Euros 2016 – my favourite tournament ever, yet one of the dullest I’ve seen.

6 Responses to Euros 2016 – my favourite tournament ever, yet one of the dullest I’ve seen.

1. Russell says:

   July 13, 2016 at 8:32 pm

   Gosh , Paul you have done your homework on goal ratios.

   It’s been a tournament that delivred few golden moments , Hungary v Portugal was a truly entertaining affair, which broke with the traditional self controled no risk fair , that international sides usually serve up.

   My continued attention to the tornamant was a result of Wales continued progress that I still find hard to understand, perhaps your point regarding our midfield was indeed the catalyst of that success along with a truly remarkable team spirit.

   Never realised how many football fans that are hidden away in our land, hopefully they will rock up this season to support the City?

   I don’t want to mention that truly objectionable man that works in the media, simply for his own end and publicity, however he did grab my attention when taking on the gun lobby in the USA, he must gave wanted the sack.

   Can’t wait for the real miserable stuff to begin.

   Thanks for the comment , observations during the Euros, it’s made the closed seasom bearable, along with the wonderful, political farce played out this summer , its priceless and it still continues up until today, Boris as foreign secretary, really ,did not see that one coming,what next City as champions.
2. Dai Woosnam says:

   July 14, 2016 at 11:51 am

   Re Boris…Careful, dear Russell, Clive is watching.
   He doesn’t want politics…and he is probably wise in making that request.
   Which is why I will say nowt about Piers Morgan…for my view on that pompous – but essentially decent – gent is largely antithetical to your view and Paul’s…though clearly Piers was wrong on the Cardiff parade.

   A thought from me on our player of the tournament…not Ramsey or Bale. And certainly not Allen who – despite his phenomenal effort – passed the ball to the opposition half the time. (How he made the UEFA team of the tournament is a mystery…it must be his slight physical resemblance to Pirlo !!)

   To me, our best player was Gunter. For the last couple of minutes aginst England, apart, (when he allowed himself to be knocked over by Sturridge) , he did not put a foot wrong.
   And he played a vital part in the best Welsh goal of the tournament …the Vokes header. (Yes, extraordinary though the HRK goal was…it was also rank bad defending, seeing he had three guys on him, who all left him to the others.)
   Before closing, one other thing. Thanks for the masterful summing up, Paul.
   DW.
3. Clive Harry says:

   July 14, 2016 at 10:12 pm

   The Boris remark is allowed Dai because it was made in the context of a football comparison but I am watching for any attempts to smuggle political references in on the blind side!
   As for Joe Allan, I agree with you. Incredibly industrious but when he needed to be more creative without Ramsey beside him, his distribution was sadly lacking.
4. The other Bob Wilson says:

   July 15, 2016 at 10:25 am

   I enjoyed reading all of the articles earlier in the week where various hacks picked their teams of the tournament. There was barely one which didn’t have a Welshman in it and, from memory, there were six of them who featured. Hardly surprisingly, the “big three” of Allen, Ramsey and Bale were all in at least one of the selections and there was also a place for James Chester and Ashley Williams in one of them. Dai will be pleased to know that the other Welshman to make a team of the tournament was Chris Gunter and, in another nod to City, Aron Gunnarsson also made it into someone’s team – I’m not knocking either player (I agree that Gunter was very good for much of the time and I thought Gunnarsson was excellent against England in particular), but, and I need to acknowledge what’s going on in politics to emphasise the point here, we are living in incredible times!
   I mentioned in one of my earlier pieces on here that Wales could have held their own goal of the tournament competition. Besides the two goals Dai mentions, there were Bale’s two free kicks and his goal against Russia came at the end of a high quality passing movement, Robson-Kanu’s other goal included some incisive passing (and a fair bit of luck!) and Ramsey’s goal was beautifully conceived and executed – it’s got to be the one which put us in front against Belgium for me though.
   Regarding Joe Allen, I think we had three central midfielders who were too similar against Portugal and our opponents concentrated on Allen because he was the one of the trio who was most likely to find a pass which could open them up. I couldn’t understand the positive reviews he got against England much either, but, for me, he was very good in the other four matches – think he probably needs to get away from Liverpool though.
   Russell, although I thought it had so much going for it, Hungary v Portugal barely featured in the critic’s choice for Game of the tournament – the winner, by some distance, was Wales v Belgium and we were many people’s choice as team of the tournament.
5. Dai Woosnam says:

