OT: Euro 2016 Round of 16 (12:00pm, 3:00pm, ESPN2) - ITA v. ESP; ENG v. ISL
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I have always wondered why Italy wears blue as their national color when their flag is Red, White, and Green. I've been told it has something to do w/ it representing the color of the Adriatic seas. Same w/ Australia -- Green unis (at least for Rugby) w/ a blue, white & red flag.
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...are the colors of Australia's national flower.
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The national team wore blue as a tribute to the Royal House in 1911 and it stuck as their official color.
Italy is known for defense and tatics.
Not this generation.
Italy's team is currently made of Juve's goalkeeper (Buffon) and three defenders (Chiellini, Bonucci and Barzagli). Juve is known for their mind-crushing defense, and having Pogba and Morata (France, Spain) kill you on the counter.
Their age, and dearth of attacking talent, is why Italy is one of the big surprises of the tournament.
The team of passing and ball skills is/was Spain.
Between "Always playing" and "going forward."
Going forward, I could end up in a serious relationship with a supermodel.
Italy has been a creator of some of the most boring futbol that eyes can see. Pure defense, lacking that pure goal scorer, little to no ingenuity.
That would be France in the days of Zidane. Miss that guy.
This France team has, at least on paper, a phenomenal midfield and pretty good attackers. But there are major questions defensively. They've managed to avoid giving up a goal in the run of play thus far (they've given up two penalties) but there have been tense moments back there. They may need a huge tournament from Lloris in goal to win it all.
Pulling for the two teams in blue today!
Chiellini might be my least favorite Italian player
Wimbledon Day 1 too! Roger is up next
people predict England will score more than once.
Great save by De Gea!
Is Iceland's official abbreviation really "ISL", one of the common abbreviations for ISIS? If so, that's pretty unfortunate.
Besides, "ICE" would be so much more bad ass.
International sports usually uses French spellings. So Iceland is ISL (for Islande), Switzerland is SUI (Suisse) and Romania is ROU (Roumanie), among others.
But the USA still gets to be USA.
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It theoretically should be EUA (États-Unis d'Amérique).
But even French speakers usually just say "les USA."
The USA
Merica.
We should be MUR
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But sometimes we play like EWWWWWWW
It's just a weird mishmash, really. They sometimes use French (like with ROU, or ESP for Spain/l'Espagne), sometimes they use English (like using GER instead of ALE or DEU, or using RSA for South Africa).
Sometimes they have confusing improvisations, like with CHI for Chile and CHN for China. Or my favorite: IND for India and IDN for Indonesia.
And just try to figure out LBR, LBY and LIB.
I've always been bothered by the fact that languages make up names for other countries in the first place. Every country should be called the same thing they call themselves, regardless of language. Basically, why translate proper nouns?
I tell my kids this all the time . . . if they call themselves "Deutschland", how in the hell did we get "Germany" out of that?
Why don't we just call them Deutschland?
If you go to "Germany", the Michigan Wolverines are still the "Michigan Wolerines".
The root of "Deutschland" is related to the German words for "meaning" and "sense." Literally it was "land of the people" but it carries the meaning "land where people speak intelligibly instead of babbling incomprehensibly."
You can see why that might not have caught on in other languages.
I suspect we got Germany from the Latin Germania, which preceded Deutschland by a bit. But that's just a guess.
I always think they are referring to Israel w/ the ISL abbreviation.
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I would imagine Germany is rooting for Spain. Incredibly, Germany has never beaten Italy in an elimination game.
Would imagine Germany would love nothing better than to erase that record.
Germany has looked a different side now that Mario Gomez is up top. Incredible how much better Gomez has looked (and how crappy Goetze has looked) recently.
It was the same with Klose--a player like that is essential in the group stage, against bunkered opponents, but later in the tournament when games opened up he wasn't as effective, at least late in his career (when he was young he was much more mobile than Gomez ever has been).
They'll have possession against Italy, too, and they'll probably use Gomez again. But if they ever play a team they can counter against they may need to go back to the false 9.
Most people who have real lives, count sheep when they can't sleep. I, on the other hand, think about Michigan Football. Last night I had three thoughts about the team. First, I believe the 2015 team we fielded will be remembered as the least talented team in Jim Harbaugh's tenure. Second, MSU fans for years to come, will fondly recall a rare victory over JH in 2015 and how they got it. Third, The floor for Michigan in 2016 is 9-3 and the ceiling for MSU is 9-3.
dafuq
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Counting Stars.