OT Poll - Who Will Win The UEFA Euro 2004 Football Championship?

[JohnBull]

 

"Bite me Rooney! You ain't the only 4-goal hero of the Group stage, you ain't no Ronaldo (let alone Pele), and you'll be lucky to finish 4th runner up for next year's Premiership Golden Boot!"

 

Congratulations to Ruud and his Dutch colleagues. After salvaging a 1-1 draw with the most [!@#%^&^]-poor German team since the 1950's and then throwing away a 2 goal lead against the Czech Republic (oh yeah, I forgot, you were playing against 12 men, you whinning tosspots), you managed to strike gold with a 3-0 defeat of Latvia. Now why don't you go away and lick the arses of the 1988 winning team? Oh I forgot, you're not worthy.

 

While you're at it, let's see you get compared to the 1974 team which contained the greatest player (IMHO) to ever strap on a pair of boots.

[JohnBull]

Tonights games were the biggest pile of shiitte to watch, bar none.

 

I thought the Germany game was good. I also watched the Sweden-Denmark the day before, which was a cracker.

 

I'm looking forward to Sweden-Holland on Saturday, which has forced me to change my plans and go for a meal tomorrow night instead. I can't see France-Greece being that good. I hope the Dutch win their QF. Our recent record against Sweden (like the last 20+ years) is abysmal, but we've done well against the Dutch in the last few years and I'd much rather face them in the SF.

[JohnBull]

This overnight deification of Wayne Rooney is ridiculous. He scores a few goals against such fearsome teams as Switzerland and Croatia and suddenly he's the next Pele? My English colleague pointed out that he picked up more yellow cards than scored goals last season...I saw on a website that he had 9 goals and 7 yellow cards, though I'm not sure if that included Cup play or not. In any case, I think he still has a long way to go before he establishes himself as a bonafide talent worth 30, 50 or 100 million pounds.

 

I mean, really, would you predict this guy to win the Golden Boot next year? Is he going to go from 9 goals to 29 goals? I really doubt it. Sure, he'll play more next year, but let's see how he handles a full Premiership season in terms of staying healthy and maintaining his form. I think a lot of the reason he's doing so well now is that he didn't have to play 50-60 full matches like Thierry Henry did last season (incl. all the Cup and international play). I'd be surprised if he's contending with Henry, Van Nistelrooy, et. al. for top honors next year - and neither of those guys is being worshipped like Wayne has been this past week. I think the kid has a lot of potential, but I think, so far, there's been far too much hype and lip service paid to him.

 

Your English colleague is obviously a font of knowledge. Does he sound just like the Queen? I'm glad you find the web such an informative place for finding out about football, it sure beats watching matches. Do you manage to catch many premiership games in the year? Do you remember the old Division 1 or anything prior to about 1999? Inquiring minds need to know.

[JohnBull]

Obviously I thik anyone would say it is silly to say he is the new Pele after a handful of games, but if worked the right way he could be at the top in a few years - as could Ronaldo et al.

 

For anyone out there who actually cares, what Sven said was that "He couldn't remember a player as young as Rooney having such an impact on a major tournament since Pele." He didn't put him in the same category as Pele or even say that he is as good as Pele was when Pele was 18, in 1958.

 

The only other really young player to mke such a major impact was Maradonna (in '82?). I don't think at that stage he was quite as developed though, but he did go on to become the second greatest player to strap on a pair of boots (IMHO).

[comicmankev]

Thats what Sven said. But thats n ot what the papers are saying I was just commenting on the views of what other countries have heard!

 

 

I'm just bloody excited about the game tonight, role on 7:45

[awe4one]

I'm just bloody excited about the game tonight, role on 7:45

 

I'm going for England as well but don't think it's going to be an exceptional game to watch. Both teams have had long periods where they look listless throughout the majority of their matches. If it wasn't for Ronaldo, watching Portugal play would be painful.

 

I'm hoping I'm wrong though and the match is a classic.....

