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Post by Colonel John Matrix on Jun 7, 2008 4:05:11 GMT -5
Well, it's all kicking off this evening but there's no teams from the British Isles going this year. I'm used to Scotland not attending the major tournaments these days, but I'm a bit lost without my other team to support (that being the team England is playing ). I'll be supporting the Dutch again, since I lived there for a while and caught a few football matches at the Philips Stadion. I don't think they'll win though...my head says France. Player to watch out for? - Marius Niclaue, Romanian striker who plays for the Scottish Premier League superpower Inverness Caledonian Thistle
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Post by milo on Jun 7, 2008 6:52:41 GMT -5
I have a feeling,that Portugal is gonna win it this year. Germany could do it too,if they play the same way when Klinsman was coaching them.
Still,I choose Portugal
Edit:
Nice start from Portugal and it was a great game as well. Ronaldo played damn well,shame that he didn't get the goal
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Post by CaptainFreedom on Jun 8, 2008 9:57:11 GMT -5
Agree Milo, Ronaldo was all over the place, and deserved a goal, but the most important thing was, he played not for himself, but for his team. Back in 2004 he was only 19, but didn't pass the ball when he should, and that frustrated his team mates, and in in World Cup 2006 he was more famous for the "Rooney-Carvalho" incident, than his fotball talent. Now hes older, and hopefully he will produce fotball quality's as he has done the last 2 years for Manchester United.
I hoped Portugal would beat the Turks, as they crushed Norways chances at getting a place in the Euro 2008. Nani came also in and impressed me, lucky bastard though, a Turk defender almost broke his leg right off, should been thrown out of the competition.
I think France have a strong young and hungry team. Players like Evra, Ribery and Benzama will give big problems to any opponent, and Vieira and Henry still can produce some magic in their roles as veterans.
But Netherlands are my favorites, they always has a strong team, with great attackers, but the 2 last competition they haven't really gotten the best of out them. Van Nistelrooy is still world class, and with players like Huntelaar, Sneijder, Robben and Van Persie, they could produce fotball as Netherlands played back when Van Basten dominated, or as World Cup 1998.
Their defence is maybe their only weakness, so they need to score lots of goals, and Van Van Der Saar looks better than ever. Still hungry to win more trophies.
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Post by Chainmail Vest on Jun 8, 2008 14:49:10 GMT -5
I quite fancy Germany to win it, because they're so solid and with them not having to face Italy, France, Holland and Spain until the final they should really blast it, and i'd fancy them to get past Portugal with an efficient, disciplined display and probably another immaculate penalty shootout performance...
I'm not going for anyone from the group of death because any one of the three favourites in there could go out after 3 games.
My outside bets are Croatia, and if Eduardos leg hadn't disintegrated then i'd back them more, and Russia for the Hiddink factor.
I will be supporting the Czechs though as always. 'Mon the Czechs.
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Post by milo on Jun 9, 2008 4:10:27 GMT -5
Agree Milo, Ronaldo was all over the place, and deserved a goal, but the most important thing was, he played not for himself, but for his team. Back in 2004 he was only 19, but didn't pass the ball when he should, and that frustrated his team mates, and in in World Cup 2006 he was more famous for the "Rooney-Carvalho" incident, than his fotball talent. Now hes older, and hopefully he will produce fotball quality's as he has done the last 2 years for Manchester United. Yeah,I was impressed by his performance.Like you said,he played for his team,not for himself. If he continues to play like that and the rest of the team plays great,I can see Portugal in the finals. Germany was impressive in last nights game. They played great in both ends and Poland didn't really had a chance against Germany. I hope The Netherlands wins tonight against Italy
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Post by Lord Chenney on Jun 9, 2008 5:45:29 GMT -5
teams that start off well at these tournaments always end up out of it before you know it, usually on penalties. that said, i think portugal will do well, provided they can beat the germans. a draw wont be good enough given the german's form in shootouts. but i think it will be one of those teams.
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Post by Colonel John Matrix on Jun 9, 2008 5:46:41 GMT -5
Netherlands are my favorites...Their defence is maybe their only weakness, so they need to score lots of goals. Buuuhlshit! - in fact, they conceded the least goals of any team that qualified, and also scored the least goals of any team that qualified! Seems a bit odd that fact though, given that on paper they seem much much stronger in attack than in defence... Apparantly Sneijder and Van Persie have been rumoured to keeping up the Dutch tradition of in-fighting For the record, before the tournament kicked off I stuck a tenner on France to win. £85 profit if those cheese-eating surrender-monkeys win - that'll go a little way to making up for them qualifying ahead of Scotland
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Post by Chainmail Vest on Jun 9, 2008 14:13:27 GMT -5
France looked every inch the team of sulking bottlers that lost home and away to us against Romania. They just expect the other team to let them play because they're France and seem bemused when they don't.
I'd like to see Romania and Holland go through from this group. [/bitter scot]
I must also say that the standard has been very poor so far. I blame UEFA for giving two places from 16 to absolute pish teams because they're hosts, which can be offset in the 32 team world cup but really ruins this. Also the absolute aids seedings (Switzerland and Austria top seeds?!) and consequent groups are total balls. Then, worst of all, the draw is done in two halfs like some tennis competition, basically eliminating most of the major powers before the tournament gets to the sharp end. Load of fucking wank Mr Platini.
