Euro 2004
 

Any predictions about this summer's Euro 2004 soccer tournement. There are the obvious favourites, ie: France, but they did so poorly in the last World Cup. Any of the top 10 teams have a legitimate chance with top countries like England, Italy and Germany all due to win a big one. And then there is Portugal who also have a great chance on their home soil. The first game kicks off on June 12th when Portugal plays the opening game against Greece.

Let me be the first one to point out that being a European tournament, it's only for European nations ;)

While France played badly at WC2002, they only conceded 1 goal in qualifying for Euro 2004.

That's true. They have only conceded 3 goals but they have a rather weak group, with Slovenia being their next strongest opponent.

Actually we are both wrong... they conceded two :) !

Other than France, I think Spain or Portugal could do something, if they don't choke like they usually do. The systematic defence-wins-championships Germans are a threat, England could be a threat if Owen hits form and they find a striker who can play well beside him (Defoe has been on fire for Spurs.. HINT HINT Sven).

Youy're right, only Israel and Cyprus have scored against France. It's a shame for England as Owen is struggling to regain form again and they don't really have any outstanding partners for him. Heskey seems to play better for England than her does for Liverpool but he never seems to dominate a game. And then there is Rooney who is capable of brilliance at times and still needs a little experience. Also with Ferdinand out it might shake up the defence a little. I just hope that they keep Danny Mills off the pitch as much as possible.

My guess is that Germany is going to win the cup..:

Now that the 1st round of games are over any predictions - observations? Englanf look as strong as anyone out there. They defended easily against the defending champs and had some flair up front.

Yeah but the poms lost 2-1 in spectacular fashion.

Group A is anyone's group right now, but tomorrow's games will sort that out. Whoever wins Russia/Portugal will advance with Spain.

Group B, France have to play Croatia next, and they are a pretty good team, with some firepower up front in the form of Prso and Olic, but France should at least get a draw. England have a must-win against Switzerland, if they can't beat Switzerland they deserve to go home frankly.

Group C, Sweden have still to negotiate around Italy and Denmark, but their better goal difference should see them out of the group. But any sort of good form from either Denmark or Italy would see them join Sweden.

Group D, Germany got a tough get out of the way first and were lucky to get a point. They don't look as good as they did 2 years ago, they defence is not as methodical and their offence is lacklustre. Although that #7 youngster (Schwarsteiger I think is his name?) played well of the bench in my opinion. Holland/Czech Rep will be an interesting match, whoever wins that will be advancing for sure.

Can't wait for the quarter finals, 3 draws is too many already.

First let me say: God Damn Zidane! May he rot in hell! Ok, that being said let me move on and say God Damn Zidane! Oh wait.......I was shocked and flabergasted on the game today between the Dutch and the Germans. The Dutch just looked dazed and confused (almost like my niece and nephwe, who are 5 and 7, playing football). When the Dutch didn't make the last World Cup, I had thought it was some kind of fluke. I remember some really outstanding games from previous WC's like '94 against Brazil in the semi's and in '98 in the quarters against Argentina. Those are classic games. Todays game was a crushing blow to Dutch football even though they tied with Germany 1-1 (Thank God for Ruud!). The thing that none of my friends brought up in discussion of this game was how didn't Germany capitalize on such monumental failure? I think it casts serious doubt on the German's abilities. My teams are England and Italy (and Holland). The England game was phenomonal until the last three minutes (God Damn Zidane) but that leaves them at the bottom of the bracket. England has a nasty habit of beating who they are supposed to lose to and losing to whom they should beat (hopefully the Iceland game disproves that) but I am guessing that they won't progress. That leaves my hopes with Italy but their first game was thoroughly unispired. Hopefully they will rise up against Sweden. I, personally, woudln't mind of Spain or Portugal won as long as its not France. Just my 2cents

I think the Germans were really peaking last night, and therein lies the problem. They cannot do very better than that. Holland, on the contrary, can (and must) perform way better than they did last night. The coach was changing line-ups constantly and that made the chaotic mess that you witnessed yesterday. But towards the end you could see more pression and better play by the dutch.

