Euro 2008 kicks of today with two intriguing matches: Czech Republic vs. co-host Switzerland followed by Portugal vs. Turkey. Certainly the Czechs and Portuguese both have high hopes for this tournament, although the absence of Tomas Rosicky will really hurt the Czech's overall chances. Portugal plan on redeeming their Euro '04 disappointment by returning to the Final, only this time winning it. They're not the hosts like i '04, but the Portuguese certainly have the weapons in attack and thecreativity to score a lot of goals and advance far in this tournament.
Switzerland will try to use the momentum of the home crowds to move through to the knockout stages and get to the semifinals, something a host country has done in theEuropean championships in every tournament since 1980. But getting through a tough group would be considered a winning achievement for the Swiss, who just don't have enough firepower to move deep into the latter weeks of the tournament. Finally, the Turks, world cup semifinalists in 2002, will try to surprise some of the bigger name European powers and advance out of their group. They are somewhat of an enigma, as they do not regularly rank high on the list of dominant European nations, but they undoubtedly possess enough talent and technical ability to make some noise in Austri-Switzerland '08.
Euro 2008 gets underway tonight, and the next three weeks promise to be very exciting and probably unpredictable. I look for the favorites to do well, starting with comfortable victories today for Czech Republic and Portugal.
My pick to win it all?
Portugal defeats Germany in the first semifinal.
Spain defeats Holland in the second semifinal.
Spain defeats Portugal in the all-Iberia peninsula final.
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2 comments:
did you get a chance to see the US/Argentina game? i missed it, but apparently the US played pretty well.
I missed it too, due to the Lakers - Celtics being on at the same time. Normally I would NEVER miss a chance to see Argentina in action, but I am from Los Angeles...so I had to tune in to the Lake Show. (Stupid Celtics)
It sounds like Argentina had the majority of the chances, and that Tim Howard denied several point blank Julio Cruz shots, though it also sounds like both Dempsey and Onyewu came very close to scoring themselves. In what was a rainy and sloppy night, it's an encoraging sign for the US to hold a team as talented as the Argentines to no goals...
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