The Under 21s - proper football

[imp]

Cracking opening night to the U21 Euros last night - all four quarter-finals rocked. Holland beat favourites France 2-1 with a winner in the 94th. minute. Spain put Croatia out in extra-time after a very late Croatian equaliser in normal time. Portugal and Italy went at it hammer and tongs deep into extra time in the kind of back and forth barnstormer you wish you could see very time you tune in - 5-3 Portugal after Italy had also equalised late in normal time to come back from 3-1 down. And Germany dodged a bullet with a late equaliser against Denmark to make it 1-1, then won on penalties after extra time with the score at 2-2. Another humdinger that could have gone either way.

Semis on Thursday:
Portugal v Spain
Germany v Holland

This is proper tournament football - straight knockouts, eight teams only. Younger players still not battered into tactical submission by obsessive laptop coaches. Goals, drama and action from start to finish.

And all around 24 hours after I'd said following Lincoln v Blackpool, "I'm going to take a rest from football until the start of the Euros..." Glad I was weak.

[Jah Womble]

Found myself drawn into the Portugal/Italy quarter-final. And I'm very glad that I was.

It's not a 'straight knockout' of course, there were four groups of four prior to the q/fs, played back in March. The tournament has produced an average of almost 2.8 goals per game, however, which is testament to the attacking principles applied by most of the teams involved.

[imp]

Indeed - but I mean that the final tournament itself is a pure ko tournament, like the Euros were in the 70s. Short and sweet and not drawn out to the point where even as a viewer you're exhausted two weeks in.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Younger players still not battered into tactical submission by obsessive laptop coaches.

I don't know about this. These players are probably the most intensively coached group of players to ever play at this level, and will remain so until the next of these tournaments. It's such an enormous part of player development. That's a big part of why it looks so good. These players have a very good idea of what they are doing, but don't quite have the experience to pull it off consistently, so you get some properly exciting games, with lengthy passages of good play.

Unless of course you take some of the very best players at this age level, and give them to Aidy Boothroyd, which is a bit like giving an iphone to "Lucy"

[imp]

I'm sure they're intensively coached, and that they have been for years, but many of them still have enough lingering post-adolescent self-will and individuality to either occasionally forget or ignore their instructions. You saw that in both the Portugal-Italy and the Germany-Denmark games as vast amounts of space opened up that allowed end to end football. There was much less consciousness of positional play and much more 'Bollocks, I'm going to win this game'. There's also more willingness to take players on, to try out tricks, feints and dummies. You see it even more in the U17 and U19 tournaments.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I think a lot of it has to do with there being less of a circus about the u-21s and them being under less pressure. Another factor worth considering is that this may be what it looks like when you separate the knockout stage of a competition from the exhausting group stage. The line up of teams is all killer and no filler. I also wouldn't discount the impact of not really knowing who a lot of these players are, (unless you're particularly well versed in multiple leagues across europe,) which gives it the sort of freshness you used to get in the days before you had 40% of the spanish squad playing in england.

People not being able to defend set pieces very well definitely lit a fire under the two games I watched- France-Holland and Portugal-italy

[imp]

Another factor worth considering is that this may be what it looks like when you separate the knockout stage of a competition from the exhausting group stage. The line up of teams is all killer and no filler.

Good point - the group stages really drag tournaments down for a number of reasons. See the other thread for my never-to-be-adopted proposal to abolish the whole qualifying phase and just have a straight knockout tournament.

[imp]

One okay and one very good semi-final last night, though little of the drama we had in the QFs. Portugal were lucky to beat Spain 1-0 thanks to a late deflected cross after Spain had created most of the best chances, and dominated the second half in particular. Their opponents will be Germany, who played much better thanks to the return in midfield of Oezcan (who had been playing for Cologne in the relegation play-offs) and holding midfielder Niklas Dorsch (suspended for the QF). Two nicely worked early goals from Wirtz (after 32 seconds, and eight minutes) saw them in charge for most of the night, despite a Dutch second-half goal from nothing, by which time Germany should have been ahead by quite a few more. Special mention to Mergim Berisha for hitting the woodwork three times - once from a direct free-kick, then twice in a minute from a fierce shot in open play, followed seconds later by a header that hit the inside of the post and bounced into the Dutch keeper's arms. Final score: 2-1.

Final on Sunday 9pm CET.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Imp is underselling the first German goal, which was like a good version of the opening minute of the 1974 world cup final. The Dutch can view it as the ultimate victory of their ideas i suppose

[imp]

Here's the funny thing - much to frau imp's amusement, I missed it because I was still on the bog. The half-time interval was so packed with ads that they only showed the cross and the finish in slo-mo from close-up, and right after the game they cut to another long ad break so I went to bed. So I still haven't seen the build-up from kick-off.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Even the highlights only join the move 24 seconds in. They moved the ball all over the pitch. through and around and past the dutch players. It was really impressive. It's hard to find the full move of the opening minute of the 74 world cup final, but that is a 17 pass move, and it's basically fannying about at the back until pass 13 which is the first time a german gets within 10 yards of the ball, and then at pass 17 cruyff picks up the ball near the halfway line and dribbles past three players before getting booted in the air by bertie vogts. It's not really fair to compare the two, because the Dutch have just invented this and we've had nearly 50 years to work on it.

Actually looking at the 1974 world cup final it's amazing how slow it is. it takes 48 seconds to make the 17 passes that get the ball to cruyff in the centre circle, and it takes him eight seconds to run from the centre circle to the edge of the penalty box. There's not a trememdous sense of urgency, indeed at one point a guy just stops and waits for cruyff to jog across the pitch to simply take the stationary ball off him. and the closest anyone comes to breaking into a sprint is cruyff at the end.

[elguapo4]

Bertie Vogts was guilty of booting a lot of people in the air,but it was Uli Hoeness who administered the kick on this occasion.

[imp]

Kick-off is 9pm CET/8pm UK time - contrary to what I posted upthread.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The Portuguese must really hate the sight of lukas nmecha. He has a winner in an u-21 European championship final against them, to go with a winner in an u 19 European championship final against them er, for England.

[imp]

Another good game and a deserved victory for Germany. Only downside was the annoying commentators on Pro7 sounding more like coked-up AfD voters.

I've lost count of how many articles I've read in kicker the past couple of years over-stating how German football has lost its way, that the whole youth development system needs to be dismantled and re-built, and there are no good young players coming through to replace the current generation. What utter bollocks.

Dorsch in the Deschamps/Dieter Eilts role was immense - not bad for a Bayern reject sold to Heidenheim, now playing in Gent. Raum at left back has moved from Fuerth (15 assists last season in the second division) to Hoffenheim - he's a raw, sometimes headless talent and never smiles, but you'd probably rather have him on your team than not. Pieper and Schlotterbeck may sound like a kids' TV programme, but the centre-back pairing was solid again last night, and Schlotterbeck's distribution to the flanks is immaculate. Baku at right-back has already shown his quality at Wolfsburg and should be in the senior squad. Hertha will no doubt be re-calling the superb Arne Maier back on loan from Bielefeld. I'm not so sure about the forwards - Nmecha's positioning in the centre is awful and he's rarely close to the crosses, but he has a strong goal-scoring record and the winner came from his well timed run and a deft finish. Berisha was dreadful, but has scored tons of goals in Salzburg, so maybe he needs some careful coaching. Wirtz was also pale last night, but the subs Adeyemi and Burkhardt are both lively movers and attractive, positive prospects.