There's something sweet about seeing a team being the favorite, behaving bad and losing the game to the underdog.
Sometimes it works for the underdog
There's something sweet about seeing a team being the favorite, behaving bad and losing the game to the underdog.
Wow, nice going Portugal!
Thanks Peter.Originally Posted by Teaticket
The French were making a foul game.
During the entire last week they were saying terrible things about the Portuguese selection.
Then they took out Ronaldo with a disgusting move.
It went bad for them.
Sometimes makes sense.
Hooray for fair play
I didn't get to see the match. I hate it when one team (or both) play dirty trying to injure opponents. Not very sporting. I will drop my team and root for the other if my team plays dirty. I'm very glad Portugal won, but not just for that reason.
So happy Portugal won. As an Italian it fills me with joy to watch France lose
Congratulations to the Portugal team!
Well done Portugal!
Did we watch the same game?The French were making a foul game.
During the entire last week they were saying terrible things about the Portuguese selection.
Then they took out Ronaldo with a disgusting move.
It went bad for them.
My take on the game was that France played a very "aggressive" game... but certainly not a "dirty" game. If anything, Portugal was the more egregious offender (ex. Pepe putting Kosczielny in a headlock, then laughing it off as just friendly hi-jinx) even if France drew more yellow cards. Ronaldo was injured because he was playing just as aggressive and reckless as his opponents and paid the price. Sorry he was injured but there was nothing "questionable" about the incident.
That said, the Portuguese defense was awesome and the winning goal was a hell of a shot. All in all, I thought the game was well played by both teams, even if the general consensus of the announcers was just the opposite.
Congratulations Portugal!
Thank you all.
Chris, I'm not a fan of anything but planes and I watch games in a very distanced way.
Every time Portugal play bad I'm the first one saying that it's more than fair for it to lose the game.
My girlfriend is French and she was also disgusted with the French attitude before, during and after the game.
Maybe we didn't see the same game.
Ever since France knew that it would play with Portugal there was all kind of bullying around. The highlight was Renato Sanches: Questioning his age, if he was really Portuguese, etc. You know that this might impact in a player's psyche. It had the opposite effect because Portuguese are used to bullies.
If you think that there wasn't an intention in the "accident" that put Ronaldo out of the game, then you haven't seen enough games of football.
And the fact that the Portuguese flag was flashing on the Eiffel tower just for a few seconds is in itself a pointer. I would be very annoyed with my country if being a host of a Championship we would treat our guest that way.
But in fact the thing that made me more proud of being Portuguese yesterday was this:
Gordon Bennett! Calm down guys it was just a game. Not as though it was WoG match
This is not a rant (now reading it again maybe it is. Sorry.)
This is genuine concern and steaming off the post game news.
This is what again and again makes me turn away from professional sports. This lack of rationality shown both by winners and losers alike.
Let's clarify one or seven things here:
1) I would write the exposed below for any country in this situation not just for Portugal. In 2004 I berated a Portuguese politician that was trying to diminish the Greek victory against Portugal. Happily he was a minority not the whole Portuguese behavior.
2) The post-losing behavior of the French team, of the French an some other people around the world is absurd.
They lost a square and fair game. If it wasn't fair and square was because they tried to win by hurting the potential better player in the field.
And now they are asking for a rematch, saying that Portugal didn't deserve winning.
How strange, stupid, irrational and sad that a country like France should behave this way.
3) They French are feeling humiliated because they think that they lost to a lesser team. To lesser people. And many "sport experts" feed this behavior and idea. It's not true. They lost (for once in a Portuguese national team) to better planning. They lost to a team that had less assets but a better plan. They weren't able to adjust to the Portuguese tactics of taking the heat and waiting for the opportunity. They were out maneuvered and couldn't adjust to it. So they lost.
In fact this is one of the rare times that a Portuguese planner realizes that this is the way that made and kept Portugal. Losing and drawing constantly until the enemy is over-extended enough to push back.
Strangely it is the Spaniards, the main target of this Portuguese tactic, that are defending the Portuguese team against this hail of "they didn't deserve winning".
