EM 2016--Day Seventeen Recap

Your “Syndicate Hangover” is proudly presented by “Das Bier”

Only at Karlsruhe’s “Das Fest” can one buy beer bottles labeled “Das Bier”. Your friendly bookie does not often drink beer…but when he does, he prefers “Das Bier”. May we all meet again together under cerulean Southern German Skies. Bleib durstig, Kumpels!

Day 17: Recap

Record—

Spread: 16-29

Straight up: 23-13-9

Hot Girl Standings

Country	Tally	Games Played
Spain	45	4 (finished)
Poland	44	5 (finished)
France	42	4
Iceland	36	4
Republic of Ireland	35	4 (finished)
Italy	34	4
Croatia	33	4 (finished)
Switzerland	31	4 (finished)
Germany	30	4
Wales	29	4
Northern Ireland	28	4 (finished)
England	26	4 (finished)
Slovakia	25	4 (finished)
Belgium	24	4
Hungary	24	4 (finished)
Turkey	24	3 (finished)
Albania	23	3 (finished)
Portugal	22	5
Romania	21	3 (finished)
Austria	19	3 (finished)
Sweden	18	3 (finished)
Russia	16	3 (finished)
Czech Republic	16	3 (finished)
The Ukraine	11	3 (finished)

What a fantastic football match today on a blissful Summer’s Eve in Marseille’s delightfully pleasing Velodrome. Couldn’t take my eyes off it. Splendid lateral work from both sides. Wonderful arcing crosses and switches. What a pity that we needed penalties to separate the two sides. There was little chance the Czerwoni, or indeed any other side, could win back-to-back shootouts. Blaszczykowski gets to be the hard luck goat after all of the solid work he put in over the course of the tournament. Sad Stuff ; (

Let’s analyze the lineups.

 Poland—Match Five—PROJECTED (4-4-2) 

Robert Lewandowski  Arkadiusz Milik

J. Blaszczykowski              K. Grosicki

K. Mczynski  G. Krychowiak

A. Jedrzejczyk                L. Piszczek

M. Pazdan   K. Glik

Wojciech Szczesny

 Poland—Match Five—ACTUAL (4-4-2) 

Robert Lewandowski  Arkadiusz Milik

K. Grosicki              J. Blaszczykowski

K. Mczynski  G. Krychowiak

A. Jedrzejczyk                L. Piszczek

M. Pazdan   K. Glik

Lukasz Fabianski

Your friendly bookie got the placement of the two “pusher” midfielders and the choice of keeper wrong, but was otherwise spot on. Grosicki did great work on the left. Blaszczykowski fought especially hard until the bitter end. In my humble opinion, it would have behooved Nawalks to give Szczesny the start despite Fabianski’s peaking form. A different keeper might have made all the difference in the world in the shootout.

 Portugal—Match Five—PROJECTED (4-4-2) 

C. Ronaldo         Nani

A. Gomez            Eder

Joao Moutinho                   Joao Mario

Elisieu                          Vieirinha

R. Carvalho   Pepe

Rui Patricio

 Portugal—Match Five—ACTUAL (4-1-3-2) 

C. Ronaldo        Nani

Adrian     Renato Sanches   Joao Mario

William Carvalho

Elisieu                          Cedric

Pepe    Jose Fonte

Rui Patricio

Interesting direction for Fernando Santos to take. He’ll have to come up with an entirely different constellation next match after Wlliam Carvalho’s suspension. Looking forward to seeing Reanto Sanches in a Bayern Jersey next season. Great hustle from him. He owes his goal to a lucky deflection, but he ran hard for a full 120 minutes AND did his job from the spot in the shootout.

Plenty of high marks in the “Grades Section”

 GRADES—Poland (Match Five) 

Robert Lewandowski	A+
Arkadiuz Milik	A+
Kamil Grosicki	A
Kamil Glik	A
Jakub Blaszczykowski	A-
Grzegorz Krychowiak	B+
Krzstof Maczynski	B
Lukasz Fabianski	B
Michal Pazdan	B-
Lukasz Piszczek	C+
Artur Jedrzejczyk	C
Tomasz Jodlowiec	C
Bartosz Kapustka	C

 GRADES—Portugal (Match Five) 

Renato Sanches	A+
Cedric	A+
Cristiano Ronaldo	A
Rui Patricio	A
Joao Moutinho	A
Ricardo Quaresma	A
Nani	A
Pepe	B
Eliseu	B
Jose Fonte	B
Joao Mario	C+
William Carvalho	C
Adrien Silva	C
Danilo	D+

“Riffs of the Day”—Day Seventeen

 

Reader: Do you even read your own blog?

Vicey: Another great point raised by 86-M. YES! I HAVE to read it..if only for reference purposes. Occasionally, I stumble across a line that I have a hard time believing I actually wrote. Such discoveries make your friendly bookie wonder if he’d be better off served taking the “Werner Herzog Approach”. Legendary Bavarian-German Filmmaker Werner Herzog wrote detailed diaries when working in South America on films like “Aguirre” and “Fitzcarraldo”. His sporadic and temperamental thoughts proved of little use to him as he went on to direct a remake of “Nosferatu”, “Woyzeck”, and plenty of intriguing documentaries like “The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner”.

He never dared to read his own diaries. That’s the point I was getting around to—the one you thought I forgot about. If there is something to take away from this semi-scatter-brained rant, it’s that most Americans would forfeit their left testicle to have lunch with Werner Herzog. I’d personally love to watch him debate sautéed shrimp with his server for 20 minutes, then figure out why he never dared to read his own diaries. ; )

DAY EIGHTEEN—PREVIEW

Belgium vs. Wales

  vs. 

Jan Vertongen’s injury temporarily froze betting. Sorry. I do believe I’ve caught up with all Syndicate Members looking to place a wager on the Welsh Dragons. Betting is now closed. Good luck to those who got their wagers in early!

THE LINE: Pick em’

(rolling down HARD from Belgium +2)

(Betting Closed)