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Most Impressive Players So Far?


football_master_94

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Mostly players from the less fancied nations I've been really impressed with so far. Pilar, Jiracek and Gebre Selassie from the Czech Republic, even in the 4-1 gubbing by Russia

Konoplyanka last night against England.

The Portugal players for their incredible forebearance in the first couple of games in not slapping Ronaldo when he went in a huff over every slightly overhit pass or missed opportunity :p

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Where is that Pires bloke these days? According to him Iniesta was going to be 'phased out' of the Barca/Spain team by now. :D

Got permabanned.

Jordi Alba is 23 and probably off to Barca this summer. Used to be a left winger but got converted to LB a couple of years ago and seems to have done pretty well there, though I'm not convinced by his defensive ability.

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RE: Pilař

ITV claimed that he is a Plzen player but he actually is owned by Hradec Kralove which is one of the smaller Czech Gambrinus Liga clubs. He's spent the last season on loan at Plzen who themselves are not exactly a big club by Czech standards. Plzen actually rejected the opportunity to sign him during the winter break because they wouldn't meet HK's evaluation. Ending up agreeing to a pre-contract from Wolfsburg for under £1m. Biggest bargain of the summer, but not reported as the TV commentators claimed the other day during the CZ/PL game.

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From my Greece team, Kyriakos Papadopoulos (one of the best CB in this tournament, with a big footballing career ahead of him) and Karagounis (for his passion, experience etc. a true leader, especially considering how he has barely played any club football all season, dithering between being a late or unused substitute for a mediocre Panathinaikos team).

I also liked the Czech RB Selassie a lot.

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Hasn't had much to do but without him they'd be out IMO. Saved them big time vs Croatia. More important than any other 'keeping performance so far this tournament.

I have always been of the opinion that Spain could have anyone in goal. Casillas hasn't done much to deserve a mention here, in my opinion.

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Iniesta was on a completely different level to anyone in the first 2 games, reminded me of a Zidane performance.

In terms of surprise, Gerrard has played well... I've always been a fan but thought he'd past his prime. Arshavin looked good in the first 2 games aswell. Bendtner was really good in all 3 compared to his useless self.

Don't think any goalkeeper has been brilliant, but the Danish one has had his moments.

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Konoplianka for Ukraine, they all played well but he's had some excellent runs, Scott Parker will remember him for some time.

Jiracek and Pilar for the Czechs, also Limbersky played well against us and Gabre Selassie against Greece.

Gerrard has been a key player for England IMO, looks a lot better than Parker in the middle of their midfield.

Iniesta and Torres for Spain, I think the latter has a good chance to become a top scorer.

Every part of the German machine :) except Mueller maybe.

Sneijder was the outstanding player for Holland.

I also liked Bendtner, he always impressed me playing for Denmark. Maybe he's not capable of recreating it at club level where not everything in team tactics suits him?

Pirlo was excellent in two Italy games I saw.

Lewandowski did all he could in such a weak and badly managed team, which impressed me :)

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I have always been of the opinion that Spain could have anyone in goal. Casillas hasn't done much to deserve a mention here, in my opinion.

It's true that playing in goal for Spain is relatively easy because their possession game means their 'keeper barely sees the ball. It's still important to be a great shot stopper for them because their defenders are prone to making errors and they can be counter attacked on. As I said Casillas is there purely because of the Croatia game because without him they'd be out. I haven't seen another 'keeper who's made me think "wow!" so went for him. If somebody else had had an amazing tournament I'd put them here. Can't really think of too many candidates though. Maybe Pletikosa is an option? Great performance v Italy and looked good on the whole. Neuer has been solid as always but hasn't had much to do. GK isn't an easy position to pick standout performers for this tournament so far. Obviously will become more key as the knockout rounds start where every mistake is so much greater.

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I think Iniesta is a more complete footballer, but it's not worth getting into that.

I'd argue maybe Iniestas technique is slightly better, but Messi is on a different level, he decides games literally on his own regularly, but lets not get into that

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The thing with Iniesta is that he just makes football look so damn ridiculously easy. You watch Messi dribble past 5 men and chip the keeper but at no stage do you think to yourself 'ahh I could do that' but with Iniesta, you watch him glide effortlessly around the pitch, finding space seemingly out of nowhere with immaculate control and just stupidly good passes and he makes it look so damn easy that you think to yourself 'Mmm, could I?' then you get out onto the pitch and then it really hits home just how magical the guy really is. Anyway, lets not get into it.

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Guest avine

You are right(probably you know you are right,lol), when it is about what is impressive, its more like thinking:"this player is performing better than the rest of the same position in the tournament". Lescott imo has shown great first steps combined with balance,strength and he also scored. Maybe he is the best center back of euro2012 quarterfinals. Cristiano Ronaldo i was absolutely impressed with his goal vs barcelona for the league(1-2). In euro he scored twice already,he is capable to destroy any team and i expect him to perform even better. He is the special one player of european football at the moment.

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I'm not his biggest fan, but Khedira's impressed me.

Not sure about his role against Denmark but I wasn't particularly impressed with him in that game. Looked very uncomfortable on the ball when he was near our penalty box. Which was almost the entire match :(

Didn't specifically following him in their other matches, though.

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Yeh, shame. Increases his chances of winning World Player of the Year.

But what if he actually does enough to deserves to win it? You couldn't begrudge him that surely?

Can add Nani and Moutinho to the list of players that have impressed for Portugal now as well, Coentrao has been better than I though he would be.

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Does he deserve to win it if he is the player of the tournament? If you judge performances objectively, Messis season was just too good, especially in the year 2012, broke the all time scoring record of all time in any league+ alot of assists, absolutely unreal!

So why should Ronaldo deserve it more for his performances in 3! games, assuming Portugal reaches the final? Absolutely ridiculous if you think about it.

But if he continues to play like this , he has a very good chance to win it, because football is a game where performances are very much judged by subjective feelings.

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Very true but Ronaldo's season has been unreal too and with better trophies, just not as unreal as Messi's (who I still rate as the better player despite growing up just a few kms away from Ronaldo - actually probably born in the same hospital :D). If Ronaldo does not win he will have reasons to feel aggrieved, because in any other season where a midget Argentinian does not score 82 goals he'd win that award easily.

We've come to the strange situation where Ronaldo probably won't win it despite being even more effective at club level and reaching a much higher peak of performances with his national team, than in the season a couple years ago when he did win it.

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Messi has obviously been the better player individually, but if Ronaldo keeps this up in the euros I can see the votes swinging his way. It's pretty normal with a big tournament. And Ronaldo obviously also had a great year at club level.

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I think all posts praising Portuguese and German players over the last two nights should be deleted due to the unacceptable standard of opposition against which these good performances came.

So every player from group A (Pilar, Jiracek, Dzagoev,...) need to be deleted, too?

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Messi has obviously been the better player individually, but if Ronaldo keeps this up in the euros I can see the votes swinging his way. It's pretty normal with a big tournament. And Ronaldo obviously also had a great year at club level.

But it shouldn't be normal, this is an individual award, so it should be about the best player throughout the year. I'm not denying that Rolando didn't have a great season, but Messis season was historic, something that probably will never happen again.

This is also pretty interesting : http://king-football.com/bb/?p=431

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