Isn’t UEFA expanding this mickey mouse tournament to 24 participating teams on 2016? Might as well invite Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil and call it the Little World Cup.
Let’s get it on indeed. Can’t wait for the tourney. I’m pulling for France, as usual in European competitions. I’ll probably watch every single match, as I try to do with the World Cup. Some early ones I highlighted in the group stage are:
Spain versus Italy (Sunday). That’s an early battle of titans.
France versus England (Monday). Nice classic rivalry.
Netherlands versus Germany (Wednesday). The heavyweight battle in the group of death.
Poland has a chance to come out of Group A. Ukraine has no chance to come out of Group D. Curious to see if Croatia will be a true dark horse or just the eternal pre-competition dark horse.
lol- Cani is awesome. It is a MM tournament in spite of my excitement.
England have one advantage compared with usual- low expectations. Murdoch’s gutter tabloid The Sun shot itself in the foot taking the piss out of Hodgson’s speech, already lining up the turnip-head fate of Graham Taylor. I don’t want England to win, cos of the inevitable flag-waving across the media (as if we’ve not had enough of that in UK already and the Olympics still to come) but i wish Hodgson well.
I’m hoping Wales will co-host 2020, with Republic of Ireland and Scotland. Who could begrudge the Celtic cousins?
Apparently, the Polish couldn’t even wait for an actual game to hurl racial abuse at black players. They showed up at a Dutch training session and started making monkey noises.
Yeah, i don’t know what’s going on in those countries. In UK there’s plenty of racism (and hatred/resentment of Eastern European immigrants, including lots of Poles but at football matches it’s been dealt with more firmly and much less common now. Football naturally has tribalism, and no doubt attracts nasty elements, but i’ve not heard of significant problems in American football with supporters (more the relative lack of black coaches, like black managers in British football)
There is no longer a problem of a lack of black coaches in football. Maybe college football, but not pro football. I think this racism thing is a few bad apples ruining it for the whole bunch. I’ve never been to Poland but I’d be willing to bet that there is no day-to-day racial problems that people live through. Still, it is sort of baffling to me. The fact is that a lot of these countries don’t have much diversity. Eastern Europe is fairly homogenous from country to country. So many of these people have never seen a black person up close in life. What I find stranger, and absurdly funny, is neo-Nazism thriving in countries where the Nazis rampaged and probably killed a lot of these guys grandparents.
Back to the sport. Russia sure unloaded a fury on the Czech Republic. Tough goalkeeping day for Peter Cech. Poland and Greece was a losers battle. Today was a good appetizer. I’m ready for some real matches this weekend.
Denmark just held off the Netherlands. Early surprise in the group of death. Hopefully Portugal beats Germany tonight to make things really interesting.
Good- fuck this dutch team. I’ve hated them since their cynical showing in the WC 2010 final.
DENMARK!
This German team should be the next great team. All the pieces are there. But they have no killer instinct.
Doesn’t seem like it. Portugal should have equalized in those final minutes. They had like five chances.
Spain and Italy draw even. I only got to watch the final 10 minutes of the match. Anyone notice anything interesting?
Croatia destroys Ireland 3 to 1. This group just got interesting. Ireland was way too soft on the back end. Looks like they enjoy playing around in front of their own goalie way too much. Really looking forward to seeing England and France tomorrow.
another tie game…
i really enjoyed the first half, but the second was pretty boring
I was looking for France to pull that one out. This Ukraine/Sweden match is pretty good. Ukraine is looking dangerous. I like them to win it.
England never beats Sweden. So they’re out. Ha!
With Ukraine in control, this group just got interesting. Looking forward to Poland/Russia tomorrow. That should be a nice battle.
Wow. Group A is looking excellent. It’s going to be a wild finish and all possibilities are in play. Greece can win and they’re in, because Russia looked kinda lethargic against Poland today. I like the way Poland is playing and I won’t be surprised if they beat the Czechs. Their spacing is good and they have a nice fluid attack. I think the home field advantage can push them through to the next round.
Hopefully Portugal beats Denmark and the Netherlands beat Germany tomorrow, to even Group B up and give it some drama.
Germany took decisive control of Group B today. But streaky Portugal finally woke up and showed their talent. They may make it through against a slumping Dutch team The surprise of the tournament so far has to be the Netherlands flaming out with 0 points. That’s what being in the group of death does for you. Bye-bye Dutch. See you in a couple of years in Brasil. Looking forward to Group C tomorrow. Will Croatia take control of the group against Italy and set up a top-flight battle against Spain?
Hmm. Still no takers on this thread. No one out there is interested in talking about the best football competition this side of the World Cup?
I’m following the tournament, or trying at least in between this busy week. I saw today’s matches, half of that entertaining Denmark-Portugal and the Germans against Clockwork Oranje match. Dunno what happened to the Dutch, quite a long way from the team who played solid during the qualifiers. Talking about a zombie-like performance by the midfield and overall mediocre defending, they’re lucky to concede only 2 goals. This made me nostalgic about the old days of Gullit, Van Basten, Bergkamp, Kluivert and co.
Tomorrow’s Croatia-Italy match will be exciting, the Italians should be forced to counterattack rather than sit in the back with their cattenacio. Also I would like to see Rep. of Ireland upset Spain.
I’m pretty sure Ireland doesn’t have the talent to upset Spain. Who knows. Maybe they can pull out a draw. That would make things very interesting.
I think one of the better matches from the first round (first 8 games) was Spain-Italy (game really picked up in the 2nd half), followed by Ukraine-Sweden. Both were fairly wide open with a fair number of chances. Denmark-Holland was also an exciting match to watch.
England-France was a dismal dull affair.
Also exciting to watch : Denmark-Portugal. The game could have gone either way.
Ronaldo continues in his role as the invisible man at the nt level.
Croatia pulled out the draw. Makes the group very interesting until the end.
alvaro robocop arbeloa. best nickname in the tournament
Even though Ireland flatlined Group C is still worth watching. Looking forward to that Croatia/Spain first-place battle. Italy is the wildcard. Will Ireland lay down and let them play havoc with the final standings?
Have no idea what to expect tomorrow in Group D. May turn out to be the most unpredictable and hotly-contested group in the tournament. Though Group A is sure to have quite the wild finish.
Well, well… England finally got over the hump and sent Sweden an early ticket home via a spinning back-heel nudge (tried and tested in practice, often difficult in real matches) by young Danny Wellbeck. It’s about time.
That was the best goal of the tournament so far. Maybe it gave England the spark it needed to make it out of the group. France is working on a nice streak of matches without a defeat, so I look for them to keep it going too.
Jerry Johnson
Let’s get it on.
My predictions:
Germany to take it.
Spain, with five world-class midfielders and nobody to score, to see their reign end.
England to crash out in the group stage.
France to stage a proletariat revolution against a Marxist coach.
Ronaldo to cry.
Polish and Ukrainian fans to throw bananas at Mario Balotelli.