And Then There Were Four
Jul 4th, 2016 by 'holic
The weekend is already becoming a distant memory, and not an entirely unpleasant one. As usual at this time of year there was some cricketing goodness as Joe Root and Jos Buttler put an inexperienced Sri Lankan team to the sword again. The visitors tour comes to an end with a 20/20 match in Hampshire on Tuesday evening, which should make for good viewing.
Understanding that not all reading this will be massive cricket aficionados there was also the small matter of the third Euro quarter-final. In case you hadn’t heard (hundreds of times!) beforehand world champions Germany had never beaten Italy in the finals of a major tournament. A close encounter was again expected with both sides looking defensively solid.
Close it most certainly was. In truth the first-half was sleep-inducing. Two teams wary of making a costly mistake all but throttled each other. It all sprang to life just past the hour mark, and it was no surprise (to us Gooners anyway) that Mesut Ozil was the one to break the deadlock, ghosting in at the near post to take Gianluigi Buffon by surprise. It should have been enough but Jerome Boating needlessly and blatantly handled, allowing Leonardo Bonucci to score from the spot.
That meant a penalty shoot-out, dramatic for those watching and a test of character for the chosen penalty takers. Surprisingly Germany, who had only ever missed two penalties in shoot-outs before Saturday, more than doubled that tally in minutes. Thomas Muller saw his effort saved by Buffon, the otherwise outstanding Ozil hit a post, and Bastian Schweinsteiger fired what would have been the match winner wildly over.
Fortunately for the Germans Simone Zaza and Graziano Pelle missed the target, and Manuel Neuer denied both Bonucci and Matteo Darmian. Italy’s hold over Germany was ended when Jonas Hector drilled a low grubber beyond Buffon. Cue a little celebration for this great grandson of a German.
Sunday brought about a change in viewing position. Something rarely sighted so far this year, I think it is called the sun, meant the iPad was transported to the garden table. Yet more cricket, this time the England Ladies convincingly defeated a Pakistan team even more inexperienced than the Sri Lankan men. That was only ever going to be an appetiser for possibly the most eagerly awaited of the quarter-finals, unless of course you are Welsh.
England’s conquerors, Iceland, faced the hosts, France, in their own back yard. Like England the French struck early, and what a delight it was to see Olivier Giroud providing a clinical finish. As against England, Iceland immediately won a throw at the other end and…
…the French headed it clear, and went on to dish out a lesson in controlled attacking football that will not have escaped the attention of the German squad, their opponents in the semi-final. Paul Pogba, Dimitri Payet, and Antoine Griezmann (don’t even think it, he has just renewed his contract at Atletico) put the French out of sight by half-time.
If the Iceland players can seek any solace from the evening it might be that they won the second-half 1-2. Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and Birkir Bjarnason’s goals sandwiching a second for the outstanding Giroud. The striker and his Gunners team-mate, Laurent Koscielny were substituted to keep them fresh for the semi-final and to avoid the needless collection of a second yellow card.
We cannot say farewell to Iceland without mention (no, not of their population!) of their wonderful support. We may not see them again in a major competition for a while and that will be our loss. We wish them well in the future.
Our attentions now turn to Wednesday. Can Wales finally put Portugal (and everybody who has watched them in this tournament) out of their misery and give Aaron Ramsey a Final to look forward to? He is surely unlucky to have picked up what appeared to be the harshest of suspensions, and as such a key player in the Welsh progress so far they will certainly miss him. Let’s hope the eleven that do start have enough determination and enthusiasm to overcome Ronaldo and his disciples.
As ever, have a good one ‘holics.
45 Responses to “And Then There Were Four”
Cheers H! All the best mate.
Evening Esso. You too buddy.
Holic,
Excellent summary of a sporting weekend. Giroud is in one of his hot periods and unless Germany ( without Hummels) defend better they may find the movement of France too much to cope with.
