UEFA Euro 2008

Post by **Chroelle** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:21

I dont know what to say... First I get my guesses right and win a round, and this is just after the weird two matches yesterday. The last 15 minutes of Turkey and Czech Rep. was... mindnumbingly exciting. I think however it was the wrong team who got the longest straw. I think the Czech deserved a win here. Neither goalies looked very good in the last minutes. How come a professional goalie goes and push an attacker from the opposing team for getting close to him and trying to score is beyond my comprehension. That looked mostly like schoolyard behaviour.
Portugal setting up a B-team is understandable but not very interesting football. A some what deserved win for Switzerland. Even though they didn't play that well either.
BTW: How come the set the two matches on at the same time? Does anyone know?
And I have heard rumors that they will do the same with France-Italy and Netherlands-Romania. I hope they wont. That is two matches I would like to see fully and not having to switch between them...

eMTe · Post by **eMTe** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 12:01

Poland - Croatia 1:2
Austria - Germany 0:3

Netherlands - Romania 2:1
France - Italy 0:2

Greece - Spain 2:2
Russia - Sweden 2:3

I turned off tvplayer right after second goal for Czechs and went play Trackmania. When I stopped playing and, accidentally, checked the result which seemed obvious...

Damn! Damndamndamndamndamndamndamndamndamndamndamn!

Tank · Post by **Tank** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 18:38

Chroelle wrote:BTW: How come the set the two matches on at the same time? Does anyone know?
And I have heard rumors that they will do the same with France-Italy and Netherlands-Romania. I hope they wont. That is two matches I would like to see fully and not having to switch between them...

They do that on all major tournaments. The last matches of a group are always at the same time. They do that to avoid the possibiliy of prior consultation of matches ("Shame of Gijón" - only english article I found).

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 0:57

The results:

Poland - Croatia 0:1
Austria - Germany 0:1

Cordoba, hahaha! Try again in thirty years, Austria!!! But again Germany played without any faith in their own abilities. I wonder if they can change this against Portugal when they are the favorite no more.
Croatia played with their B-team, but Poland wasn't even able to score and leaves the tournament deservedly.

Chroelle seems to be a tournament player as he gets better the longer the tournament lasts. Again he gets 4 points, but has to share the first place with Usul and Zyx. eMTe gets 2 points, Pater Alf and Tank get 1 point each. There are still no guesses by Maz, so no points for him again.

1. Usul 18 points (3/9 )
2. Pater Alf 15 points (2/9 )
3. Zyx 14 points (3/5)
4. Tank 13 points (3/4)
5. eMTe 13 points (2/7)
6. Chroelle 11 points (2/5)
7. Maz 6 points (0/6)

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 0:09

The results of today:

Netherlands II - Romania 2:0
France - Italy 0:2

France is out. No Euro for old man! And so there will be a quarterfinal Italy - Spain on sunday. In the other match Marco van Basten changed his team on nine positions (including the goalie) and I'm not sure I consider this fair play. But still they are strong enough to beat Romania (and they could have won even higher).

Many points for the players in our league today. And it's Chroelle again who is winner of the day, even if he has to share his victory with eMTe. Both of them reach 4 points. Pater Alf and Zyx are close behind and get 3 points each. And finally there is 1 point for Tank.

The table:

1. Usul 18 points (3/9 )
1. Pater Alf 18 points (3/9 )
3. Zyx 17 points (4/5)
4. eMTe 17 points (3/8 )
5. Chroelle 15 points (3/6)
6. Tank 14 points (3/5)
7. Maz 6 points (0/6)

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 0:52

Next matches to guess:

Portugal - Germany
Croatia - Turkey
Netherlands - Russia
Spain - Italy

Post by **Chroelle** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:19

Ok, this is going the right way... I am currently beating myself up for not sticking to the Netherlands as champions. I think they will go all the way. They have been so consistent all the way.

On the more annoying news: Netherlands and Romania was the one match I was looking immensly forward to seeing. I got Tanja away from the telly and in front of the computer doing weddingstuff, so I could watch the game, and after watching a 0-0 first half and missing the goal in the other match on penalty, I decided to celebrate the halftime by ... falling asleep on the couch, and not waking up until Tanja came in 2 hours later... I quickly turned to text-tv and they had no info. All their news were down for the moment, and this morning we were in such a hurry I had no time to check tv again, and so this is the first time I see the result... 2 bleeding goals after I fall asleep!

eMTe · Post by **eMTe** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 22:31

One of the best first half on this euro. Gretgreatgreat.

