Euros 2024 — Day 5

St George's (other boys) in action today. Looks like the Dortmund roof is as leaky as Old Trafford.

How long has David Byrne been Turkeys manager??
Good game this btw

Is he on the road to nowhere Mark?

we should sign this Georges Mikautadze dude

No Brian, he's on the bench.

Making flippy floppy

What a wonderful goal!!

Whatever feed I'm on, there's this lady commentator with a northern England accent and oh... my... God... does this lady drive me up a wall.

She's awful. Who the hell hires these people??

It's not that geordie beanpole is it, Jamie?

Birthplace of Stalin v contemporary dictatorship - I suppose we'll have to plump for a draw

Talking Heads at Erics, what a fecking night that was

A once in a lifetime experience Paul.

Colin I don't know. My Yank ears hear more Scouse than that "almost Scottish" Geordie accent?

She's just awful man.

Once again, a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium. World Cup and euros shouldn't be played outside of either continent imo.

Has anyone seen the post(?) on Facebook of hundreds, if not thousands, of Dutch supporters in a synchronized chant and "dance"?
Brilliant!

It was Mark, More songs had come out and they were doing material from Fear of Music: cities, life during. Imagine life during in a place as small as Erics where you were standing 8 foot from Byrne

Give us a link Brian, it's what the under 50s do.

Great save by Georgian goalie, but did he kinda just Hollywood that up a bit??

Goalies are hams.

Paul. If I could I would.

Try this Paul.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OLfKJS3VHh4

I know mate.

Cheers Brian, That looks great. They do that at music gigs too.

Holy crap how do you miss that? Georgia c'mon! Gotta finish.

Does the Anglo world now pronounce Turkey "Tur-key-ah"?

When did this become a thing? Been Turkey my whole life.

What a game. Best game thusfar?

Turkey is Turkey Jamie mate. Ter-quay

who cares how they spell or say it, this game was a pleasure to watch from both teams that played to win, and not by the any means, mostly fouling from most other teams, with the they shall not pass me attitude. And the correct spelling for Turkey is Turkei with 2 dots over the u.

Do we have Ian Darke over here for the Portugal match; tell me no. 41-year-old Pepe gets a start. Good news. We have Ashley for at least four more years and possibly more.

It's Türkiye they changed it a few years ago away from the Anglo-Saxon spelling.

We need Kieran in our pub quiz team.

Sort of surprised to find out that Flash loves chess.

It's not Bill, it's Türkiye.

Cracking game, fantastic 6 minutes added time.

Bracing myself now for Martinez bs.

Peter

I reckon despite RM Portugal will win the whole thing. Not that I want them to but just looking at the quality they have, plus RM has won a cup in the past.

Turkey will always be Turkey for me. They can call it whatever they want to call it.

So, do I have Türkiye for my Sunday roast?

Portugal look the best team on paper and, apparently, a very happy, tight and united squad.

Kieran, I know many Blues have a soft spot for Roberto. I did during his first season with us, the night at Old Trafford was one of the best away games I've been to, but the nonsense he spouted, and his inability to sort out a defence, drove me nuts.

Who remembers Stanek at Everton?

Can't say I do.

You can't beat British beef for Sunday lunch Paul although when I was at uni there was a takeaway selling "traditional British beef burgers made with 100% New Zealand."

As for Pepe he is like the Portuguese Roger Milla if you swap goals for red cards.

Without wanting to throw a spanner into the works, I prefer lamb for Sunday roast but lamb is hideously expensive in the Mid-West.

2014-2016 Steve. Zero appearances. No recollection of him at all but we were good at having goalies who got into trouble with the Fuzz,

No kidding Paul

You don't see sheep/lambs around here. It's all cows and hogs.

I have a very large soft spot for Roberto. Love the guy.

Everton's downward spiral started when we fired him. He would have never, ever been near the relegation places. Not in a million years, even leaking goals as we did.

From there we brought in a succession of coaches who all wanted their own players, and the spend like a drunken sailor days began in earnest, seeing us to where we are now - bankrupt thanks only to a new Yank owner.

Roberto was great. Love him.

But this topic has been done over 1000 times.

I think we were in deep trouble and heading downwards long before Roberto left Jamie. I loved the first season - and even the bring me sunshine video hmmm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNPj8Xm1fSA. But, as you say, we've gone over this a million and one times now.

Czech defence looks decent.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable but Ronaldo looks a right cock!

I think he's more of a knob Mark.

The commentary is awful. BBC all-over.

It's actually decent over here - decent commentator decent pundit - nothin inane so far.

If you think about old communist countries that split up such as Czechoslavakia. In 1988 just before the iron wall came down, USSR reached the Euro finals since when none of the 14 former soviet republics have reached a final and only 4 out of 14 have even qualified for one.

Czech made a final in 96 and Slovakia have also qualified for tournaments.

Yugoslavia, 5 out of 6 former republics have qualified for a major tournament with Croatia reaching one final and two semis.

So clearly the USSR lost the break up in footballing terms.

Watching Kane lumber about the other night, and Patrick Schick tonight - reminds me what a good player DCL is at the isolated lone striker role. He does a good job for us.

Sorry Jamie - No. The downward spiral had started under BBS reign.

For me it is always, did we get a better result than last year. Moyes finished the 12/13 season with 66 points and a 52 v 37 goal difference.