I surely hope they will grow into the tournament... because this is not how they are supposed to play!

Surely with the team France has there should be no stopping them.

But, I'll throw Sweden in there as an outsider dominating Bulgaria 5 - 0! Go Larsson!

--jaded

The Swedes... i just loved them against bulgaria. gotta love the english-style football... just banging the ball forward, and hope it gets picked up by some attackers. Not always effective, but highly entertaining!

Oh and on a side note. How come english fans/press always take a victory for granted and every loss is a shock? Beckham is WAY overrated, Owen is not in form, Heskey is a joke and the list goes on.

To be honest, England isn't that good...flame away ya hooligans :D

--jaded

That was Englands style of play maybe 15-20 years ago, but you only need to see their last game to see that they play a well organised and controlled game nowadays.
Watching the Holland game I was amazed to see how much they went to Overmars as their attacking option. Sure he was pretty good but he looked good in comparison to their other strikers. Surely Holland have a deeper attack than him.
And Germany really do have nothing up front, except, as mentioned by Spartak, their young #7. He was their only breath of fresh air.

Limey

credits go to you, England puts op pretty decent football nowadays. Nonetheless i can't describe the way those swedes played anything different than English. I guess i have the cliché branded on the inside of my forehead ;). I'm a sucker for dead-out rampage attacking tactics... much more fun to watch!

On the Dutch team: I think Overmars is a pretty good option for that position, especially because he is a very forward-oriented player that can cover a lot of meters into the opponents half. You could see the dutch play a lot deeper after he was put on the team. (but then again, they couldn't play less deep, either)

Schwarsteiger made a big impression on me btw. NEver heard of him, but i think we will see some nice action for him the next weeks.

BTW: I think Larsson will be the tournament's top scorer. Period.

holland is my team, go orange knights!

they should try to fit kluivert in

and play overmars instead of zenden, the team was so much better after that sub

Yeah Zenden was pretty bad/ineffective.

--jaded

They don't seem to be playing any free to air games here in Australia :(

That's brutal. Doesn't Australia have a decent soccer following. I know that there are a few stations that have bought the rights out here in Canada and our national sports station show all the games live. I feel for you.

I'm not a Holland fan or anything, but this thread can't go by without mentioning Ruud's goal against Germany. Un-fucking-believable;
* The ball looked to be slightly behind him when he hit
* He was 3 feet off the floor in a horizontal position
* Hit it on the volley
* Scored at the far right bottom corner
* Whilst be man-handled by German defender
How more difficult could this have been?

Germany played better last night that in all friendly matches before. the first half was very good. But still we lack a decent offensive.
But remember, germany is a championship team, we will become better with every match.
So I'm somewhat pleased with the last match, I expected worse. The 1-1 was a bit unlucky, we should have won ;)

Oh and don't forget. We have King Kahn :)

This is true. You can never count out the Germans. No matter how they play year to year.

This is brilliant. Totti will probably be suspended for at least 3 games for spitting on a Danish player. What a complete fucking tool. I love it, just in time for the game against Sweden!

A great picture of the incident can be found here:

http://expressen.se/expressen/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=147912

--jaded

He should be suspended for more than 3 games, imo.

He got a 3 game suspension. Yay Sweden!

--jaded

Nice link and a great picture. He deserves all of the punishment he gets. Wanker.

Good thing Totti has been suspended. I watched in disgust when he rammed needlessly against the knee of denmarks Rene Henriksen and got away with it. I really hated him for that!

I found an actual video of the incident as well. Pretty damn nasty stuff.

Check it out here:

http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=14324&a=222717

You'll need the crappy Real player.

