Comments on: Match Preview : Holland v. Romania

By: Ian Rose

Ian Rose — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:12:45 +0000

Mic – Let’s be clear on that last point. It was a defensive argument. Never once did I argue that Romania had the attack that Holland did. In fact, what I said was that Holland was the team of the tournament so far, which I stand by. That whole paragraph was about defense, so as much as I love to warp statistics into lies, damned lies, etc, this time I’m innocent.

By: Mic

Mic — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:06:53 +0000

In reading your defense-happy pre-game analysis again: It’s kind of funny, at the risk of repeating myself.

“…both the Tricolorii and the Oranje have allowed only one goal against France and Italy”.

Yeah, but Romania scored ONE (on a blatant defensive mistake) and the Dutch scored what: NINE? Just a slight difference, no doubt explicable by some statistical acrobatics.

By: Mic

Mic — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:27:43 +0000

I have no beef with Mutu or any of the players. I’m sure they did what they could.
Ian Rose: As with ‘objectivity’: that’s a fake challenge. Nobody is ‘objective’, but some people cut through the crap better than others. You owe me a drink already (but I’m located in the States). What I’m taking issue with is the claim that Romania played well. If your measure is the “rank” of its opponents, we have very different methodologies, which would explain our differences in analysis.
France played like crap (reflected in your site’s ‘rankinks’). Italy did too, but they’re better fighters, something of a truism too.
“Group of Death”? Give me a break. Group of the Dead is more accurate, with the exception of the Dutch of course.
To make my point slightly differently: If you had Euro 100, would you spend it on a a) Romania-Sweden, or b) Russia-Sweden game? (Note the nationalities of the coaches…)
Oh, I see: you just don’t care if you see attacking and exciting football or kicking the ball around for most of the time…

By: Vyo

Vyo — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:29:04 +0000

Dude all these newspapers, articles, and our coach’s – Piturca – talk about how it’s Mutu’s fault he missed the penalty. WOW Mutu was the only player that actually tried to play in this competition. Ridiculos… pathetic… I used to like Piturca, but I really believe it’s his fault, if we really need to blame someone. Playing so defensive was never our strategy. He came and tried to impose a completely different game style on our team and that’s what screwed us. If Iordanescu was our coach we would have won against France and Italy and played a open spectacular game. Instead we played most of this tournament in our half of the field. pff anyway, I’m looking forward to a new coach and the World Cup. Peace Out

By: Ian Rose

Ian Rose — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:20:26 +0000

DURING this tournament, they drew with both World Cup finalists. For a team without nearly the star power of France or Italy, that is a feat in itself.

As for objectivity, show me a completely objective football fan and I’ll owe you a drink.

I’d also disagree with you that the first 20 minutes against France was the strongest time. To me, there was a run of play against Italy when they were at their best. Still, the whole tournament, the finishing was never there for Romania, and that in the end was the biggest reason they’re headed home. They didn’t have enough aggression and finishing quality.

By: Mic

Mic — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:09:14 +0000

Funny how the myth of a strong Romanian side persisted right up to their complete (self-)humiliation during their last half at this tournament.
Paul: nobody I heard claimed that Romania was a “fluke” or didn’t qualify deservedly. But it was more and more obvious DURING this tournament that they played like shit, mostly (probably) due to bad mental preparation and strategy.
What would it take to consider Romania part of the world’s top ten? Playing inspired, focused, precise, and yes, attractive football. Again, DURING this tournament Romania didn’t do this, not even for one half of a game (I actually count the first 20 min. of their France game as their most focused period.)
Sympathizing with a team should not prevent one from being objective. The Dutch played world-class. Romania played second-class or worse.

By: Sorin

Sorin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:24:19 +0000

It seems A. Mutu didn’t want to follow Ahn Jung-Hwan’s history, so, he will have some more wonderful years in Italy? How about self respect, Adi?
Enjoy your next 4-20 million euro, you deserve them.

By: Ian Rose

Ian Rose — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:38:59 +0000

Come on over to the front page now if you want to follow along with the game. Thanks everybody.

By: Vyo

Vyo — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:10:48 +0000

35 more minutes !!! HAI ROMANiA !!! Let’s send the Blue guys home !!!

By: Palestrina

Palestrina — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:19:26 +0000

I’ll add my voice to Paul’s in thanking you for taking on this blog. It was good to see the discussion initiated and moderated by such a balanced person. ’twas a real pleasure.

As to the match, I really do hope you’re right on 2-2, although I’m still too negative a person to see us doing any better than 1-1 heh. Hope to be proven wrong, least I’d get a bit of schadenfreude from watching the french and italians react to that haha.