Any of you guys follow the European Football championship that started today? This event is held every 4 years in between World Cups and this year's edition is co-hosted by 2 countries that are very popular in these forums, Poland and Ukraine. This thread will be about the actuall football tournament and the matches.
So any footie hard core fans in here? Who are you cheering for?
The first 2 games today saw Poland and Greece tied at 1-1. I was expecting the Poles to win this one comfortably specially after their very promising first half where they could have scored 2-3 easily but managed only 1. In the 2nd half, despite a red card, Greece managed to not only tie it but almost won it after they missed a penalty.
In the 2nd game, the Ruskies crashed the Czechs 4-1. I expected the Russians to be strong but not that strong and I was thoroughly dissapointed by the Czechs, who are usually very hard to break down and quite tricky to play. The Ruskies just consolidated their tag as the fav of a rather weak group A where unless a catastrophy, they should cruise in their 2 remaining games.
Tomorrow, we'll the games of what is considered the group of death, Group B, the toughest group with Germany, Holland, Portugal and Denmark. Germany and Holland are head and shoulders the class acts of this group and 2 of the 3 heaviest favorites to win it this year, with Spain.
Portugal has a good team but I don't see them competing with the likes of Holland and Germany where they will be overpowered. Portugal does have the talent and players to get out of this group but they'd need to play 3 perfect games and need to have Cristiano do what he has yet to do: deliver at an international tournament for Portugal.
Sunday, we'll have Group C's games where Spain, the defending World and European champs, along side Croatia and Ireland. Spain look untouchable while the Italians are always a mystery. They're being hunted by the yet again corruption/match fixing scandal in the Italian league. They have some interesting and good players but are far from the great Italian teams of the past. They'd have to battle hard with the Croats to fight for the 2nd spot in the group behind the mighty Spaniards.
Finally, monday sees my team France get on the always overrated English team. We have a good team, a good bunch of players, a strong attack, but defensively, there's a question mark, specially with that clown of Mexes who is more of a liability than anything. After a disastrous campaign 2 years ago in the World Cup in South Africa, we've been having again a competent coach with Laurent Blanc who has rejuvenated the team and it looks he's on the right track. We haven't lost in 21 games going back to Sept 2010. In the process we've beaten the English at Wembley in Nov 2010, Brasil in Feb 2011 in Paris and beaten mighty Germany in Germany this year in Feb. Mind you all were friendly games but they're a good indication of a team's strength. Monday, the first game against England will be huge. We need to win this game to start on the right foot and take off some of the pressure off of us. Sweden and Ukraine are the other 2 teams in Group D with France and England.
It's going to be 3 weeks of great football. A European Championship is much harder and demanding than a World Cup in that the Euro has no weak team as it's always the case in the World Cup where the real World Cup starts only from the 1/4 finals where the big guns are left. A lot of top players who have played in both the Euro and World Cup have said numerous times than the Euro is harder to play and to win than a World Cup and I totally agree with them. While a World Cup is more exotic and colorful, a European Championship is more intense from Game 1 as there are no banana teams in a Euro.
The only concern that might put a damp on this tournament is the real thread of racism and racist chants during the matchs in Poland and some parts of Ukraine. The Dutch players were greeted with monkey sounds during a practice and their captain, Mark Van Bommel has said that if they hear any monkey chants during the match, he'll go to the ref to ask him to stop the match. Italy's hot heated eccentric black forward, Mario Balotelli has also threatened to leave the field if he were to hear any monkey sounds during the match. Sol Campbell for former England defender has also warned the black/indian and other non white English fans to remain at home and not go to Ukraine/Poland in fear of racist chants/violent behaviour from the racists/punks in Poland and Ukraine. So this is a serious and real threat, let's hope it's not going to taint the tournament.
The bookmaker's favorites to win the tournamet are:
1) Spain
2) Germany
3) Holland
4) France
And these are also my pick for the top 4 teams to reach the semi-finals and from there, anything can happen. An injury to a key player, a sending off, a crucial ref decision going for you or against you or a team peaking at the right time so anything can happen from the 1/2 finals onward. Of course, as a Frenchie, I'll be 1000% for my team. And to be honest and realistic, I don't see us winning it this year, but I'd be delighted to be positively surprised.
Germany look mighty strong as always, but this year's team, despite being the youngest team in the tournament, is filled with talent, specially in midfield. Spain, the other mega favorites, are a bit weakened by the absence of 2 pillars in the likes of Puyol and Villa, the 2 Barcelona players who are injured. Holland have a phenomenal fire power with the likes of Van Persie, Huntelaar, Robben, Van der Vaart etc...All in all, it's going to be a great 3 weeks of top class football and I can't wait to watch some of these mouth watering matches!
