It's finally here, with the first two games (POL-GRE & RUS-CZE) kicking off later today.
Who are you supporting?
Who do you think will win?
Who's your sneaky pick to do far better than others expect?
For those who haven't been paying attention, your choices are: CRO, CZE, DEN, ENG, FRA, GER, GRE, ITA, NED (Holland), POL, POR, IRL, RUS, ESP (Spain), SWE, UKR.
Obviously I'm supporting England, but I'd be putting my money on Germany. The Czech Republic are my pick of team to come out of nowhere and do really well.
Spain are overrated, and I wouldn't be remotely surprised if they fail to even make it out of the group stage, á la France in WC'02 (Italy are always contenders, and Croatia certainly have the potential to pull off an upset). Having said that, steroids and HGH are pretty good stuff...
I'm English so of course i'm supporting England. But it would be nice to see Holland finally win something. Although I think they have won the Euros once before.
So long as it's not one of the regulars ie, Germany, Spain, Italy and i'll be quite happy.
Originally Posted by AndyUK I'm English so of course i'm supporting England. But it would be nice to see Holland finally win something. Although I think they have won the Euros once before.
So long as it's not one of the regulars ie, Germany, Spain, Italy and i'll be quite happy.
Could be worse - I tipped Czech Republic, and look what happened to them
At least Holland played alright, apart from the fact they couldn't hit a barn door...
Being English, I remember a news item that stood out to me.
I think it was England vs Poland in one of the semi-finals of one of the stupid over-rated football tournaments (as you can probably tell, I'm not an advocate of football). Our beloved team lost.
A little later that night, somewhere in Norfolk or Suffolk, a Polish-run pub was attacked by football hooligans. The landlord was beaten to a pulp, the occupants inside were assaulted, windows were smashed and I believe there was an arson attack on it too.
I sincerely hope England do not win. Thanks in a large part to obnoxious hooligans, our country has a nasty smear on it. When the world thinks of England, they think of riots and football thugs.
It also pisses me off that footballers are paid weekly salaries that most of us fail to earn in five years while working our backsides off just to provide a roof over our heads, and to provide food for the table. But that's another moan for another time.
Germany to win, and either France and Italy to be one of the (surprise) finalists. England seems more stable than ever but appointing a new coach a month before the tournament (and on top of it not a particularly great one, Redknapp is a lot better imo) only makes a hard task even harder. Holland so far is my biggest disappointment. Holland and Ronaldo, I'm portuguese and I can't stand the guy. The czech republic played really well against russia before they suffered the first two goals, and they had a great match against greece too.
I'm routing for Portugal but ever since the carvalho and bosingwa debacles Bento lost a lot of his credibility and the team has been rather unstable since then, going from winning 10 or something games in a row (including a 4-0 against the world champions spain) to drawing against macedonia and losing against turkey at home. Once we are eliminated and since switzerland failed to qualify, I'm routing for germany. For whatever reason I just enjoy watching them play.
Also I have no idea why, but I really want Ireland and Poland to do well.
All in all, I'm really enjoying this euro. Some really exciting matches already and lots of interesting teams. So far, it's much, much better than the 2010 world cup.
Originally Posted by Hayo Wake me up when it's over
Couldn't agree more. Can't stand what football does to people. Not just the fights it causes, but the boring bastards who think its interesting to discuss the managerial side of it.
And Sketchy Hayo's actually pretty athletic, you're saying he's sport-phobic because he doesn't watch a sport?
I checked out The Sun newspaper's website after England played Sweden and within 2 seconds there were 190 new comments!
Why do some people choose to support the team their country is playing? And my god people do like to bitch. (Thats not aimed at Hayo or Adam btw!)
Originally Posted by -Adam- Originally Posted by Hayo the boring bastards who think its interesting to discuss the managerial side of it.
Apparently it's interesting to some people. If some people don't like football fine, I respect them, but respect works both ways. And just because a couple of thugs decide to fight about it doesn't mean every football fan is like that so I don't think it's fair to use that as an argument to trash the sport.
Also a big competition like this one lasts less than a month and only happens every two years. There is garbage on tv all year long, so personally I don't see that as a tragedy even for someone who doesn't like football.
If you don't understand it, you just don't like it. There's a lot of interesting aspects to the managerial side. I do hate club football, though, it's all about who has the most money.
Anyway, I'm hoping Germany win this one. Spain/Italy for the lose, both are probably the most boring 'good' teams in football, and are dragging the rest of the teams down to stupid possession tactics. While Germany plays risky football, they play good football, but the recent games haven't been so great, probably because of the competition they're facing.
