Topic: Euro 2012

[teethering]

Let the racism begin!

But enough about John Terry, who are you hoping will win?  Predictions?

[Citizen Skeptic]

I predict 2012 will be the last year for the Euro. 

Who is John Terry?

[ting-bu-dong]

Because I don't follow soccer and this is in the TV subforum, at first I thought you were talking about the annual freak show celebration of multiculturalism that is Eurovision.

(click to show/hide)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gqDpEyWG5g

[Citizen Skeptic]

Anytime a European makes fun of us I'm going to play that video. LOL

[ting-bu-dong]

The joke is that the entire lyrics are in baby language. The real joke is they made 5th place with that song.

(Sorry for hijacking the thread. If someone shows up who wants to talk about soccer I'll shut up.)

[Citizen Skeptic]

Is John Terry a soccer player?

[Lukas]

Let the racism begin!

But enough about John Terry, who are you hoping will win?  Predictions?

Greece should win and announce their exit of the Euro right after they accept the trophy...

[Shadow Of A Doubt]

Tactical previews of all the teams here!

The top three teams in the world right now (by FIFA ranking) are Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. So common sense says pick one of those as the eventual winners.

But I'm going to tip France. They have a great squad, a relatively straight-forward group, are on a 22 game unbeaten streak and seem to have a somewhat less fractious squad than at the World Cup (plus Domenech is not managing them any more).

[Ajzzz]

Under FIFA rankings England would be 4th. It's England that have the straight forward group.

Hart is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. It's unfortunate that Cahill got injured, he's played really well against the best players in the world in the champions league. Terry needs protection from pace that he will probably not get, and he has suffered this season. Ashley Cole is the best left back in the world. Lescott and Glen Johnson are suspect defensively, going forward Glen Johnson is impressive, he can cross the ball and shoot so the fullback for the opposition has to have cover.

Parker works extremely hard for the team, but I'm not sure at all about the midfield pairing. Gerrard destroys teams that don't have a destructive player that can handle him, and Diarra can't. Downing will disappoint, and Milner will make the team extremely solid defensively but completely unbalanced going forward. You can get very far in tournaments against European opposition by playing defensively, look at Fulham under Hodgson in the Europa cup getting to the final with a fraction of the resources of other teams or Chelsea in the Champions League getting to semi-finals all the time, and two finals.

Rooney is out for the first two games but he's one of the best players in the world, and some of the play with Ashley Young or Welbeck has been about as good as football can be. England will struggle for goals from the strikers.

France are behind Croatia, Denmark, Portugal, Italy, and Russia in the FIFA rankings.

France don't look great defensively, every time I see Mexès in the champions league he seems to have a terrible time, Evra has had a bad season by his standards and Clichy is suspect defensively, both are liable to make mistakes. Koscielny has had some great games this season, but struggling with injury has had really poor performances too.

France's midfield has some quality players that under perform spectacularly frequently. Ribéry, Nasri, Malouda, and Ben Arfa can win games with a level of skill not often seen, but can also look like they don't belong on a football pitch. Diarra has shown his poor quality for Chelsea, Arsenal, and Real Madrid. Cabaye has had a fantastic season, he could impress in this tournament.

Benzema is in impressive form this season, after not performing to his capabilities previously, he's definitely one to watch this tournament. Giroud is full of goals but can he perform at a high level? It remains to be seen. Laurent Blanc is one of the better managers coming to the tournament, if France perform well it will be down to him, not the quality of the squad.

Netherlands are my favourites to win the competition. Fernando Torres looked like getting back to his former quality at the end of this season, if he could play as well as he did for Liverpool then Spain would be almost unstoppable, but without that they're going to struggle because without David Villa they might not have even gotten out of the group stage in the world cup let alone won it. Germany will over perform as always, and I think they're second favourites to win it. It will be interesting to see who qualifies behind Spain, I think they will be the dark horses of the tournament.

[Shadow Of A Doubt]

Well I would hope Blanc goes with Clichy and Koscielny over Evra and Mexes who has been rotten every time I've seen him too.
I believe Diarra is second-choice for his position behind Yann M'Villa and they have exciting players on the bench that give them options up front (Jeremy Menez, Mathieu Valbuena, Hatem Ben-Arfa,  Olivier Giroud), the first two in particular I have seen tipped for great things for a couple of years. The word from France is that Malouda has played his best games for France recently so I'm hoping he lives up to that evaluation. And I think you are being harsh on Ribéry and Nasri who are top quality players.

