re: Euro 2012 Group B "Group Of Death": Portugal vs. Netherlands ESPN 1:45 PM

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The Dutch defense continues to look really bad. There isn't much more individual quality for the Dutch back 4 than the US national team. That's why I had the Dutch out in the first round, but I certainly didn't think they would leave with 0 points and 2 goals

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Yeah, their run to WC finals was fantastic but I think some people have tended to gloss over the weaknesses in defense because they have so many impressive attackers.
They also miss Van Bronckhurst.

Even with him, they were a bit fortunate to keep getting timely goals (usually from Sniejder) to get by on 3-2 and 2-1 results in that run. That they have the attacking firepower to put up a lot of 8-1 results against the likes of Maldova and San Marino also maybe caused people to not realize that they really aren't head and shoulders above the likes of Portugal and the "next tier" of European teams.

Their ability to keep goals against them down to 1 and 2 was largely due to both De Jong and Van Brommel protecting the backline.

Anyway, as you can see from today, it's often the defensive solidity in midfield that allows the attackers you do put out there to actually ever get the ball in space.


I read so many "why not this lineup" posts on any football board which out think the manager by replacing a De Jong with a Nasri.

I don't play FIFA, but is it somewhat due to that game that you hear so many of these type comments about removing defensive minded midfielders and stacking the midfield with fey attackers?

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Im going with zw germans here on out, beat 3 good teams.

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They are in the conversation obviously but not sure how anybody could go against Spain right now. The Germans held on for dear life against Portugal, took advantage of a Dutch team in disarray, and were very fortunate to get the win today. Badstuber could have easily been sent off and the Danes handed a PK.

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Spain's lack of width in their midfield is definitely a problem, so to is their lack of a target up top. But if Torres finds his form, and the last game wasn't a fluke, then they will be pretty tough to beat.

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If they would give Torres at least a decent shot to get some playing time in, I completely agree with this. He's not done, just yet.

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Spain's lack of width in their midfield is definitely a problem, so to is their lack of a target up top. But if Torres finds his form, and the last game wasn't a fluke, then they will be pretty tough to beat.

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The jury is definitely out, I don't think the last match showed anything (other than that Ireland is really bad).

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Yeah, their run to WC finals was fantastic

they got lucky against Brazil

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More than just against Brazil. All credit to them though because as much as people may say one team is practically unbeatable, once you get into the top 10 or so teams in the world no one so out classed as to be a foregone conclusion.

You saw that today with Denmark being about 4 inches away from taking a 2-1 lead over Germany and being able to pack back and defend for 25 minutes to send Germany home.

Spain's run has been so impressive for this reason than they have not always been absolutely dominant against other top teams. They've found a way to get through when results were on a knife's edge.


In my opinion, though, Germany will, over the long term, always have success (just like Brazil) in consistently going deeply into WC and Euro simply because their player pool is so much larger than other countries that injuries affect them less.

Holland loses a LB and has an 19? year old out there who's obviously in way over his head.

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Jetro is 18.

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He'll probably end up being a good player but it really shows the problem of depth when he's thrown out there at 18 against Nani.

I will say though that he probably played better than Gregory Van Der Weil. What happened to that guy? He seemed to be a top prospect a year and a half ago. Thank god he turned down a transfer to Roma last summer saying he wanted to go to a serious Champions League title contender like Milan.

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Gregory Van Der Weil. What happened to that guy?

On the All World Could Have Been side, with Royston Drenthe.

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Right.

Kind of strange the see-saw that he and Davide Santon have been on.

They're two that have been linked to Roma for the past couple of seasons and it's three straight years where they've completely switched from hottest commodity to "maybe they need a loan spell at a smaller club".