Euro 2008

You mean that 90th minute stuff?

 

Boooooooo, Don, Booooooooo.

 

Best match of the tournament in the Czech Republic v Portugal. Our boys (PCB and mine) played well to get something, but will have to win v the Turks (both teams are tied in every category so it could go to pks).

To the Swiss, thanks for hosting, sorry about the deflection, but when you miss an open net to go up 2-0 it inevitably comes back to bite you in the ass.

 

Shocking that the Germans don't have a replacement for Lehman. Congrats to the guys in picnic tableclothes.

 

Poland up 1-0 on Austria at half-time, though it could easily be 2-1 or 3-1 to the hosts at this point.

The Polish defense has looked like a mess, but luckily for them, they have Boruc in goal.

 

Poland is still holding up. After the first 30 minutes they have controlled this match. Not to say Austria has not had chances, but Poland has been the better team. I just hope the last ten minutes does not undo them.

Go Poland!

 

Can someone check and make sure Tom hasn't jumped off a bridge? :|

 

Any UEFA politicians need to look at Austria and the Swiss and realise that holding the competition in Ukraine and Poland is a bad idea. Watching the hosts have no quality going forward is horrible and it makes it worse when they affect the game because of their horrible quality. Poland and Ukraine are no different and will only affect games. Please re-consider on having those teams host the tournament.

 

Poland got screwed yesterday and I do not care what anyone else says, the penalty call was attrocious. Yes, the Poland goal was offsides, but the penalty was just too much for me to take at such a late point in the match. Needless to say, I am very disappointed.

As for FFC24's comments, I would like to think that Howard Webb's decision to award Austria a penalty yesterday had nothing to do with them being the hosts. I think UEFA is doing a good thing here in awarding tournaments to smaller countries like Poland and Ukraine. Whether a country has quality or not, is not really the purpose of awarding a tournament to a country.

The point of giving these countries a major tournament is to help the game grow in the country and to help with the infrastructure of the country. Poland is a country that deserves to be a host and the country will continue to improve in the coming years in order to be great hosts of this great event.

Personally, having this tournament in Germany, Italy, England or Spain every year would be boring to me. It is nice to see some newer countries getting a chance to host. I hope and pray that no referees give Poland any breaks though as that would not be fair.

Once again, the quality of a country should have no bearing at all on whether a country can host a successful event. Give the minnows a chance to see if they can host the event. Austria and Switzerland may not be doing well on the pitch, but off of it things seem to be going well with this tournament.

Give Poland and Ukraine a chance!

 

Howard Webb strikes again! He's quickly becoming the new Graham Poll.

 

Only saw the highlights and had no idea that was Webb.

Both hosts, while undermanned (the Swiss due to injuries) have given a good account of themselves and probably should have more points.

On the lighter side you wouldn't mind being a friend of the Austrian player that scored. A local brewery capitalizing on the fear of the national team being embarrassed offered a lifetime supply of beer to the first person to bag a goal.

 

Between the Dutchies form in Game 1 and France's need for a result, I think their game today is going to be a barn burner. With that in mind I'll be "working from home" :wink: this afternoon.

 

While I think it might help a host country, the skill level of that country DOES count. It's downright pathetic to watch 2 teams try with all their might and barely scrape by because of their lack of talent. I never said anything about having it in the big 4 countries or anything, but look at some of the 2nd tier teams and you'll find plenty of countries that can host the toruney AND compete. Quite frankly, Poland is old and they have nobody coming through their ranks that greatly impress anybody. They also have to natualise players just to do anything(Olisadebe carried them to the WC in 2002 and Gueirrero was the only thing working in the last 2 games in this tourney). Ukraine will have both of their best player in their history be like 35(Sheva). They also have a sever lack of talent. You want host countries? Look at Scotland,Bulgaria,Romania etc etc. At least we might have teams that have a chance of doing something in the torunament.


as for the games today. I predicted the Dutch and Romania to get outta the group. I'm one game away from being right on the money. My French friends are about ready to blow the roof off right now.