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

[blowout]

John picked France and I'm on England. My current suggestion for his avatar is

 

Maybe a picture of Johnny Wilkinson kicking the winning points against Australia in the Rugby world Cup final would be good?

 

Nothing can hurt those Aussies as much as a sporting humiliation. Especially in their own back-yard.

[comicmankev]

[blowout]

 

[delekkerste]

Mushroom proved himself to be more of a man than all the other wimps on this board who wouldn't take a bet, but he added a sidebar that the loser has to change their avatar for a week to represent the winners team. A further twist is that the winner gets to choose the avatar for the loser and board members are encouraged to suggest any particulalry embarrassing examples.

 

John picked France and I'm on England. My current suggestion for his avatar is

 

Well, forget the avatar sidebet, but I'll take that France progresses further than England bet (i.e., not the outcome of Sunday's game, but who goes farther). The only reason I didn't sign up for it before is that I felt bad about taking your money! But if you are going to question my manhood, then ALLEZ LES BLEUS, BABY!!!

 

Please confirm that you want to take the bet either here (prior to the kick-off off the England-France game) or PM me (otherwise the bet is off).

 

Gene

[delekkerste]

OK, game on, France vs. England for $20 it is. I think it's possible (though unlikely) that you will win the bet, because a lot of it will depend on what the quarter-final match-ups look like. However, I think the odds are very long that England will win the entire tournament - to do so, they will have to secure progression to the quarters, where they will likely have to face either Portugal or Spain, and then to the semis, where either Italy, the Netherlands, Germany or the Czech Republic could conceivably await them, and then potentially France in the final again. If they can do it, I'll tip my hat to them, but I think Sven's men have it all to do...

 

By the way, my PayPal account doesn't take credit cards, so please use an existing balance transfer or you can just post me the cash (I'll take dollars, sterling or euros).

[awe4one]

It's being reported that Dutch striker Van Nistelrooij will start in place of Kluivert in their first match Tuesday against Germany....

 

Jim

[delekkerste]

It's being reported that Dutch striker Van Nistelrooij will start in place of Kluivert in their first match Tuesday against Germany....

 

Jim

 

Yes - they are breaking from the 4-4-2 formation and will play Van the Man up front with an additional player out on a wing to provide him service. The problem is that the Dutch strikers don't work together in tandem - they've tried every combination and there's just no chemistry. We'll see how this experiment works...

[supapimp]

watching the US national team tomorrow then hopefully the france UK game. BTW, comcast digital cable has $179 for all the Euro 2004 games.

[ultimatevenom]

Looking at the England team, it seems to be a little week in areas, no real left sided midfielder, unexperienced King in defence.

 

I don't see much hope against Henry

[comicmankev]

We're going all the way!!!!!!!! [!@#%^&^]-ON! v

[rob_react]

Excited?

[awe4one]

How [!@#%^&^] demoralizing is that? England is going to have a tough hill to climb to overcome this loss.

 

Jim

[Arty]

We're going all the way!!!!!!!! [!@#%^&^]-ON!

 

celebrating victory already?

[Samurai-Bill]

England played really well .

Teams that start off with a win don't always win the Cup.

Don't write England off yet Rooney is our star player !!

[delekkerste]

Well, good effort guys, but in the end, unfortunately, your championship pretensions were exposed. England did acquit themselves better than I thought they would, but even if they had pulled off a win here, I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell they can play at the level they did in the first half throughout an entire tournament - I'm pretty sure we've already seen their best effort. As it was, they only managed to play at that level for about 65 to 70 minutes before they completely wore themselves out. I think David James' weaknesses were very evident in the end, as well as those of the substitutes (particularly Heskey who needlessly gave away the foul on the edge of the area to give Zizou his free-kick goal) and Beckham's lack of confidence from the penalty spot. He missed (and had Owen still been on, who can say whether he would have done better), but Zizou emphatically did not.