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:03

The results of the last group matches:

Greece - Spain 1:2
Russia - Sweden 2:0

Greece is the first champion in Euro history that leaves the tournament without a single point. And Russia played a great match that they should normally win about 12:0, but they left a lot of best chances unused. But still I'm excited to see Netherlands vs. Russia in the quarter final. Both can play brilliant offensive football, but have some problems with their defense. This might get very interesting.
Last words about Sweden: I hope we won't see the 5th comeback of Henrik Larrson in 2010. As much as I like him, but he's way too old now...

Pater Alf is the winner of the day (and the new head of the table) and gets 4 points

. He's followed by Zyx with 2 points and Usul, Chroelle and Tank who get 1 point each.

The table:

1. Pater Alf 22 points (4/10 )
2. Zyx 19 points (4/7)
3. Usul 19 points (3/10 )
4. eMTe 17 points (3/8 )
5. Chroelle 16 points (3/7)
6. Tank 15 points (3/6)
7. Maz 6 points (0/6)

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:06

My guesses for the quarter final:

Portugal - Germany 0:2
Croatia - Turkey 1:2
Netherlands - Russia 2:2
Spain - Italy 1:1

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 14:09

Usul had some problems reaching the site, so here are his bets:

Portugal - Germany 2:0
Croatia - Turkey 2:1
Netherlands - Russia 3:1
Italy - Spain 1:1

Tank · Post by **Tank** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 15:28

Portugal - Germany 1:1
Croatia - Turkey 2:0
Netherlands - Russia 2:1
Spain - Italy 1:1

Post by **Chroelle** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 21:30

Portugal - Germany 2-0
Croatia - Turkey 1:0
Netherlands - Russia 2-1
Spain - Italy 2-0

My guesses. I had the hardest time guessing at Russia-Netherlands match as these are my two teams. I however think Netherlands will be champions, so Russia has to go underway to that triumph.
I think Turkey is going down this round.
And of course SPain will dominate an Italian team that hasn't played up to the same potential as Spain has. Villa will most definently score at least one goal.
Portugal and Germany I am afraid will be the end for Germany. They have had such a hard time in these last matches and Portugal has not even been shaken (nor stirred) during this championship.
Ok, I think I have to press submit now if I want my bids to be done before the mathces start...

Post by **Chroelle** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 21:42

I just thought of this little issue. What if games are a draw at full time and end up in penalties...? Or if a game is 1-1 in full time and extra time makes it 1-2, does that count as a bet on 1-2 or 1-1 and after penalties 5-6 does that count as 1-1 or 5-6 or???

Tank · Post by **Tank** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 21:47

If a match goes into overtime, the result after 90 minutes (eg. 1-1, 0-0) is the one that counts here.
On Kicktipp however the result including all goals counts (eg. 6-5 or 2-1).

eMTe · Post by **eMTe** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 22:03

Too late, so only for fun:

Ger - Por 2:0.

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 0:52

Portugal - Germany 2:3

Germany showed their true face for the first time and sent one of the favourites to hell. And I'm pretty sure they still can do better. Schweinsteiger always scores against Ricardo (I think next time Ricardo will refuse to play against him). BTW: Did somebody see the so-called best footballer of the world???

eMTe was on the right track, but he was some minutes too late. So only Pater Alf gets one point.

1. Pater Alf 23 points (4/11 )
2. Zyx 19 points (4/7)
3. Usul 19 points (3/10 )
4. eMTe 17 points (3/8 )
5. Chroelle 16 points (3/7)
6. Tank 15 points (3/6)
7. Maz 6 points (0/6)

Post by **Chroelle** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 13:43

I cant help but feel that the wrong team won... I am not saying that Germany didn't play an amazing game last night but looking at the tournament overall I think Portugal deserved a better fate. Schweinsteiger did play an amazing game, but then again he has had time to relax and build up his strengths...

Pater Alf · Post by **Pater Alf** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 15:02

Looking at the whole tournament you are certainly right. But it is Portugal's old fate. They often play good tournaments, but loose the important games (something they have in common with Spain). And Germany is still a team for big tournaments. They can play amazing matches if they really have to, even if they disappointed before (and they certainly did agains Croatia and Austria).
Regarding Schweinsteiger, I don't think it was an "easy" game for him. After his disappointing season in Munich and his red card against Croatia there was a lot of pressure on him (by the coach, the publicity and the media). And he still played a brilliant match and took a leading role. Regarding his young age, I don't consider this normal. I think you can compare him with Christano Ronaldo. There was a lot of pressure on him too, but he couldn't stand it (or maybe he just couldn't stand Arne Friedrich) and made (at best) an average game.

eMTe · Post by **eMTe** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 19:15

Never understood what people see in Portugal. It's above average team, similar to Spain. Good for quarterfinals of championship tournament, but too weak for anything more.

Croatia - Turkey 3-1.