UEFA EURO2012 - 06/28 Germany vs Italy - Play of the Tournament!

NETHERLANDS

The Dutch team is one of the favorites to win this tournament and they have certainly the potential to win it all. After being present in the 2010 World Cup final where they lost to Spain in Overtime, Netherlands has basically the same identity and the same core of players as in 2010. Two years ago, despite being a talented offensive team, Netherlands excelled in quick transitions especially from Arjen Robben, but this team is a more attractive squad than two years ago. They hold onto the ball for longer periods and the circulation of the ball is quicker and sharper.

Bert van Marwijk has been using a tradition double pivot formation in front of the back four and most likely Van Bommel and De Jong will be the two players chosen like they were in 2010. These two players have an excellent defensive positioning and play “hard”, they will allow players like Sneijder, Robben or Afellay to have more offensive freedom because they cover the field behind them. However having two holding midfielders’ means there is one less creative playmaker, so we cannot expect these players to create something relevant when they have the ball. This role is for Wesley Sneijder and although Sneijder is certainly capable of perform, he is coming from a very poor club season in Internazionale while in 2010, Sneijder dominated the clubs competition and was considered one of the best midfielders’ in the world.

Strenght(s):

• Attack: On the front, this team is simply devastating! They have objectivity, speed and technique in a variety of players. Robin van Persie enjoyed an excellent season in Arsenal and the same thing can be said of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in Schalke 04. Robben, Van der Vaart or Afellay are all versatile players and they combine pretty well with their striker.

Weakness(es):

• Defense: their defense is relatively weak! Giovanni van Bronckhorst has retired and they haven’t found yet an unquestionable good left back, Erik Pieters was the first option but he got injured and he is out of this tournament. Apparently the first choice is now Jetro Willems but he is only 18-years old and obviously experience isn’t a virtue. Their center back duo has some international experience, but in my opinion they aren’t top class players. In fact, this weakness, is probably the primary reason for Van Marwijk selecting two defensive minded players in his formation.

FRANCE

Great stuff, Andre. Thanks for sharing. Boa sorte!

Portugal has unquestionably the best European player today, but at the same time they have probably the most unbalanced roster of the tournament. The pressure for Cristiano Ronaldo to shine is huge and the expectations are enormous, but the supporting cast around him isn’t the best. Portugal has the best European player in the tournament, they have in my opinion the best center defender as well in Pepe (if he controls his temper), they have a good left back (Coentrao) , a good center midfield (Moutinho) and a good winger (Nani). But after that, Portugal has a collection of …average players. I won’t be surprised if Portugal knocks around Germany or Netherlands in the group stage and goes further in the competition, but I wouldn’t be surprised either if they are sent home without winning a single game.

National Head Coach Paulo Bento is using a typical 4-3-3 formation with three midfielders that works well with and without the ball, but they really don’t have any skill of dribbling or to create opportunities of goal by themselves. Then Ronaldo and Nani are initially positioned on the wings but their tendency is to move inside and looking to score in diagonal moves. The drop off of quality between the starting unit and the bench is quite evident and if Portugal wants to go further in the competition they hope to not have any injury or suspension in their best core of players


Strenght(s):

• Portugal is a good offensive team that can pass the ball and create a good volume of chances to score in every game. They have two offensive minded left and right backs that will attack and create some mismatches and Portugal is a dangerous team in counter attack chances; 
• Having the best European player of today certainly helps because Ronaldo can solve a tight game by himself even though that sometimes he’ll try to do too much;

Weakness(es):

• Striker: Portugal will create chances to score but capitalizing them will be another story. Hugo Almeida is physically strong, but he lacks some technique and his efficiency isn’t the best at all. Postiga is quite the opposite but with the similar problems of efficiency while Oliveira is just too inexperienced for this kind of stage; 
• Defensive midfielders: Moutinho and Meireles are two good “hybrid” players that can defend and attack, but they aren’t by any means dominant physically players while Miguel Veloso has some good passing skills, but he is “too passive” for the position that he plays and like Meireles and Moutinho, speed isn’t a personal attribute. Portugal is prone to allow some space on their defensive transitions and this kind of problem can be especially problematic against fastest teams like… Germany and Netherlands. 

GERMANY

Germany caught off the guard the world of soccer in 2010 when they played an attractive football and after dispatch both England and Argentina with 4 goals apiece, only the eventual future Champions Spain stopped the well oiled German machine. In the qualify stage for Euro 2012, Germany won all their 10 games by scoring 34 goals while allowing just 7 goals. Nevertheless, this is a pretty young team,with an average age of just 24.9 years. This is in fact the youngest Germany squad since way back in 1934 and if in WC 2010, there wasn’t high expectations for the team, for this competition we are talking about the main favorite to dethrone the actual Champions Spain so the “pressure to win” will be a important factor that Germany will have to battle.

