Ok folks, here are some last-minute Euro 2008 kernels.
Questions of the tournament:
1. Will anyone be able to score? Think about it, this tournament could alternately be titled the world's best goalkeeping competition. Petr Cech, Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas regarded as the top trio. On top of that guys like Edwin van der Saar, Jens Lehman, Artur Boruc, Antonis Nikopolidis are on the next tier, with rising guys like whomever starts for Russia right behind. Unless the adidas balls are really playing tricks, the keepers could dominate.
2. Will Iberia rise? Maybe it's because of their influence on the Premier League, but most English speakers are probably feeling good things about Portugal and Spain in this tournament. Portugal seem ready to make the leap based on their last two major tournaments, but Luis Figo is no longer around. A dominate, true center-forward isn't around either. Spain have the talent, but need to string together six solid games.
3. Who is this year's Greece? Will an unfancied squad come from nowhere to win, as Greece did in 2004? Chances are unlikely. Candidates include Romania, Russia and, yes, Greece which might be better than I give it credit for.
4. Will form hold? Does it mean Italy and Germany are destined to replay their 2006 World Cup semifinals match? Italy already took a hit when it lost Fabio Cannavaro. Germany are still scary, though.
5. How important will coaching be? In a word -- very. This isn't club football. There isn't time for error. One bad substitution can derail a campaign. In a tournament like this, you can't understate how important a smart, savvy coach is to a team. That's why you can't discount Russia or Greece in Group D or the power of Big Phil on Portugal.
Contract guys:
A couple guys that will make a transfer splash when the tournament ends.
Darijo Srna (Croatia); Samir Nasri/Karim Benzema/Bafétimbi Gomis (France); Fanis Gekas (Greece); David Villa (Spain...finally); and of course a couple guys from Russia who's last names are 15+ characters.
League guys
According to my research, here's how the professional league breakdown for the Euro 2008 players broke down.
German Bundesliga: 58
La Liga: 42
(English) Premier League: 40
Serie A: 37
Russian Premier: 29
Ligue 1: 24
Greek Super League: 22
Turkish Super League: 19
Austrian Bundesliga: 15
Portuguese Liga: 13
Romanian Premier: 12
Dutch Eredivise: 9
Polish Ekstraklasa: 9
Swiss League: 7
Swedish League: 6
Scottish Premier: 4
Belgium Leauge: 4
Ukrainian League: 3
England Championship: 3
Danish League: 3
Norwegian Tippeligan: 2
Czech League: 2
Croatian League: 1
Bulgarian League: 1
From my estimation, the top club representation is Bayern Munich. [UPDATE -- As per Wikipedia, Lyon is top with 11. Bayern and Galatassary tied for second at nine.]
The most homogenus team in terms of league is Russia, with 22 of 23 players currently drawing rubles in Mother Russia. Spain is at 18, with its five playing in England -- four at Liverpool (Xabi Alonso, Fro Torres, Álvaro Arbeloa and Pepe Reina).
The most disparate team is Sweden, with players in 11 different leagues, followed by Croatia (10) and the Czech Republic (9). In the case of Croatia and Czech, it means the domestic league develops a lot of players and can sell them off for profit and the players are very technically skilled.
The only French clubs represented on the French team are Olympic Marseillas, Lyon and St. Etienne -- home to Gomis.
Tournament Miscellania
Best Names -- Yuri Zhirkov (Russia); Andreas Ivanschitz (Austria); Jerko Leko (Croatia); Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany); Demy de Zeeuw (Netherlands); Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Netherlands); Cosmin Contra (Romania); Răzvan Raţ (Romania)
Brasilians -- Deco (Portugal); Pepe (Portugal) Marcos Senna (Spain); Roger Guerreiro (Poland); Mehmet Aurelio (Turkey); Kevin Kurányi (Germany, though his father is German) (Searching for any obscure guys yielded multiple Brasilians on both Hungary and Bulgaria, Sepp Blatter get on this.) Bonus: Mauro Camoranesi was born in Argentina but plays for Italy, despite famously not knowing any of the Italian National Anthem.
