limey

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.

Spartak

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.

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limey

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

Spartak

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).

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limey

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.

Annabella

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

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limey

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.

Spartak

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.

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MahlerIsGod

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

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Casus Belli

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!

Jadedfox

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

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Casus Belli

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!

Jadedfox

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

--jaded

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limey

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.

Casus Belli

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.

lyxo

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

Jadedfox

Yeah Zenden was pretty bad/ineffective.

--jaded

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Sleepyjack

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

limey

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.

limey

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?

Pacifier

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

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limey

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

Jadedfox

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

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Spartak

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

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Jadedfox

He got a 3 game suspension. Yay Sweden!

--jaded

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limey

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

Casus Belli

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!

Jadedfox

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

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Casus Belli

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...

almostaugust

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

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MahlerIsGod

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.

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Spartak

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

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limey

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.

Jadedfox

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

Best. Photo. Ever.

Go Sweden!!!

--jaded

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Spartak

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.

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Casus Belli

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...

Spartak

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

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limey

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.

Das Eighty

Let's go Portugal!!!

Ace_O_Spades

Go ENGLAND!

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

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