Dullest Tournament

[MazzyStar]

Some of you mfers would rather every game of football involved each team passing the ball around in their own half 200 times before even attempting to score. 

[Lurkst]

Quality of the games aside, I had one of the best weeks of my now reasonably long life in Germany, which will be the lasting memory of Euro 2024 for me 

 

[BFTD]

16 minutes ago, MazzyStar said:

Some of you mfers would rather every game of football involved each team passing the ball around in their own half 200 times before even attempting to score. 

In the future, extra time and penalties will be replaced by possession stats.

At the 2078 World Cup, someone will accidentally score an own goal and nobody will know what happens next.

[parsforlife]

6 minutes ago, BFTD said:

In the future, extra time and penalties will be replaced by possession stats.

At the 2078 World Cup, someone will accidentally score an own goal and nobody will know what happens next.

It will be recorded as a safety meaning the defending team gets a goal kick with the other side rewarded with 10 passes. 

[Claudia Gentile]

Probably a perfect shit-storm has affected the quality or at least the attacking verve in a lot of games.

The expanded set-up as detailed previously can determine a teams outlook after the first game.

Mental and physical tiredness must be an aspect for a lot of players. Even Scotland seemed lethargic when energy is a key part of the game.

Despite the saturation of football national teams still have relatively little time to work on tactics and shape. This seems to me, to result in more pragmatic approaches from the likes of France and England down to the likes of Scotland too.

The penalty shootout is high drama but it still can be an equaliser encouraging negative play. The Copa America has had similar games in the knockouts.

Would a return to silver of golden goals be worth considering? Not sure if it works in some aspects but you'd think games against top nations may be a little more attacking?

I'd love the tournament come to life in the semi-finals and the final but I doubt we will see much different in the approach of teams as they will see their approach has got them this far so why change it.

TL;DR It hasn't been great, probably for various factors some of which I might not even be aware of.

[Richey Edwards]

17 minutes ago, Claudia Gentile said:

Probably a perfect shit-storm has affected the quality or at least the attacking verve in a lot of games.

The expanded set-up as detailed previously can determine a teams outlook after the first game.

Mental and physical tiredness must be an aspect for a lot of players. Even Scotland seemed lethargic when energy is a key part of the game.

Despite the saturation of football national teams still have relatively little time to work on tactics and shape. This seems to me, to result in more pragmatic approaches from the likes of France and England down to the likes of Scotland too.

The penalty shootout is high drama but it still can be an equaliser encouraging negative play. The Copa America has had similar games in the knockouts.

Would a return to silver of golden goals be worth considering? Not sure if it works in some aspects but you'd think games against top nations may be a little more attacking?

I'd love the tournament come to life in the semi-finals and the final but I doubt we will see much different in the approach of teams as they will see their approach has got them this far so why change it.

TL;DR It hasn't been great, probably for various factors some of which I might not even be aware of.

Golden Goal was introduced to encourage more attacking football but in reality teams became more defensive during extra-time. That's why it was binned in the first place.

[Claudia Gentile]

1 minute ago, Richey Edwards said:

Golden Goal was introduced to encourage more attacking football but in reality teams became more defensive during extra-time. That's why it was binned in the first place.

Yeah, it's hard to see if anything can be done to make teams more attacking. 

I notice games in the Copa America go straight to penalties. I don't really get the benefit of extra-time in end of season tournaments as an extra half hour doesn't usually see an up turn in what has gone on in the previous 90 minutes.

The downside that could mean even more turgid games as less time to get to penalties but could spark better teams to go for it more in the 90 minutes.

Who really knows. Not me anyway.

[Richey Edwards]

3 minutes ago, Claudia Gentile said:

Yeah, it's hard to see if anything can be done to make teams more attacking. 

I notice games in the Copa America go straight to penalties. I don't really get the benefit of extra-time in end of season tournaments as an extra half hour doesn't usually see an up turn in what has gone on in the previous 90 minutes.

The downside that could mean even more turgid games as less time to get to penalties but could spark better teams to go for it more in the 90 minutes.

Who really knows. Not me anyway.

I would rather drawn games just went straight to penalties tbh. Another 30 minutes is needless IMO.

[Claudia Gentile]

9 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

I would rather drawn games just went straight to penalties tbh. Another 30 minutes is needless IMO.

Yup, that is my feelings on the matter too.

[GordonS]

I blame Didier Deschamps. He's ruined that French squad, wasting their talents playing conservatively, but as they've been successful (though not as successful as they should have been IMO) then he's heavily influenced other managers. The problem isn't possession football or playing out from the back, the problem is as many players as possible behind the ball and hoping to exploit opposition mistakes on transition. It's terrible to watch.

