Euro 2004

Now that everyone's played one game...

Italy, Portugal, Holland, Germany, Czech Rep, England, France all had poor performances.

Sweden were flattered by the score but played well, Greece put in a lot of effort, and Latvia were a little unlucky.

Who does that leave?

Spain.

Who are not going to win this, but are technically the best team at the moment.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]The Grim Reaper (a.k.a. Fenderek) wrote: [/QUOTENAME]
England...? Well, unfortunatelly they put their hopes onto Beckham, who is the most overrated player in the entire history of football... [/QUOTE]

In some way he is, but whoever says that Beckham is the most overated player in the world is because they have never heard of Freddie Adu.

They've been hailing this kid as the best thing since Maradona or Pele. I saw him play at the Under 17 Youth World Championship and although he's quite OK I don't see him being a whole lot better than the rest of the kids on the tournament. Seems to me like Nike is creating a major hype around this kid, and I feel sorry for him because if he doesn't live up to the expectations he'll end up being seen as a comple dissapointment.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=#CC0000>hangman wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Sonja: all the teams have both the flags on the shirt :)))
On this tournament, the official ball and the shirts of the teams are personalized with the flags of the opponents, the date and the stadium (I guess) where the game takes place.

Nice memorabilia, I say...

cheeeers![/QUOTE]

and why did they say that holland were wearing "special shirts"?
i didnt see a dutch flag on germany's shirts though.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=#CC0000>hangman wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Many compliments to Germany! They are far stronger than what I expected! Young players showed a great skill, especially on such a hard tournament.
Holland is what I thought: a very talented team which should be better... I really don't know which teams will qualify to next round, Czech is good as well!

I'm happy my dutch and german friends tied, finally :))
cheeeers![/QUOTE]
No way, if Germans wouldnt score that silly goal, they wouldnt have any advantage of playing at all. After that Duch just started playing nervous, but that is naturally, but time after time they raised their pressure on Germans and finally get their own way scoring fantastic and unbelievable goal - in the way only van Niestelroy can do.
HANGMAN - Italy is one of my favourites too, but I dont like Trapatoni's philosofy of playing and Trapatoni himself:):) He is too wary and dont like hazard at all. Besides italians always seemed to me playing too soft, maybe because they feel themselves to be more models than football players, dont know. Of course, we saw only one match of Italy, but as I remember, Italians, when they score first or they need tie, like to keep this result and herd together in defence. But, of course, the most terrible and destroying football can play German (esp we could see it in world cup of 2002 in Japan&SKorea and in qualifiers of Euro2004) - if they score first, it seems they find no sense to play at all, and try to keep this result. I wonder if Germans themselves like Rudi Voller and his philosophy of playing? On the other hand now they try to play more offensive football, but Holland played better and more catchy.
Oh, lucky Czechs, if Latvians had more experience of high level matches, they could even win. Personally I dont like Czechs. I think they too arrogant. I allways thought they just accidental reached Euro1996 final, and after that they began to think about themselves too good. But now they are one of the favourites to win again.

"Oh, lucky Czechs, if Latvians had more experience of high level matches, they could even win. Personally I dont like Czechs. I think they too arrogant. I allways thought they just accidental reached Euro1996 final, and after that they began to think about themselves too good."

Lucky Czechs? Excuse me but we had 28 shots in the game! That's more than I've ever seen in a match. In fact Latvia was extremely lucky (and they had a really good defense - most of the shots were blocked by the defence), only that explains that they didn't get 4-5 goals. I was happy with our play (and that happens scarcely).

I have never considered ourselves favorites. Euro 1996 WAS very lucky for us, we played defensive games and succeeded. But later our play significantly improved and we played two qualifications without losing a single match, we have beaten Italy, France, Netherlands, everybody.

Anyway, this is a group of death - Germany, Holland and the Czechs have exactly the same equal chances to qualify.

Well, I am happy with the 1-1 result yesterday. The Germans were better. They are stronger than I thought they would be. And like I said before, the weakest point of the Dutch is our coach. He does always the different the Dutch people wants him to. And so he did yesterday! And that's why he had to make three substitutions at half time. Every Dutch fan hates our arrogant coach.

Sonja, I do like to discuss this topic with a Brazilian (that’s better?) female.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Mr. Scully wrote:
Lucky Czechs? Excuse me but we had 28 shots in the game! That's more than I've ever seen in a match. In fact Latvia was extremely lucky (and they had a really good defense - most of the shots were blocked by the defence), only that explains that they didn't get 4-5 goals. I was happy with our play (and that happens scarcely).
[/QUOTE]
So, what does it prove if Czechs had for example 25 shots till 75 minute of the game and still losing 0-1? That their offence was still vain and worse than Latvians defence. And if you lose 0-1, what's the point you had 28 shots? The main thing is to prove your advantage with goals, and Latvians had a chance to keep this result, but made two mistakes and finally lost, what is objective after all.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]The Mir@cle wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Well, I am happy with the 1-1 result yesterday. The Germans were better. They are stronger than I thought they would be. And like I said before, the weakest point of the Dutch is our coach. He does always the different the Dutch people wants him to. And so he did yesterday! And that's why he had to make three substitutions at half time. Every Dutch fan hates our arrogant coach.
[/QUOTE]
Of course you may be happy with tie result (me too), and even maybe Germans played stronger than we could expect, but also you're wrong - Dutch were better:):):)

"So, what does it prove if Czechs had for example 25 shots till 75 minute of the game and still losing 0-1? That their offence was still vain and worse than Latvians defence."

Yes, maybe our offence was much less effective then their defence. But you can hardly call us "lucky" when we spent the whole match on their half and had so many shots. Out of 10 matches like this, Latvia would lose 9-10 of them with no doubt.

Dbl pst

Tonight Spain - Greece and Portugal - Russia... expectations??

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]The Mir@cle wrote: [/QUOTENAME]

Sonja, I do like to discuss this topic with a Brazilian (that’s better?) female.



[/QUOTE]

Aww... at least one! :-)
I just can't keep up with the knowledge of most the guys here, especially when the discussion is about past games and players.

But I've found out that Torsten Frings (who shot the goal for Germany yesterday) is really good looking.
;-)
I hadn't seen the guy before, I guess that shows how much I know about German football!

And tonight: I'd say Spain and Portugal!

Spain - Greece 2:1
Portugal - Russia 3:0

Yesterday I heard a lot of girls shouting that Ballack was awesome... Don't you share that opinion??

Portugal - Russia 2-0
Russia played very weak the first game. And Portugal is looking for revenche. But I don't count Portugal as a favorite anymore.

Spain - Greece 3-0
Spain played attractive the first match with two real wingers.. very Dutch! I like that, and that's why I hope they will win with three goals against null. Greece isn't strong enough to surprise Spain too.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=#CC0000>hangman wrote: [/QUOTENAME]themiracle: if you have at least an adsl connection, i can provide you a link to see european championship matches online, web streaming! it's very useful when i have to stay at work until night.

cheeers![/QUOTE]

I have a cable connection. If that works, I will be very grateful!