{"id":5854,"date":"2016-06-17T04:04:46","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T08:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=5854"},"modified":"2016-06-17T16:09:10","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T20:09:10","slug":"euro-cup-day-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=5854","title":{"rendered":"Euro Cup – Day 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, June 18th:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ireland v. Belgium\u00a0<\/strong>(Group E)<\/p>\n

Ireland was actually pretty impressive in their first game, as they outplayed Sweden despite just coming away with one point. \u00a0Sweden didn’t have a single shot on goal, with their only goal coming on an own goal. \u00a0Fullback Robby Brady had a great game, threatening in attack up the left-side throughout the game, and the “Irish Messi”, Wes Hoolahan, had a beautiful goal and some other good chances.<\/p>\n

The Belgians, meanwhile, turned in a performance that would’ve been surprising if we weren’t getting used to their underachieving. \u00a0One of the questions of the first group of matches was: are the Belgians actually this inept in attack or are the Italians actually that good defensively? \u00a0We’ll start to get some answers here.<\/p>\n

The Belgian coach, Marc Wilmots, has taken a lot of criticism for that aforementioned underachieving, and it’s not hard to see why. \u00a0The game announcer questioned his line-up decisions, both defensively and in attack. \u00a0He suggested that Dries Mertens should probably be starting and I have to agree with that. \u00a0Marouane Fellaini, with the big fro, is a good player who can play in different roles. \u00a0His size, strength, and skill mean he can play as a striker or as a defensive midfielder. \u00a0Wilmots played him in the “#10” role in the middle of the attacking midfield. \u00a0I don’t like him there. \u00a0He doesn’t move well enough and doesn’t have the ball-control or creativity to make things happen there. \u00a0They need to take him out of the line-up, move De Bruyne or Hazard into that role, and put Mertens on the wing.<\/p>\n

Prediction:\u00a0<\/em>Belgium 2, Ireland 0<\/p>\n

Iceland v. Hungary\u00a0<\/strong>(Group F)<\/p>\n

Two lightly-regarded teams here that turned in fairly shocking performances in their first game. \u00a0Many considered Hungary to be the worst team in the tournament and now they have a real chance to take 6 points from their first two games. \u00a0Both of these teams have the advantage of set rosters that played together a ton over the last two years, if not more. \u00a0While some other teams have star players sitting out qualifying matches because they play so many extra games in the Champions League, domestic cups, etc, these players are all there getting used to playing together. \u00a0And now either team can all but clinch a spot in the knock-out round with a win here.<\/p>\n

Prediction:\u00a0<\/em>Iceland 2, Hungary 2<\/p>\n

Portugal v. Austria\u00a0<\/strong>(Group F)<\/p>\n

The opposite side of the coin from the Iceland\/Hungary game: the two favorites in this group that had bitterly disappointing results. \u00a0Austria may have been exposed as fraudulent with their 2-0 defeat by Hungary. \u00a0I also haven’t been much of a believer in this Portugal team, and their draw against Iceland didn’t change that.<\/p>\n

Austrian attacking midfielder Zlatko Junuzovic is now out with an injury, so it will be interesting to see if they move David Alaba up into an attacking role. \u00a0Maybe that change will be good thing for them, as he came closest to scoring for them in the first game, banging a shot off the post in the first minute of the game.<\/p>\n

Prediction:\u00a0<\/em>Portugal 1, Austria 0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, June 18th: Ireland v. Belgium\u00a0(Group E) Ireland was actually pretty impressive in their first game, as they outplayed Sweden despite just coming away with one point. \u00a0Sweden didn’t have a single shot on goal, with their only goal coming … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5856,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5854\/revisions\/5856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}