I fear Wales may find the loss of Ramsey too much to bear but I hear Pepe who is Portugal’s best defender, may be injured . I’d love Wales to do it it should be a very interesting game although it’s hard to use the word interesting for Portugal apart from the Hungary game.
And when it’s all over RVP will be heading home to rejoin us- please say it isn’t so!
4th 😆
Nice review Guvna.
Well done Iceland. Gutsy team and wonderful support (even if they nicked the ‘Viking chant’ from Motherwell! 😮
Here’s hoping the boyos despatch the ladyboy and his diving troupe to put everyone out of their misery and give Aaron another final. It would be truly marvellous.
I heard the Motherwell connection last night, bath. Can’t be that impressive a chant with 59 people clapping? 😉
Heh, 52 more than the average gate at the Albion? 😉
I do suspect the Icelandic version is the more impressive.
Good one H
You haven’t mentioned the Tennis,
Good to see Murray the potty mouthed Elder, put the potty mouthed Junior to the sword.
Only the mighty Fed in the other half of the draw seems to stand in the way of the Scot winning his 2nd Wimbledon.
On the Ladies side,the Sherman Tank and her older sister are both into the Qtr finals,but my money is on the German Kerber,who has the power game and the ground strokes to win the Title.
Talking of Cricket,Middlesex,my home town team,and i believe yours as well, are in a dogfight up at Headingley against Yorkshire the reigning County champs.
Although rain may have the final say in that one.
As for the round ball game,i still have a sneaking feeling that the Boss is after Draxler.
Perfect fit on the right side to complement Alexis on the left flank
Can score and create,and importantly is 2 footed,so can play on the left as well.
Only 22,and wasted at Wolfsburg.
By all reports he has aquitted himself really well at the Euros.
Hopefully mesut is Arsene’s Trojan horse in the german dressing room,telling Draxler what a great environment he would be playing in at the Ems.
We haven’t really filled that right sided position properly for a while now,Wally and the Ox have been given numerous opportunities to make the position their own but have failed miserably.
Do’t forget you heard it hear first.!!
Ned, re your #92 in the previous round I wasn’t denigrating Rupert Brooke per se, just highlighting the change with which poets approached war during the course of WW1 – from Brooke’s idealised war sonnet to something infinitely more sobering.
Prior to WW1 poets of wars from the Trojan to the Napoleonic rarely viewed fighting as other than a normal part of human experience, to be celebrated with nationalistic fervour. The poet’s view of things allowed room for a celebration of heroic leadership and the courage of those fighting men who, following Horace’s exhortation – Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (It is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country) – believed that there was no better way to die.
WW2 general, George Patton, probably summed up the modern day view most succinctly (and almost poetically) when he commented, “You don’t win wars by dying for your country, you win wars by making some other poor bastard die for his.”
It was during WW1 that such sentiments really took root with poets such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg and Robert Graves shattering the heroic myth epitomised in Brooke’s epic by recording the real horrors of the battlefield. Owen’s grim Dulce et Decorum Est was not at all what Horace had in mind:
…If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud,
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, –
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori
***Puts a cheeky fiver on Ramsey to avoid injury in the semifinal.***
*Considers whether it would be too risky to put another fiver on him to score the winning goal in the final.*
Draxler plays on the left, Clive. Alexis can play right or left so could swap wings. But Draxler has never looked much above average on the (admittedly few) occasions I’ve seen him play, and hardly the step up from Theo we should be looking for – if indeed AW is looking to replace him, which I doubt.
Couldn’t disagree more Chris
You don’t get 22 caps for your country at 22 yrs of age if you aren’t a seriously good footballer.
He has played on the right and left side for Germany,and is equally at home on both.
More importantly he has a ‘ football brain ‘ something both Wally and the Ox don’t possess.
He can beat a defender both inside and out,something Wally hasn’t been able to do in the 10 odd years i have been watching him.
Also on the plus side, he is 5 years younger than Wally,and already is clearly a more intelligent footballer,as you would expect,coming through the German Academy ranks.