National Head Coach Joachim Low is the main responsible for this attractive style that German plays. Their offensive principles are quite simple by using one or two touches and a lot of movement off the ball. Being young and athletic is a good thing and the German team is an explosive physical team with an incredible stamina and work rate. Even though that they haven’t (aside from Özil) any “big names” in their roster, Germany have a role of underrated young players that most likely will explode in the near future - Reus, Götze or Kroos are a good example of such players!


Strenght(s):

• Depth: few teams have such a balanced roster as the German side and there won’t have any ego problems internally because Joachim Low is a great leader; 
• Stamina: Germany brings to the field a high motor machine that is hard to stop, they play an exciting up and under game that few teams will be able to match, eventually they will counter early on the game, but they will ran out of gas later! 
• Pressing: when compared to the WC2010 version, this German team puts more pressure, forcing the opposition defense into poor passes and winning the ball in the opposition half. “We are no longer focused on the fast transition from defense to attack,” says Philipp Lahm. “We are playing less on the counter. We now have players who are so good that we can dominate the game against any opposition.”

Weakness(es):

• Pressure: any less than a win for Germany will be a disappointment for them and by being such a young team this can work against them in this tournament; 
• Defense: they have a great goalkeeper in Neuer but the back four aren’t at the same level of the rest of the team. Note that Lahm is the only world class player of the unit and he is actually the team’s best left and right back, but obviously he can only play in one side. It can be a good thing if Lahm, Boateng and Badstuber start together because they all play in the same club (Bayern Munchen), so they have an build chemistry, but I still don’t think that Mertesacker and Badstuber are the best defensive center duo…far from it!

ENGLAND

SPAIN

Spain has been the best National Team of the World by a fair margin since 2008 and at their best, they are nearly unbeaten like Barcelona has been in the last years because they play in a similar style and obviously have some common players. The potential problem for this team is the (lack of) desire and motivation to win after being successful lately. This is the usual problem that the Champions have and Spain is no different. Fatigue can be a problem as well because I seriously doubt that any player of any other team has played more games than Xavi, Iniesta, Piquet or Casillas in the last two seasons.

The “Pep Guardiola Barcelona system” has been well assimilated by National Team Head Coach Vicente Del Bosque and Spain, like Barcelona, will absolutely crush every opponent in the ball possession battle. In certain periods of time they lack some objective on their game and some experts even call them “boring”, but when they have the ball they surely assured that they won’t suffer any goal. Note that in the UEFA World Cup 2010, Spain in the knock out stages didn’t allow a single goal in 4 games!    


Strenght(s):

• Depth and quality on the midfield: I may be overreacting a bit, but Spain has in my opinion the two best midfield units in this tournament! To think that Xabi Alonso, Juan Mata and David Silva might be on the bench at the same time just to back up Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta says it all about the quality and depth of Spain in this area of the field. Del Bosque has been using 4 or even 5 midfielders at the same time, so Spain has the ability to just shut down the opponent by simply retain the ball possession.

Weakness(es):

• Like Barcelona, Spain sometimes have problems to score just because they pass the ball too much and they don’t take many risks. However Barcelona has Lionel Messi while Spain likely will have Fernando Torres, enough said… In their last friendly match against China, Spain needed 84 minutes to score one goal after attempting more than 20 shots and ended the game with 15 corners, 8 shots on target and 24 shots wide! Del Bosque will use only one striker in Torres or Negredo and both players aren’t world class players unless Torres suddenly regains his old form. The absence of David Villa is a huge blow for them because he was their best forward during the golden age of the Spanish soccer. 
• I have also some doubts of their defense as well: Puyol will miss the competition and Spain lacks some leadership in their defense. Pique didn’t have a good season, Ramos is too unstable and their defensive wings aren’t top class players when compared to the midfield unit, so Spain can have some defensive problems in this tournament however the opponent must have the ball which will be a tall order.

That is all, surely one of those teams will be the Champion!

dennistyler

Great stuff, Andre. Thanks for sharing. Boa sorte!

First play of the tournament:

This is the opening match of the tournament with the home team Poland being favored to win against Greece. Historically, this is a tough spot for the home team because there is a lot of pressure to perform and this can hurt the Polish team because they aren’t talented enough on the offensive end to dominate the ball possession and create chances to score against a defensive minded team like the Greek side.