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With warm preemptive congratulations to Kanzlerin Baerbock :)
Your friendly bookie wholeheartedly endorses a German velvet revolution. Let's go Europe!
Day 3: Recap
Bookie’s Stats—
Spread: 2-5
Straight up: 3-3-1
Now this is more like it! Hell's yes! Ten goals on a day of historic accomplishments.
England capture their first ever victory in an Euro opener. Austria win their first ever European Championship match. The (semi) brilliant Oranje return after a seven-year-long hiatus. Shevchenko's Ukraine find the back of the net for the first time in a major international since Euro 2012.
With so much great football on offer, your friendly bookie finds it difficult to figure out who to award the day to. Think we have to go with the team that, in one single match, eclipsed their cumulative scoring total from the 2008 and 2016 EM.
Glückwunsch, Burschen! Loved the class too.
Nicely done, Jungs.
S.S.S. Tactical Breakdown
Quite a lot to delve into tonight with a check on the day's three winners. We'll proceed in the order of the fixtures, which progressively got more exciting as those sultry European Summer temperatures dropped. Yes, my valued Limey friends, you get to go first....despite the fact that the Austrians and Dutch supplied more entertaining football.
Lineup—England—Match One (5-2-3) (6/13/2021)
It didn't constitute much of a surprise to see Tyone Mings get the nod either, though the Kalvin Philipps move came out of nowhere. Watching on the overhead tactical cam, your friendly bookie had a bit of difficulty placing Declan Rice. I think he was meant to stay back as an anchor sweeper, but he looked confusedly lost for long stretches.
An awful lot of lateral passing in this set-up. Play seemed uninventive and creatively bereft during the first half. Raheem Sterling had to track back to help out Trippier often. I personally haven't seen the Athletico man play on the left. I'm sure there have been instances in his long career in which he has. He nevertheless didn't appear comfortable adjusting.
After Phil Foden's hit of the post in the 9th, one could fairly describe the Lions' play as lethargic. The Croats, looking an absolute mess with Ante Rebic, Luca Modric, Andrej Kramaric, Mateo Kovacic apparently stuck in some sort of overcomplicated rotative set up, weren't up to punishing them for it. Thus things descended into a bit of a midfield street fight for the duration of proceedings.
Matters opened up a bit following Sterling's historic goal. That was truly a fine assist from Phillips. Duje Caletta-Car robbed the Lions of some better chances with a few instances of dirty play. Kane, Mount, and Sterling all screwed some good late chances well wide.
It worked. It was okay. Bookie accords the entertainment value of the match slightly below average marks. Overall, a pretty soft debut that hardly matters at this stage. We shouldn't be in for another Euro disaster like last time. The team should play better when they don't have a mid afternoon kickoff.
Let's talk Burschen.
Mr. Bundesliga's Germano-centric rotisserie team from the preview section would have still worked better from what we saw from Franco Foda initially. The bookie found himself generally dissatisfied with the first half and was preparing an epic Kaiserslautern-fueled rage worthy of a Herzblut heart whilst watching this operate.
Meh. Foda was simply trying to do too much here with his star player here. Alaba functioning as the fulcrum is fine, but his pivot position was far too advanced. All it took was a failed clearance from Hinteregger to initiate that defensive meltdown on Goran Pandev's equalizer.
There was some playful wit on behalf of the ÖFB-XI, not to mention two squeaky clean diagonals from Marcel Sabitzer. Stefan Lainer capably finished one while Sasa Kalajdzic couldn't find the inventive touch on the other.
Even after Foda yanked Dragovic and reverted to a back-four at the half, it didn't seem as if the basic game plan of centralized upfield chucks for Kalajdzic would be altered. After all, Alaba was still tasked with directing the whole show from a centralized midfield position.
The first 15 minutes after the restart were completely atrocious. To his credit, Foda stuck with the back-four despite the fact that it was having difficulty gelling and pulled the trigger on attacking reinforcements near the hour mark. He'd come to look like a genius playing the long-con.
The new back-four, completed by the subbed on Freiburg talent Philipp Lienhart, had been in place since the second 45 opened. Once he got Kalajdzic and Christoph Baumgartner off, Sabitzer could slide into the ten-spot. Alaba moved up to more a nice tidy diamond observable on the tactical cam. We should see something like this again in the next group stage match.
Arnautovic and Gregoritsch combined beautifully on more than one occasion before the second goal. Alaba supplied the sumptuous assist on the Gregoritsch tally that broke the deadlock in the 78th. Laimer, shockingly left on the pitch for the full 90 following his injury season, finished strong with the set up of Arnautovic eleven minutes later.
Great stuff. For Foda, it looks as if some of the questions his team is plagued by found some intriguing and unexpected solutions. Of course, they'll face a stern challenge in the Netherlands next. We'll wrap up the tactical section with our first look at the a live Oranje men's tournament lineup in nearly seven years.
Back in the preview section, your friendly bookie remarked that the forward axes were easy enough to sort out. That was the prevailing logic prior to seeing the pre-tournament friendlies. When it became apparent that the midfield was the only predictable part of Frank de Boer's constellation, many of us oddsmakers began to get nervous.
