Euros 2016

Croatia (lacking Modric) just slapped Spain in the face yesterday. Don't sleep on Croatia, they are solid. Rakitic is a beast.

 

Poor Roy, not being able to hold on against Russia or score against Slovakia and off to the bracket from Hell (Germany, Spain, Italy, France all on their side). Up first is a no win situation against pesky Iceland. A win is mandatory and no credit will be given if the 3 Lions advance.

 

The playoff bracket is absurdly lopsided. It's crazy how that worked out. England, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany all on one side. There are a lot of final matchups there. The team that survives might be too worn out for the actual final.

 

Totally agree. Switzerland, Poland, Croatia, Portugal, Wales, Northern Ireland, Hungry, or Belgium will play in the Euro final. I would have literally picked half the teams in the other bracket to be more likely to make the final than any of those teams.

 

Just back from our 11 day journey to France and Euros 2016. Celebrated our 15 yr anniversary and she was nice enough to let me squeeze in two games. We were able to make Russia/England and Spain/Czcech. I'm not a man of many words, and I'm sure it's been discussed at length, but just my quick summary:

All stereotypes of the French are true. Unbelievable how unprepared they were for the tournament to start. Great job welcoming fans and tourist, horrible job keeping tourist and fans safe. We left our seats (in the middle of Russia) once they started shooting the fireworks and the French were lost on how to handle it. Good thing we did. When we finally got back to our room, our seats were right in the middle of the fights.

Secondly, Spanish people. I'm not sure the life expectancy and way to lazy/uninterested to check, but it has to be low. They make Mississippi look educated and healthy. I've never seen as many smokers in one area smoke as many cigarettes as I did that day.

 

Croatia-Portugal looks to be the tastiest match of Saturday's knockout round. The checkerboards beat Spain and the CR7's have struggled, none more so than the man himself. Sunday looks like Italy-Spain could be equally scrumptious. The others will be footnotes, unless there's an upset, or a big name player like Bale or Payet go off on somebody.

 

Biggest loser of the weekend; Croatia. For some unknown reason they decided to go into the knockout round and go opposite of how they were playing against a below average Portugal side, fearing Ronaldo so much that they refused to attack. They did the final 10 minutes of extra time and had 4 really good chances that were either saved, hit the post, or just missed. Then lost it on Portugal's first shot of the day in the 118th. If they attacked from the outset they would've won going away. Croatia and Belgium were the only teams from that side that could go into the Final and believe they could win it.

Biggest winners of the weekend: Wales and France. The Welsh had the strangest of scenarios in being the heavy favorite in the knockout stage and finding a way against a well schooled bunkered Northern Irish. It wasn't pretty but they found a way. France has fire-power out the wazoo and they look like it's all coming together.

 

Best two performances of the Euros so far. Italy v Belgium, Italy v Spain. They're baaaccckkk.

 

Now that's a Brexit. Good on ya, Iceland.

 

And Woy resigns. Maybe we can get him back?

 

Robert Green thinks Joe Hart is bad.

 

Wow. Makes me feel better about our lads. Although I'm not sure WE could beat Iceland now. Really thought Spain had reloaded, but maybe they miss Puyol more than they'd want to admit. The Azzurri have got it going on right now, and Gigi's not committing any howlers.
It's gonna be fun.

 

Loved seeing this stat yesterday. In terms of population and U.S. cities Iceland would be the 57th largest city just behind Santa Ana Ca (Orange County) and in front of Corpus Christi Tx.

 

That's not really a fair comparison because Santa Ana is less than 2% Viking.

 

Some more fun Iceland-related numbers for you:

"Still, the ratings crown for Euro 2016 has to go to Iceland. Ratings for the Iceland-England game drew a jaw-dropping 99.3 percent share of the TV viewing audience. Given that an estimated 30,000 Icelanders — around 10 percent of the country's total population — are in France for the tournament and thousands more were on the streets of Iceland in public viewing areas, it's a safe bet that virtually every Icelander caught the game."

Can you fathom 99.3% of Americans agreeing on anything, let alone what to watch on TV?

 

Come on Chris Coleman.

 

Somehow Portugal is in the semis and hasn't won a match yet in 90 minutes. More strangely is they've won in spite of the diva missing sitters all tourney.

..Oh and Come On Chris Coleman!!!

 

The 'Guese have been living a charmed life, no question. They don't have much outside of CR7 and Pepe. Nani is a shell of his former self, and the defense as a whole is bad. Don't expect them to survive the next round. Wales, on the other hand, had more than Bale. But he can alter a match in seconds, so if the rest of them can just hold their own, look out. I don't think the Belgians are gonna realize the potential of their "golden era" without a better manager. The Italians have been the best side so far, but we'll see now that we're getting down to the real nitty gritty.