Euro 2008 --> The Thread.

[cobl04]

Well howdy everyone, it has been decided we need a Euro 2008 thread.

Hosted by Austria and Switzerland, it begins in about 10 days (June 7) and I, frankly, am a bit excited cos I'm getting more into soccer.

Here in Oz, we're getting I think it's eight games free-to-air, which is terrific. My tip would have to be Italy, but as Greece proved last time you just never know.

Here are the pools, for more info go to UEFA Euro 2008 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pool One
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Portugal
Turkey

Pool Two
Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Pool Three
Holland
Italy
Romania
France

Pool Four
Greece
Sweden
Spain
Russia


My two questions are: are Cesc Fabregas or Adebayor playing, and has Zidane retired.

 

[intedomine]

Zidane is long gone, actually he's in Australia this week. Best player of all time? I think so.

Adebayor will never play Euro because he's Togolese, watch him at the African Cup Of Nations in 2010.

I assume Fabregas will be playing, Spanish gun he is.

This thread will be alimghty active in a week's time.

My tip for the title. Germany, always a safe bet and will be stoked with their group. Austria, according to some, the weakest qualifier for a Euro in a long time, and the unremarkable Poland. Croatia are guns though.

Switzerland will be a dark horse. Deserved to go further at the most recent World Cup. Tough group though.

France v Italy will be massive, these teams cannot stop drawing each other. If qualifying for Euro wasn't intense enough, now they're about to face each other at the tournament proper. This is a tremendous rivalry, particularly following on from that night in Berlin '06.

 

[1stepcloser]

COME ON HOLLAND!!! I'VE GOT £10 RIDING ON YOU!!!

 

[Zoots]

Futbol

As always I'll probably be rooting for Germany!

Anyway I gotta read up about the current teams first. I'm totally out of the loop since the World Cup!

 

[vaz02]

Pool One
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Portugal
Turkey

Pool Two
Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Pool Three
Holland
Italy
Romania
France

Pool Four
Greece
Sweden
Spain
Russia

My predictions for group winners and runners up. Im going for maybe Croatia or Russia for outsiders, This could be Spain's year with Villa and Torres leading the charge. Anyone but Portugal and i be happy, even Germany !

 

[DaveC]

Pool One
Portugal
Czech Rep
Turkey
Switzerland

Pool Two
Germany
Poland
Croatia
Austria

Pool Three
Holland
Italy
France
Romania

Pool Four
Spain
Sweden
Greece
Russia

Portugal 2 - Poland 1
Germany 3 - Czech Rep 0

Netherlands 1 (5-4 PK) - Sweden 1
Spain 3 - Italy 2

Germany 2 - Portugal 1 (A.E.T.)
Netherlands 2 - Spain 0

Netherlands 3 - Germany 1

None of this is actually going to come true, but it's worth a shot.

 

[Slipstream]

With England out(still feel ill we're not there) and the rest of the Home Countries I have no one to go for, so it's probably going to be Holland or Sweden.

Over here in Canada all the matches like usual will be televised by the two main public sport channels, so at least that's good.

Anyone but Portugal and i be happy, even Germany !

Oh I'm completely with you on that one!

 

[cobl04]

I'd happily support Italy, cos that's what I;m studying at school, but after what they did in the world cup that won't be possible.

Might go for Spain, otherwise underdogs. So hard to pick a country to support in these things.

 

[intedomine]

With England out(still feel ill we're not there) and the rest of the Home Countries I have no one to go for,


!

You're kidding, you're English and you'd support Scotland, Wales or Nth Ireland if they were in the tournament? I thought they'd be the few nations you'd hate more than anyone?!

 

[Aardvark747]

Come on Ronaldo!

 

[Slipstream]

You're kidding, you're English and you'd support Scotland, Wales or Nth Ireland if they were in the tournament? I thought they'd be the few nations you'd hate more than anyone?!

Half my family is from Scotland so it's a bit of a paradox. If England and/or Scotland are out then I would support the others, which doesn't happen very often. Not fun at times, but I'd rather support a Home Country than a team that's completely unconnected to myself. Makes sense. I'd really don't find this unconventional.

With that said, I'm a bigger supporter of England, which I have been since I was really young. My tattoo expresses this

 

[vaz02]

Mario Gomez and Germany to win 25/1 , £2 on that
David Villa and Spain to win 28/1, £2 on that

Not a lot but just enough to make the competition watchable without getting fustrated when they get knocked out.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

After the World Cup, no way I can support Italy (and my background is Italian ) so I might go for Poland. Or France. Or Greece. All their Eurovision entries were good....

 

[toscano]

Zidane is long gone, actually he's in Australia this week. Best player of all time? I think so.

Did you ever see a Cruyff or Pele in their prime ? He's not even the best French player of all time.

 

[toscano]

I'd happily support Italy, cos that's what I;m studying at school, but after what they did in the world cup that won't be possible

What did they do that was so wrong ? They scored the most goals. They allowed the fewest. They won the best game of the cup (semi vs. Germany) and didn't head butt anyone.

they won't this though. 2nd round maybe, that's about it. It helps that Cannavarro is gone though, he has been horrible since the world cup.