Netherlands for second place hopefully, but doesn't look good for them now.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Anyway, I'm hoping Germany win this one. Spain/Italy for the lose, both are probably the most boring 'good' teams in football, and are dragging the rest of the teams down to stupid possession tactics. While Germany plays risky football, they play good football, but the recent games haven't been so great, probably because of the competition they're facing.
Finally, someone who's not just kissing Spanish butts all the time!
To me, Spain look mediocre. They pass the ball around just for the sake of it, without ever looking like scoring (Ireland don't count). It's exactly the same with Barcelona, who people talk about as being the best team in the world, and yet they were eliminated by a 10-man Chelsea side.
I'd love it if Spain were eliminated by Croatia (Italy beating Ireland is a given, pardon the pun), but I'm sure if that were to happen, UEFA would just deduct points from Croatia to ensure that Spain go through anyway (ostensibly as a penalty for the behaviour of their fans).
Germany are a great counter-attacking side, but they have trouble against teams like Spain who play very negatively, without ever attacking.
I have no idea about the Holland situation. It's very likely that 3 teams will finish that group with 3pts, but trying to figure out which of them qualifies makes my head hurt. I'm hoping Denmark...
I'm quite pleased with how Group A turned out. I like the Czech Republic and it's always nice when a nation with problems off the pitch does well on it (like New Orleans winning the SuperBowl right after hurricane Katrina). It's a shame the co-hosts, Poland couldn't go through too, but I'm glad Russia are out.
Heh about Spain and Barcelona, they have 1 way to play and people have now figured out how to counter it. As soon as Spain come up against a good defense they'll struggle just like they did against England in that friendly a few months back.
I don't see how a team that has the majority of the possession, shots, corners etc can whinge about the other team's negative tactics like they do. If you've had the better of the game it's your own fault for failing to win.
I stand corrected. France-Spain was the most boring game of football I've ever seen. About 1000 passes and literally zero shots on goal (the 2 goals were from a header and a penalty). They should both be embarrassed.
France talked themselves up and failed to even play. They won 1 game out of 4 in the entire tournament... Spain were pretty poor too though. They kept losing possession cheaply but were lucky that France hardly even turned up.
Yep, very excited about England-Italy.
I do kind of wish England had finished behind France in the group stage though - wouldn't have to face Italy or Germany then.
I think England are actually better equipped than most teams to deal with Spain. Teams like France and Portugal play the same way as Spain, only worse, so they don't have much of a chance. England on the other hand, are used to having about 25% of the possession, regardless of who they're playing, and their style of route-one football actually works against Spain (who have a strong midfield but talentless, midget defenders) - if you saw the Spain-Croatia game, there were numerous Croatian goal kicks(!) finding their way to forwards and leading to good chances (which weren't taken unfortunately).
I'm expecting us to beat Italy, and then lose to Germany - most likely on penalties - because that's just what England do...
So far England seem to have been very efficient with their chances. Which to me is better than looking great going forward then missing all of your chances.
We have the 4th least amount of shots on goal but the joint 3rd highest goals scored. All with the 3rd least possession.
Sad for the English anyway - the Scots are probably celebrating.
Overall, I think it went about as well as could be expected really. It's pretty obvious Germany are going to be tournament winners now.
Anyway, on to the next - Wimbledon has just started, and you don't even have to like tennis to appreciate hotties in little dresses.
Err... you've pretty much missed it now - there's only one game left.
I'm amazed Germany lost, but on the plus side - we now just need Italy to beat Spain in the final, and then England will be the undisputed second best team in Europe (since we came closer than anyone to beating Italy, it's obvious that Spain/Germany/etc would have been no match for us).
Italy were the better team by far when they met Spain in the group stage (Spain were incredibly lucky to scrape a draw), so it's not unlikely at all.
And yeah, I'm glad Nadal's out too - he's a sore loser, a boring player to watch (this seems to be a theme with Spanish sportsmen) and he looks like a capybara.
The hardest team Germany had played before Italy was Portugal. They scraped a 1 - 0 win in that game. The Netherlands should have been but they were way off form in the tourney. They might have looked pretty passing the ball about against the liked of Greece but I think the Germans were overhyped right from the start.
Wouldn't say Germany was overhyped (though depends on which hype you listen to). They're fun to watch, but they sacrificing winning for more goals.
Actually not surprised Germany lost to Italy, I would've put like 5:4 odds on Italy winning that one, because Germany's style works best against attacking teams.
At least Spain ended this one with a bang, loved their no forwards tactic at the end.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Yep - but get ready for the official London Olympics thread, coming soon (I spared you a Wimbledon thread, largely due to the fact that Daniela Hantuchova was knocked out early, and it became obvious the ugly steroid junkie would win).
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