Reverse foreigners -- Here's a weird career path. Remember Colin Kazim-Richards when Sheffield United was in the Prem a few years ago? Now he plays on Fenerbache in Turkey, despite being born in England. To add, both Turkish Altintop brothers were born in Germany, but represent Turkey.
Guessing the tournament:
Group winners: Portugal, Germany, France, Spain
Group runner-ups: Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy, Greece
Quarterfinals: Portugal over Croatia; Germany over Czechs; France over Greece; Spain over Italy
Semifinals: Germany over Portugal; Spain over France
Finals: Germany over Spain
Golden boot: David Villa (Spain) (I wanted to go Nic Anelka for some reason, but couldn't bring myself to do it.)
On a final note, I'll be writing a daily something-or-other for Deadspin during the duration of the tournament. Check there for most of my nuggets of wisdom, though I'll be updating here as much as I can until my head explodes and fingers start bleeding.
_______________________
The USMNT is playing Argentina on Sunday at Giants Stadium. I'll be going down. All you need to know about this match is that the USSF had the chance to play the Argentines for real at the 2007 Copa America and they sent a B-squad, sort of like the squad Sunday. If Adu isn't playing and he's healthy there's nothing to see for the Yanks.
Questions of the tournament:
1. Will anyone be able to score? Think about it, this tournament could alternately be titled the world's best goalkeeping competition. Petr Cech, Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas regarded as the top trio. On top of that guys like Edwin van der Saar, Jens Lehman, Artur Boruc, Antonis Nikopolidis are on the next tier, with rising guys like whomever starts for Russia right behind. Unless the adidas balls are really playing tricks, the keepers could dominate.
2. Will Iberia rise? Maybe it's because of their influence on the Premier League, but most English speakers are probably feeling good things about Portugal and Spain in this tournament. Portugal seem ready to make the leap based on their last two major tournaments, but Luis Figo is no longer around. A dominate, true center-forward isn't around either. Spain have the talent, but need to string together six solid games.
3. Who is this year's Greece? Will an unfancied squad come from nowhere to win, as Greece did in 2004? Chances are unlikely. Candidates include Romania, Russia and, yes, Greece which might be better than I give it credit for.
4. Will form hold? Does it mean Italy and Germany are destined to replay their 2006 World Cup semifinals match? Italy already took a hit when it lost Fabio Cannavaro. Germany are still scary, though.
5. How important will coaching be? In a word -- very. This isn't club football. There isn't time for error. One bad substitution can derail a campaign. In a tournament like this, you can't understate how important a smart, savvy coach is to a team. That's why you can't discount Russia or Greece in Group D or the power of Big Phil on Portugal.
Contract guys:
A couple guys that will make a transfer splash when the tournament ends.
Darijo Srna (Croatia); Samir Nasri/Karim Benzema/Bafétimbi Gomis (France); Fanis Gekas (Greece); David Villa (Spain...finally); and of course a couple guys from Russia who's last names are 15+ characters.
League guys
According to my research, here's how the professional league breakdown for the Euro 2008 players broke down.
German Bundesliga: 58
La Liga: 42
(English) Premier League: 40
Serie A: 37
Russian Premier: 29
Ligue 1: 24
Greek Super League: 22
Turkish Super League: 19
Austrian Bundesliga: 15
Portuguese Liga: 13
Romanian Premier: 12
Dutch Eredivise: 9
Polish Ekstraklasa: 9
Swiss League: 7
Swedish League: 6
Scottish Premier: 4
Belgium Leauge: 4
Ukrainian League: 3
England Championship: 3
Danish League: 3
Norwegian Tippeligan: 2
Czech League: 2
Croatian League: 1
Bulgarian League: 1
From my estimation, the top club representation is Bayern Munich. [UPDATE -- As per Wikipedia, Lyon is top with 11. Bayern and Galatassary tied for second at nine.]
