only follow italy games on international competitions and can't really judge their football.
wait.. you watched the group matches, right ? did italy play a defensive football against spain, croatia, and ireland ?

I agree that it's possible that non-defensive teams don't necessarily score a lot of goals - but you would think that a team which favours more attacking tactics and taking the game to the opposition would put rather more than one goal past the Faroes. Especially one with the flair attacking players which Italy possess.

just because the attack is not efficient doesn't mean the team have no desire to move forward. look at spain so far, their midfield is the best the world has ever seen and yet, they have hard time scoring goals against decent teams even tho they have about 60% of possession.

It seems strange to me, also, that Prandelli would abandon the catenaccio - which has served Italy so well for decades - and remain true to the utterly foolish 'we don't take friendlies seriously' tradition. Especially in a time where he is, apparently, introducing a whole new style of play.

catenaccio is the only tactical system italy ever used, like a tradition, even a fatality. prandelli's new philosophy of play is a good thing in my eyes, it brings a breath of fresh air on italy's football and serve them well so far in the competition.

[manker]

Well, yes, I do only watch them compete in international competitions. I wasn't aware that Italian national team competed in any domestic ones.
I watched the games against Croatia and Spain and they were defensive. I didn't see the Ireland game as the other one in the group was on at the same time. I understand they changed their formation for that game and took the game to the Irish, which is to their credit.


You don't seem to have addressed anything I said, even though you quoted it; like about the insane not taking friendlies seriously when implementing a new strategy or how they only managed to put one goal past a bunch of accountants and fishermen with 'attacking' football, but I don't really mind. Football is always subjective and while I might not be able to discern much difference between Prandelli's approach and that of Lippi before him, it doesn't mean that he isn't trying hard to implement such ideas.

I just don't happen to think he's achieved it yet.

[cinephilia]

Well, yes, I do only watch them compete in international competitions. I wasn't aware that Italian national team competed in any domestic ones.

it was directed to redwhitevision after he said that italia remains a boring team, which i dont agree with. i guess you had to watch the friendly games to notice a change in the offensive animation.

and if you really watched the games against spain and croatia, then i don't know what to say. saying they were defensive is a total misinterpretation of football.

[manker]

Well, yes, I do only watch them compete in international competitions. I wasn't aware that Italian national team competed in any domestic ones.

it was directed to redwhitevision after he said that italia remains a boring team, which i dont agree with. i guess you had to watch the friendly games to notice a change in the offensive animation.

and if you really watched the games against spain and croatia, then i don't know what to say. saying they were defensive is a total misinterpretation of football.

Wait, what. You said they didn't take the friendly games seriously. I didn't watch them, I only know they didn't score, but I guess now you're saying that they did take them seriously right?
That being the case and, as you say, they decided to play attacking football - it doesn't appear to have worked out for them.

Which kinda explains their more pragmatic approach to the first two games in this competition.
I didn't notice a difference, in so far as attacking tactics, from Lippi's teams. Yes, the full backs went forward a lot, but they played three centre-backs in both games.
Sure, the midfielders, Pirlo in particular, played some decent stuff. But he always has done. Italy's defensive integrity was paramount and then they let their more talented players try to take the game forward. It's always been so.

Three out of the four goals came from set-pieces.
I think that tells its own tale.

===

Btw, what do you think about taki-taka?
It kindof enamoured me at first but now it completely bores the shit out of me.

Give me a game to watch involving Madrid and Ronaldo over Messi and Barca any day.

[redwhitevision]

Cinephilia, Manker pretty much answered your question the way i would have. His statement "That being the case and, as you say, they decided to play attacking football - it doesn't appear to have worked out for them." works as a main idea for what we both understood from Italy's game. Neither of us have any reason not to be objective when talking about their game, maybe it changed like you said, but I don't see anything radical. I guess we'll just have to see their next game, a rather difficult one.
In my case I'm just enjoying the games, I like football, so far there were pretty good games at this competition and I hope for even better.

@Manker, I think you mean tiki-taka ?
For those who don't know, this style is characterized by a -pass and move- style of play. Had to start with this short description because the core meaning is something I actually appreciate. I'm not really a fan of counter-attack teams, although these teams can be really spectacular at times. And of course there are a couple of teams that play that way and do it right.
After all, football is a game where not always the better teams wins, the team that scores goals wins and it doesn't really matter how they do it.
Anyway, so far Portugal and Germany made their way into the semi-finals, no real surprises here, my guess is that Spain will follow. Won't say anything about the other game because our friend above is a bit sensitive, haha.

Ninja edit : "Add manker,rewhitevision and cinephillia to the growing list of people having long involved conversations that no one else really gives a fuck about."
You sir don't know what is actually beautiful or fascinating in a sport and I just don't think I have to prove anything to you as you already proved yourself how ignorant you are. I particularly disagree with this kind of attitude as it doesn't bring any good.

[Funkin']

Seriously? This shit is entertaining to some of you?

[IdolEyes787]

Seriously? This shit is entertaining to some of you?

I think you need to be Black to properly appreciate it.

[manker]

@Manker, I think you mean tiki-taka ?
For those who don't know, this style is characterized by a -pass and move- style of play. Had to start with this short description because the core meaning is something I actually appreciate. I'm not really a fan of counter-attack teams, although these teams can be really spectacular at times. And of course there are a couple of teams that play that way and do it right.
After all, football is a game where not always the better teams wins, the team that scores goals wins and it doesn't really matter how they do it.

Oh yeah. I did mean that. I didn't think it looked right but I decided against writing 'tippy-tappy'.
I loved the way Man Utd played when Ronaldo was there, especially away from home, inviting teams onto them and then killing them on the break. The best example of this was in the semi-final of the European Cup in 2009 against Arsenal, but they played that way for several seasons. Although at home they dominated possession and played aggressively down the wings and, more infrequently, passed or dribbled right through teams.

Barca then thumped them in the final, which is probably why I don't like tiki-taka

I'd also like to say that without Xavi, Iniesta and Messi, the style wouldn't work against an especially good counter attacking team. Merely mortal players wouldn't be able to hang onto the ball long enough to negate the threat. Barca weren't all that good with the same style of football when they didn't have these three players. When Xavi and Iniesta retire, Barca will again need to rely upon their wide players much more.

Seriously? This shit is entertaining to some of you?

I think you need to be Black to properly appreciate it.

Or have an attention span of more than a few minutes.

I think the thing is with puntsphere is that the goals are so infrequent that people who aren't part of its culture get bored waiting for someone to score.

[cinephilia]

Wait, what. You said they didn't take the friendly games seriously. I didn't watch them, I only know they didn't score, but I guess now you're saying that they did take them seriously right?
That being the case and, as you say, they decided to play attacking football - it doesn't appear to have worked out for them.

they didnt give a fuck about the results but it at least gave an idea of the evolution of their football.

anyway, i didn't mean they became an attacking team like magic but that they tended to play a more offensive football and take more risk to score... unlike england that, on the other hand, is a true defensive team.

do you guys watched the england-italy game ? see what i'm talking about now ?