Only a few days since the spectacle starts.
As Germany is together with Spain the biggest favourite, my guess and hope is that they will win the cup again this year.
I’ve got no idea who may win, all I know is that England won’t.
Don’t be so optimistic …
i want greece to lose!
[quote=“Stanton, post:3, topic:3016”]Don’t be so optimistic …[/quote]Come on, they haven’t go a chance in hell.They may, just may get out the group stage.
Too many good players injured.
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:2, topic:3016”]I’ve got no idea who may win, all I know is that England won’t.[/quote]Agreed!i have a feeling we won’t get out of the group stage. Sweden are a bit of a bogey team for us and The French will
proberly do us. Then the knifes will be out early for Roy Hodgson who is on a loser straight away, despite getting a couple of wins in friendlies.
i sincerely hope i’m wrong but i’m not.
My favorite is Germany.
Spain probably still has the best team, but the players have won nearly everything in the past few years (European Championship, World Cup, Champion’s League). The players won’t be ‘hungry’ enough; furthermore it seems nearly impossible to defend a title successfully. As far as I know, Brazil was the last country who won two world cups in a row ('58 and '62), no European Champion ever defended the title successfully and no European team ever won three titles in a row (World + European Championships)
The German players haven’t won anything yet, so are very, very hungry.
Spain also misses Villa upfront, an enormous loss. Torres never reached his very best level after his injuries, so they won’t have any world class player upfront.
Holland is not at its best
Some important players just got back from serious injuries and lack rhythm (Afellay, Sneijder), others (Van Bommel, Kuyt, Matthyssen) are over their peak. And we simply don’t have a good defense.
France and Russia are my dark horses, but I don’t think they’re serious contenders for the title.
I don’t have many expectations also, Portugal as come up with the weakest team of recent years, lacking a few good players to support Ronaldo at front. We don’t have a regista, a player like Rui Costa was most important, my guess is that we won’t even reach the knock out stages. Is the old problem of having so amny foreign players in our league.
Our defense is weak (Pepe can’t solve everything alone) the midfield looks full of tired players and also they’re all very similar in style, our strikers are second rate players, and I wouldn’t be surprise if Ronaldo agaisnt Germany starts the game alone in the front.
Germany and Spain are my favourits to win the tournment.
France is also building a nice team, and contrary to many I wouldn’t say Italy is already out, if they reach the knock out stages, they are always a danger.
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:5, topic:3016”]Come on, they haven’t go a chance in hell.They may, just may get out the group stage.
Too many good players injured.[/quote]
But this can also become a chance. For younger and hungry players and without the pressure of being a favourite.
I have been thinking of Italy as a possible winner too: always a difficult opponent, especially during the knock-out stage, like El Topo says. But after what happened last week, I don’t think they will be focussed on the tournament. Many players are thinking about other things, never a good sign. And they’re in a difficult group with Spain (no explanation needed I suppose), Croatia and Ireland. Everybody calls the ‘Germany, Holland, Portual, Danemark group’ the group of Death, but I think this group is a Group of Death too. I expect a lot of Croatia and Ireland, probably even a bit more from the Irish. No possible winner of the tournament, but a difficult opponent for everyone.
Already starting to fire, to make a nice grill barbacue in the outside, with beer wine, and a few friends and family, will bring the telly to the garden, but must think of a way to protect it from falling cause of the wind, the bloody things are so thin now.
So anyway fell free to show up mates you’re all welcome.
If Portugal wins or loses after a few sardines on bread and some red wine who cares.
The Greeks got screwed yesterday, good save by PSV goalie Tyton though.
Nice display by the Russians. Kerzhakov… 5 good chances, 0 goals. Good striker though, but he’ll probably be benched.
Today Holland needs to win, and they probably will. Fridge full of beer… let’s do this!
I thought Poland started well, but it was all over for them after the Greek goal, and in the end they were very, very lucky not to loose the game
Never have been very impressed by Tyton (so far), but he seemed a better goal keeper than the other one who started
Russia is an outsider for the title, an experienced, technically strong team with a brilliant Arshavin.
Experienced: I saw a lot of familiar faces and Advocaat is known for his preference for experienced players, so I’d like to know what the average age of the team is (the guy who scored twice is still very young, so I heard).
Great goal by this Pavloshenko, or whatever his name is (fourth goal)
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:13, topic:3016”]I thought Poland started well, but it was all over for them after the Greek goal, and in the end they were very, very lucky not to loose the game
Never have been very impressed by Tyton (so far), but he seemed a better goal keeper than the other one who started[/quote]
I thought both teams played ridiculous. First 20 minutes of first half were promising for Poland, first 20 minutes of second half were promising for Greece, but overall both teams screwed up.
I have a feeling Russia (top quality team - they may win the whole championship surely) will beat Poland and Greece totally. As for Czech Republic we will see.
Agreed on Tyton, not a great goalie at all. Probably on par with Andreas Isaksson. But a great penalty killer nevertheless.
[quote=“Mickey13, post:14, topic:3016”]I thought both teams played ridiculous. First 20 minutes of first half were promising for Poland, first 20 minutes of second half were promising for Greece, but overall both teams screwed up.
I have a feeling Russia (top quality team - they may win the whole championship surely) will beat Poland and Greece totally. As for Czech Republic we will see.[/quote]
Czech Republic can still be second in their group.
If the Russians keep playing like this, they will surely top the group, but Czech Republic left them a lot of space, they tried to push forward all the time after this early Russian goal. I don’t think the other two teams will do that. Then again, the Russians have enough attacking force to dismantle a defensive team (and an early goal might destroy all plans of the opponent).
Curious what will happen today in Group B, with two of the favourites, Germany and Holland playing the outsiders, Portugal and Danmark.
Everybody thinks Portugal is stronger than Danmark, but the Danes won the qualification group for this tournament, ending above Portugal (and they did the same for the last World Cup, if I’m not mistaken)
Agreed. Even though they lost yesterday, they played nice.
Uninspired and weak Holland. Van Persie is not a striker, but stubborn Van Marwijk still prefers him over Huntelaar, who made the most goals in Europe behind Messi and Ronaldo. Defending is a joke. Some third rate player slaloms through and makes a goal. Dreadful.
Oh, well. I´ll crack open a few more beers and watch some b movies; better than this awful display.
Well, that was unexpected.
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