 

Now, before the excuses start flying (e.g., "Silvestre should have been sent off", etc. etc.), note that (1) Beckham did not deserve the free kick that led to Lampard's header - he totally conned the ref. Even the ITV commentators were saying the call was questionable and (2) It's practically criminal that Gary Neville was not called for a deliberate handball in the box on Henry's attempted cross in the 1st half - his arm was at face level for no other reason than to block the ball. In a regular season game, there is no way on earth that would not have been a penalty.

 

If I was France, I would be somewhat worried that Henry never really got it in gear; truth be told, he had not been at his best for Arsenal for at the past 2-3 months either. But, Zidane's brilliance won out in the end...I thought Pires, Vieira, Lizarazu and Gallas also gave stand-out performances. And, of course, Barthez stepped up when he had to whereas James did not. All in all, I'd have to say it was one of the most thrilling finishes I've ever seen, right after Man. U.'s 2 last minute goals in the '99 Champions League final (even though I was rooting for Bayern) and France's last gasp equalizer and Golden Goal winner vs. Italy in Euro 2000.

[awe4one]

England defended very well. On the other end, they didn't attack well at all. France played much better than England the whole match. Their passing was more crisp and applied pressure constantly. It was telling how the French were able to pass the ball unopposed outside the box with England on their heels. Any time England got near the French side, they had a man in their face.

 

I give props to Rooney though. He was game all match until being replaced.

 

Jim

[JohnBull]

Well, good effort guys, but in the end, unfortunately, your championship pretensions were exposed. England did acquit themselves better than I thought they would, but even if they had pulled off a win here, I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell they can play at the level they did in the first half throughout an entire tournament - I'm pretty sure we've already seen their best effort. As it was, they only managed to play at that level for about 65 to 70 minutes before they completely wore themselves out. I think David James' weaknesses were very evident in the end, as well as those of the substitutes (particularly Heskey who needlessly gave away the foul on the edge of the area to give Zizou his free-kick goal) and Beckham's lack of confidence from the penalty spot. He missed (and had Owen still been on, who can say whether he would have done better), but Zizou emphatically did not.

 

Now, before the excuses start flying (e.g., "Silvestre should have been sent off", etc. etc.), note that (1) Beckham did not deserve the free kick that led to Lampard's header - he totally conned the ref. Even the ITV commentators were saying the call was questionable and (2) It's practically criminal that Gary Neville was not called for a deliberate handball in the box on Henry's attempted cross in the 1st half - his arm was at face level for no other reason than to block the ball. In a regular season game, there is no way on earth that would not have been a penalty.

 

If I was France, I would be somewhat worried that Henry never really got it in gear; truth be told, he had not been at his best for Arsenal for at the past 2-3 months either. But, Zidane's brilliance won out in the end...I thought Pires, Vieira, Lizarazu and Gallas also gave stand-out performances. And, of course, Barthez stepped up when he had to whereas James did not. All in all, I'd have to say it was one of the most thrilling finishes I've ever seen, right after Man. U.'s 2 last minute goals in the '99 Champions League final (even though I was rooting for Bayern) and France's last gasp equalizer and Golden Goal winner vs. Italy in Euro 2000.

 

Utter garbage.

 

I'd liked to have won, but it makes no difference. We now have a likely QF against Portugal rather than Spain (the situation I expected prior to Saturdays debacle anyway). Then, a SF against Holland rather than Italy, a situation I'd prefer. For the finale, I think we're likely to see the Italians.

 

For a match without Terry, it was a good performance. For an opening match by England, who usually start slowly, it was an amazing perfomance.

[blowout]

it was an amazing perfomance.

 

But they lost.

[ultimatevenom]

I bet you were showing mixed emotions during that last 3 minutes.

 

3 mistakes happened on that match:

 

1. David Beckham should never have taken that penalty against Barthez, he would know his style from them playing together before.

2. Rooney should not have been substituted.

3. Emile Heskey - 'Nuff said

[blowout]

I bet you were showing mixed emotions during that last 3 minutes.

 

3 mistakes happened on that match:

 

1. David Beckham should never have taken that penalty against Barthez, he would know his style from them playing together before.

2. Rooney should not have been substituted.

3. Emile Heskey - 'Nuff said

 

4. David James?