 

[intedomine]

What did they do that was so wrong ? They scored the most goals. They allowed the fewest. They won the best game of the cup (semi vs. Germany) and didn't head butt anyone.

they won't this though. 2nd round maybe, that's about it. It helps that Cannavarro is gone though, he has been horrible since the world cup.

COBL = Australian

For that reason, Italy have done a lot wrong (or not so much Italy, but that wretched Ref).

 

[intedomine]

Did you ever see a Cruyff or Pele in their prime ? He's not even the best French player of all time.

Cruyff was incredible, though I've only seen clips and replays of classic Dutch matches.

The whole obsession with Pele is more about the legend than the player himself. Not doubting his quality, but the praise mounted upon him seems to be a little over the top considering from what I've seen of other Brazilian guns (Garrincha, Socrates, Ronaldinho).

Zidane > Platini

Maradona, Cruyff, Zidane > Pele

IMHO

 

[cobl04]

What did they do that was so wrong ? They scored the most goals. They allowed the fewest. They won the best game of the cup (semi vs. Germany) and didn't head butt anyone.

they won't this though. 2nd round maybe, that's about it. It helps that Cannavarro is gone though, he has been horrible since the world cup.

COBL = Australian

For that reason, Italy have done a lot wrong (or not so much Italy, but that wretched Ref).

 

[toscano]

COBL = Australian

For that reason, Italy have done a lot wrong (or not so much Italy, but that wretched Ref).

Starting with the bogus sending off...........

 

[toscano]

Cruyff was incredible, though I've only seen clips and replays of classic Dutch matches.

The whole obsession with Pele is more about the legend than the player himself.

Did you see him play in his prime ? I did. Yes, unfortunately I'm that old. It was his latter top flight years (i.e, way before New York cosmos) but still he brought genius to the game which IMHO is surpassed only by Cruyff.

Socrates was excellent for a short while, Ronaldinho too, but nothing like the sustained level of excellence of the 15 years or so of Pele at the top of his game.

Zidane > Platini.

No way, again, did you see Platini in his prime ?

Maradona, Cruyff, Zidane > Pele

I'll only give you Cruyff on that one. Maradona was never consistent enough imho to warrant inclusion up there, but his 1986 goal against England I could watch forever and never tire of.

You can't judge these guys unless you've seen them play IMHO, and Idon't mean occasional clips, I mean entire tournaments, seasons over the years.

My Dad insists any "top 5" should include Puskas and Eusebio, but since I haven't actually seen much of them other than old TV clips I don't think i'm qualified to say.

 

[intedomine]

You can't judge these guys unless you've seen them play IMHO, and Idon't mean occasional clips, I mean entire tournaments, seasons over the years.

My Dad insists any "top 5" should include Puskas and Eusebio, but since I haven't actually seen much of them other than old TV clips I don't think i'm qualified to say.

Well, the best player for me is Zidane, no question about that. Clips I agree aren't enough to judge, and I'm Gen Y, so how am I supposed to say Pele is ahead of Zidane...

Puskas was supposed to be amazing, as was Russian keeper Lev Yashin, greatest of all time supposedly.

 

[ladywithspinninghead]

Footie

When my bf told me Cannavaro would be out and Buffoon would be the new captain I said "Oh! Another diving Italian I suppose?" and he's like "er, I hope so"
(then I remembered who Buffoon was )

I, too, am gutted England is out but perhaps it's better that way to save them the embarrassment.

I'm rooting for France

Is Zidane still coaching some lower-league team in France?

 

[achtung_girl]

I'm rooting for France

yeah, I made that decision today too! -since people don't stop asking me

 

[jimmmm]

Did you ever see a Cruyff or Pele in their prime ? He's not even the best French player of all time.

Never saw Pele in his prime, but saw Cruyff, & he was great as was Pele, Best, Maradona, Platini, Van Basten, & Gullitt, IMO, Zidane sits comfortably being compared to any of those.

 

[jimmmm]

^ Anyway, WTF am I doing on this thread!!!!!

 

[1stepcloser]

well i'm 22 and Zidane is almost certainly the best player i've seen since i started watching football. Perhaps Ronaldo (Brazilian), Maldini and Schmeichel run him close but i think Zidane is a true all time great. I won't comment on older players like Cruyff and Pele because at my age i'm not qualified to.

anyway come on Holland! although sadly i'm worried they won't even make it out of their own group, let alone win the damn tournament...

 

[Zoots]

yeah, I made that decision today too! -since people don't stop asking me

Did you say you're supporting France? Aren't you German?

 

[achtung_girl]

Did you say you're supporting France? Aren't you German?

um, yes you're right but I just can't stand losing

 

[Zoots]

um, yes you're right but I just can't stand losing

How is the German team this time? I was hoping to support them, my all-time favorite!

 

[achtung_girl]

^mhh, I don't think that it changed that much from the world cup team. But actually there are new players, like two or three I think! & we have an easy group to play...if they start good, they can go far ( like they did in 2006)! Ballack seems to be in a very good condition, what means he can drang along the younger players! I think semifinal is quite possible!