 

Jim

[comicmankev]

All I keep saying to myself is 'Grecce beat Portugal in the first round' and that is what is keeping me sane

 

At this stage the games get a bit less exciting to watch, but certainly a lot more tense as far as outcome is concerned!

 

I can say that I have enjoyed watching almost every game so far, which I have never done before, and they have all been great! I just hope that England stay in, as it gives me a reason to tell the wife why I'm watching footie every day

[delekkerste]

Your English colleague is obviously a font of knowledge. Does he sound just like the Queen? I'm glad you find the web such an informative place for finding out about football, it sure beats watching matches. Do you manage to catch many premiership games in the year? Do you remember the old Division 1 or anything prior to about 1999? Inquiring minds need to know.

 

Don't even try to knock my football knowledge. I've watched easily over 100 matches during the last season alone, including plenty of Everton matches, so don't imply that just because I'm American, I must get my footie info from the Web. When I say Alan Shearer had a much better campaign than Michael Owen, it's because I've saw plenty of Newcastle and Liverpool matches last season and remember cracking goals like Shearer's one against Chelsea late in the season that Owen couldn't ever hope to hit, even in his better seasons. When I compare Zlatan's goal vs. Italy vs. his goal against AZ Alkmaar last season, it's because I actually saw both matches. In addition to seeing or hearing practically every Arsenal match, I saw a host of other Premiership/FA & Carling Cup games, Champions League matches, Dutch league games, Bundesliga matches, French league matches, MLS matches, etc. etc. I think 100 matches last season would be a pretty conservative estimate - could be as high as 150 (not to mention all the highlight shows and Web surfing). And not just on the telly - in the past couple of seasons, I've seen a fair number of matches in person, from as far north as Oslo and as far south as Barcelona.

 

I eat, breathe and sleep football - take potshots at Arsenal, Barcelona, the Dutch or French national teams, Thierry Henry or other teams/players that I support to varying extents, but don't even try to imply I don't know what I'm talking about. Division 1 was before my time, but I've followed enough Premiership campaigns (the last 7 or so) to know what's what. Bottom line is that I've seen enough to say with authority that Wayne Rooney isn't the second coming of Pele (not yet, anyway). He's got a lot of potential, but 3 matches does not a football god make, and his disciplinary record and other factors lead me to believe that he won't live up to his hype in the long-run. I know what Sven said, but I also read the British press daily and know what they said, as ComicManKev has rightly pointed out. To see you resorting to personal attacks against me tells me that you're either not confident about your own position or you're just whipped up in an irrational frenzy about Rooney like the rest of the English.

[comicmankev]

I've watched easily over 100 matches during the last season alone, including plenty of Everton matches

 

Damn, you really are in a minority

[delekkerste]

I've watched easily over 100 matches during the last season alone, including plenty of Everton matches

 

Damn, you really are in a minority

 

What can I say - if it's football and it's on TV, I'll watch it!! We get coverage of 7 different leagues here with anywhere between 1 and 6 different matches shown per league per week. So 100-150 matches over the course of the season is actually a pretty low percentage of the total. So much football, so little time...

[comicmankev]

It's like these Euro championships, I know why they put both games on at the same time. But it's damn annoying switching between the two games, especially if you miss a goal

[JohnBull]

I eat, breathe and sleep football - take potshots at Arsenal, Barcelona, the Dutch or French national teams, Thierry Henry or other teams/players that I support to varying extents, but don't even try to imply I don't know what I'm talking about. Division 1 was before my time, but I've followed enough Premiership campaigns (the last 7 or so) to know what's what. Bottom line is that I've seen enough to say with authority that Wayne Rooney isn't the second coming of Pele (not yet, anyway). He's got a lot of potential, but 3 matches does not a football god make, and his disciplinary record and other factors lead me to believe that he won't live up to his hype in the long-run. I know what Sven said, but I also read the British press daily and know what they said, as ComicManKev has rightly pointed out. To see you resorting to personal attacks against me tells me that you're either not confident about your own position or you're just whipped up in an irrational frenzy about Rooney like the rest of the English.