Roberto's high point was 12th April 2014 when he had improved us to 76 points and 59 v 33 goal difference. By the end of the season, just 5 games later we had dropped 4 points compared to Moyes' results the previous season and scored 2 more but conceded 6 more.

The following season we dropped to 47 points (25 less) and 48 v 50 goal difference (scored 13 less and conceded 11 more). By the time he was sacked after the penultimate fixture in 2015/16 we were on 47 points and a 59 v 56 goal difference.
Not a scintilla of improvement and a definite lowering of performance since Moyes. Yes, we scored a few more goals but the defence had the capabilities of a sieve.

Yes we were not in danger of relegation (there was only one match left and safety was assured at least 2 months earlier) but we were treading water and our new owner wanted success and Roberto had thrown away what success we had had until he arrived.

Colin, presume if you were French it would never be England but always Angleterre.

Phil -

My thoughts are if we stuck with him things would be much, much better in 2022-2024.

I'm also viewing this as much through a "macro" lens and not a"Roberto" lens. I firmly believe in any sport, consistency of manager and management equate to success. Teams that don't have a carousel with management tend to have long term stability and success.

Whomever came after Moyes should have been with us 7-8 years, come what may. We would have been better off in the long run.

Problem with your English soccer is relegation. Teams can't always exercise patience and have that long term vision as relegation is the executioner's axe.

EDIT: This is exactly why I want Sean Dyche here with Everton another 4-5 years.

Watched most of the Cup games and dont see how they make England favorites.

Bill - random!

Yes. Oil the grill heavily to avoid sticking. Usually 3-4 minutes per side.

In the event salmon grilling is some euphemism for something else, disregard.

Hang on Jamie, it's "your" now not "us".

The very worst thing in all of US sport is no relegation. It's absolutely fecking ridiculous and leads to a shopping list of innate faults that include complacency, conservatism, repetition, propping up shite etc.

the US is the ONLY country in the western world without relegation (and the ONLY country in the western world not to provide proper comprehensive public welfare for its citizens).

Promotion/relegation is the lifeblood of footy.

Have you ever watched a play-off game?

What are the commentators on about? Ronaldo is rubbish these days. Portugal would be much more effective with Ramos or Jota up front

Paul -

Pro / Rel was such a foreign concept to me when I started watching the Mighty Everton in 2007.

I agree wholeheartedly! I wish we had that system here! I love it. Keeps teams from tanking, owners from going through the motions and having no real vested interest in success. I adore Pro / Rel.

GET IN THE HOLE!

Ah, sorry, completely misunderstood you Jamie. We have horrible heatwaves here today, I'll blame them.

Phil 48, of course it would be. I wouldn't let perfidious Albion tell me, as a proud French man, what to call them.

I still say Bombay, Calcutta, Peking, Burma the 13 colonies, Ceylon and Czechoslovakia. I still recognise the Austro-Hungarian empire to be honest.😉

'Hits it well' - no he didn't Fletch, that was a crap free kick

Jamie# 51
got a bit mixed up there my daughter just asked what am I asking about the England football team for, she doesn't watch football

I'm a Holy Roman Empire sort of fella Colin.

Good shout Paul.

What a screamer!!!

What a goal. Upset brewing!

Smash and grab. Get in! He took that beautifully. Over to you Bobby Brown Shoes.

Bobby can't help himself, can he? It's all about possession with him. Like England, the Portuguese are trying to walk it in.

Colin -

This is the best argument, in live time, against Roberto.

Pass, pass, pass, pass. Pass again. Pass some more. Pass one more time for shits and giggles.

I love him, but this game is exactly why so many wanted him gone.

They gotta shoot FFS! Inferior teams are more than happy to let you pass it around the perimeter, threatening no one!

ah shite

Aaaaand the answer. Amazing what happens when you put the ball in dangerous positions.

Dreadful from our ex-goalkeeper for the goal.

Agreed, Jamie. I blame Guardiola for all this passing nonsense.

Billy Bingham started in all Colin.

Bingham's Everton team was infamous for its lack of passing ability, Paul. Bunch of cloggers in the main.

Boom. Game over. Cream rises to the top.

get in disallowed - Ronaldo was poor there - there was a line to see/follow

They were CG

Erm, yes Jamie?

Dude what was that? The offside rule is crap. What was he? Two hairs offside?

an ab Jamie, the body/fitness tit

Cream rises to the top? It's usually sour by the time it gets there...

As you were. 2-1

great sub - gotta feel for that Czech defender

OMG what a beautiful ball by that Czech player. Wow.

Should be 2-2

it was offside Jamie

Haha.

Good day of footy.

There should have been a foul for Czechia before that goal, don't know how the linesman or the ref missed that.

He was slightly offside, Jamie. Var can work by the looks of it.

Not surprised the Czechs lost. They had Holes in their defence...

I am sure the Czechs will bounce back

Deserved win for the Portuguese.
Some strong defensive work by the Czechs but they needed more up front. Much like Everton.

I must admit, I generally dislike VAR, but VAR with quicker offside calls is much improved. Under 30 seconds for some decisions which would have taken 5 minutes in the Premier League.

Like it Phil # 85.

Cream deffo rises to the top, but so does scum.

And don't us lot know it for decades?