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Post by milo on Jun 9, 2008 16:14:22 GMT -5
Yeah,France wasn't impressive tonight,but they still have time to get to the level they usually play. Can they do it? Your guess is as good as mine Holland played awesome tonight. That 2-0 goal was damn impressive one and so were the other goals too. Italy's defensive line isn't as good as it could be and it showed tonight. Italy had some nice scoring chances,but Van Der Saar was the man tonight. Definitely the best game so far
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Post by CaptainFreedom on Jun 9, 2008 17:16:54 GMT -5
What a great night, and victory for football! After being witness to maybe one of the most boring football matches ever, it soon changed to delight, when seeing Holland make fun of Italy.
I know i said that the Netherlands defence maybe their weakness, but right now, i have to regret that comment. Van Der Saar is top class, and some of his saves will be remembered many years from now, just as Peter Schmeichel saves from 1992 when he helped Denmark win the Europe Cup. Holland used every chance they got to score a goal, and when most teams would just try to hold on to their lead, Holland tried to score 3-4 or maybe 5 more goals.
Was pleased to see that Van Nistelrooy wasn't injured by Materazzi, in my mind him, Sneijder and Van Der Saar share the man of the match.
Nistelrooy also showed class, when he didn't dive when Buffon stopped him from making 2-0.
Was afraid that some Italian sleaze-bag would take a dive, but thank god, the referee was fair, didn't seem to bother the times Gattusso come up in front of him and tried to complaint.
The first 3 minutes of this classic, was 10 times more entertaining than the match earlier between France and Romania. What the hell was Evra and Henry doing on the bench? I hope we never get to see this kind of football again, pure crap-fest.
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Post by milo on Jun 10, 2008 16:00:04 GMT -5
Bennett be praised that Sweden just beat Greece! Greece's passive playing style bores me to tears,so I was VERY happy to see Sweden win against the inventors of sodomy
Spain was very impressive tonight. Lots of great passes and they even scored four goals! It will be interesting to see how far they make it this time,because they always seems to fade when the big games starts.
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Post by CaptainFreedom on Jun 10, 2008 16:28:45 GMT -5
Bennett be praised that Sweden just beat Greece! Greece's passive playing style bores me to tears,so I was VERY happy to see Sweden win against the inventors of sodomy I drink to that! Again anti-football was defeated. The Greeks played slow, and didn't seem to be interested to have the ball at all, just pass it back to their goalkeeper. I just hope Spain kick them out as soon as possible. This kind of destructive football style should not be allowed. The Swedish team had some good chances, but never seem to really got full control of the match. It didn't help that the greeks played like they hang on a 1-0 lead, in almost 90 minutes. But Zlatans beautiful goal was worthy a match winner. As the only scandinavian team in this competition i hope that the Swed's could at last go through this group, but i think Spain will take 1st place. Russia has played some fine club football this year, maybe the biggest surprise came, when Bayern Munich got humiliated by Zenit. And i wouldn't be surprised if a russian team could go all the way in Champions League next year, but they have to hang on to their key players. Today Russia did well in the first 20 minutes against Spain, but they had no real threat in front, a goal getter. It looked like the Spanish defenders was more than once surprised by the russians agressive attacking style, but of course when they didn't take care of their chances, Villa and Torres did punish them with top class passing. David Villas ha trick was one of the many highlights to come in this competition i hope, but then Russia didn't really seem to be a big threat. Its up to the Spanish players, to see if they can go any further against stronger competition, or if this would go on as another "failed" tournament, even though they have lots of top-class players in their squad.
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Post by milo on Jun 11, 2008 13:20:56 GMT -5
A nice win for Portugal. Ronaldo had a decent game and he got his first goal in this tournament. Deco had some bad plays,but overall he played good tonight. I was impressed by the Czechs,they were a lot better than in their first game and if they can improve like this,they could go far in the tournament
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Post by CaptainFreedom on Jun 11, 2008 16:26:11 GMT -5
And then there were three left, as The Turks beat Switzerland 2-1, but i hope the Czechs would beat them.
Didn't got to see the match between Portugal and Czech Republic, but i saw the goals. Again Ronaldo proved that he has aged well, and become a much more team player than just 2 years ago, always looking dangerous on the pitch, great passes to Deco, and well didn't catch the guys name behind the third goal, but i dint think Ronaldo would done that 2 years ago, he would tried to pass 3 or 4 players including the keeper, and then screw it up. Right now he makes me think about Zidane, he can change a game himself, but not just with goals, but passes and a winning mentality, that infects his team mates performances aswell.
Just hope he dont go on an head-butt some bully, but if he does he will still have many years ahead to grow and fight for his Portuguese country.
As of now, Filipe Scolari is Chelsea's new manager.
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Post by milo on Jun 11, 2008 17:34:00 GMT -5
The Switzerland game at times,looked more of an swimming competition than Football It was pretty good game,too bad that Switzerland lost.
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