Euro 2016 Group C Wrapup

Matchday 1

Poland 1, Northern Ireland 0
Goals: Arkadiusz Milik (POL) 51’

General thoughts:

• For those of you who are new to soccer, each of the British Home Nations (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) has its own soccer team, and that’s why Northern Ireland has its own team.
• This is Poland’s third trip to the Euros, and they had never won a game at the Euros until today.
• This is Northern Ireland’s first trip to the Euros, and their first game in a major tournament in 30 years.[1]
• Poland thoroughly dominated this game from start to finish.  The reason they scored only one goal was that Northern Ireland parked the bus in front of their goal.[2]
• There weren’t all that many scoring chances in this game, and as a result, it wasn’t very exciting.
• Northern Ireland needs to at least try to score.  They looked like they were trying to win this game 0-0.
• Poland could give Germany some trouble.  This is the most talented Polish squad in quite some time.

June 12, 2016, 11:08 am MST

Germany 2, Ukraine 0
Goals: Shkodran Mustafi (GER) 19’, Bastian Schweinsteiger (GER) 90+2’

General thoughts:

• Ukrainian left winger Yevhen Konoplyanka was placing corners like it was nobody’s business.  Germany had to work their tails off on every one of them.  Ukraine got 12 corners, by the way.
• Germany was LUCKY not to be behind 2-1 at halftime – or even worse.  Why?
  • German keeper Manuel Neuer made a save on a header that was so amazing that he even surprised himself with it.
  • A few of Konoplyanka’s corners were then blasted by a teammate toward an open part of the goal…only to miss wide by mere inches.
  • How in the world German center back Jérôme Boateng cleared Konoplyanka’s shot off of the German line is beyond me.  Typical German luck in soccer tournaments.[3]  He was out of control and falling down, yet he still managed to keep his balance and footing long enough to kick the shot clear before it fully crossed the line.
• I can’t complain about the offside call that disallowed a Ukrainian goal close to halftime.  It was correct.  But, once again, German luck…the shot that occurred immediately the disallowed goal inexplicably did not go in, hovering over the goal line but not crossing it.
• The score in this game was deceptive.  Germany’s second goal came after Ukraine had flooded the German box with players in an attempt to tie the game.  A blocked pass led to a quick German counter-attack that Schweinsteiger put into the back of the net to seal the game.  It was like an empty-net goal in a hockey game.
• Ukraine has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.  They played remarkably but were unlucky.
• Germany’s so good that they can play the way they did in this one and still win, but they do look vulnerable.  Poland will be a tough test for them.

June 12, 2016, 2:11 pm MST

Matchday 2

Northern Ireland 2, Ukraine 0
Goals: Gareth McAuley (NIR) 49’, Niall McGinn (NIR) 90+6’

General thoughts:

• Where did ESPN find these announcers?  They were more one-sided than a North Korean election!  I felt like I was watching an episode of Northern Ireland Football Weekly or The Northern Ireland Football Report.[4]  If I were listening to audio only, I would have thought that it was a Northern Ireland scrimmage.  I think the announcers mentioned the names of the Ukrainian players or the name “Ukraine” maybe 10 times total during the game.
• I’m not done talking about the announcers yet.  The color commentator had a very thick Liverpudlian accent – so much so that he sounded like John Lennon’s ghost was calling this game.
• Northern Ireland came onto the field looking like they actually wanted to score goals.  In the first 10 minutes of the game, they had strung together more passes and made more attempts at goal than they did during the entire Poland game.
• Ukraine, once again, was very unfortunate not to score in the first half.  So many of their shots went just barely wide or high.
• Early in the second half, Northern Irish center back Gareth McAuley (NIR) 49’ leapt high to head home a corner, giving Northern Ireland their first goal and first lead in any Euro competition.  Great.  Now this means they’ll park the bus in front of their goal…
• …which is exactly what happened for most of the rest of the game.
• I have to agree with the referee’s decision to pull the teams off of the field in the 58th minute.  That was a wicked hailstorm…and those hailstones hurt!
• Of course, the hailstorm let up in two or three minutes, and the teams returned to the field.  That made every armchair referee with 20/20 hindsight say how dumb the decision was.[5]
• Ukraine poured players forward toward the end of the game but just could not get the ball into the goal.  In the sixth (wow) minute of stoppage time, Northern Ireland sent a counterattack toward the all-but-abandoned Ukrainian goal, where reserve midfielder Niall McGinn scored soccer’s version of an empty-net goal to seal the game for Northern Ireland.
• This game – which Northern Ireland just plain seemed to want more than Ukraine did – kept Northern Irish hopes alive to advance to the knockout stage, while it eliminated Ukraine from contention.
• This game was so frustrating for me to watch.  Ukraine has far more talent than Northern Ireland, but Northern Ireland just plain played better than Ukraine.  Go ahead and accuse me of homerism[6] all you want, but I’m done talking about it.  Moving on to Germany-Poland.