--jaded

while you're at the spitting video's:

http://home.zonnet.nl/rlakerveld/videos2.html (windows media player)

its frank rijkaard spitting in rudi vollers hair at the EC 1992! I thought of that when watching Totti...

Yeah, im supporting germany- and so far they have looked ok.

What the hell is wrong with Italy? They should be walking away with these games because they certainly have the talent to do so? Are they suffering from "Laker Syndrome?" Too much individual talent and not enough team play? They played an excellent game today against Sweden. They controled the pitch for most of the game. Really it should have been 3 or 4 to 1 rather than 1 to 1. When will teams learn that you can't bunker if you are only up by 1? Personally, I think Italy will be much better off without Totti. I can't stand that guy so I don't think Italy will miss him much. What's wrong with Italy? Can they even advance now? Thanks

P.S. Bruce Arena please take note on the comment made above on the fact that you cannot bunker with a single goal lead. I realize that is your only tactic so it might time for something else.

Italy CAN still advance but the following needs to happen:

1. A win over Bulgaria, a draw won't do as it would put Italy on 3 points, while Denmark and Sweden are current on 4.

2. There must be a clear winner in the Sweden/Denmark fixture, which would leave the loser on 4 points and the victor on 7. Once beating Bulgaria Italy would have 5 points and will finish second in their group with the victor of Denmark/Sweden finishing first... OR... If there is a draw in Sweden/Denmark they will each have 5 points, (as will Italy by beating Bulgaria) then we go to tiebreakers. First tiebreaker is matches against each other, since Italy managed draws against both Sweden and Denmark, we move onto tiebreaker two which is goal difference (goals for minus goals against). Sweden has a goal difference of 5, Denmark of 2 and Italy of 0. Italy has to beat Bulgaria by at least two clear goals which would give Italy a goal difference of 2, but in the event of a 0-0 Swden/Denmark draw it would lead Denmark because it would have scored more goals at Euro 2004 (3 vs Denmark's 2). However if its a scoring draw, Italy would need to beat Bulgaria by 3 clear goals.

So basically... Italy moves on IF it beats Bulgaria AND there is a winner at Sweden/Denmark.

If there is a draw at Sweden/Denmark Italy moves on IF it beats Bulgaria by 2-3 goals depending on whether it's a goaless or scoring draw in the Sweden/Denmark fixture.

Hope that makes sense :crazy:

Vieri should have scored a hat-trick during that game. I always thought he was the most overated player on that squad. Cassano should have got the start ahead of him in both games they have played so far. He has the much needed spark that they seem to lack right now. Also, bad tactics taking him off when they did to go into the defensive mode (as mentioned by MahlerIsGod). They seemed to be playing well and Cassano deserved to stay on. Maybe now the infamous Italian defensive tactics will be seriously questioned.

http://expressen.se/expressen/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=148740

Best. Photo. Ever.

Go Sweden!!!

--jaded

Zlatan's goal = unbelievable

In other news, the Czech Republic came from 2-0 down to beat Holland 2-3, to qualify for the quarter finals! Now this makes things interesting for Germany and Holland. Holland have to play Latvia who are still in with a chance, but Germany play the already qualified Czechs who probably won't put up much of a fight.

Unbelievable game, czechs vs holland.. altough my team lost...:(

I simply cannot believe why the coach pulled out Robben.. he was clearly the star of the match..

grr...

I hope they replay that game on tv soon, I slept in today and missed it :(

Great game by the Czechs. They didn't sit back at all and really showed they have some creativity going forward into the last third of the field. Unbelievable set up and goal by Milan Baros. I agree with Casus Belli that they shouldn't have taken off Robben, he was having a great, if not decent game. You could tell that the Czechs were coming in waves and they were capable of anything. They are riding a huge high right now going into the next stage soon and then there's Holland with only one point in 2 games - that's gotta be a huge downer for them.

Let's go Portugal!!!

Go ENGLAND!

