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Group A Euro 2008…

April 18th, 2008 | By: Jan | 29 Comments »

Oh noooo…not him again!!!

The first group overview…

And remember, I am NOT an expert on other nations so please add or correct me if necessary (hell, I’m not even an expert on Oranje… I just have too much time…).

Group A consists of the Czech Republic, Turkey, Portugal and Switzerland.

The Czech’s are tipped as potential winners. They have performed pretty good in the last 12 years, all in all, and still have some big name players in their group.

Coach Bruckner will again manage the Czechs at this EC. We call him Caesar Karel in Holland, but in the Czech Republic they call him Kleki Petra, derived from a Native American leader with whom Bruck shares his facial festures. Bruckner is regarded as one of Europe’s most astute and inventive coaches. The 68 year old will retire after this tournament.
Thomas Rosicky, the Arsenal midfielder and playmaker of the team, won’t be present this season, due to injury problems. Target man Jan Koller will play, but he will also retire after this EC. Other big name players are obviously Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalie and Thomas Galasek, the former Ajax captain.
Rumor has it that Pavel Nedved may return to have a last go at a big prize, but these are just rumors.

Portugal will also be among the faves of this EC, as they always are. But even four years ago, in their home country, the Portuguese lost against the Greek in the finals. How low can you go . They are called the Brazil of Europe (the Dutch won’t concur, I guess). With brains Deco on midfield and best player of the world Handbag Ronaldo (as Goose calls him), Portugal will again rank among the faves, but that never did them a lot of good in the past. The Portuguese qualified second after Poland, which was a surprise. Coach Scolari can select big name players from clubs like Chelsea (Carvalho), ManU (CR, Nani), Juve (Andrade, Tiago) and Inter (Maniche).

In my view, the Turks are a dark horse. They can surely play football. They have a lot of skills and heart, but sometimes lack the discipline to reach the absolute top. Fatih Terim is the Turkish coach since 2005. They reached the top 4 in the WC 2002 and made it in the last eight in Euro 2000. They’ve failed to qualify a lot for the EC’s but this year’s group oozes quality and experience. The influx of big players to Turkey (Van Hooydonk, Roberto Carlos, Kezman to name a few) certainly helped push the quality up. Players like Kavehci (Villareal), Hakan Sukur ( Galatasaray) and Altintop (Schalke 04) know how to score goals, while players like Altintop (Bayern Munich), Sahin (Feyenoord) and Ozkan (Besiktas) know how to set them up. Turkey combines physical toughness with finesse and could be the dark horse in this group.

Switzerland normally wouldn’t be a real fave for football prizes, but in this case Switzerland has the home-advantage. In most cases, host countries did very well at EC’s and WC’s.
And, to be honest, Switzerland is really on the up. They have their natural discipline and physical fitness and also bring some big name players to the fore. Kobi Kuhn is the Swiss manager and will be relieved after the EC by Ottmar Hitzfeld, the current Bayern manager. History doesn’t bode well for them, though, they’ve never made it past round 1 in an EC.
But, with experienced players like Johann Vogel (ex-PSV, ex-AC Milan), Blaise N’Kufo (FC Twente striker), Johan Vonlanthen (ex PSV) and Philip Senderos (Arsenal), who knows… They could surprise us… Actually, they already surprised us in a friendly, if I’m not mistaken…

It’s a tough group, this one. Could well be named the group of death… But then again, are there any easy groups in EC football? It could go either way. I suppose most will say Switzerland doesn’t stand a chance. It will be between the Czechs, the Handbags and the Turks… I guess Portugal and the Czech Republic are the obvious choices…

Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 29 comments.

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By AJ | April 18th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

Yeah Portugal is the Brazil of Europe because we tend to play and employ more attacking football than the traditional European defensive style. For WC 06 qualifications we were the top team in terms of overall goals scored, and for the Euro ‘08 qualifications, although not the top, we were in the top 3 (next to Germany and Czech).

I’m sorry to say, but the Holland of today is anything but Brazil. They lack the great attack-minded team of the past decade (which I’ll even admit I admired). The era of Kluivert, Davids, Seedorf, Bergkamp, De Boer brothers, Overmars and Cocu is in a level of its own compared to the contemporary national team…which frankly is quite lackluster.

Anyway Portugal (1st) and Czech (2nd) to top group A.

Posted from Canada

By simon | April 18th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

Portugal attacking? Ooookey. Not with Scolari. Goals aint nothin but a number.

By AJ | April 18th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

That’s why Scolari has beaten Holland (The “Brazil” of Europe) in the last two major torunaments right?

