Heartland

okay so for those of you who are interested, EURO 2008 is starting June 7. Time to get out to the beer gardens and cheer for your team
(or like me, try to get home from work and watch at least some of it in front of the TV).

any comments or thoughts? what do you think how Greece will do as the holders of the cup?

Group C is a f**king killer I can't believe that draw and on top of everything the Netherlands is playing Italy right away.
I do cheer for Italy, it's in the family, I grew up favoring them. Here are some of the best players that will be participating:

Gianluigi Buffon
Fabio Cannavaro
Marco Materazzi
Gianluca Zambrotta
Mauro Camoranesi (born in Argentina, nuff said)
Daniele De Rossi
Gennaro Gattuso (clears the field for the forwards very nicely)
Andrea Pirlo (damn he is old, but the he can score the hell out of a game)
Luca Toni (We shall hear Stig screaming her ass off for him)
Antonio Cassano
Alessandro Del Piero (another oldie)

As far as the Dutch go, I don't know them as well, interesting fact that Seedorf is not playing in the tournament. We just saw Edwin van der Sar win the champions league with Man U, and van Bronckhorst can be amazing. I don't even know is he still playing in Barca? I can't really stand Ruud van Nistelrooy (just my opinion) and Robben should do interesting things,he is very fast.

I am really looking forward to that match.

Concerning the French, just to mention a couple of names:
Philippe Mexès (playing in Roma)
Lilian Thuram
Claude Makelele
Franck Ribéry
Patrick Vieira (yes still around, the Arsenal midfielder for a long time)
Nicolas Anelka
Djibril Cissé
Thierry Henry (no need to add anything here)

well after the world cup I am sure the want to achieve a lot and the fact that they are in the same group with Italy is not helping. heh

just to mention a couple of teams...

anyhow I have no clue who will win the championship, especialy with what happenned four years ago, I just can't guess

here is the schedule:

Saturday 7 June 2008
1 Grp A Switzerland vs Czech Republic: 0-1
2 Grp A Portugal vs Turkey: 2-0

Sunday 8 June 2008
3 Grp B Austria vs Croatia: 0-1
4 Grp B Germany vs Poland: 2-0

Monday 9 June 2008
5 Grp C Romania vs France: 0-0
6 Grp C Netherlands vs Italy: 3-0

Tuesday 10 June 2008
7 Grp D Spain vs Russia:4-1
8 Grp D Greece vs Sweden: 0-2

Wednesday 11 June 2008
9 Grp A Czech Republic vs Portugal:1-3
10 Grp A Switzerland vs Turkey:1-2

Thursday 12 June 2008
11 Grp B Croatia vs Germany:2-1
12 Grp B Austria vs Poland: 1-1

Friday 13 June 2008
13 Grp C Italy vs Romania:1-1
14 Grp C Netherlands vs France: 4-1

Saturday 14 June 2008
15 Grp D Sweden vs Spain: 1-2
16 Grp D Greece vs Russia:0-1

Sunday 15 June 2008
17 Grp A Switzerland vs Portugal: 2-0
18 Grp A Turkey vs Czech Republic:3-2

Monday 16 June 2008
19 Grp B Poland vs Croatia:0-1
20 Grp B Austria vs Germany:0-1

Tuesday 17 June 2008
21 Grp C Netherlands vs Romania: 2-0
22 Grp C France vs Italy: 0-2

Wednesday 18 June 2008
23 Grp D Greece vs Spain:1-2
24 Grp D Russia vs Sweden Innsbruck: 2-0

depending on who is playing the semi-final on June 25, I might have to skip the Paradise Lost gig here:)

