A Semi-Educated Euro 2008 Preview, Part I
I'm not Avram Grant or anything over here,
but I'd like to think I've picked up a thing or two about soccer in the past couple years. And, of course, I think we're all looking forward to the Euro 2008. So, here's a stab at a multi-part preview of next month's tournament.
Let's go in alphabetical order.
Group A
Czech Republic: This team is always ranked something ridiculous--right now they're 6--and, though, they haven't won big at the tournaments, they're always a threat to get to the Semi-Finals. This team strikes me as a little old, though. Jan Koller is probably a grandfather and Pavel Nedved doesn't even feel like making the trip. Tomas Rosicky is out, and he wears the number 10 jersey for them. Not a number you want missing. The Czechs are good enough to make things interesting, but they're not dynamic enough to really do anything serious this go-round.
Portugal: They were runners-up at the 2004 Euros, they finished fourth in the 2006 World Cup. This really could be their year. They have the best player in the world in C. Ronaldo, but they are also loaded at nearly every other position. Roberto Carvalho, Ricardo Quaresma, Jose Bosingwa, Deco, Nani; Portugal's got some straight-up ballers. Maniche, maybe their most consistent player in 2006, didn't even make the cut. Anything less than the title will be a disappiontment to this crew.
Switzerland: While not as pathetic as Austria, it's safe to say the Swiss might not have made the Finals if they weren't hosting it. They put together some nice defensive performances in '06, but since then, they haven't been up to much. I guess. I haven't really been checking the Switzerland box scores. Prove me wrong, boys!
Turkey: From what I've seen of the Turkish diaspora in the European leagues, they are some tricky dudes. And a dozen of them play for the same two club teams back in the homeland, so they got the whole familiarity thing going for them. They also came out of nowhere to grab 4th place at the 2002 World Cup. Good enough for me.
My Prediction: Portugal is just gonna slap everybody around. Everybody is gonna slap Switzlerand around. So it'll really come down to the Turkey-Czech match, by my calculations. Unfortunately for the old-ass Czechs, that's the last game of the round. So those speedy young Turks could prove too much in that fixture and sneak into thequarterfinals.
Portgual and Turkey advance.
Group B
Poland: This team lost 3-0 at home to the damn Americans. That's pretty much the absolute worst way for a team to prepare for the Euro Cup. Still, word on the street, is that the Poles can put some numbers on the board, when they're so inclined. But, seriously, the U.S. national team in Krakow.
Austria: Austria may be the worst team to ever qualify for the Euros. How bad are they? A proud Austrian dude I know advocated this idea: Forgo the traditional obligatory host entry and let another team have the spot. England, Serbia, Scotland, Iceland Faroe Islands; there's gotta be some other team that deserves to be in the tourney just a bit more.
Croatia: This squad is gonna be a popular darkhorse pick in this tournament. You gotta love how they just marched into Wembley and cold-bloodedly smashed England's dreams. The loss of Brazil-born Eduardo is sure to be a blow, but they got enough firepower to blast their way intot he next round.
Germany: If I were a betting man, my money might ultimately be on Deutchland. They got as much talent as anyone, they finished 3rd in 2006, their players seem to be just the right age, with Michael Ballack they got one of the premier leaders in world football and they're playing just around the corner in Austria and Switzerland. Once the hosts get eliminated, all the drunk, neutral, German-speaking fans will instinctively root for guys named Bastian Schweinsteiger and Torsten Frings. Add on four or five outright scoring machines and this team is as dangerous as it gets.
Prediction: I guess Poland could make it interesting, but, really Germany and Croatia should advance fairly easily. The real drama in this group will be guessing Austria's goal differential. I'm going with -10.
Germany and Croatia advance.
but I'd like to think I've picked up a thing or two about soccer in the past couple years. And, of course, I think we're all looking forward to the Euro 2008. So, here's a stab at a multi-part preview of next month's tournament.
Let's go in alphabetical order.
Group A
Czech Republic: This team is always ranked something ridiculous--right now they're 6--and, though, they haven't won big at the tournaments, they're always a threat to get to the Semi-Finals. This team strikes me as a little old, though. Jan Koller is probably a grandfather and Pavel Nedved doesn't even feel like making the trip. Tomas Rosicky is out, and he wears the number 10 jersey for them. Not a number you want missing. The Czechs are good enough to make things interesting, but they're not dynamic enough to really do anything serious this go-round.
Portugal: They were runners-up at the 2004 Euros, they finished fourth in the 2006 World Cup. This really could be their year. They have the best player in the world in C. Ronaldo, but they are also loaded at nearly every other position. Roberto Carvalho, Ricardo Quaresma, Jose Bosingwa, Deco, Nani; Portugal's got some straight-up ballers. Maniche, maybe their most consistent player in 2006, didn't even make the cut. Anything less than the title will be a disappiontment to this crew.
Switzerland: While not as pathetic as Austria, it's safe to say the Swiss might not have made the Finals if they weren't hosting it. They put together some nice defensive performances in '06, but since then, they haven't been up to much. I guess. I haven't really been checking the Switzerland box scores. Prove me wrong, boys!
Turkey: From what I've seen of the Turkish diaspora in the European leagues, they are some tricky dudes. And a dozen of them play for the same two club teams back in the homeland, so they got the whole familiarity thing going for them. They also came out of nowhere to grab 4th place at the 2002 World Cup. Good enough for me.
My Prediction: Portugal is just gonna slap everybody around. Everybody is gonna slap Switzlerand around. So it'll really come down to the Turkey-Czech match, by my calculations. Unfortunately for the old-ass Czechs, that's the last game of the round. So those speedy young Turks could prove too much in that fixture and sneak into thequarterfinals.
Portgual and Turkey advance.
Group B
Poland: This team lost 3-0 at home to the damn Americans. That's pretty much the absolute worst way for a team to prepare for the Euro Cup. Still, word on the street, is that the Poles can put some numbers on the board, when they're so inclined. But, seriously, the U.S. national team in Krakow.
Austria: Austria may be the worst team to ever qualify for the Euros. How bad are they? A proud Austrian dude I know advocated this idea: Forgo the traditional obligatory host entry and let another team have the spot. England, Serbia, Scotland, Iceland Faroe Islands; there's gotta be some other team that deserves to be in the tourney just a bit more.
Croatia: This squad is gonna be a popular darkhorse pick in this tournament. You gotta love how they just marched into Wembley and cold-bloodedly smashed England's dreams. The loss of Brazil-born Eduardo is sure to be a blow, but they got enough firepower to blast their way intot he next round.
Germany: If I were a betting man, my money might ultimately be on Deutchland. They got as much talent as anyone, they finished 3rd in 2006, their players seem to be just the right age, with Michael Ballack they got one of the premier leaders in world football and they're playing just around the corner in Austria and Switzerland. Once the hosts get eliminated, all the drunk, neutral, German-speaking fans will instinctively root for guys named Bastian Schweinsteiger and Torsten Frings. Add on four or five outright scoring machines and this team is as dangerous as it gets.
Prediction: I guess Poland could make it interesting, but, really Germany and Croatia should advance fairly easily. The real drama in this group will be guessing Austria's goal differential. I'm going with -10.
Germany and Croatia advance.
posted by A-Wood @ 6:07 PM
1 Comments:
At 3:53 AM,
Euro 08 Betting Boy said…
Good preview, good insight and preditction. Think my money will be on Portugal. A top class performance by ronaldo last night on re affirms my decision. think Germany could end up in the final with them also.
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