Euro 2004 - Best Player

Gainy bo said:
I think Rooney is over-rated. Fair enough, he is the tournament's top scorer, and he is pretty darn good, but he scored against Switzerland and Croatia. I would describe both teams as being mediocre at best. Can't remember his Swiss goals, but the ones he scored against the Croats were defensive mistakes. Poor marking/awareness for the 1st, and the defenders should have closed him down for the 2nd (they just stood still and waited for him to hit it). Wasn't exactly great in the premiership last season either.
Click to expand...

When everyone starts comparing Rooney to Pele, it's hard not to view him as overrated, so to that extent I agree with you. However, the rest of your comments on Rooney reminds me strongly of my Scottish upbringing where anything good that was English had to be downplayed as much as possible. (How did that song about Bobby Moore & his alleged tranvestitism go again ...? ;) )

There are very few perfect goals - almost all of them you can point to one defender out of place, or a keeper one step too far off his line. Rooney's two goals against Croatia were, IMHO, both excellent (perhaps view them as supreme pieces of punishing defensive errors, if that helps ?). His run for the penalty against France likewise.

Yes, the English triumphalism sticks in my craw just as much as I'm sure it does for everyone else born north of the border, but are you sure you're not letting years of resentment colour your judgement of an incredibly devastating series of performances by Rooney ?
 
I am not biased in the slightest! :mischief:
I accept that he is talented, but look at it in this perspective:
Defenders are there to stop strikers from scoring, if they do so, then they have done their job. They don't get much recognition for it.
Strikers are there to score goals, and if they do so, they get hero-worshipped. Rooney hit the target and scored 3 times, in 3 matches. That is only once per game. Fair enough, that is still a great scoring record, but my point is Forwards get far too much praise for what they do.

In the France game, Rooney did not score. No-one cared though.
However, if a defender was to make a few howlers, (s)he would probably get dropped for the next game.

Moving onto Zidane, he has controlled France. Passing, movement, skill, scoring, influence, creativity. He has shown nothing but class in this competition. Scored an equal amount of goals to Rooney, and has done so much more for the team.

Rooney is in my Top 5 (or maybe 3) players of the competition, but by no means is he the best.
 
Lambert Simnel said:
When everyone starts comparing Rooney to Pele, it's hard not to view him as overrated, so to that extent I agree with you. However, the rest of your comments on Rooney reminds me strongly of my Scottish upbringing where anything good that was English had to be downplayed as much as possible. (How did that song about Bobby Moore & his alleged tranvestitism go again ...? ;) )

There are very few perfect goals - almost all of them you can point to one defender out of place, or a keeper one step too far off his line. Rooney's two goals against Croatia were, IMHO, both excellent (perhaps view them as supreme pieces of punishing defensive errors, if that helps ?). His run for the penalty against France likewise.

Yes, the English triumphalism sticks in my craw just as much as I'm sure it does for everyone else born north of the border, but are you sure you're not letting years of resentment colour your judgement of an incredibly devastating series of performances by Rooney ?
Click to expand...

Excellent post and observations :scan: ;) .
 
Posted by moi
Rooney hit the target and scored 3 times
Click to expand...
One of 'his' goals was an OG. He actually hit the post, if it weren't for the keeper, the ball wouldn't have gone in...
 
Gainy bo said:
In the France game, Rooney did not score. No-one cared though.However, if a defender was to make a few howlers, (s)he would probably get dropped for the next game.
Click to expand...

No one cared because he had a great game. when he got stuck into Zidane at that point the momentum started going England's way. He was involved in much good build up play, holding on to the ball, and playing other players in, showing good vision. Not to mention his chip that set up his run, and his run for the penalty itself.
 
The Rooney impressed me most with his header to set up Scholes's goal - he has an all round game. Also, when the Beeb did some analysis of him, you can see that he's always looking for the ball, and is in good positions to use it.

The Big Ib is still my player of the tournament though - the ball sticks to his feet, he's very nimble for someone that tall, and there's that goal.
 
Gainy bo said:
Posted by moi
One of 'his' goals was an OG. He actually hit the post, if it weren't for the keeper, the ball wouldn't have gone in...
Click to expand...
Very true. Much more so than Zidane's "own goal" against Croatia...
 
for young players, I think Ronaldo from Portugal is way more promising than Rooney. Overall, Nedved was good, but I didn't see all games.
 
Ballack is outstanding in a weak side.
 
It reminds me of the Giro competition. I had Cunego in my team and then picked McGee instead... If I had kept Cunego I would have wiped the floor with everyone...
 
Nice to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic is doing so well..

Too bad he's doing it for the wrong country :cry: :wallbash:

Oh well, Sweden all the way
 
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