Thursday 19 June 2008
25 QF Portugal 20:45 Germany:2-3

Friday 20 June 2008
26 QF Croatia 20:45 TUrkey:2-3

Saturday 21 June 2008
27 QF The Netherlands 20:45 Russia:1-3

Sunday 22 June 2008
28 QF Spain 20:45 Italy: 4-3

Wednesday 25 June 2008
29 SF Germany20:45 Turkey :3-2

Thursday 26 June 2008
30 SF Russia 20:45 Spain :0-3

Sunday 29 June 2008
31 F Germany 20:45 Spain:0-1

Well, I'm Dutch and Group C is the toughest one indeed.
It will be hard to reach the second stage.
Van Bronckhorst is playing for Feyenoord Rotterdam these days.
He's a bit over the top but has still value for the Dutch.
Our best player certainly is Robin van Persie. But also Sneijder, Van der Vaart and Huntelaar belong to our finest.
Unfortunately we have a coach that suçks. Van Bommel and Seedorf certainly belong to our best but are not joining.

If we won't make it; I am going for Guus with Mother Russia.

now that's a handy list - can you fill in kick off times as well?
ta.

my team : Czech Republic

Poland could be a good bet though

Group A: a dark horse prediction: Turkey to win the group, Portugal qualify.
Group B: Germany and Croatia.
Group C: I can see France failing to qualify and Italy and the Netherlands going through.
Group D is tricky. Probably Spain and Russia.

Overall tournament winners? Portugal I reckon.

you are right Portugal is looking good, Scolari is excellent and might lead them to win, enough to mention Carvalho, Deco, Nuno Gomez and Ronaldo. Ronaldo is on top anyhow

and then the Czech Republic. would be good to see them in the top, but they were favorite 4 years ago and not now. also Nedved out, I don't remember how Milan Baros has been doing lately. Jan Kollar just needs to score a couple here and there..talking about effective clumsyness:) with all due respect of course

I will fill the scores in yes.

sad to admit I do not know the Turkish nor the Romanian team.

as a sidenote, Hungary just beat Greece in a friendly..and our under 19 team has qualified..so yay

Portugal misses great "goleador" as other teams have, but they play very well

Poland will win this cup.



coat

Well, I shall be supporting Holland as it's my favourite country and I know some nice people from there.

I agree Portugal do look like favourites though....

Go Total Football Go!!!!

Call me a Parkey if you want, but don't you have dedicated playgrounds to kick your balls around in?

Hom_Corleone wrote:Well, I shall be supporting Holland as it's my favourite country and I know some nice people from there.

heh my man is Dutch so I will have a hard time with favoring Italy.

psichonaut wrote:Portugal misses great "goleador" as other teams have, but they play very well

Erm. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a couple this season...

Hom_Corleone wrote:Well, I shall be supporting Holland as it's my favourite country and I know some nice people from there.

because England dropped in qualification i will support Holland srly ! i always had a hard time with choosing between England and Holland, usually it was changing Team if any of them dropped in meantime.

markfiend wrote:

psichonaut wrote:Portugal misses great "goleador" as other teams have, but they play very well

Erm. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a couple this season...

especially in Moscow

Am hoping for a Holland v Portugal rematch

Sorry - was there something going on in Europe this summer.. ?

Almiche V wrote:Am hoping for a Holland v Portugal rematch

I would quite like that as well!

http://www.kicktipp.de/poisondoor/?language=en

According to The Guardian 96.2% out of 48,000 British votes support the Dutch team on the tournament!

Nice....

i heard sth. about mass supporting of polish team by Britons... tv

I chose Romania, the only reason:

http://www.the-onion-bag.com/euro2008/100yards.php


otherwise it would be the Dutch everytime.

the-happening wrote:I chose Romania, the only reason:

http://www.the-onion-bag.com/euro2008/100yards.php


otherwise it would be the Dutch everytime.

Looks like it's Turkey for me.

I'd like the Czechs to win!
Our PT team is overconfident and the best players were gone in the last years. It will be a luck if they can even pass the first phase.

Having to expect armies of morons driving up and down our street yelling and shouting and honking already makes me want to barf.

Required arms for revenge:
-The liquid from a can of Surströming
-One Supersoaker

Croatia for me, I liked their attitude at Wembley - and Kranjcar's a good player. Not that I'm biased