Soccer

I think that's a pretty accurate last 8 prediction, I can't really disagree with any of them.

The Czechs were good but perhpas they may have peaked a bit early to go all the way in the tournament. The organisation & drive they showed against Holland reminded me of the best German teams of the past. That Nedved was outstanding, that player has got everything.

 

Yeah he has - he is an amazing player. Him and Davids would be two amazing signings for any club. Both of them have so much drive and determination, they are everywhere on the pitch. Barcelona arent offering Davids a contract now, so he will be up for grabs. Hope United swoop for him.

Im really looking forward to the Protugal v Spain match, it'll be on soon. I dont know who im supporting yet, but i think i know who will be victorious.

 

Have to see if England gets kicked out today. I have been following this, and think (sorry all Brits) it will happen. Spain was first, now I thinking England will go next.

The match that I will be cringing for is Germany. Latvia, Netherland and Germany are so close that it will be close. I am hoping Germany gets through, I know they will not win against Czech, but I am praying for a 0,0 tie with latvia and Netherlands, just so German can get through.
Call me crazy but I am still hoping Germany will take it.

 

Looks like we're supporting different teams then old buddy. Im very hopeful that Holland beat Latvia by atleast 1 goal and that Czechs draw or beat Germany. That way holland will go through along with Czech who were first to qulaify being the only team to win both of their first matches.

Im hoping for Holland & Czech to somehow meat in the final again. After the last match they played together (best of the tournament so far) i think it would make for very interesting football. Come on the Dutch, another game like you had against the Czechs would be great - i predict a 3-1 beating of Latvia and a 2-1 to Czech over Germany.

 

Sadly I could see that as well, but I am really hoping for Germany to make a come back. For the Final I would like to see Italy and Germany. I think that would be a good match.

 

If Italy Qualify - they have been very porr so far. I dont fancy them getting near the final to be honest. id like to see Croatia doing well, or France and Holland

 

England and France both through to Quarter Finals. England are playing Portugal next....

 

That was crazy, France did there famous. 2 goals 76min and 84min. That is crazy, It would have been funny if Swiss won. That would have bumped France out.

The England game was also nuts, England scores, oh wait then Crotia scores, but then from behind England finishes it up with still a 2 point lead.

So all this means that Germany will win

 

I have rarely witnessed a more mature performance from a relatively young England side. Drive, poise & commitment through the midfield & dynamics upfront with Wayne Rooney & the effort of Michael Owen. Rooney is playing way in advance of his age & is sure to only get better in the coming years. I guess it's purely up to him as to how far he eventually will go. The guys no boy, he's a mule wearing a football shirt ! Oriphus, I would be intersted in your comments on England so far in this tournament.

The Czech Republic & England are the 2 most dynamic teams left in the tournament, but I feel England may struggle a little against Portugal. If Portugal continue to play with 1 striker upfront, I feel England may have some success. The 1-1 friendly between the 2 teams a few months ago leaves me with no real fear of the Portuguese. Ronaldo poses the biggest threat but he did not get too involved in the second half against Spain. Ashley Cole, I feel, may be the key england man for this upcoming game.

It will be fun to see the outcome of the 2 games tonight. It looks like the Italian paranoia is in overdrive. If the Sweden/Denmark game finishes 2-2 they will both go through. It's a shame the Italians did'nt show more desire to "go for the win" in their first 2 games. They only have themselves to blame. I am rooting for both Sweden & Denmark to qualify.

As for Germany, they are hopelessly inept in front of goal & pose minmal threat from midfield. Latvia could & should have won that game. I still think Germany may well edge out Holland for the 2nd spot, what a terrible shame that would be.
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England, I feel are a team that need a good kick in the arse to get them going. They played well against an off-form France and fell to pieces at the very end - that was unlucky. They learnt from their mistakes i think and have started to play better football. I still dont see enough contribution from Davide Beckham. He is there, but is not playing as vital a role as i expected him to.

I think the partnership in the central of defence is blooming well. I wouldve liked to have seen Wes Brown getting a chance beside John Terry, just to see how that would have worked out. I think the Diamond formation is pretty useless for England, and testimony to that is that when they switch back to a 4-4-2 you see a big difference in them (hence Scholes' goal for them yesterday). I think that Paul should be playing more in the centre of defence in front of the other 3, kind of like a 4-3-1-2, but thats just an opinion. It usually works for United and its the reason why he has scored so much last season for them.

Michael Owen is missing chance after chance. He needs to start taking them. Steven Gerard set him up amazingly yesterday and somehow he failed to get a shot on target in that move.

As for Wayne Rooney...well.....i think the English are being a bit premature on the whole Rooney situation. Ok, he has showed phenomenal ability and has scored some great goals, but you cant exactly say that he has scsored them against top class opponents. He failed to score against a top side, being France, and you cant exactly call Switzerland the cream of the crop. I do think there is massive ability, but a young Pele, Van Basten or Best? I think not. Id be more inclined to compare him to a Paul Gasgoine, who i wouldnt rate as one of the top strikers in the world. If i had a choice between Thiery Henry (who has been porrish so far) and Wayne Rooney, id take Thiery. Id also take Rudd Van Nistelrooy, Fernando Morientes, Raul and a few others as well. Thats not to say i dont rate him higly, id do. But, i think as usual, the English media over-do everything and lead to this Frenzy. Hence all the tabloids had Rooney on the front and back. i just hope for the young lads sake he doesnt suddenly stop scoring.