The most homogenus team in terms of league is Russia, with 22 of 23 players currently drawing rubles in Mother Russia. Spain is at 18, with its five playing in England -- four at Liverpool (Xabi Alonso, Fro Torres, Álvaro Arbeloa and Pepe Reina).
The most disparate team is Sweden, with players in 11 different leagues, followed by Croatia (10) and the Czech Republic (9). In the case of Croatia and Czech, it means the domestic league develops a lot of players and can sell them off for profit and the players are very technically skilled.
The only French clubs represented on the French team are Olympic Marseillas, Lyon and St. Etienne -- home to Gomis.
Tournament Miscellania
Best Names -- Yuri Zhirkov (Russia); Andreas Ivanschitz (Austria); Jerko Leko (Croatia); Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany); Demy de Zeeuw (Netherlands); Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Netherlands); Cosmin Contra (Romania); Răzvan Raţ (Romania)
Brasilians -- Deco (Portugal); Pepe (Portugal) Marcos Senna (Spain); Roger Guerreiro (Poland); Mehmet Aurelio (Turkey); Kevin Kurányi (Germany, though his father is German) (Searching for any obscure guys yielded multiple Brasilians on both Hungary and Bulgaria, Sepp Blatter get on this.) Bonus: Mauro Camoranesi was born in Argentina but plays for Italy, despite famously not knowing any of the Italian National Anthem.
Reverse foreigners -- Here's a weird career path. Remember Colin Kazim-Richards when Sheffield United was in the Prem a few years ago? Now he plays on Fenerbache in Turkey, despite being born in England. To add, both Turkish Altintop brothers were born in Germany, but represent Turkey.
Guessing the tournament:
Group winners: Portugal, Germany, France, Spain
Group runner-ups: Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy, Greece
Quarterfinals: Portugal over Croatia; Germany over Czechs; France over Greece; Spain over Italy
Semifinals: Germany over Portugal; Spain over France
Finals: Germany over Spain
Golden boot: David Villa (Spain) (I wanted to go Nic Anelka for some reason, but couldn't bring myself to do it.)
On a final note, I'll be writing a daily something-or-other for Deadspin during the duration of the tournament. Check there for most of my nuggets of wisdom, though I'll be updating here as much as I can until my head explodes and fingers start bleeding.
The USMNT is playing Argentina on Sunday at Giants Stadium. I'll be going down. All you need to know about this match is that the USSF had the chance to play the Argentines for real at the 2007 Copa America and they sent a B-squad, sort of like the squad Sunday. If Adu isn't playing and he's healthy there's nothing to see for the Yanks.
Labels: Euro 2008, predictions, Soccer, USMNT
Will your Deadspin posts be mirrored on this site? I'd much rather give you the traffic have to work a visit to Deadspin into my daily routine!
Probably a mix of both.
I like your coverage, but am baffled by your selection of Villa based on current form. Do you really think France can win their group given their injuries and odd squad selection?
Group C is literally impossible to predict. Every team has major flaws. Holland looks like a potential utter disaster but also has the potential to win the whole damn thing. And is Romania actually any good? It's tough to say.
I think if you predict anyone from Group C to go all the way or gamble on that you're making a big mistake. I could easily see Italy and France not even making it out of the group.
I expect that ball really to be an issue. With Czech, Lehmann and others complaining, you may even find the gameplan changed to that point when every team starts shooting anytime they're within 25 meters...
P.S. Good to know you're the man in charge over at Deadspin's. Call Vintage Paul Breitner if you need first-hand information from Neuchâtel, where the Portuguese team bus yesterday almost ran over me.
Rozhnal couldn't even make it on Newcastle's shaky D. He looked horrible today. Portugal will light them up.
Why is this NOT in HD? They wonder why soccer/football/futbol never catches on.... It's the beautiful game, for fuck's sake.