AW has more than once praised Draxler in the press in the past,and indeed has mentioned him in dispatches during the Euros.
A serious upgrade to the current options down the right flank.
Good stuff @9, Chris.
I’m with Clive @12 on Draxler. Has the look of the young Dutch Skunk. I wonder if Arsene sees the same potential?
Clive/ Chris
I noted your speculation re Draxler. I think Wenger sees him ( rather like Henry) as someone who will ultimately be a striker. I’ve never been hugely impressed with him but I wasn’t with Thierry in 1998 or when he first arrived on the wing. Arsene does have a reputation for converting wingers. He also did it with RVP very successfully as Bath says( I’m not knocking RVP anymore as we may get him back?)
It’s interesting to see Giroud praised for his movement which has looked better than Lukaku’s in the games I have seen. Giroud is a highly intelligent player whose main fault is that he goes through cold periods where his form dips alarmingly. In his hot periods he is a top striker if used the right way. At the moment he looks hot. It was interesting to see how far Gignac was below him on Sunday . I still hope we can sign one of the marquee strikers but in OG we have a very useful supplement or back- up
TTG
Don’t be surprised if Arsene signs a striker from South America.
He is on record as saying they are the benchmark because of their hunger and drive to succeed,often coming from impoverished backgrounds and spending their youth playing football in the streets due to lack of facilities.
You only have to look at how driven Alexis is,and you see Aguerro at City,
Suarez/Neymar/Messi at Barcelona to name a few.
It’s not a coincidence.
I see us ending up with Robin Van Pussy. That is a way cheaper option for Wenger. You heard it here first, don’t be surprised when this happens folks.
RVC??? i mean let sanogo play than him, if that dutch twat comes, he cleans the toilets and then is whip lashed out of the coloney.
Wales and France to progress? the 2 best teams in the tournament, sorry Mesut, you have a pre season to come back to. Talking of which, the boys are back.
Chris@9: Fine post. Interesting how World War II didn’t produce the slew of great poetry that the Great War did. John Pudney is one of the few that come to mind.
Clive@12, more to the point you don’t get 22 caps for Germany unless you are a seriously good footballer. Drawler would be a good addition, no doubt.
What has happened to the spillchucker today?
John Pudney is one of the few Second World War poets that come to mind.
and Draxler would be a good addition, no doubt.
We have enough Drawlers already.
Clive,
Very good point about a South American addition upfront. I have heard Arsene make very positive comments about them.
I think the gold standard is Higuain.
Anyone who can score 36 goals in Serie A in a team that weren’t champions warrants serious consideration and if we had signed him two years ago we might have at least one title now. He’s a proven goal scorer and he and Giroud could play together.
If you believe today’s stories he is one option but the more serious ones are Lacazette, Morata and Lukaku. Any of these would be very helpful but I would take Higuain over all of them assuming we’d have to pay them a king’s ransom. Perversely I feel Giroud would perform really well with one of these guys around!
Who is Takuma Asano?
He is Junichi Inamoto.
Man City sign Zinchenko.
Sure hope for their sake he can press the grapes. 😉
Could Cabernet be far behind?
Speaking of which, I always thought Jack Cork, with a name like that, would be better suited to be a goalkeeper.
Ah well …
Who is Junichi Inamoto?
He is not Takuma Asano.
Old japanese riddle.
You don’t get 22 caps for your country at 22 yrs of age if you aren’t a seriously good footballer. – Clive #12
Couldn’t agree more, Clive, 22 caps is, coincidentally, what Theo achieved too. The only difference is Theo scored more goals than Draxler in his first 22 games.
I could also point to the last full Prem season Theo played injury free when he contributed to 24 goals (14 goals, 10 assists) which is only one less than Özil has achieved for us in a single season.
What he needs is the opportunity to find his best form again by playing him on the right wing, NOT at CF or on the left where Özil tended to get ahead of him when he filled in for Alexis. And most of all he needs to play WITH OG, not instead of him.