Let me go further here. They deserved winning much more than in 2004 when Portugal had a much stronger team. They won because they stick to the plan. And the plan is a tested one. Taking vast superior forces by the use of careful strategy. And the French weren't able to counter that. And in their vanity they are soiling this game. They aren't taking the honor of the defeated and they are trying to take the glory they clearly don't deserve in this game. Not accepting the silver medals doesn't soil the Portuguese victory, just soils the French attitude. It really saddened me seeing them rejecting the medals. Not for me or for Portugal. But for France. I have a better idea of France and the French people.
4) There's a line of fortifications along the Tagus river from the Spanish border up to Lisbon. These fortification aren't made for long sieges or for victory. The men manning them knew that they just had to loose with quality, or draw. Winning was never their aim. Slowly and surely the Castille invasion would be delayed, bogged down until the Portuguese were able to amass enough people to push back an army that in best of odds was four times bigger than the Portuguese army.
And the Portuguese would loose seven to nine fortification. Seven to nine battles. But in the end the Castillian army would be enough over extended to be taken by the smaller Portuguese army. Patience, restrain and focus were the ingredients that completed the Portuguese strategy. During the Peninsular wars, Wellington understood this when he reinforced the Torres Vedras line of defense and once again a stronger army was defeated. This time the French.
5) I love a good game of football. I'm never happy when a good player is put out of the game by a violent charge. It's like seeing a chess game where one of the player looses its queen because the other player stole it away from the chess board. Even if that player was a Portuguese fellow I would be irate. It's the clash of wills and skills that I love.
6) The French had the stronger team, they were playing home and they had the bonus of taking out a Portuguese player of skill and they lost. Squarely. Because during this game the Portuguese team was better. And that seems to be a tragedy to the French and some other people. I think that if the Germans had won against the French this wouldn't happen. This must be a destroyed sense of national superiority. And that is the bad sting of international sport events. When people see it as nations battling for the right of being strongest.
7) Finally about the importance of this. It's not that important. It will fade away in a few weeks as it should. In a few years, people that really like football with talk about two things about Euro 2016: The quietly well orchestrated tactical victory of Portugal and the sad behavior of France.
Last edited by Blackronin; 07-12-2016 at 02:04.
Portugal wasn't my favourite, but they won their first international tournament titel.
So I'm happy for you Joaquim.
France kicked out Germany - my credo is: If you want't to be the soccer champion you need to shoot goals.
Voilŕ le soleil d'Austerlitz!
Thanks Sven.
French will be French (not necessarily a bad thing), but i don't believe the foul on Ronaldo was intentional. If it even was a foul. French played a great game, but they lost, because to win you have to score.
Congratulations to Portugal.
The post-losing behaviour of the losing side and of some other people around the world is absurd. They lose a decision fair and square because their team didn't turn up and win the match and now they are asking for a rematch, saying that the other side didn't deserve to win.
Sounds familiar, can't say why !!
Sapiens qui vigilat... "He is wise who watches"
I can!Sounds familiar, can't say why !!
Scottish Independence Referendum
U.K. E.U. Referendum
It seems that, these days, any decision which 'you' personally, don't like or agree with, 'you' can appeal to some unidentified "higher power" and have the poll re-run!
But woe betide anybody else, who disagrees with 'you' when 'you' are on the winning side, and who seeks to overturn a decision which fell in 'your' favour!!!!!
It seems that these days, everyone thinks that anybody can appeal any decision, even an appeal, even an overturned appeal or an upheld appeal! If this is allowed to continue, then it will spread, and no decision will ever stand unchallenged.
You pull a "5 + pilot wound" card from the 'A' damage deck; then try to appeal for a re-draw, based on spurious "direction of incoming fire" rules, which are then appealed by your opponent, who raises some equally spurious issue to counteract it!
Get a grip, people!
Especially in the topic of the thread - IT'S ONLY YAWWWWWWN-BALLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!
(P.S. - I hereby count myself censured for raising Politics in this post)
((but it REALLLY annoys me!!!!!!!!!))
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
George Carlin, on "People I Can Do Without": "Athletes who give credit to God when they win -- never mention him when they lose. 'Jesus made me drop the ball.' 'The Good Lord tripped me up behind the line of scrimmage.'"The post-losing behaviour of the losing side and of some other people around the world is absurd. They lose a decision fair and square because their team didn't turn up and win the match and now they are asking for a rematch, saying that the other side didn't deserve to win.
Sounds familiar, can't say why !!
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