   July 15, 2016 at 6:56 pm

   As ever Paul, I am loath to disagree with you, seeing as your opinions are never knee-jerk ones, but always thoughtful responses.
   However, on the HRK “wonder” goal, I cannot help myself. I know I am going against received opinion, particularly as that goal put us into the lead. But I ask you to see it in reverse.
   Imagine Ashley W, Ben D, and James Chester were all gathered around – indeed almost on TOP of – Belgium’s version of Harry Houdini. It is all very well the sporting press exclaiming the equivalent of “and with one bound he was free!”
   It just won’t wash.
   Were these three prison officers escorting a deadly serial killer, they would immediately be dismissed from the Prison Service.
   Mind you, not that HRK is worried whether someone thinks his goal inferior to the sensational third goal…as a thing of beauty, I mean.
   It turned out to be astonishingly lucrative for him, didn’t it just!?

   Before closing…will some kind reader help me and remind me of the difference between a Cruyff turn, and the wonderful turn that Adrian Alston used to perform.

   We really need the late Alan Weekes here, with his double axles, and triple axles. There was a difference, I know…albeit a subtle one.
   For my memory is not what it was, and I cannot now “see” the Alston turn in my mind’s eye, but Cruyff’s is regularly shown on TV in all its glory…so, help me please Paul and Co.

   All I do recall re that turn was a Radio Wales discussion at the time, comparing and contrasting the two turns. They noted the difference way back then. But I have lost the nitty gritty of just what it was. I seem to think it was deemed to be just a matter of angles.
   So please enlighten me.

   Mind you…it might be difficult in words…!!
   It reminds me of the chap who tried to write down on paper without using diagrams, how to do up a bow tie, and then a pair of shoelaces !!
   DW.
6. The other Bob Wilson says:

   July 16, 2016 at 3:18 pm

   Sorry Dai, but we are talking instinct with what Robson-Kanu did – I don’t see that you can replicate a situation like that in a training session. The defenders had a split second to react and, like virtually all of us would have done if we had been playing, they bought the dummy, there was no time for any sort of communication between them and so they all had to react to what they saw. I thought one of them (Deneya?) got himself into no man’s land a bit, which meant that he probably wouldn’t have been able to prevent the goal even if he had not fallen for Robson-Kanu’s trick, but I don’t think the Belgian defenders can be blamed too much.
   I know we’re not supposed to mention politics on here, but rugby’s okay I presume. I first started paying proper attention to rugby around the time of the famous Babas v All Blacks match in 1973 and the greatest thrill I got from the game then was to see the sort of jinking, side-stepping running that Phil Bennett produced at the start of the move for Gareth Edward’s amazing try. I always thought that there was something typical Welsh about such running (sadly it’s all bit disappeared from our game these days as we worship at the altar of Warrenball), but it wasn’t Bennett who excited me most, it was that devastating runner Gerald Davies.
   Now, I don’t think anybody used to criticise the string of defenders either left flat on their backsides or grasping thin air after Gerald had run fifty yards to score and it should be the same for the defenders foxed by Hal Robson-Kanu – these days pundits nearly always find someone to blame when a goal is scored and they are usually right to do so, but sometimes there has to be an admission that the opposition was just too good for you.
   Another reason why I go for Robson-Kanu’s goal over Vokes’ is that although the contributions of Chester and Gunter were to be applauded, they come second in my book to the pass of Bale and the cleverness of Ramsey’s run, the lovely instant control he showed and then the pass which set up the scorer.
   I seem to remember Adrian Alston saying that he was doing Cruyff turns before Cruyff did, but my feeling is that there were probably others who were as well – it was just that Cruyff did it on the biggest stage of all in front of the world’s media – I daresay someone had scored from a “Panenka” penalty before he did as well.

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