Once I surmised that the, admittedly beloved, Wout Weghorst would be completed a 5-3-2 two striker set, the opening match increasingly looked like a draw. A pick was tipped and we very nearly got it after the Ukrainians erased that two-goal deficit. De Boer stuck with his back-five for better or worse.
Forgive me if I've never heard of Jurrien Timber and had to rub my eyes in disbelief that Maarten Stekelenburg started in goal. The early rush impressed. Absolutely loved the courageous work of speed demons Georginio Wijnaldum and Memphis Depay. Denzel Dumfries tore it up too as the Dutch racked up the xG early.
Towards the end of the first-half, we began to see the inherent problem with this approach manifest themselves. Weghorst really functions better as a lone target man and just doesn't fit well in this somewhat confusing system in which Depay and Wijnaldum constantly streak up the attacking lanes.
It all seemed as if some master plan was at work when Weghorst scored in the 59th. Truth be told, both he and Wijnahldum had their country up 2-0 thanks to poacher's goals. A global audience would soon get visual confirmation of something that those of us who cover the Bundesliga know all too well. Namely, striker Weghorst can really botch the set-piece marking at times.
Oops, Wout. I do believe you made a hash out of that one. Roman Yaremchuk was supposed to be your responsibility! Yeah. Very difficult to ascertain how good this Dutch side truly is. They did murder Shevchenko's men in the total match xG have a truly exciting wingback in the form of Dumfries. Aké and Wijndal were off the chain in their relief appearances as well.
One supposes that de Boer ditched the 4-3-3 in favor of a back five precisely because he has so many dangerous wingbacks on the roster. Expect the rabid debate among tactics-heads to continue, however, as results here were inconclusive. The Dutch trainer needs a more fluid second attacker in this approach and it's unclear if he has one.
One thing that is for certain concerns the sensational potential of the upcoming group stage fixture against Austria. Thursday. Mark your calendars. Don't even consider missing out. Your friendly bookie already shudders at setting the line. We could get another five-goal thriller.
"United"
Regrettably, the promised return of our cultural media segment had to take a day off yesterday. Full disclosure: This might happen again over the course of the tournament, depending on how many winks your friendly bookie has been able to grab. Coordinating a global ring of friends and football remains a time-consuming task, particularly when one writes articles for popular consumption too.
Anyways, the Day Two Recap was supposed to center around an interesting book on Danish values that I've been reading. When Christian Eriksen's cardiac arrest put everyone off their lunch, it seemed a wholly inappropriate time to ruminate on the concept of "hygge". With the incident still on everyone's mind, the "Busby Babes" movie better topic for tonight's post.
Yes, we're really half-assing it here. Syndicate diehards like 11-M will surely point out that I already covered this made-for-TV movie in the WM 2018 Day Ten Recap. As always, I hate to repeat myself. In this case, the topic of moving on the in the face of jarring events may be something to wish to return to. One also can't beat a solid emotional story that you can watch for free on Youtube.
Your friendly bookie shall say it a thousand times more in these pages: Football simultaneously remains both the most important and least important thing in the world.
“Riffs of the Day”—Day Three
Reader: Phil Foden rocks the Eminem duo like no one else in the past 25 years, save perhaps Michael Cuisance.
Vicey: A very high quality zing, 36-M. Your friendly bookie nevertheless learned that it was actually a tribute to Paul Gascoigne
Reader: Will these English commentators ever shut up about Euro '96?
Vicey: Er...no, 152-M. See above.
Reader: The Austrian kits are made by Puma...and they rock!
Vicey: ....damned if 71-M doesn't have a point here. Bookie can't summon up a counter.
Reader: I think Steve McManaman just referred to the Czechs as
Vicey: Hold on....let me check. Shit! A harmless enough slip of the tongue, but it's still kind of funny that he merged two separate countries playing in this tournament.
Reader: Okay. Screw Mancini's suit. You can cut me up a version of Alessandro del Piero's ensemble from the drapes.
Vicey: Guffaw. Good one, 8-M. I'll be your Scarlett O'Hara.
Reader: Why couldn't Yarmolenko have scored that gorgeous distance strike against Russia?
Vicey: Careful, careful 23-M. I don't want to see you ransomwared.
Reader: C'mon, Vicey! Look at all the Croatian and English girls. The cameramen are getting back in the habit. Bring back the standings!
Vicey: Sigh. We're not supposed to discuss it anymore! We must evolve beyond allowing our baser instincts to look at women as...
....um.....whatever point I was about to make!
DAY FOUR--PREVIEW
Scotland vs. Czech Republic
THE LINE: Czech Republic +1 Goal (holding)
Poland vs. Slovakia
vs. 
What's the problem, 71-M? Gun-shy?
THE LINE: Poland +2 Goals (holding)
Spain vs. Sweden
vs. 
Just get us through this without a disaster and we'll all be winners.
THE LINE: Sweden +1 Goal (holding)
Argentina vs. Chile
vs.
I'll gradually throw the syndicate members some Copa America lines. Very intriguing match this. Shall there be a changing of the guard tomorrow night. I think so, but you'll still have to hit a high line.
THE LINE: Argentina +2 Goals (debuting)
GENTLEMEN, ENTER YOUR WAGERS
