Euro 2020 and Copa America Football Tournaments.

England fail to win for the first time in qualifying for the Euros.
Ukraine 1 - England 1
Meanwhile GB sweeping the titles at the world rowing championships.

 

except for the men single, what ever it is called in English

 

Single sculls.
Congratulations Oliver Zeidler.
I see GB are actually in 2nd place in the medal table behind the Netherlands. Both on 6 golds but GB only have one silver and two bronzes compared to NL's 3 silvers.

 

That was a repeat for Zeidler, he defended his titel.
That is always special.

 

I've been too busy watching the rugby world cup so I haven't actually seen any of the rowing. Hopefully the team is hitting top form ready for next year's Olympics.

 

England playing Scotland tonight.
150th anniversary of their first ever game.
The first international football match.
0-0 after 30 mins.

 

Strange, the world of football.
Flick got fired after the Japan game. Rudi Voeller took over for the France game. Just a one game job.
He comes with a average starting 11, left a lot of top players on the bench, or used them as subs in the second half and beats France 2:1

 

England too good for Scotland tonight.
3-1.
Bellingham having a great game in midfield. Scores one and creates one for Kane.

 

This coming week on Tuesday there will be England-Italy for the Euro qualifiers. Paging @Montegriffo . These games are always exciting. Before that, Italy will play Malta on Saturday. We have a new coach, and we aren't as good as the team that won the last Euro. We aren't doing so well in our group. I hope we'll improve, with Spalletti getting to make his mark. He is a good coach who was instrumental in Napoli's Scudetto-winning season.

 

Italy need it more than England. That might be the deciding factor.
Good news about the 2028 Euros coming to the UK and Ireland.

 

I am looking forward to the friendly US vs Germany on Saturday.

 

England scrape a 1-0 win against Australia.
Should have been more but England were uninspired in the final 3rd of the pitch. Again showing they are vulnerable to close marking.

 

That is a lively match. A superb goal from Pulsic for the US, a real beauty.

Germany's defense at times looks a touch shaky.
Offense, Sane, Musiala and Wirtz are giving the US dancing lessons. When those 3 work together it is red alarm in the US box.
Sane cut through the US defense in the 16 with a double pass with Gundogan. The US keeper got its fingers on the, but then Gundogan just had to tip it in.
The US had some rather good chances, as had Germany. 1:1 at half time is a proper result.

 

Second half was a very different picture.
Nagelsman must have given the defense a little speech.
They shut down everything the US had going.
Sane, Musaila and Gundogan the took the US apart. Fuellkrug got his chance and it was 1:2 and then Musaila did what he does best, dribbled through the 16, just magic, the ball for some reason always jumps his way, the guy has a magnet, passed it to Fuellkrug, who passed it back and goal. That kiddo is magic.
Boom, boom and it was 1:3.

That was not to bad. A rather good start for Nagelsman.
It was a friendly and one could tell. Nobody risked anything, but it was a lively and entertaining game..

Mexico on Tuesday.

 

Portugal is through, 2 goals by Renaldo.
124 and 125.

 

It's a crying shame.

 

love it.

 

Disappointing defensive failures doomed the USA against Germany. I do acknowledge that the Germans played very well. The one good thing for us Americans was that Pulisic scored a very beautiful goal. Golazo. And given that he plays for my team the AC Milan, I was doubly pleased. Musah did well too.

Italy beat Malta 4-0; two of the goals were by Berardi (what a player!). This result - the second win in a row - gives us some respite. Even if we lose to England, and even if we lose by a large score, we can qualify by beating North Macedonia at home and drawing with Ukraine on the road. After the fiasco of not qualifying for the WC twice in a row, I won't count on it; but we do got to a better position now than after the first two games.

One of my idols, Tonali, is facing betting accusations and was dismissed from the Azzurra. I'm worried about him.

Meanwhile Brazil drew with Venezuela 1-1 for only the second time in history. Brazil has never lost to Venezuela in official games (lost one friendly) and drew twice; beat them all the other times. Brazil played very poorly. One of the worst performances by them I've seen. Venezuela tied the game with a beautiful bicycle kick. Vini Jr was uncharacteristically bad, and lost pretty much all duels with Venezuela's right back Alexander Gonzales. Even Rodrygo wasn't that great but at least he had a bit more success and tried hard. Neymar also had some success. Rodrygo and Neymar were the two most decent players among the forwards but the whole offense performed poorly. Actually a midfielder and two defenders, Casemiro, Marquinhos and Gabriel, were more dangerous to Venezuela than the forwards. Defender Gabriel scored Brazil's goal and Marquinhos almost scored a couple of times. Brazil fell to 2nd place in the group, behind Argentina that won all 3 of their games.

 

Wasn't it North Macedonia that knocked Italy out of the World Cup qualifiers last time?

 

Yes, which is why I said I'm not counting on it until it's done. The first game we drew 1-1 with North Macedonia, on the road. I'm hoping we will win at home next game but like I said, I'll believe in it when it happens.

 

I wish you luck.
Major tournaments are not complete without Italy.

 

OK, thanks. In this case, please ask your co-nationals to allow us to beat them Tuesday, LOL

 

Just press them hard all over the pitch. They still haven't worked out how to deal with that.

 

We only need a draw.
Is that any help?

 

here we go, @CenterField and @Monte