June 16, 2016, 10:54 am MST

Germany 0, Poland 0
Goals: None

General thoughts:

• This game was played in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, a northeastern suburb of Paris.  The last time Germany played in this stadium was the night of the Paris terror attacks.  They had to spend the night in the stadium because conditions were not safe enough for them to go to their hotels or to go home.[7]
• Germany dominated possession, but Poland looked lethal when they had the ball.
• There were lots of scoring chances, but the defenses played so well that the offenses weren’t really in a position to get off a good shot very often.

• This is a very short commentary, because, well, there wasn’t much to write about. Overall, though, this was a very well-played, entertaining, evenly-matched game, despite the scoreless outcome.  Poland has a very strong team that could surprise some people with a deep run in the knockout stages.

June 16, 2016, 12:58 pm MST

Matchday 3

Note: I did not get to see these games until June 27th, and I managed to successfully avoid all knowledge of the games and their results until then.  I watched them simultaneously.

Poland 1, Ukraine 0
Goals: Jakub Blaszczykowski (POL) 54’

General thoughts:

• Ukraine had several great scoring opportunities in the first half that they just could not capitalize on.  They even tried to draw a couple of penalties, but the referee wouldn’t bite.
• In fact, the ball lived near the Polish goal in the first half.  It looked like Poland was playing the strategy of stacking the defense and then striking with a quick counterattack.[8]
• By the 40th minute – when yet another promising Ukrainian attack failed to result in a goal – I was wondering what in the world Ukraine would have to do to score a goal.  They were whipping the tar out of Poland, yet the teams still were tied at zero.
• And then in the second half, Poland woke up.  The game started to become a back-and-forth affair.
• Jakub Blaszczykowski’s goal was set up so perfectly that it would have almost been inexcusable had he not scored.  What a great set piece off of a corner by the Polish squad.
• This was an exciting game.
• Ukraine lost all three games that they played, and they were shut out each time.  That does not reflect the talent of the team.  There were a few times that Ukraine should have/could have scored but were unlucky.

June 27, 2016, 2:36 am MST

Germany 1, Northern Ireland 0
Goals: Mario Gómez (GER) 30’

General thoughts:

• The field seemed to be tilted toward Northern Ireland’s goal for the first half.  Northern Ireland goalkeeper Michael McGovern played valiantly, because he looked like he was in front of a firing squad.
• When Gómez finally scored, I was surprised it had taken that long.  Then, on the replay, I also noticed that McGovern didn’t have a chance to make the save, since one of his teammates laid him out.
• After taking the lead, there were times that I thought Germany was toying with Northern Ireland.  Then I saw the looks on the German players’ faces.  Northern Ireland was a tougher out than Germany expected.
• Despite Northern Ireland’s loss, they still could go through to the Round of 16 as one of the four best third-place teams.

June 27, 2016, 2:36 am MST

[1] Their last game in a major tournament was a 3-0 loss to Brazil in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

[2] For those of you new to soccer, this means that they put lots of players in their own penalty area.

[3] Do NOT for one minute bring up Geoff Hurst’s go-ahead goal in the 1966 World Cup Final as a counter-example to Germany’s luck in international tournaments.  That’s the one time – ONE TIME – that luck went against the Germans.  You hear about the “luck of the Irish?”  Well, in soccer, it’s the luck of the Germans.  Examples:  Beating the USA in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals even though the Americans DOMINATED that game, Frank Lampard’s goal for England in the 2010 World Cup Round of 16 not being counted, winning every penalty shootout that they’ve ever participated in, making all but one penalty kick they’ve ever taken in a World Cup, including during penalty shootouts…there has to be more that I’m not remembering.

[4] Neither one of these is a real show, as far as I know.  You get what I’m saying, though.

[5] This includes the aforementioned ESPN announcer.  He said, “This is NONSENSE….  Oh, it’s a little hailstorm…pull the players….”

[6] My sister-in-law is Ukrainian.

[7] In a great showing of solidarity, the French players spent the night in the stadium as well.  They felt that if the German players couldn’t go home and be with their families, then they wouldn’t either.  I have always been impressed with that action by the French team.

[8] Of course, any team who has Robert Lewandowski up front can do that.