Posted from Canada

By simon | April 18th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

No. The reason why Scolari has beaten Holland in the last major tournaments was due to a strong defense.

By AJ | April 18th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

Right, because Maniche is a defender.

Posted from Canada

By simon | April 18th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

Sorry. You are a bit too stupid to discuss with.

By dirk v.d berg | April 18th, 2008 at 5:02 pm

And I thought Slovakia got the 2nd most amount of goals in Euro 2008 qualifying. I wouldn’t say Portugal’s attacking minded, they’re kind of Cristiano Ronaldo minded, as every ball is played to him. They played 4-3-2-1 in some of the World Cup games, which is a pretty defensive formation. They’re only real attacking players were C. Ronaldo, Figo, and Pauleta. Maniche was employed as a holding or central midfielder in the game against us.

But ya,

Group results
Czech 9pts(Nedved returns and dominates the midfield)
Switzerland 4pts(Derdiyok shines as the best striker coming up)
Portugal 4pts(C. Ronaldo gets injured, so the players keep passing to the touch line hoping he’s there, and keep losing possession)
Turkey 0pts (valiant effort tho)

Posted from Canada

By dirk v.d berg | April 18th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

I’m not saying that Turkeys going to play bad, I’m just saying they’re going to be outplayed, I can see Switzerland stepping up in Euro 2008, and hope they knock out Portugal. If Netherlands don’t win (which they will), I want the Czech’s too win, because Nedved is my favourite non-dutch player, because he’s the best midfielder in the world.

Posted from Canada

By AJ | April 18th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

Simon if you cannot debate properly with someone who is presenting you with facts, do not resort to insults. You said that the reason why Scolari has beaten Holland in the last two major tournaments was because of Portugal’s strong defense. As a Portuguese I’m willing to tell you that our defense is far from being considered “strong”, and it was in fact our offensive more than our defense which sunk the Oranje ship on two different occasions. If you fail to accept that simple fact due to your bias assumptions, then it is you my friend who is intellectually deprived and I cannot change that.

Posted from Canada

By dirk v.d berg | April 18th, 2008 at 8:02 pm

I can’t say it was they’re defensive, because we had a lot of chances that we just couldn’t put in the back of the net, a lot more than Portugal had. They didn’t really outplay us in the offensive end, because we limited them to only a couple of real shots, but I’d say it was our lack of defensive quality that lead to the goal. The Maniche one in Euro 2004, you can’t blame anyone, the C. Ronaldo and other Maniche goals should’ve been controlled by our defense.

In conclusion it was neither the Portugal defense or offense which beat us, but our own defense.

All that I know is: in the World Cup 2006, Figo should’ve got a red card for headbutting van Bommel. Which means that Boulharouz wouldn’t have gotten his for when Figo dived behind him. Meaning we would’ve been played 11-9 after half, and 11-8 once Deco got his card, then we wud’ve won.

Posted from Canada

By Jan | April 18th, 2008 at 8:27 pm

Ooh…this sure stirs up some ghosts for me… (which song is this taken from?).

In my recollection, the loss against Portugal in the EC2004 was deserved. We didn’t play well at all! We did give those goals away, but that’s what football is all about. Teams making mistakes. No mistakes, no goals and horrible football.

The WC2006 game is a totally different piece of chicken (??). We shoudl have scored one at least, we deserved a penalty and a better ref.

Posted from Australia

By goose | April 19th, 2008 at 4:40 am

Portugal call themself the Brasil of Europe (like we and Croatia)..guess its cause they speak the same language and or both whiners!!

Posted from Netherlands

By simon | April 19th, 2008 at 5:57 am

AJ
Seriously man. I said you won because your defense was strong and you say “right, because Maniche is an defender”. You really think he was the only reason you won? That without the other ten players in your team you surely would have won anyway? You know man, more people than those who score contribute to a win.

With defense I dont only mean your back four, no, I also mean the overall defending of the team. From Pauleta to Ricardo. Portugal played very defensive football, which is also the case in the Portugese league. Holland had 61-39 in ball possession, shot 20 times when Portugal only shot 10.

By Levent Babacan | April 19th, 2008 at 9:05 am

dirk v.d berg u can go get fucked if u fink turkey will get outplayed… souds like u dnt knw 2much bout football… watch ull c… im sure turkey will prove u wrong so u can go shut da fuk up

Posted from Australia

By dirk v.d berg | April 19th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

Sorry if I offended you Levent Babacan, I was trying to say I think Turkey was going to lose in the least insulting way possible. It’s my personal opinion if I think Turkey’s going to lose to a bunch of higher ranked teams.