All they need is a point... lets go baby

Russia wins!!! :D :D :D

Spain goes home :eek:

Portugal and Greece advance :thumbsup:

Spain always go home. No shocker there.

Here are Spain's results in big championships since 1990:

World Cup 1990
Lost a penalty shootout in the first round to Yugoslavia.

Euro 1992
Didn't qualify. Huge fiasco, of course.

World Cup 1994
Favored to win the Cup, but lost to Italy in the quarterfinals. Another penalty shootout.

Euro 1996
Heavily favored to win again. Lost to England in the quarterfinals in a, you guessed it, penalty shootout.

World Cup 1998
Nigeria and Paraguay were too tough and Spain failed to advance from the group. The team was crucified in the Spanish press after this debacle.

Euro 2000
Heavily favored as always, and as always they choke. They lost to France in the quarterfinals.

World Cup 2002
Here we go again, heavily favored yada yada yada. Lost to South Korea (!!!) in the quarterfinals.

Euro 2004
Failed, as we all know, to advance from the group thanks to Portugal.

And after ALL this, how the hell can Spain EVER be favored to win ANYTHING?

I mean, even I picked them to win the whole thing after they played one game. I must get my head checked.

--jaded

W A Y N E     R O O N E Y !!!!!!
England go on to play Portugal on Thursday in the 1st quarter final game. They are looking so good now and are showing such depth in their attack with so many people able to score. Rooney is now Euros' leading scorer as England have now scored 7 goals in 2 games. Owen and Beckham have still yet to have good games but everyone else seems to be clicking on all cylinders -- even scholes.

Yeah, England go through. Rooney is looking very good too. I heard that England coach Erickson said that he is the most exciting thing since Pele. I wouldnt agree with this at all, but am keen to see if more of him play. I felt a bit sorry for Owen, who seems to be in he shadows a bit lately. This next game against Portugal is gonna be huge.

I would be very surprised if Michael Owen went through the whole tournament without getting one goal at least.

I know we are only one game away from getting knocked from now until the final, but I think he's getting better. He showed a bit more bite than previous games. Chucking himself into tackles, into the keeper even (!).

He's definitely under a bit of a Rooney sized shadow at the moment, but he's been there before and it won't affect his game.

COME ON ENGLAND !!!!!!!!!!!!

Owen is cfreating all the space and room for Rooney.

Italy crash out, and Denmark and Sweden go through.

Another disappointment for the Azzuri.

Ha Ha, Italy, Ha Ha.
Sorry but you have got to laugh, the only team in the tournements history to go out in the first stage with 5 points. That will teach them to be so negative - next time score some goals lads, like England do all the time.

Italy bow out. I cant fathom it being a rigged results between the vikings though. It was a pretty exciting match.

Italy really looked terrible this tourne. They looked like they had no idea around the box. Vieri was a nightmare and Cassano had a decent tournout but still failed in comparison to his league form. Buffon had the better performance out of the whole team and it's sad when your goalie has to play better than the rest of your team. Ciao bella.

I reckon the Czech Republic will get to the final where upon they will come up against the French. France will go on to win the championships 2-1 although I would like to see the Czechs hoist the silverware.
On another note, I think Rooney is way over-rated. Yes, he is in excellent form at the moment but the event is only half-completed. I think it's too premature to say that he is Player of the Championships as many have already quipped him as being.

The only reason "they" are praising Rooney is because "they" are the English media who always tend to blow everything out of proportion.

For my money the player of the tournament is the fearless captain, Mr Zidane.

What's wrong with singing Rooney's praises when he's done so well? I fail to see how you can call the guy over-rated when he's younger than most people here, representing his country, scoring goals and making seasoned and respected veterans of the game look pale by comparison.

The guy deserves all the praise he gets, anyone who says otherwise clearly hasn't seen the guy play.

Yeah but when you have people calling him "the next Pele", its just like what the hell.