 

Hey, I thought winding the oppo up was all part of the game. I'm sure I read that somewhere. Seven seasons isn't bad, but we have an expression in this country - "You can follow footie man and boy, but unless you're 10 years in, you don't know what the you're talking about". See you in Euro 2008.

[comicmankev]

[awe4one]

It's like these Euro championships, I know why they put both games on at the same time. But it's damn annoying switching between the two games, especially if you miss a goal

 

Isn't that the truth.....I could truthfully say I watched every match until the third games. Pissed me off to no end......

 

But I know now why they did it that way......

 

And since you're English......what's the rhyme or reason to what games are shown on ITV or BBC?

 

Frankly, I think the match announcers on BBC are much better but the studio hosts are better on ITV......

 

Jim

[JohnBull]

And since you're English......what's the rhyme or reason to what games are shown on ITV or BBC?

 

Frankly, I think the match announcers on BBC are much better but the studio hosts are better on ITV......

 

Jim

 

Every championship they sit down and divide the games up between them into 2 'equal' halves. They then toss a coin to decide who has which half. ITV ended up with the best of it in R1, but the BBC apparently have 1st choice on the games in the QF and SF. They both show the final.

 

I think your summation of their relative strengths is pretty accurate, although ITV employ one ex England manager who is a crook (in and out of football) who has screwed every club he has worked with for about the last 15 years. The High Court says that this particular individual is not a fit and proper person to be a company director and he wrote crappy TV drams in the 1970's. His initials are the same as the medium he appears on and he is dogpoo who shouldn't be given the time of day on TV.

[awe4one]

Terry Venables?

 

Jim

[delekkerste]

Hey, I thought winding the oppo up was all part of the game. I'm sure I read that somewhere. Seven seasons isn't bad, but we have an expression in this country - "You can follow footie man and boy, but unless you're 10 years in, you don't know what the you're talking about". See you in Euro 2008.

 

That's 7 Premiership campaigns, not all football. Before the cable companies here got with the program in the mid-1990s, only the World Cup and the various incarnations of U.S. soccer were readily accessible here. The first match I ever saw was actually a live North American Soccer League match (hey, Pele played in the league for a couple of seasons, as did Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff) way back in 1978 or thereabouts.

 

Through the magic of highlight reels, documentaries, books and the Internet, however, you'll find that I'm very much caught up on the history of the English game anyway...whether it's talking about the 1966 World Cup to the 1979 F.A. Cup Final to the 1985 Liverpool-Juve European Cup final at Heysel to the Hand of God goal in the 1986 World Cup to Michael Thomas' last-gasp winner at Anfield in 1989 to Blackburn's last-day title win in 1995, you'll find that I speak fluent football.

 

However, I consider my thorough knowledge of the modern game to be all the ammunition I need to opine on who's hot, who's not and what's what. To say otherwise would be like saying that no one under the age of 45 can really understand Silver Age comics. Not saying that my opinion is better than yours or any other knowledgable fan of the game...just that I'm not questioning your knowledge of the game and you shouldn't be questioning mine. Everything else is fair game, though.

[JohnBull]

OK, let me see if I get this winding up the opposition bit right. If they don't care, it's fair game, but if it hurts their feelings (ie: it actually winds them up) you have to avoid the issue. Gee, you guys play real hardball over there.

 

[delekkerste]

All I'm saying is that you can bash my favorite players or teams or whatever I'm saying as much as you'd like - just don't talk to me like I don't know Wayne Rooney from Mickey Rooney.

 

Truce?

[delekkerste]

Man, this time difference sucks - it's getting tougher and tougher to invent new excuses to be out of the office from 2:30pm to 5:00pm. I had a deal going on where several "meetings" suddenly got scheduled for 2:45pm in the afternoon, but that deal got signed yesterday. So, today, I have to be out of the office to "tie up loose ends".