not even remotely a tough call for me.. Ozil plays for German and so does Poldi.. and Ronaldo plays for Portugal.. easiest decision of the day for me.. i will root for any team playing against Portugal.

I have a very hard time rooting for the Germany team, not just because it's mostly Bayern players but because of the despicable characters they are

Boateng was the first interviewee after five players to have some kind words for Italy. Really taken a liking to him, acts like a captain on the pitch far cry from the timid bloke he used to be at City

You asked about Kimmich earlier in this thread Klaus - knowing Bayern he might well be deemed surplus when they'll find a new shiny talent to play with. Right now he's highly rated but the same was true for Höjbjerg or Gaudino and those two looked spot on to make it at Bayern not even a year ago

jones wrote:

flobaba wrote:

Lol. Good pace? The keeper dived faster than the ball.

And if it's not absolutely aimed towards the bottom corner it has no business touching the ground.

He very obviously didn't dive faster than the ball

Every coach will tell you that if you can't trust yourself to put it in either top corner that it's best to keep it as close to the ground as possible

He did

" Every coach"? Lol

That was a poorly taken penalty, and he was fortunate to score. I have nothing more to say about it.

Klaus wrote:

flobaba wrote:

In Conte's defence, who could have known that a striker who scored 5 goals last season wasn't any good?

Tell that to West Ham who wants him for 20m.

jones wrote:

flobaba wrote:

Lol. Good pace? The keeper dived faster than the ball.

And if it's not absolutely aimed towards the bottom corner it has no business touching the ground.

He very obviously didn't dive faster than the ball

Every coach will tell you that if you can't trust yourself to put it in either top corner that it's best to keep it as close to the ground as possible

I thought it was a poor attempt from Buffon having watched it again and again. It was almost a carbon copy penalty of Darmian's poor effort but Neuer got down fantastically well.

Klaus wrote:

flobaba wrote:

In Conte's defence, who could have known that a striker who scored 5 goals last season wasn't any good?

He took over 20 steps in that 8 foot "run up". Ridiculous stuff. Is that how he played in training ? What gave Conte that much confidence in him ?

Jones, what's your nationality?

Claudius wrote:

Jones, what's your nationality?

Moroccan and German

Yours?

So you're German but you hate your national team because of an issue you have with the big domestic club?

Clrnc wrote:

I thought it was a poor attempt from Buffon having watched it again and again. It was almost a carbon copy penalty of Darmian's poor effort but Neuer got down fantastically well.

You've said it yourself, Neuer did fantastically well to get to the ball like he did. I don't like blaming keepers in penalty shootouts - if for Hector's shot Buffon dived in the other direction is it still a poor attempt by him? In that case was Neuer at fault it even got that far when he dived for Italy's three shots down the middle?

Except for obvious cases like when they fumble a ball into the goal or Oblak's complete inactivity in the CL final I don't think keepers should be blamed for their performance in a shootout. Especially when Buffon had a couple unreal saves during the 120 minutes before

Claudius wrote:

So you're German but you hate your national team because of an issue you have with the big domestic club?

So because I happen to have a German passport I'm supposed to like a team whose players I usually hate?

Also what's your nationality, genuine question

Graziano Pelle's inspiration today:

jones wrote:

You've said it yourself, Neuer did fantastically well to get to the ball like he did. I don't like blaming keepers in penalty shootouts - if for Hector's shot Buffon dived in the other direction is it still a poor attempt by him? In that case was Neuer at fault it even got that far when he dived for Italy's three shots down the middle?

Except for obvious cases like when they fumble a ball into the goal or Oblak's complete inactivity in the CL final I don't think keepers should be blamed for their performance in a shootout. Especially when Buffon had a couple unreal saves during the 120 minutes before

I get what you mean. I don't mean that he is solely to blame but surely you can't shake off the feeling that he could and should have done better. It's like when the keeper guessed the correct way but just didn't get a stronger hand to it. Like I said before the shootout, Buffon isn't the strongest at penalties from what I seen of past shootouts.

Klaus wrote:

Claudius wrote:

So you're German but you hate your national team because of an issue you have with the big domestic club?

Edit: Same thing as jonesy said above, basically. I don't really see the issue. I don't support Sweden either because they're a spineless, unlikable shower of shit. I don't feel any nationalistic pride when I watch them. I just feel angry and bored.

Everyone's angry and bored when they watch Sweden play. 

Germany did win the World Cup 2 years ago though, how did you take that Jones? Were you just happy that 3 Arsenal players won a trophy? 

Mirth wrote:

Klaus wrote:

Edit: Same thing as jonesy said above, basically. I don't really see the issue. I don't support Sweden either because they're a spineless, unlikable shower of shit. I don't feel any nationalistic pride when I watch them. I just feel angry and bored.

Everyone's angry and bored when they watch Sweden play. 

Germany did win the World Cup 2 years ago though, how did you take that Jones? Were you just happy that 3 Arsenal players won a trophy? 

Yeah, nothing more, I'm not German. Genuinely tried to give a fuck a long time ago but I honestly couldn't find it in me.

Have to say though even in the unlikely case my other national team ever won anything I wouldn't care much, I have little time for any kind of patriotism and int'l footy is mostly just an exercise to celebrate the latter