Also, France ripped England apart at Wembley last year so I would definitely expect them to get further than England. I would take France's reserve midfield over England's!

[teethering]

Everyone is discounting England and rightly so.  They're probably going to make it out of the group, but I wouldn't bet much on it.  Rooney is their only world-class player aside from maybe Hart and Cole.  Gerard is way past his prime and hasn't played most of the season with injury.  Terry is, quite frankly, a moron, as his behaviour in CL semifinals showed.  Rooney similarly is a liability, but maybe the ban will do him some good (doubt it).  Their biggest problem will be in going forward as they have one striker who can actually score and he's banned for the first 2 matches.

I'm picking Germany, though I'd like to see the Dutch win.

[Ajzzz]

Whatever you might think of John Terry, he may personally be a huge arse, which could also be said of Ashley Cole and perhaps some others in the England squad depending on the rumours you hear, he's a world class player and has shown it in huge games against the world's best players over the years. On that note one could also say Ribery, Govou, Ben Arfa, and Benzema are not that great people either.

Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Danny Welbeck have the quality to be world class players. Ashley Young is a world class player, he's a better player than Samir Nasri, and he's shown it throughout his Premier League career, he scores more goals, makes more, and he's more reliable going backwards. Out of the injured Lampard and Wilshire are special players, and Cahill has shown he can play at the highest level, the Champions League has better teams and two legs. I wouldn't write off Gerrard yet, Hodgson is not the kind of manager that picks players based on sentiment or reputation (unlike the previous three England managers in recent years).

Nasri does not play well for large spells of a season, at points in the last two seasons he's looked world class but you can't be sure that's how he'll play in this tournament, and in the big games Ribéry does not perform to the level people say he is at, he always disappoints. How will Yann M'Villa perform at the top level? All the England first team play for big clubs in the biggest league, that's for a reason.

[stonesean]

Tactical previews of all the teams here!

The top three teams in the world right now (by FIFA ranking) are Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. So common sense says pick one of those as the eventual winners.

But I'm going to tip France. They have a great squad, a relatively straight-forward group, are on a 22 game unbeaten streak and seem to have a somewhat less fractious squad than at the World Cup (plus Domenech is not managing them any more).

FIFA Rankings take in past info......I have no idea why Spain is so highly favored.

As I understand it, David Villa and Iniesta are out.

No Villa, no Iniesta, no chance.

Full disclosure:  I'm living in Germany, am a big Bundesliga fan, and really really hope Germany can get a fourth star on their Euro crest.

But even speaking objectively, I really don't see any team that's better top to bottom than Germany.  They went 10-0 in qualifying, and have whipped some serious ass in friendlies against good opponents like the Netherlands....

I'm predicting a Germany win.

The other thing I'd really like to see is Ireland make it into the knockout phase....

[Ajzzz]

The Netherlands has a better first team. I don't think there's much difference between goalkeepers. Both teams have relatively weak defences, not much quality there apart from Lahm, but Germany's is better and younger. Netherlands has far better midfielders, it's not even close, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Mark van Bommel are far better than what Germany has to offer. Robin van Persie, possibly the best striker going to the competition, there's no competition. The Netherlands squad is not deep, and their defence is a liability, they're probably going to have to play two defensive midfielders, they also don't have sufficient width, small nation problems.

[stonesean]

The Netherlands has a better first team. I don't think there's much difference between goalkeepers. Both teams have relatively weak defences, not much quality there apart from Lahm, but Germany's is better and younger. Netherlands has far better midfielders, it's not even close, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Mark van Bommel are far better than what Germany has to offer. Robin van Persie, possibly the best striker going to the competition, there's no competition. The Netherlands squad is not deep, and their defence is a liability, they're probably going to have to play two defensive midfielders, they also don't have sufficient width, small nation problems.

One of the most painful memories I have of this season as a VfB Stuttgart season ticket holder was watching Robben utterly dominate Cristian Molinaro whenever Stuttgart played Bayern.