We'll see how he goes against Portugal :thumbsup:

Yeah the next Pele may be a bit of an overstatement, but the guy has talent that's for sure. But who cares, right now it's all about Sweden and Denmark!!!

--jaded

I think the main reason that he is being compared to Pele because Pele was the only other 18 year old that made an impact on the international stage.

Hey forget Rooney, Ballack just scored FOR THE HUNS!!!!!! (nearly broke the net too) I hope they get through to the finals.

Buh bye Germany. If you can't beat a second string Czech side, you don't desrve to advance.

pretty cool results thus far--germany gone, italy gone...

the french still look a bit flat--let's see how the greece match goes. i still think they are in a good position to take it all, but this will probably end up reading like the earlier predictions about germany on this thread.....

Im sad about no germany in the finals. But i reckon that Czech team is gonna take some scalps.

Now the heads are rolling after the failures of certain teams ... Voller, Saez, and most probably, Trapattoni next in line.

I think those team managers/coaches that did a crap job should shoulder the blame ... but not all of it. With due respect, many of the players themselves simple didn't deliver. I mean, I have supported the Italian team for many years but frankly, they got what they deserved.

The Italian soccer assoc. are contemplating whether they should launch an official complaint to UEFA to investigate whether the Sweden-Denmark game was rigged so that they would both go through and eliminate Italy.
Here are my thoughts on this;

1. The Italians must take the responsibility of the fact that they played below par the whole tournement allowing their destiny to be put down to another final game.
2. You only have to had seen the Sweden vs Denmark game to know that it was a hard fought game and that the final score was the outcome of this alone.
3. Sure the Sweden and Denamrk players killed the game at the end but that was for the final 30 SECONDS. This was not a conspiracy it was just common sense knowing that the result as it stood would take them both through.
4. The Italians did this same tactic for 7 MINUTES 2 years ago during their World Cup match between them and Mexico - was this a conspiracy too?? No - it's just common sense that you play like that at that stage of the game.

I love the Italians but this a rather pathectic atempt on their behalf to shift the blame. They had another performance all round.
They have only won 3 games out of the last 10 games played against European teams and the teams that they beat were of a low class.
Ciao Trapattoni.

Shocking really that England loses on PK's because that never happens. I bet you couldn't recall the last time that happened. Add to that that Beckham missed a PK because that really never happens especially in the big games. Wow, what is the world coming to...................To quote Homer Simpson, "In case you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic!" I guess I am stuck rooting for the Czech's.

I don't want to sound like a bitter person, but I am going to anyway!

England were stuffed by a referee who lost his bottle at the crucial moments. To quote pundit Ian Wright 'the ref was a homer' and I don't mean Mr. Simpson!

It was asking a lot to protect a 1-0 lead from the 3rd minute onwards. You could always see Portugal scoring at some point, but to go that long and keep them at bay was agonising to watch. I thought it was all but over when they finally did equalise, they just looked so much stronger than us. And then for Sol Campbell to get the 'winner' in the dying minutes seemed almost too good to be true. Oh, hang on, it was too good to be true! Thanks ref!!!!

Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell had an outstanding game, Cole in particular. Beckham and Co. in the midfield were practically invisible. You can have Stevie G Mr. Abramovich if he's going to play like that!

Right I've got that off my chest, I think I'm going to root for the Czech's for the rest of the tournament!

Come on Baros....pretend you're wearing a red shirt!

uh fatboss,

the reason the goal was disallowed at the end was because one of England's players had his arms all over the goalie to prevent him from even trying to block the shot. right call by referee

*Let's see that again in Slow Motion*

It was actually John Terry that was being climbed over by Sol Campbell, the goalie was simply trying to get to the ball and not being very successful;)

I'm not bitter, really............no really I'm not :rolleyes:

Was that THE Ian Wright ?

Playing for the shootout is the stupidest thing Sven could have done.