So any footie hard core fans in here? Who are you cheering for?
The first 2 games today saw Poland and Greece tied at 1-1. I was expecting the Poles to win this one comfortably specially after their very promising first half where they could have scored 2-3 easily but managed only 1. In the 2nd half, despite a red card, Greece managed to not only tie it but almost won it after they missed a penalty.
In the 2nd game, the Ruskies crashed the Czechs 4-1. I expected the Russians to be strong but not that strong and I was thoroughly dissapointed by the Czechs, who are usually very hard to break down and quite tricky to play. The Ruskies just consolidated their tag as the fav of a rather weak group A where unless a catastrophy, they should cruise in their 2 remaining games.
Tomorrow, we'll the games of what is considered the group of death, Group B, the toughest group with Germany, Holland, Portugal and Denmark. Germany and Holland are head and shoulders the class acts of this group and 2 of the 3 heaviest favorites to win it this year, with Spain.
Portugal has a good team but I don't see them competing with the likes of Holland and Germany where they will be overpowered. Portugal does have the talent and players to get out of this group but they'd need to play 3 perfect games and need to have Cristiano do what he has yet to do: deliver at an international tournament for Portugal.
Sunday, we'll have Group C's games where Spain, the defending World and European champs, along side Croatia and Ireland. Spain look untouchable while the Italians are always a mystery. They're being hunted by the yet again corruption/match fixing scandal in the Italian league. They have some interesting and good players but are far from the great Italian teams of the past. They'd have to battle hard with the Croats to fight for the 2nd spot in the group behind the mighty Spaniards.
Finally, monday sees my team France get on the always overrated English team. We have a good team, a good bunch of players, a strong attack, but defensively, there's a question mark, specially with that clown of Mexes who is more of a liability than anything. After a disastrous campaign 2 years ago in the World Cup in South Africa, we've been having again a competent coach with Laurent Blanc who has rejuvenated the team and it looks he's on the right track. We haven't lost in 21 games going back to Sept 2010. In the process we've beaten the English at Wembley in Nov 2010, Brasil in Feb 2011 in Paris and beaten mighty Germany in Germany this year in Feb. Mind you all were friendly games but they're a good indication of a team's strength. Monday, the first game against England will be huge. We need to win this game to start on the right foot and take off some of the pressure off of us. Sweden and Ukraine are the other 2 teams in Group D with France and England.
It's going to be 3 weeks of great football. A European Championship is much harder and demanding than a World Cup in that the Euro has no weak team as it's always the case in the World Cup where the real World Cup starts only from the 1/4 finals where the big guns are left. A lot of top players who have played in both the Euro and World Cup have said numerous times than the Euro is harder to play and to win than a World Cup and I totally agree with them. While a World Cup is more exotic and colorful, a European Championship is more intense from Game 1 as there are no banana teams in a Euro.
The only concern that might put a damp on this tournament is the real thread of racism and racist chants during the matchs in Poland and some parts of Ukraine. The Dutch players were greeted with monkey sounds during a practice and their captain, Mark Van Bommel has said that if they hear any monkey chants during the match, he'll go to the ref to ask him to stop the match. Italy's hot heated eccentric black forward, Mario Balotelli has also threatened to leave the field if he were to hear any monkey sounds during the match. Sol Campbell for former England defender has also warned the black/indian and other non white English fans to remain at home and not go to Ukraine/Poland in fear of racist chants/violent behaviour from the racists/punks in Poland and Ukraine. So this is a serious and real threat, let's hope it's not going to taint the tournament.
The bookmaker's favorites to win the tournamet are:
1) Spain
2) Germany
3) Holland
4) France
And these are also my pick for the top 4 teams to reach the semi-finals and from there, anything can happen. An injury to a key player, a sending off, a crucial ref decision going for you or against you or a team peaking at the right time so anything can happen from the 1/2 finals onward. Of course, as a Frenchie, I'll be 1000% for my team. And to be honest and realistic, I don't see us winning it this year, but I'd be delighted to be positively surprised.
Germany look mighty strong as always, but this year's team, despite being the youngest team in the tournament, is filled with talent, specially in midfield. Spain, the other mega favorites, are a bit weakened by the absence of 2 pillars in the likes of Puyol and Villa, the 2 Barcelona players who are injured. Holland have a phenomenal fire power with the likes of Van Persie, Huntelaar, Robben, Van der Vaart etc...All in all, it's going to be a great 3 weeks of top class football and I can't wait to watch some of these mouth watering matches!
![[Image: heart.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/heart.gif)