Micah Ricahrds I think you're talking about, plays right back.

Yes, Robinson's not very good at all. In the past 20 years we've had more reliable guys like Shilton and Seaman, Robinson's nowhere near close to them. We used to have tonnes of guys that could stick the ball in the net, a few years ago we had so many that Ian Wright couldn't even make the England squad for World Cups! Now we have Theo Walcott? What a joke.

Fortunately for you, Germany have been blessed with real talent all over the pitch since.. well, as long as I remember. Damn you! (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

IMO we had a lot of cr@py teams in the 90ies, full of oldies like Klinsmann, Völler, Möller and all the other heros that won the 1990 WC. I don't even wan't to think of the Euro 2000, with the 39yo Lothar Matthäus. Good....even in 2004 we had a team almost without promising youngsters. This is the first time since 1990 IMO that we have more than one good player under 25. Kuranyi, Pander, Jansen, Gomez etc. ....very good team. Here in Germany everyone thinks that we're top favorites to win the Euro next year asthe teams winning and winning under Löw. We'll see....last year everyone thought we'd win the WC after we won against Argentina...didn't happen (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Pander seems to be a good defender. Now I get all those Real Madrid rumours...

Lucky guy to be in the stadium (full, wasn't it?)

Congrats with the result and good luck in the rest of the qualifying matches. (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Hell, what are you talking about? Germany in 2004 had Lahm, Kuranyi, Poldi, Schwein, etc. The 2006 success was born at the Euro 04. It was full of promising youngsters.

Also, Andi Möller did great things till the late 90ties,..this Schalke transfer, I`ll never forget,..

Germany is one of the favorites, sure, and I`d be glad to see them lifting the trophy.

As for Pander...really overrated. A great free-kick expert, makes superb shots, but isn`t mobile enough and he defense can be really poor sometimes.

2004....yes we had Lahm, Poldi etc. But we also had Ziege, Wörns, Ernst, Freier....a lot of cr@p. The game against Latvia, that was the biggest dissapointment our NT ever provided for me.
Möller? Never said that he wasn't a great player. So were Klinsmann,Völler,Häßler and all the other champions of 1990. I just wanted to say that we didn't have to many good youngsters in the 90ies.

Well, maybe thats true. It was pretty much all about Deisler, and noone else. But having oldies in your team/or having youngsters doesn`t mean anything in those competitions. Except that, all those players, the great ones, like Möller, Hässler etc. lost motivation after 1996.

But you can`t call Wörns crappy. He was a candidate even for the 2006 WC. I mean, in 2004 he was really neccessary. Well, on Freier and Ernst I agree, Ziege,..he is an oldie, he does good to the team. You know, sometimes it`s better to have one 30-and-something year old Ziege who does great for the team outside the pitch then an 18/19 year old troublemaker. The age factor isn`t decisive in such competiotions. (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

In 2000, Ribbecks Germany played their worst football I ever watched live on a big tournament. They won 1996 in a great manner, they were really good in 1998 till Croatia came by in the quaters and Wörns made that stupid tackle that sent him off, 2002 Rudi amazed everyone introduceing a compact German side with Kahn, Ballack and Klose as their leaders. Then came the dissapointment in 2004. But Klinsi made a great job in 2006 and I hope Jogi can go all the way. If he does the same conditioning Klinsi did with Germany before the WC, the chances are pretty good..

I forgot that we also had the 33yo Freddy Bobic as striker in 2004. Ziege? I can still remember everyone complaining about his nominations. Still, it was enough not to loose against the Dutch (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) 2000? Let's better not talk about that...
2002 was OK, but as you said...the team was playing very compact, but their football wasn't fun to watch. And without Kahn on top of his game (after that tornament I was convinced that there could never have been a better goalie) we wouldn't have even reached the Quarterfinals...

Fun or not fun to watch you still reached a World Cup final, Kahn was good but to get to a final most of your players have to be on top of their game outfield and in goal.

Well, the Azzurri may be really hosed now. Cannavaro was hurt in training today in Madrid. He's a major doubt for the Madrid derby tomorrow and there's a question as to whether he'll be able to play vs. France. Maybe Sandro will change his mind for the one game at least?

I think Italy are in a much worse situation than England. They are in huge trouble right now.

Come on Alessandro! Show them who's the best and retire like you should!!!! (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/king.gif)

C'mon Sandro, The Nazionale needs you

ya i'll be very pissed if he doesnt come to help us with these two games... come on 2 games isnt gonna kill him.

DB

This post has been edited by bigmacmtl: Aug 24 2007, 09:12 PM