To clarify previous, Like Draxler Theo was also 22 when he received his 22nd cap. Interestingly England have only lost 3 of the 43 internationals Theo has played in.
Chris
I admire your continued support for Theo despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Having said that,if he does stay at the Club,and given how far down the pecking order he fell last season,i will be very very surprised if he makes the run on eleven in any Premier league game this season,except in the case of injuries.
i would expect him along with a few others who won’t like it,to be a regular on the Subs bench.
Chris@ 25 – Theo has been with us for 10 years. What other opportunity does he need to prove himself. If he wasn’t an English player, I doubt he would have been given this much opportunity. Ten fucking years. I will add him to a deal for free to get either Reus or draxler.
It turns out, the way you spell Wales in French is “Galles” but the more pertinent issue for Wales is whether they will turn out with the mentality of eleven William Gallases on the pitch or of eleven Charles de Gaulles.
I hope they don’t turn up in the military uniform of eleven Charles de Gaulles or the French are likely to boo them off the pitch. 😉
Underdeveloped humor department takes a rest. 😉
So, Moaning one has finally got Mkhitaryan…!
And Blair says he would take the same decision again..
Thoroughly depressing news all around.. let’s hope Wales can lift the spirits a bit!
I’m with Chris on the Theo angle, though I’m also a bit undecided.
Theo’s last fully fit season was quite good. Finishing was really sharp (surely benefited from being around Henry again while on loan). Was frustrating last time though. He needs to find that form again and to do so he needs games. But there is a lot of competition for spaces now.
I can understand some folks’ impatience with him. But I’d say the season Chris refers to, that Theo DID prove himself — the evidence of this is plain to see. He just needs to get back to that level. He’s got goals in him, still has the pace, and contributes assits. Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but he’s an Arsenal player, has shown he’s got top quality, and should be able to do so again. Perhaps a summer off – and being omitted from the Euro squad – is the sort of wake-up call he needs.
Two ex Utd cunts for final.
Let’s puke.
When you’re down bring on two MK Dons loanees . That’s the measure of what Coleman has achieved with surely one of the weakest squads there. They so missed Ramsey tonight, he gives them a dimension no one else in the squad can.
Hats off to Wales for a marvellous campaign. They can be hugely proud of their boys. Ronaldo in the final decides who I will support especially as we will have Ozil or our two French boys against him. I detest the preening Portugese peacock and await his tears again when surely his team will be outclassed
And well done Andy Murray!
TTG nails it throughout that post.
TTG
On the money.
So we’ve got the Portugese Peacock in the Euro final,and the Portugese Ponce in charge at the Old Toilet,where his bullshit was smeared all over his cocky press conference,including his snide reference to Arsene.
He ready is an odious individual.
On Wimbledon,with the Fed Express winning a 5 set thriller on his side of the drawer,it should be a cracker of a final if he and Murray win their
semi finals.
Wales probably needed to be at their best and at full strength to have got to the final. Losing a semi is always the worst. But full marks to them for having made it as deep into the competition as they did.
And well done Andy Murray!????
No fella, well done Sam Querrey.
Thanks Homer. For the record I too would happily offer Theo as makeweight for Reus who is a Bergkamp Mk2 in my book. But not for Draxler.
Will be watching a recording of Wales-Portugal tonight, but imagining scenes of the rousing Federer victory. And what of the vaunted victory by Venus?
Moaninho? I don’t get upset about anything he says because I simply don’t bother reading any articles that feature his name in the headline.
Similarly with the Aussie tennis players – Tomic and Krygious(?) – couple of dickheads so why waste time on them?
I find this works well for me.
On the Arse front (?), I believe that we will sell players this Summer – just who is the question?
UTA.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/07/06/fa-seek-talks-with-arsene-wenger-about-taking-over-as-england-ma/
😀
Griezmann buy out only 85m… buy him!
Effectively just seen the final… !
😀
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>