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You are here: Home / Sports / Euro 2016 Semi-Final France v Germany Open Thread

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  5. 5.

    SRW1

    I doubt Schweinsteiger will last 90 minutes and if he’s replaced by Weigel that defensive midfield will play together for the first time.

    Müller as a false nine hasn’t yet opened his scoring account.

    The French defense is a bit suspicious, but I suspect Les Bleus will nick this.

  8. 8.

    scav

    Thinking only historically (large scale), this should be the game with more zip than the final because of the teams involved.

  9. 9.

    Calouste

    @raven: I think it is a regular deal, the World Cup has one, and I think all the other continental tournaments as well. The Euros are the exception though.

  11. 11.

    Onkel Fritze

    The game for 3rdplace is like playing game 7 of the World Series after one team already leads 4-2. Completely useless.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    Germany look to be bossing the match. If i were a betting man, I might put money on them to score first.

  17. 17.

    eclare

    @Amir Khalid: Eventually something is going to get through, just too much time attacking.

    ETA: time of possession is going to be interesting, as a college football fan that means alot, assume it means alot here too. Novice fan.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    @eclare:
    Dominating possession can mean more chances at goal for your side, and fewer chances to come at you for the other side. Of course, the only stat that really counts is the score.

  26. 26.

    cmorenc

    @Amir Khalid:

    Germany look to be bossing the match. If i were a betting man, I might put money on them to score first.

    I’ll take that bet for $1000.
    :=)

  27. 27.

    humboldtblue

    Germany can fuck right off but that was a terrible penalty call.

    And I can listen to Alan Shearer do in-game analysis all day long. He’s so good at explaining the game.

  28. 28.

    cmorenc

    That was about as clear an instance of a “hand of God” handling foul as you’ll ever see, except it was a defender who committed it. Yeah, sure Maradona got away with it as an attacking player in 1986, but when you’re a defender, you’re not likely to get lucky enough that no one on the ref crew sees it. I still don’t understand how at least the lead AR missed Maradona committing an obvious handling offense, since it happened toward his side of the pitch with no intervening players.

  29. 29.

    philadelphialawyer

    More of the counter factual BS “analysis” at halftime….somehow, France leading one nothing is a problem? B/c now they have to play with the lead? Yeah, no. Bob Lea….”What will Didier DeChamps do now?” Um, how is that the operative question, moron?

  38. 38.

    cmorenc

    @humboldtblue:

    Germany can fuck right off but that was a terrible penalty call.

    Um…I’m speaking as a competitive-level soccer referee of 20 years experience, albeit below the international level. That was a handling call ANY competent referee would have made against Schweinsteiger, a classic “hand of God” type foul except one committed by a defender. The challenge in making such a call in crowded corner-kick scrums is for the CR or AR to have the angle to see it through the churning mass of bodies – not sure whether the CR directly saw the handling offense himself, or else whether his lead AR saw it and communicated what happened to the CR through either his flag or the wireless headset communication system refs at higher-level games have (which ARs often preferably use in situations which would result in a PK if the CR accepts the AR’s input about the situation and makes the call – to lessen potential controversy if the CR decides to overrule the ARs input and decline to call the foul).

  42. 42.

    humboldtblue

    @cmorenc: I bow to your experience but that still looked like a terrible call and that the ball was headed into the arm.

  52. 52.

    Morfydd

    Like Bayern won’t win it all going away.

    On review, the Schweini call was good, but I’m overall not impressed by the refs. I assume I’m still a beginner and can’t see the calls right but my German neighbor says the refs have been bought. Germans tend to the conspiracy theories though…

    I could watch Draxler and Õzil pass back and forth all day tho.

  55. 55.

    philadelphialawyer

    I guess now the French have twice the problem, leading two nothing. Whatever WILL they do?!?!?!?

  56. 56.

    Amir Khalid

    Germany need at least one goal in the 90 minutes to keep their hopes alive. Still not there, though …
    ETA: And as soon as I post that, France score. I think it’s going tp be les Bleus in the final.

  58. 58.

    humboldtblue

    Well that was a fantastic time for the stream to die. Germany are 6-1 against host nations in semifinals

  59. 59.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I clearly understand this sport even less than I thought, because there’s a bunch of stuff going on that seem like obvious fouls that aren’t getting called. The French bodycheck in ways that would make a hockey team proud.

  62. 62.

    SRW1

    Now Löw has taken out both of his defensive midfielders. Sané is an out and out winger.

  63. 63.

    Morfydd

    It’s not that I’m afan of kicking the guy in the back, but when he just picked you up by your jersey and dragged you out of bounds and the refs didn’t call it…

  64. 64.

    philadelphialawyer

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Eh. Don’t forget, all is not always what it seems…teams that are losing tend to do a lot of playacting. What is in reality a big nothing can look like a body check, if the other guy flops to the ground…

  67. 67.

    Onkel Fritze

    @SRW1: @SRW1: Sane was the only offensive player that he could still bring on. Now it really shows that Löw went to the Euro with only one center forward, Gomez who is injured. Not that Löw had any good alternatives, though.

  68. 68.

    humboldtblue

    @Onkel Fritze: Oh no, Yank all the way, originally from Philadelphia in fact (even though I live in a California county named after a German), but I was smart enough and virtuous enough to avoid law school unlike some people.

    And I only have intense dislike for the German National team not Germans or Germany and not for any rational or valid reason but simply because they are so fucking good. I’m a Klopp type, not a Bayern type.

  72. 72.

    Onkel Fritze

    @SRW1: I think at this point Löw only takes him along to cheer up the rest of the team at breakfast time.

  75. 75.

    SRW1

    And France nicked it. Means I was at least once right. Well, the French defense was also suspect.

  82. 82.

    Onkel Fritze

    So Germany has broken with two traditions: Never win against Italy and always win against France.

  83. 83.

    humboldtblue

    @Onkel Fritze: Next you’ll tell me that Christmas eve has been replaced in importance by Christmas day and that you can make beer any old which ya want.

  84. 84.

    Morfydd

    I’m pretty sure France (as a military force) has stomped all over Germany on a regular basis. I was in a museum in Munich when I realised the invader “Ludwig” must have actually been a Louis. And then there was Napoleon…

  87. 87.

    humboldtblue

    @Morfydd: Look on the bright side, the last time the Germans battled in and around Marseille … umm … that’s not a bright side, is it?

  88. 88.

    randy khan

    Not entirely coincidentally, French hero Antoine Griezmann’s sister was featured in an article in the New York Times sports section today;

    Sis

  91. 91.

    cmorenc

    @humboldtblue:

    @cmorenc: I bow to your experience but that still looked like a terrible call and that the ball was headed into the arm.

    You’re asking the wrong question for this type of situaton – why was Schweinsteiger’s arm avoidably extended into the space into which the ball would likely be played? That was not a “natural” position that it would be anatomically difficult for a position to avoid taking in that sort of situation, or to put it the way the USSF prefers to put it Schweinsteiger deliberately, unnaturally extended his arm to make his body “bigger”. I prefer the concept of a situation avoidably within the deliberate control of the player (particularly one at this high level of the game), but you reach the same result either way.

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