Posted from Canada

By dirk v.d berg | April 19th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

I think Turkey’s a good team and all, they deserved to make it to Euro 2008, (I originally said they’d top their qualification), but I don’t think they’re going to get out of the group stage.

Posted from Canada

By Jan | April 19th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

“We try to be a FRIENDLY community. We do NOT tolerate any post that shows disrespect to any other poster.

If you disagree with another poster, that’s fine. Attack his reasoning, come with fresh facts or just state your opinion but ensure your post is not an attack on that member.

Slander, accusations, belittlement or any anti-social behaviour will result in an immediate banning of your postings.”

Time to point this little rule out, my friends.

With the EC coming up and fans of other nations lurking here (this is the best blog after all) the passion and ifre could heat up quickly.

Levent, I agree with you that Turkey could learn the other three teams a lesson. Turkey’s success is long overdue. But Dirk and others are entitled to their opinions. Don’t take the Turkkish National Team down with you using the language you use.

Keep it civil.

Thanks Dirk, for responding in a mature way.

GO TURKEY!

Posted from Australia

By Finnster01 | April 19th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

I believe Turkey will struggle. Was extremely lucky to qualify over Norway due to the best Turkish player being the Norwegian goalkeeper in both outings. Turkey only beat out a very ordinary Norway team to qualify by 1 pt in the end.

They were better a few years ago. Old stars getting older. However they can bet hot and cold, just don’t think they have the consistency to survive a full tournament. Not many Turkish players starting every week in the big leagues anymore, especially not in EPL, forget about the Big 4. Germany is not a big league, so don’t even start that debate with me.

I think the Czheks are getting very old too. As much as I don’t want it to happen, this has Handbags and fizzy-pop written all over it. Ronaldo to get handbags 3 penalties for diving in group play, instead of being sent off as he should be in every second game in the Premiership if they had any old school referees of Collina caliber.

The Swiss could be an interesting outsider. Never underestimate home field advantage, plus as previous posts pointed out, they have a score to settle with Turkey and this time around I don’t think they will stand with their cap in their hand and take abuse. What comes around goes around. I sure will be watching that game , and I sure know what team I will be rooting for.

Posted from United States

By goose | April 20th, 2008 at 3:35 am

dont want to start all over but can somebody explain to me why Turkey is allowed to play at the EC anyway?? Turkey is not an europea country nor will it ever be one… they should play at the Asian Cup not the EC!
btw; Turkey sucks and its players do too

checz, switserland no change….

Italy or Germany will win it

Posted from Netherlands

By goose | April 20th, 2008 at 3:39 am

@levent; btw; cant have you say those things to a regular on this blog…why dont you take your opinion to your turkey friends??

@Jan; we cant have censorship just cause some people from other countries lurk on this blog…dirk didnt make any terrible remarks

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | April 20th, 2008 at 4:31 am

@Goose: I agree buddy. I didn’t scold Dirk in any way. I even said his response was mature and the way to handle this. My “policy” was aimed at Levent.

As moderator of this blog I can’t respond the way you do

Posted from Australia

By tiju | April 20th, 2008 at 7:40 am

@AJ
this time portugal sucks.
@simmon i am with u.

i want to see the loss of portugal than anybody in the world.
we lost beacause some of our players played with fear
numberone culprit=cocu
roban
vandersar
giovanni
znijder
(i like these guys as players but that time rtheir mental (confidence)attitude was below five year old)

By Pedro | April 20th, 2008 at 9:05 am

We don´t call ourselves the brazillians of Europe. We are PORTUGAL and, personally, I feel honoured that somebody decided to compare us with the brasillians.
What NL, or other teams, might like to be called is a different story.

E.G.:
They have been called the “Brazil of Europe” because of the brand of football they play: artistic, creative, exciting.
in: http://robots.cnnsi.com/soccer/world/2002/world_cup/teams/portugal/

Kadotjes voor allemaal… Super mooi…:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH8vMNre_Lo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjSFFFWJe5A&feature=related

Posted from Netherlands

By sedos | April 24th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

look it all came down to race,,,,, why cant we have a convo that isnt racially motivated, i am turkish by the wya, and i tink honestly, cechz will choke, portugal do have experience, but they lack attacking players, ronaldo cant do everyting, he doesnt work well in the portugal side unlike in man u, turkey is a darkhorse, depends on how they play but i rekon itll be turkey and portugal who will qualify

Posted from Australia

By sedos | April 24th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

overall tournament, its looking like france will win, still a high quality team, italy will is another favourite, depends, theres 90 mins to prove urself by the way AUSSIE RULES IS THE BEST

Posted from Australia

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