UEFA Euro 2012 predictions!

Temporarily-stairs · 2012-05-24T20:11:47.408472-07:00

france and poland will suprise in a positive fashion.

doeboy73 · 2012-05-24T20:02:40.914838-07:00

uh there are a few, mainly 3 players to be named.

1) Joel Matip Our best Central Defender. Young, homegrown and with a superb positioning. Had his breakthrough this year, despite having played already 2 seasons beforehand as a starter. Before he has been played as a defensive midfielder most of the times, but especially his passing at that position was atrocious. So well, he got a lot of shit from some supporters. This season however hes been brilliant - even with passing. While the schalke supporters aknowlegde the fact that he has been our defensive mastermind (and being ahead of papadopolous and höwedes) the rest of the Bundesliga really hasn't catched onto that - i guess.

2) Atsuto Uchida Up to this day he still gets a lot of crap from our supporters for being "unstable in the defensive dutys". People here compare with Rafinha, which would be a burden on every player. What people however mostly dont realize is that Rafinhas defensive strenght mainly came from Bordon covering his ass. To give him even worse luck he had been injured at the start of the season and it took him a long time to get back to full fitness, but when he played he did it with heart and with style. Yes, he has flaws in his game, but his mentality that keeps him constantly fighting and running force me to love this little japanese fella. Also his teamplay with Farfan on the right wing is stellar. They have a good harmony. Luckily our management seems to trust him and offered him an extension of the contract.

3) Jermaine Jones Last but not least Jermaine Jones, a name that you american or british fellas probably have heard at least one. Loved and recognized by schalke supporters, hated by the rest. Probably our best player and a true leader on the pitch. However, most people focus more on the hard tackles and his "dirtyness" instead of looking what he actually contributes to our play. Probably the best holding dm in Germany.

zakislam · 1 day

oh the irony. out of all stadiums they use WEMBLEY for GOALLINETECHNOLOGY......

rusty_blumpkin · 1 day

yacbln explained it pretty well already, but we have a completly different school and education system then you guys have. our school system is divided into 3 school forms after elementary school: hauptschule, realschule and gymnasium. all of these grant you different degrees. hauptschule ends after 9 years, realschule after 10 and gymnasium after 12. a degree in the gymnasium, the abitur (= a levels) grant you to study on a university. thats however not needed in germany for the majority of jobs. if you have a degree from a realschule or hauptschule you undergo an apprenticeship, which is a 3 year long "job training" so to speak. once you have finished that you are allowed to work in these jobs and/or are allowed to study on a "fachhochschule", which is something like a college.

rusty_blumpkin · 1 day

to clearify for you non-germans: Gymnasium roughly equals your concept of high school (or grammar school for you brits). Its the highest german schoolform. sorta hard to explain to a foreigner though as our school system is divided into basicly 3 school forms granting you different degrees. (@ roflkopter: gymnasium = sporthalle im englischen :P)

other than that i'd say your post is full of prejudices. for starters, one of the big reasons that young people choose to join the police forces is the good pay and the option of becomming a public servant, which grants insane benefits on your retirement fund and basicly renders you un-fireable. i take it you're pretty young still, otherwise you'd realize that young people that are willing to join the police forces aren't leaving the eastern part of germany, as the career chances and payment are basicly equal. also saying that bavaria has a problem with police forces "because they're conservative" makes me cringe. bavaria is actually the quietest and safest state in germany.

police violence accours mainly where a) police forces have an extreme level of power and b) in places where the police forces have to fear for their life. ofcourse there are jackasses that just like roughing up people in every place, but thats not really something you can prevent. from my basic understanding, grunt-level policemen in germany rarely get into these life-endangering positions and they are not granted as much "social power" over normal people. i guess its hard for me to explain, but e.g. its really uncommon here to call a policemen "officer" over here. while policemen are authority figures and well respected, they're not seen as someone who stands above you. something that gets drilled in your head as a child already is the maxim of the police force: "dein freund und helfer" (your friend and helper)

Killbot3000 · 5 days

the moment that fucker took the penalty i was straigh out cheering for chelsea. all i wish is that neuer has a healthy and long life and will NEVER win a club football title again. NEVER.

Negro_Napoleon · 17 days

because the original has better writing.

mczbot · 18 days

hey :] a little tip: if you have a bit of money to spare you should maybe start betting on some matches. not much, max 1$ or smth along those lines. i do that every time in big tournaments for all the matches germany doesnt play in. drags you a lot more into the game if theres something to loose, even though you aint supporting any side :]

mczbot · 18 days

He has made a lot of goals but that comes naturally if you are surrounded by the best players in Europe

Torres.

mczbot · 18 days

we play with 3 forwards (2 of them wide midfielder, but they play a striker role in the offense). thus we just need 3 nominated strikers: cause if worst comes to worst our "wingers" still do excellent central strikers (reus and podolski especially)

mczbot · 18 days

notable also that we use the abbrivation ManU for United here in germany. From what i learned that is really frowned upon in England due to nasty chants regarding the plane crash (Man,U were never intended to come home). So i try to refrain from using that abbrivation even though its in my blood :|

mczbot · 18 days

Helmes and to some extend Kießling are finishers. Pure strikers. Löw doesnt think its necessary to have one more of those in the roster, as we already have 3 excellent players for that (klose, gomez, podolski) Cacau is an option for when we want to play with a second, supporting striker. Granted, i believe Hanke would have been the better choice there but then again he hasnt been in the squad for years. On the other hand i wouldnt be suprised if Cacau is one of the dropped players, as müller and reus are also capable of playing that particular style that Cacau is being used for plus have a better finishing touch

mczbot · 18 days

my view on the Draxler nomination:

If you watch Löw's strategy closely, you notice that he plays with strikers on the wide midfield positions, not with creative players. Draxler fits the bill of the sort of player Löw wants to see at that position. This becomes pretty clear if you think back about how Löw handled the Götze/Özil dilemma. He tried to play Götze and Özil together, but when he did, he changed the strategy to a barca style 4-3-3 (pulled Özil back). Götze never played on the Wings for Germany, and probably never will do under Löw with the exception of a late sub-in maybe. While many people see Götze's future in the centrum, he has been playing all his time in Dortmund on the wings. So there's no reason for Löw to not try him there, unless it is for tactical reasons as stated above :)

Other players that would fit the bill for what Löw is looking for that aren't in the squad: Sidney Sam, Julian Schieber and to some extend Marco Marin and David Didavi (if played on the wings).

Players like Großkreutz won't have a chance to play under Löw, simply because they are not what he is looking for. Despite Großkreutz playing a stellar season (boy that hurt me so much to write).

mczbot · 18 days

Okay im trying to deliver as best as i can, will edit later once the big german newspapers post some quotes. Please bear in mind that i'm not a professional translater, which means my quotes won't be perfect at all, but will hopefully get the gist of what he was saying. Also, if my gramar and/or spelling ain't top notch, i'm deeply sorry for that aswell. English ain't my native language. This could be problematic when im trying to translate football related terms.

Löw about title chances and the pressure from the german fans:

He acknowledges that Spain is still the team to beat. He sees Germany in a group of title contenders with italy, france, netherlands and portugal. He says that the team always felt the pressure from the fans, especially in 2006. The pressure and the expectations from the germans grew after each tournament according to him, but he feels that the team is ready to deliver. However, he stresses that even if we dont have a successfull run at this tournament (fyi: the german media basicly declares the euro as "must win") the constant progress with this squad will go on, as many of the players are still young and still have a lot of big tournaments to play.

Löw about Draxler:

Löw seemed pretty fond of Draxler. He said that he is extremly young (18/ turns 19 in September fyi) and has enormous potential. His biggests strenghts are his pace, his one-versus-one and long shots. He wants to introduce him to the squad because he believes that he will be an important player in the tournaments to come.

Löw about Ter Stegen / 4th Goalkeeper:

Löw believes thinks its important to have a 4th goalkeeper for the tournament preparations as Manuel Neuer (as the rest of the Bayern squad) will join 2 weeks later due to the Championsleague final. The decission pro ter Stegen, who like Draxler hasn't played a single match for Germany yet, was due to his excellent season with Borussia Mönchengladbach. A key attribute and quality he see's in ter Stegen is his Aura.

Other notable sniplets:

Löw highlights the importance of a good teamspirit and a strong unit, something he believes to have build with the current players.

Also he said that every of the players in the current roster still have to fight hard if they want to get a spot in the final roster

mczbot · 18 days

im sorry, thats the german name we have for the club. Tried my best to avoid this confusions, but i'm not following the premier league that much.

mczbot · 18 days

the decission to cut Rolfes is - in my opinion - not really a decission pro Gündogan, but pro Bender-Twins

mczbot · 18 days

I'd say there are more suprises. Aogo and Rolfes are out and Gündogan i would label a suprise aswell. He played good in the last 3-4 months, but he was nowhere near the national squad so far. He played one match for us, but that was due to the fact that turkey had his eyes on him aswell.

mczbot · 18 days

will post some quotes from Löw on his decission after the press conference

gman83 · 22 days

hes been lead scorer for a very very long time and hes ahead by far with 39, ribery and lewandowski who share the second place both have 30 (fyi: scorer= goals and assists combined). in the goaldepartement hes been leading since last week (again).

gman83 · 22 days

huntelaar? yes, definatly. at least from how he played this season. huntelaar changed a lot this season, well at least for his standards. hes a lot more integrated into the play, not just waiting in the box looking for the perfect finish as he used to. seemed like he sort of "learned" from raul. he's working really hard, falling back into the midfield fighting for balls and even setting up assists. ofcourse hes still a typical poacher (to use fm terms), but hes trying his best to become more versatile :]

jerryconnelly · 22 days

well its not like the fundemental concept was changed too much. dods was a ton faster due to the lower stepsounds and the nature of the cof (cone of fire). and a really well coordinated team could pull of really disgusting stuff with the riflenades in roundstarts. then again it went to a bit more teamplay focussed cause the guns weren't as dominant as in 1.3 where basicly individual skill solely decided the matches. a player like An1mal or nuker (or kellen if you're from the us) could just rip a whole team apart there. Both games have their good and their bad sides. A good mixture of both games would be the optimal, but i doubt we'll ever see a dod game from valve again.

PS: What was your nick in dod and which community did you play in (eu/us)? :)

jerryconnelly · 22 days

nah, it was - at least for me - a great experience :-)

dods played out a bit different compared to 1.3, but then again i dont want to make wrong assumptions as i haven't been playing 1.3 on a decent level. either way, both games were great.

shazango · 22 days

he still could be fired for that stunt. as sad as it is

jerryconnelly · 22 days

and you forgot the complete dod franchise. boy we had cpl's and a long lasting community both in 1.3 and source :E

mczbot

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