 

9 hours ago, Lurkst said:

1990 still wins worst tournament for me, aside from the bantz opening game and us beating Sweden it was mostly horrific (England's quarter and semi finals were exciting TBF).

 

Agreed. England and Cameroon were good to watch and Italy had their moments, but there wasn't much else going on and the final was utterly dreadful. The matches between Ireland, the Netherlands and Egypt could have got football banned.

[Savage Henry]

On 06/07/2024 at 12:54, VictorOnopko said:

I hope that was meant as a joke as WC94 was one of the best ever. The only turgid game I remember was the final.  The group stages had plenty of good games and the Romanians and Bulgarians both had teams full of talent which added something extra to the usual contenders. 

World Cup 90 on the other hand was dreadful, and this Euros is quite reminiscent of it in terms of cagey games lacking goals (although Austria - Turkey and Germany - Spain livened things up).

I seem to remember Argentina vs Romania being one of the best games I’ve ever seen.  94 was great.  

2010 was just interminably slow.  

[Richey Edwards]

2 hours ago, Claudia Gentile said:

Yup, that is my feelings on the matter too.

I admit that I don't watch Copa America so do not know for certain, but I am sure that they go straight to penalties in the event of a draw.

[Claudia Gentile]

3 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

I admit that I don't watch Copa America so do not know for certain, but I am sure that they go straight to penalties in the event of a draw.

They do mate.

[Sergeant Wilson]

Football has become very technical. If you try to be gung ho against Man City, or their international equivalent, you'll be picked off on the break. The secret is finding a way to incentive more outright attacking play and discourage the more technically proficient teams from sitting in, or holding the ball interminably.

But...It could be argued it's up to someone to find a tactic that beats sitting back of holding the ball for minutes on end.

[Gibby82]

The standard of football at Italia '90 was dreadful but it's the best one because it's the first one I remember watching and the strips were cool. 

[Lurkst]

21 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:

I seem to remember Argentina vs Romania being one of the best games I’ve ever seen. 

It was sensational. Alan Hansen said similar at HT IIRC, although followed it up with. "...but the state of the defending".

 

[Red Kite]

On 05/07/2024 at 23:00, McGlovin' said:

The best tournament is usually the one when you're aged 8-10 ish. The worst? Euro 96, despite the revisionism of our pals down south,  was almost all turgid fare, played in half empty stadiums.

Euro 96 was my first spell living in London and it was great weather so it was personally enjoyable.  The one game I attended in person (Italy vs Germany, at Old Trafford) had players including Klinsmann and Zola unable to score., but some greats like Maladini on display.  The Scotland vs England game was a massive deal.

[McGlovin']

46 minutes ago, Red Kite said:

Euro 96 was my first spell living in London and it was great weather so it was personally enjoyable.  The one game I attended in person (Italy vs Germany, at Old Trafford) had players including Klinsmann and Zola unable to score., but some greats like Maladini on display.  The Scotland vs England game was a massive deal.

Life circumstances and where and who you watched the games with makes is a huge deal when remembering back.

Suppose similar to your Italy-Germany experience, they'll be people who watched that France-Portugal game in Hamburg in person who might look back fondly in a decade or so, give that they saw Ronaldo, Mbappe, Griezemann, Bernardo Silva etc.

Going back to Euro 96 though - some of the crowds were terrible - sub 20,000 attendances in Newcastle and Nottingham in the group stages. The knockout stages had 9 goals in 7 matches. Aside from the Germany-England semi-final that was a more than decent game between well-matched teams, the only other thing of note was Poborsky's chip at a half-empty Villa Park. But the sun and the whole Cool Britannica bollocks that summer means it was (rightly) a big deal in England, although the tabloids were a bit naughty - Piers Moron declaring Football War on Germany a particular low.

[Central Belt Caley]

8 hours ago, BFTD said:

In the future, extra time and penalties will be replaced by possession stats.

At the 2078 World Cup, someone will accidentally score an own goal and nobody will know what happens next.

A combination of possession and xG will decide who goes through, to appease the VL’s 

[Shotgun]

1. No extra time. Straight to penalties if level after 90 minutes.

2. No back passes in, or into, your own half.

3. At least three players from each side in the opposition half at all times.

4. No single colour strips.

5. No English commentators or presenters for games involving teams from the British Isles.

6. If VAR can't make a decision within 15 seconds, then no clear and obvious error has occurred. The referee's original decision stands.

7. Seeding to be based on a poll held by P&B.

8. Yellow cards and/or fines for diving. Applied retroactively if necessary.

9. Goalkeepers can leave their line the moment the taker's run up starts. If the taker still chooses that stupid stop-start run up, they'll lose any advantage.

10. Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Mo Salah are overjoyed to discover they have Scottish grannies and, thanks to a rule change are now eligible to play for Scotland. 

Sorted.