EURO 2024 and Copa America 2024 Championships

yeah, he was great. part of when I started watching LFC again, that was close to the year we acquired him. way back in 2011. for the record, i've always been an LFC supporter, just that the games weren't LIVE on TV in the US until around that time. But yeah, Suarez was a fantastic player... then came the World Cup where he took a bite out of Chiellini and he was already on his way out of the club (to Barcelona).

 

wtf are Spain doing starting Navas at right back? he's 38 and guarding Mbappe. I know he's 2nd choice, and their regular is out due to yc accumulation, but wow, they don't have a better option?

 

Lamine Yamal with an absolute worldie..

 

Best team in the tourney has made it into the final, Spain 2-1 over France. Mbappe leaving France for Spain (Real Madrid), he didn't play well all tournament. Mask or not. So France loses twice to Spain... PSG loses Mbappe and France loses to Spain. It's a bit funny, from an English perspective. F the French

 

so i had the scorelines correct from my bracket predictions some time ago, even though I had the teams not totally correct (I had Argentina beating Venezuela 2-0... and Spain beating Portugal 2-1)... keep an eye on the scorelines for tomorrow's semis... 1-0 England v Netherlands is doable either way... and 3-2 Colombia over Uruguay would be a hell of a game...

 

So watching it on Fox over here in the US. They had Mark Clattenberg (you probably heard of him) doing the ref analysis. He said it wasn't going to be a penalty. And when he said that, I thought he had an "inside" to the VAR room, and they had already looked at it. Next thing I see is the ref telling the GK to hold on, which to me signals VAR is still looking at it. My excitement builds... Then comes the signal for him to go look at it on the side, and 99.9% of the time, once they do that, they go with the VAR recommendation and overturn the call on the field.

Was it a penalty? I've seen less given... I've seen more not given. It's the problem with VAR, it's completely subjective. VAR was supposed to be overturning clear and obvious mistakes by the on the field crew. It's become something else in the last couple of years (Certainly at the premier league level). Do I think it was a penalty? Of course. But I'm an England supporter. And I've got my biases. I will say Kane is not allowed to follow thru on his shot by a careless "high" foot by the defender. If the defenders foot is much closer to the ground, maybe it's not called. But the contact happens very soon after the ball is hit by Kane. It's a penalty. And he got a yellow for it as well, after the decision was made.

I'm happy we are thru, but I'm not looking forward to Spain beating us, if it comes to that. Spain have been the class of the tournament. But England have been playing much better each game in this elimination round. Conceded first again today. That's three in a row. I don't think they can expect to do that vs Spain and win. Spain will offer too much on the counter and I could see it getting out of hand. Although, we all know what likely happens if England score first (particularly in the first half). It'll be a shell, Southgate will park the bus, and inevitably we will lose again.

The first halves of the matches vs the Swiss and Holland, we have been in "complete control" of the game, I feel. The movement has been very good. The formation is allowed to keep the ball. We just haven't finished off as well as we should. That could change vs Spain. Their defense is not formidable (unlike France).

Southgate finally made the move to pull Kane off in the 90 and it paid off with the W. Avoiding the extra 30 minutes was huge. We'll need to avoid it again vs Spain, I feel. Magical moment for Watkins though.

This turnaround for England since the mid to late 90s... it's taken time. It hasn't come easy. I was looking up all the Under 17/29/20/21 tournaments England have won recently... U-20 WC 2017, U-21 Euro 2023, U19 won 2017 and 2022, U-17 won in 2017... that's no accident. It's taken a very long time and the right formula must start IMO at the youth level. And now you are seeing the benefits of that at the professional level with some of these players making their way thru to the first team. That's a mindset and confidence created only created thru experience at these tournaments. Now two Euro finals in a row. Hopefully the drought ends on Sunday. But if it doesn't, it'll be okay. Lots of young talent to look forward to.

 

Uruguay players going into the stands to apparently protect their family sitting at the front who were being harassed by Colombian fans. Nunez really at the front of the line to beat and "defend" many of the instigators. So much for no drama tonight. Colombia deserved to go thru and face Argentina, even though they had a player sent off for utter stupidity. Frustrations boiling over. So much passion, which you love to see mind you. Going to be two great finals on Sunday, hopefully.

 

welcome to the thread... yeah, spain 2024, best team in tourney so far... but not the best i've ever seen. maybe top 10... or just outside. but may be too early to rank them since tourney not over.

 

yeah, i'd seen that before. this is why England fans are the best, of course, I'm biased. He was a really good sport about it. Which is just as hilarious.

 

Sucks to lose it that way, after tying the game. It was all there to play for, and Southgate doesn't see that the team needs changes... he leaves Saka and Shaw on, both were fatigued. And they sit back and invite pressure. Though the goal was a quick one. This is like the Dave Wannestedt era for Dolfans... good enough to make the playoffs, not good enough to win the whole thing. Got to get Southgate out. But I fear with all these finals/semi final appearances, the FA won't have the balls to do it. Just like Southgate... no balls no glory.

 

JFC... i have to watch an additional hour and 15 minutes of the Fox Sports pregame show due to this delay at the Copa (security issues / shocking i know). Rob Stone is okay... I've made it clear what I think of Alexi Lalas before... Dempsey and Lloyd... just don't bring anything to the table as far as analysis, particularly Dempsey, he's terrible.

 

worse than that, there are people that didn't go thru security in that stadium. that's a recipe for disaster. in this day and age.

 

I have signed up on the FIFA website to try to get tickets for the 2026 World Cup. I believe there are 8 games at SOFI stadium here in LA. Five group games and three elimination games (R of 32 - two and QF - one). Also, I think the US play two group games here. I've gotta go to at least one of these games! I wonder about the timing of the selling of the tix vs the world cup draw.