Euro 2004 (football) - Page 3

Yes, there are a number of idiots who bring shame to the nation. However please don't smear all English people who like football as hooligans, because that just isn't the case.

BTW if anyone stateside is looking for live commentary you can try here:
www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/

I completely understand that, but it is more fun to smear an entire country then just being selective and saying, "THOSE BASTARDS FROM WEST HAM ARE HOOLIGANS". I hope you understand that.

Oh, and thank you for the live commentary. I bet the game was great yesterday.

Aah, fuck!

Sweden is out, penalties against Holland yesterday. The game was bullshit, could easily have gone either way, but no team managed to score in 120 mins.

I think the Czech Republic will win this thing.

(spoiler alert for those who haven't seen today's game)










crap.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. And at least neither team has made a liar out of me so far. Denmark out in the quarters, and the Czechs look more and more like the team that will win it.

France reminded me of Brazil in the 2002 World Cup. I thought they were going to sleepwalk their way into the finals and then play the ONE GREAT GAME that would make them champs. I thought with the draw of Greece, it looked like they could win 1-0 and not play alltogether brilliant.

I was wrong. Greece showed up and exposed France. Well done.

The Czechs and the Portuguese are playing pretty well. I would not have thought either Portugal or the Czech Republic would have made it this far.

And Portugal made it to the finals. Won Holland 2-1. It would be funny if Portugal and Greece would meet in the final game. Those teams also played the first game in the tournament.

I don't think the Greek stand a chance today. The Czech have shown great strength, they'll win the final too.

Oh I agree. The Czech have an amazing team (Barros, Nedved, Koller and Poporsky). I think they will definitely win the cup.

Ho. Lee. Shit!

I can´t believe this.

And the tournament ends like it began. This is nuts. Somewhere out there, someone just made *millions* through betting.

heh...

Well, it's official: I don't know shit.
It's been an unpredictable tournament, I'll say that.

Well congrats! No one would have believed this a few weeks ago. A great year for Greece. First this and then the Olympics in August.

Fair play to them.To come into the finals having never won a game in a tournament before & win it is something special. Plus it's a nice kick up the ass to all those overpaid pussies ( yes, I mean you Beckham ) that expect to win just by turning up. Best news since the Frogs went out.

I know, it's insane!

A few weeks ago, I never would have thought this could happen.

I'm speechless. Congratulations to Greece for the upset of the year, of any sport, of any tournament.

Call their ultradefensive style of play boring if you will, but it works -- and as a team, they've been the best all-round. The cup is deserved. They beat the best. Have a drink Mastronikolas, and sleep well -- you won't have many sweeter dreams than tonight.

Because on a more pessimistic note, I've got a feeling that Greece won't end up qualifying for WC06.

bullshit mr han man!!!!!

we totally kicked ass...... we beat the best three teams of the tournament ... one after the other... 1) the previous winner and a country which has won a world cup recently 2) the best team (after ours of course) in the tournament which also had the best offence and finally 3) the home country which should have had great confidence..(not!) ... in other words this is by far the most honest cup ever and we kicked all kinds of ass...

I would actually like to know what the odds are on them not qualifying for 2006. If they're good, I'll be tempted into a hefty bet on that. They have Denmark and Turkey in their group, teams that they won't fear enough to play ultra-defensive against. And if they don't play defensive, Denmark and Turkey can out-gun them in terms of attacking firepower. We saw what Greece were like when they weren't playing a perceived big team when they played Russia. The concentration wasn't there and their defending was shambolic.

On another note, Brazil will be pissing themselves watching this tournament. Unless the European major powers wake up, the World Cup is theirs for the taking, especially as Brazilians don't seem to suffer from the habit of being great at club level but shit at international level like the Europeans do.

I love how in the US, the only way you could see the tournament was on PPV. Lovely. The whole tourney was on tv in canada. I was pissed when I got back from a week in montreal to find that I couldnt watch any of the tournament.

Fox Sports World was showing most of the games on a two or three-day delay. some of the early group matches were even shown live.

Well, it seemed that Greece had the most problems with Russia. Partly because of their ineffective attacking (the attack was never their strong side to begin with), and partly because they were a goal down after 5 minutes. Greece apparently is in trouble when they have to create a game, but they're excellent at soaking up pressure and relying on the counter. However, they're playing good attacking sides (Turkey, Denmark) and a side similar to Russia, but with better attacking (Ukraine). It's still a big group with lots of games, and the hangover of winning a major tournament can get in the way of qualifying. I know this well -- Denmark, the last underdog team that ended up winning the EC (back in '92, with a defensive/counterattacking playing style similar to that of Greece) didn't qualify for the World Cup two years later.

I don't think so. A lot of the big teams (France, Italy, Germany) didn't perform as well as expected because of the long season. Most of the internationals on the big teams are playing what, 40 league games a season, as well as Champion's League games and their respective Cup games. A lot of players were tired, and in some cases, completely out of shape. Brazil has more or less the same problem, since their major players all earn their living in European leagues. If there's anything Brazil will learn, it is that the gap between favorites and underdogs is getting smaller and smaller.

I realise that the major Brazilian players play in the European leagues. What I'm saying is that the Brazilians don't seem to be affected by this 'tiredness'. They weren't two years ago in Japan and South Korea, when the big European teams were dire. Plus, Brazil seem to have this ability to go through smaller teams that others don't. Then there's the small fact that the 2006 side looks like it will be a better team than the 2002 side that won the whole thing.

I don't go for the whole fatigue excuse myself, though. Portugal got to the final with a team full of Porto players that won the Champions League, thus playing around fifty matches plus. I reckon the shittiness of the likes of France, Italy, Spain, England, etc can be attributed to a combination of the players caring more about their club football than their countries and the fact that the current crop of people managing these big countries has been astonishingly poor.

i cant say that luck did not play a certain role in Greece's wins ...but you have to understand 2 things... 1) this kind of football isnt new.... but it is effective... especially psycology-wise.... when you see big attacking teams not being able to score for a whole half of the match then their psycology goes down...2) players in the big teams weren't so much tired as bored... they'd much rather went on holiday by the time the Euro started... that is why we kicked ass, Chezh republick kicked ass, portugall kicked ass.... i dont expect the brazilians to have such problems or the argentinians for that matter in World Cup 2006 or Mundial as we Greeks call it but i sincerelly hope that Greece will be at the 8 and with any luck 4 best teams in 2006... in fact i dont care ... as long as they are as confident as they where in the Euro they'll be ok....