Im hoping for Italy and Sweden to win tonight. Would like to see a hatrick from Henrik Larsson, but i dont think it will be that open a game against the Danish.

 

With all this talk about Denmark and Sweden, I hope Denmark wins and Itally win. Then Sweden is screwed.

But I would like Sweden and Itally move on. Itally I think still has potential to go on.

 

Thank god the Italians are out. Just too negative to progress. Well done Sweden & Denmark.

Id take 4 goals from 3 games any day. Considering that England played a hopelesly negative defensive game against the French Im not surprised he didnt score. But you must admit he did skin Thuram & force a penalty.

Totally agree. He must be carrying an injury of some kind. Perhaps Lampard is starting to take the midfield starring role away from him?

Gascoigne was a midfielder not a striker. I feel the comparison is unfair.

Rooney has one main advantage from all of those top players you have mentioned. He could quite easily drop into midfield & perform that role aswell, infact he is being played behind Owen in this tournament (4-4-1-1). He seem's to me, to "almost" represent the complete player. His vision, passing ability, strength, balance & eye for goal are outstanding for a player of his age. I have yet to see an English player (in my lifetime) who can compare.

Agreed. The English media will build this lad up, then slaughter him as soon as they have the chance. I fear badly for the lad. The pressure is going to be unbearable on the poor fella. If he does move onto another club I just hope he goes to Man utd. Fergie will look after him and keep his feet on the ground. If he goes to Chelsea, god help him.

In general I have been very surprised by England. I feel they have over performed & may have peaked too early. IF they get past Portugal, and it's a big IF anything could happen. But the Portuguese will have all the fans, unlike the 3 group games for england where they had the lions share of the support.



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Yeah England have done very well and i have a feeling they may upset the home fans on thursday, who knows. Sorry, i didnt mean to say striker after Gascoigne, but you saw my point anyway. I really am worried for the lad that the media will build he up far too much and when he doesnt perform someday, they will come down hard on him. They could end up shattering the confidence of the young lad. Fergie would look after him if he went to United, players at that age need that. They need to learn how to cope with pressure from a point were the pressure isnt all on them. How will Wayne Rooney feel if he doesnt score a goal on thursday, or has a poor game and England go out?

Is Wayne Rooney another Gary Lineker? lol. Also, Rooney is an Irish Catholic name, whats he doing playing for England ;-)

 

I think the pressure on Rooney will, eventually, get the better of him. It really does not help when the England manager compares him to Pele. That is a ridiculous thing to say, there will only ever be one Pele !

One Gary Lineker is enough for anyones lifetime! Did you know he never got yellow carded in his entire proffesional career?

I really dont think he will care too much if this happens. But perhaps the English press may "scapegoat" the fella if he makes a serious mistake, which is to be expected from a lad his age.

God knows!! but i'm pleased he is.

To change the subject slightly. I am not anti Italian! I just get so fed up with their defensive appraoch, when they have REAL skill & class through the team. It breaks my heart to see players underperform like this. The same applies to Spain. Geeeeeees was I dissapointed with their attitude in the final group game. If England go out, I just hope they "have a go".

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Yeah - Gary Lineker is a legend for never getting a yellow card. Not many footballers can say that. I think Arsenal's Wiltord got his first one last season.

I agree with you on the Italy front. There are so many talented individuals on that team, its just a shame that the Italian mentality these days (and for a long time) has been solid defences and boring football. I think the Argentinian league & La Liga/Premiership are good displays of entertaining football. There is good defending, attacking and keep-ball football in them all. The Brazilian league is pretty good as well.

The English press are bastards. Look what they did to Beckham ages ago, now he's the captain. Come on Rooney, come joing Ireland ;-)

 

Oriphus, what do you think I here Czech is resting all its good players. Germany should do well. I am hoping they will be ranked as number two.

Germany all the way to the finals.

 

Oh huge upset for Germany. Well the Cup is over, the best team was kicked. No point now

I now am thinking winners will be Portugal, France, Sweden and Czech. Germany could have given the Sweds a good run, but now the Dutch will lose.

 

Prisoner

It's good to see that you still support Germany. But the fact is, germany werent good enough to qualify & they got precicely what they deserved. They must be crapping over the next world cup (They host it in 2 years time!!)

I am delighted that the Dutch team got through. I now expect them to go far & wouldnt be surprised if they won the whole thing. Ruud VN has hit top form at the right time.

I predict the 4 following teams to progress to the semi's Portugal, Holland, France, Czech.

Oriphus please find below a good link for all things "newsy" about Man utd

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Manchester+United
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Ya I still suport Germany, but you are completely right. The first half they played hard, well the first half of the first. But they really slowed up, and it was agaist the second and third line of Czech. But I would have liked to see them take it. I was also wrong about Italy, I was hoping they would break.
But I do think Sweden will kill the dutch, expecting a 1,0 or 2,1 game for Sweden.

 

Mate, i sympathise with you, being a germany supporter. Considering their excellent record over the last few decades it really is a surprise to see them fall so badly. It will be temporary though, trust me.

IF England win tonight, and that's a big IF by the way (as you can see i'm not even slightly confident !) they will play the winner of Sweden VS Holland. I know which team id rather face in the Semi's. Gooooo Sweden!!