Guest Jeffery S. Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Amazing performance by the Czechs, dispelling all doubts about a weakened line-up. Fine Baros goal wins it for them, 2-1 after Ballack had put them ahead. But some great chances were to no avail and the Baros counter put it away to Holland's delight. Germany is out. Dutch got two goals from Ruud and MacKaay the third as they beat Latvia comfortably 3-0. Quarter finals: Portugal-England France-Greece Sweden-Holland Czech Republic-Denmark Surprises would be Greece and one of the Nordics. I thought the Danes were better and more deserving in spite of the Swedes good start vs. Bulgaria, so I make the other surprise to be Sweden. As it stands I would say the favourites would now be the Czechs, have shown they have character, can come back worthily after going behind, are on full form. Predictions for semi-finalists: Portugal (should finally be on a roll, have the home fans pushing hard, though I think this is the hardest call: ET and penalties anyone?); France; Holland (another close call, simply because they have only dominated Latvia and got a break today); Czech Republic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 2nd string squads with no pressure on them but to impress the coach can often perform better than they might otherwise. As for the Germans, they have not beaten a European team in a major competition since they won Euro96. They drew with the then Yugloslavia 2-2 in the opening round of France98 (beating the US & Iran to win the group), beat Mexico in the 2nd round & lost to Croatia in the Q-F. In Euro2000 didn't win a single game, in the 2002 World Cup drew with Ireland in the first round along with beating up on the Saudi's & Cameroon, beat Paraguay, US & South Korea before losing to Brazil and now go winless in Euro2004 without being able to beat Latvia or the Czech 2nd stringers. Look for a lot of non-European teams in their path to the 2006 final. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettermirror Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 this is so depressing as a german fan. god, i hope this is a real wake-up call that a)the club teams need to develop more german talent in the top flight and b)they need a much improved national training centre along the lines of france. this is a shot in the gut to former greats such as voeller and klinsmann who could seeming score for fun, not to mention muller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 As for Holland vs. Lativa, I have to love that stadium they were playing in, carved right out of the mountains. Let's do the same with the new stadium in Vancouver! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettermirror Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 i absolutely love that stadium too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimglow Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 quote:Originally posted by bettermirror i absolutely love that stadium too! It's absolutely fantastic...the only thing missing is a nice waterfall! Gotta love how Seedorf's errant free kick went off the side of a mountain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 I found it interesting in that the Germans looked pretty good in this tournament yet they are eliminated. Of the three favoured sides that got eliminated ( Spain, Italy, Germany), Germany looked to have played the best of the three. Unfortunately, they looked haunted by poor finishing. I had heard favourable reviews from followers of the Bundesliga on this board regarding Kevin Kuranyi and looked fwd to seeing play for the first time but, I found him dissapointing. He had many chances to convert but failed and their fwds didn't perform much better in the far east either, aside from that easy contest against Saudi Arabia. With another Jurgen Klinsman, they might have won this tournament. The interesting turn of events would have it that a side that is depleted by injuries reaches the WC finals. But the same much healthier side plays better and gets eliminated in the group stage. Overall, they looked like a much better team than the WC squad that went to the finals in the Far East. They just faced different opponents along the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Amazing stadium. Flat real estate at a premium odviously. All Holland though. No surprise. At an absolute loss. Don't think Portugal are going any further and England have seemed, well, almost threatening. If I didn't feel France were still capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory I'd be leaning towards them going through the quarters and semis to the final but I linger in dought. Pretty sure it'll be England-France semi-final but I'm not wagering anything on it. The Dutch are on the move. Holland-Sweden could be the wildest match of the tourny. Watch it live with friends and beer. It's going to be a gas. Will the Czechs be able to stop them? I don't think so. German's were a little hard done by I think, not their day as it were. But that Czech performance today was quite impressive. Gotta get my picks in. Getting a headache. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desigol Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Holland are the team I want to win Euro 2004, this team deserves an Honour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Cheeta Pretty sure it'll be England-France semi-final but I'm not wagering anything on it. You mean an England-France final, right? In the semis on Wednesday, the winner of England-Portugal meets the winner of Sweden-Holland. The winner of the France -Greece match meets the winner of CzechRep-Denmark on the Thursday semi next week. The winners today and tomorrow get a long break, maybe too long, before their semis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Forca Portugal![8D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeffery S. Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca As for Holland vs. Lativa, I have to love that stadium they were playing in, carved right out of the mountains. Let's do the same with the new stadium in Vancouver! I love that image too. But I have to say that I know of similar places in Spain (or near, like the Andorra national stadium, think it is called the Comunal) where part of the place is cut into the side of a mountain or where they used part of an old quarry -convenient idea- with the rest sticking out. And what happens is that these fields can have serious humidity problems unless you in fact totally separate the slope from the field. Maybe in Portugal it is not a big problem, but I was at a nice looking pitch for a third div team here like that (Sant Boi) and it was mushy in spite of the open end looking south, since a long mountain slope was essentially draining towards it. A reason to be careful about such ideas in Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 I think Germany misses a player like Jancker. Wasn't the most technically gifted player but always seemed able to score when they really needed a goal. Kuranyi's finishing certainly left something to be desired, maybe he and Vierri were drinking the same water (or whatever else) at the tournament. There was actually a lot of worry in Germany before the tournament about the striker position as all of the leading Bundesliga scorers except Max this year were foreigners and some of the selected had not scored much. This year 7 to 9 goals was enough to be selected. Even Schneider had more goals than some of the strikers. The one big criticism I could make of Voller is his dealings with Martin Max (who after being continually ignored by the German team regardless of how much he scored decided not to make himself available for the Euro). He is probably to old to help them in 2006 but was the best German striker this year in the Bundesliga. His 20 goals were third in the League and almost equalled Kuranyi (11) and Klose (10) combined despite playing for mid-table Rostock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Not sure about Kuranyi, but Vieri was injured (he was taking injections for his knee) and wasn't really in game shape. Trappatoni shouldn't have called him or used him as much under these circumstances, especially with Gilardino left off the squad. This was the sort of mistake Trap said he wouldn't make this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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