You know that Shaun Wrigh-Philips (a gun player IMPO) and ian are related. They even played together for a very short spell possibly (i read somewhere).

I don't think for a second that the England team played for the shootout. It's obvious that they were trying to win the game on the field.
View your feelings to ward the ref here:
http://www.ursmeier.ch/referee/ref60.html

This is a cool site from the BBC that shows a computer version of the major England plays from the game;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualreplay/e...ex.shtml?25002

Beckham has now missed the last 3 penalties;
Turkey / France / Portugal. I am a huge Beckham fan but he had a hugely disappointing tournement. As mentioned before Steve Gerard had a great outing apart from the all important last game against Portugal. I wonder if England would have looked a little sharper if they had the extra days rest as Portugal had.

http://www.thomasscott.net/flash/beckham/

Unfortunately, the game appears to be pretty accurate.

france is out.
they never got on track....greece deserved the win fully. am still a little shocked. and of course was wrong in my prediction that france would repeat.

btw, allow me to complain about the television monopoly being exercized on these games in the states--20 bucks a head to watch the fucking matches in a pub--in philly, there are maybe three places..miserable situation....

I think Shaun is his son. Because I remember he nearly got into a fight with somebody at a Manchester City game because the guy was shouting racial abuse at Shaun.

Santini, deserves so much of the blame for France's exit. By not playing Henry AND Pires on the left, he broke up a duo that notched up 44 combined goals in the premiership.

Yepper, Shaun is his son.
Pretty funny web site regarding Beckham's penalty. I've had 3 Beckham related emails today only regarding his penalty taking and I'm sure there's gonna be tons more.

i've been watching the Euro Cup 2K4 from the only pub in town that bought the package for all the games (just found out about this pub, and it's the only futból centric pub in this town, and I love it!!).

My friend and I were the only ones cheering for Portugal in the Porto vs. England match, and we were only cheering for them, because Spain was out of the running.

I've been enjoying Czech's games, and their knack for putting the ball in the back of the net when they get an opportunity.

I would like to see Portugal vs Czech in the Finals, and I'll cheer for Porto all the way.

Too bad my faves Italy and Spain didn't advance :(

I do enjoy being able to watch my futból with bunches of other cheering fans, rather than having people look at me funny when I start clapping at a good play, or yell "Look at that dive!!" when someone fakes an injury. Let's hear it for REAL futból fans!!!

Gonna happen tomorrow. With the way the Czechs are playing I see them beating Greece... then Portugal to claim their Euro 2004 crown :thumbsup:

WOOOH, Go PORTO!!!

I picked Germany ha ha. they long gone. i wish i had picked Czech rep usually do good in tournaments. too late now.

It's gonna be a great game between the Czechs and the Greeks. The Greek defence is really quite something to see. They almost set up 2 defensive walls in and around their penalty area. They are extremely organized.

wow--this i would never had anticipated: portugal-greece in the finals????

damn....who are folk picking? i have the feeling it'll be greece.

I'm sticking with Portugal!

You gotta go with Greece just because their defence has been the best in the tourne. Also they have proven that they can beat Portugal. All in all a good final - Portugal have something to prove against Greece and they are playing in front of their home fans. Greec are the minos and have nothing to lose.

Athens is burning.

FYI.

interesting, who'da thunk it

the first half was a snoozer, but the second half made up for it.

Bastards - I had Portugal in our office sweep stake, and I was so confident that they would win I agreed winner takes all with the guy who had Greece. I could have done with that £50 as well.

Greece beat the hosts (twice), the holders (and best team in the tournemount), and the team in the best form... they have no stars, but no one could argue they didnt deserve it.

The way Portugal struggled past a poor England side, I was never convinced they could go all the way. Greece have shown what you can do with a team of solid players, a good coach, and people who want to play for each other. Congratulations to them!

Hellas! Hellas!

Wow! Talk about an underdog. These guys had done nothing in international competition previously.

Good for them.

fUCK YES!