Austria-Poland: Feel the Excitement! (Not)

2008-09-10T06:59:51-04:00

2008-06-12T18:27:10-04:00

2008-09-10T06:38:34-04:00

2008-06-13T14:30:41-04:00

dodgeherbert

No City 440042

haha klaaar 3 zu 0 deutschland. ich denke wir sind in der lage eure abwehr zu knacken.( is ja kroatien nicht schwer gefallen) janesen und metzelder ( Real Ersatzbankabwehrcheff) sind mehr als anf??llig. 90 minutes of soccer, and anybody can win! cordoba mal abgesehn... 1975050

2008-06-13T14:22:25-04:00

piotr m

Hillsborough 189669

Ha...forgetable football? you gotta be kidding me...a host country playing on the highest european stage? boruc's amazing saves? and how about the fact that in the 93rd minute poland was undoubtably robbed of a win by a ridiculous penalty kick? then again americans don't even come close to feeling such passion for the national team as europeans do...there's almost no international rivarly in american sports, just national "world" championships 1974898

2008-06-13T13:46:29-04:00

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Bayern4Life (redux)

Washington 424410

dodgeherbert, Croatia kicked our butt? Das ist doch scheisse, oder? Croatia beat Germany by the same goal difference by which they beat Austria. 1 goal, that's it. I really like the Austrians, but aren't they ranked 92nd in the world? And I never said their fans weren't passionate, we are simply more passionate. Tut mir echt leid, aber Montag Abend wird's 3-0 fur Deutschland stehen. 1974536

2008-06-13T13:41:21-04:00

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Bayern4Life (redux)

Washington 424410

I amend my last comment by explaining Klose was eligible for citizenship from birth under the Volksdeutsch act before 2000. Did I mention I really hate when people argue they're not German; for crap's sake, Mario Gomez was born in Germany to a German mother who raised him in Germany. Does one have to be related to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to be German? 1974483

2008-06-13T13:34:58-04:00

dodgeherbert

No City 440042

Well i guess neither of you has been to the fanzone in vienna. We austrians are well aware of the fact that we are not as great as other nations in football, but the fact that switzerland and us are the host nations of this EURO takes it to a whole new level. This is our EURO. Games are played on our turf in our stadions in our cities, and this chance of hosting a euro again wont be an issue until the next 50 years. Austria was defenitely not as passionate as germany before the euro! But after the game against poland its the first time that we even have faith for the quarterfinals so NOW we are passionate and we will kick germany out. if you guys want to talk about the quality?? I dont see the difference guys. Croatia won against us, quite lucky and they kicked germanys butt. 1974360

2008-06-13T13:30:18-04:00

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Bayern4Life (redux)

Washington 424410

LevelHeadedNeutralFan, your argument is weak at best. Podolski, who is of German ancestry and comes from a region of Poland that before the end of WWII had been German and heavily populated with ethinic Germans, has also live in Germany since he was 2 years old. Miroslav Klose, from the same Polish region as Podolski, has a father of German ancestry and a grandfather who was a German citizen. Gomez has a Spanish father and a German mother. Gomez is a born German for god sake. He's a hell of a lot more German than Freddy Adu is American. Same with Kuranyi, born to a German father living abroad and married to a Panamanian women. They are all German citizens by birth, except for Podolski. The Brazilians show up and declare citizenship after 3 years. Tunisia, Japan, Poland, Croatia, Portugal, etc. 1974331

2008-06-13T12:40:55-04:00

LevelHeadedNeutralFan

Irvine 440156

The naturalized Brazilian thing is no more ridiculous than the fact that the entire German strike force is also "foreign" - Podolski, Klose, Kuranyi, and Gomez. 1973778

2008-06-13T12:06:48-04:00

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Bayern4Life (redux)

Washington 424410

Hey dodgeherbert, if you think Austrian's are more passionate about their football team than German's are about there's, you seriously need to lay off of the angel dust. Most Austrians polled before the tournament were indifferent to the EURO's and 2 out of 5 Austrian's were annoyed by the tournament being in Austria. I do however like Austria and Switzerland and think they are both good hosts. Switzerland is one of the better teams in the world, missed out of the World Cup 2006 quarterfinals only because of a shoot-out, has consistently qualified for international tournaments lately, and frequently pulls off upsets of bigger nations. Calling Switzerland low quality only demonstrates an individual's lack of understanding of the world game, bad tournament or not. 1973297

2008-06-13T11:00:58-04:00

vanburen27

Overland Park 439702

why wouldn't this blog be from the American perspective? Both teams have been poor quality through two games, and both will hopefully play just one more game. True, they deserve a little more credit b/c little was expected from them, unlike France or Greece, who have the talent to play decent soccer, but choose not to. The negative teams and the less talented teams are being exposed, and frankly, that's good for viewers, especially Americans without a dog in the fight. 1972234

2008-06-13T10:04:00-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/756/6/thumb/DTOM-Red-White-Snake.jpg 27 NY

DrewVT6

Rochester 7586

For those of us with nothing on the line in this game, it was very boring. I'm glad you Polska's and Austrians were excited by it, but the quality of soccer wasn't so great. Saying, "MLS quality sucks" or "Americans dont know **** about real football," won't make it a better game to watch. 1971264

Three thoughts from Austria’s 1-1 tie with Poland in Vienna: • Two lame teams scored two lame goals. The talent drop-off from the top two teams in Group B (Croatia and Germany) and the bottom two (Austria and Poland) may be bigger than in any other group. And wouldn’t you know it, both goals in this game shouldn’t have happened. <strike>Brazilian</strike> Roger Guerreiro’s goal for <strike>the Samba Kings</strike> Poland came from an obvious offside position, while Ivica Vastic’s stoppage-time penalty-kick equalizer for Austria came after a ridiculous off-the-ball penalty was called on Poland’s Mariusz Lewandowski for pulling down Sebastian Prödl in the box. Justice? Maybe. Forgettable soccer? Most definitely. • The Blog nailed another score prediction. That’s two in two days, my friends ... • This naturalized-Brazilian trend is sort of ridiculous. What’s to keep soccer-poor countries (Qatar? India? Uzbekistan?) from paying big money to 23 uncapped Brazilians who can suddenly become their national team overnight? Through-balls: Why the sad face after the game, Martin Harnik? You should be thanking Vastic (and referee Howard Webb) for saving your rear after you screwed up so many simple finishes in the first half ... Clint Mathis says he’ll un-retire from the U.S. national team if an American brewery follows the Austrian example and offers a lifetime supply of free beer for scoring an international goal ... Is anyone else amused that every player in the tournament is wearing a RESPECT patch on his shirt in English, even though English is the first language in none of Euro 2008’s 16 participant nations? That’s right: no England, no Wales, no Scotland, no Ireland, no Northern Ireland ... I’m having a hard time figuring out which defender was a bigger donkey, Austria’s Emanuel Pogatetz or Poland’s Mariusz Jop. We’ll give it (by a hair) to Jop, who nearly gifted Austria a goal by loafing to a bad back-pass and got subbed out at halftime (not an easy thing to do when you’re a defender) ... I’m amazed that the Poles look so much better in European competition than they do against the United States, which has turned Poland into its own personal punching bag the last few years. Do either Poland or Austria have a chance of qualifying for the knockout rounds? Given the brutal performances of Switzerland and Austria, do you think host teams should have to go through qualifying like everyone else in the future? Please post your comments below and check back in the morning for the next Euro 2008 blog post ... 1337 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/194/315/thumb/wahl_grant.jpg 11 MD

Grant Wahl

Baltimore 194615