EUropean Championship 2008

Well, last cup showed that any team can win. I don't have any special team I believe in this year, but as long as Germany doesn't I'm happy ;) Sweden won't for sure, with the injured- and out-of-form-ridden team. What has made Sweden do well in the past - a solid defence - has during the last couple of years been a catastroph. Only Mellberg is any good. The offensive is for once very good, but we are used to play solid defence and score on counter-attacks. We've played basicly the same boring game as the Greek utilized to win last time and aren't used to offensive games (and the midfield will have problems against the more solid teams to back up an offense anyway).

However, I've been looking forward to it for a long while, and will follow the whole thing. I'm considering going down to Europe to experience the atmosphere

Goalkeepers
• Andreas Isaksson (Manchester City)
  
• Rami Shaaban (Hammarby IF)
  
• Johan Wiland (IF Elfsborg)
  

Defenders
• Olof Mellberg (Aston Villa)
  
• Petter Hansson (Stade Rennais FC)
  
• Fredrik Stoor (Rosenborg)
  
• Daniel Majstorovic (FC Basel)
  
• Andreas Granqvist (Wigan Athletic)
  
• Mikael Dorsin (CFL Cluj)
  

Midfielders
• Mikael Nilsson (Panathinaikos)
  
• Tobias Linderoth (Galatasaray)
  
• Niclas Alexandersson (IFK Göteborg)
  
• Anders Svensson (IF Elfsborg)
  
• Fredrik Ljungberg (West Ham United)
  
• Kim Källström (Lyon)
  
• Sebastian Larsson (Birmingham City)
  
• Daniel Andersson (Malmö FF)
  
• Christian Wilhelmsson (Deportivo La Coruña)
  

Forwards
• Zlatan Ibrahimović (Inter)
  
• Johan Elmander (Toulouse FC)
  
• Henrik Larsson (Helsingborgs If)
  
• Marcus Allbäck (Örgryte IS)
  
• Markus Rosenberg (Werder Bremen)
  

Three of the most important players -Ljungberg, Linderoth and Ibrahimovic - are all having problems with injuries. Will be interesting, to say the least.




Edited by Styrbiorn - 28-May-2008 at 15:00

Originally posted by ulrich von hutten Ibrahimovic has to show, whether he is really a good player or only a loud-mouth. Larson is beyond his peak and till now i had many sympathies for the Swedish people and the Swedish team. But after Styrbiorn's utterences about the German team , i have to rethink.

We want revenge for the humiliation in the World Cup - but do notice the smiley I put there, it wasn't all too seriously meant

Ibrahimovic is sure good enough - look how he finished the Scudetto. His problem is in his maybe-injured legs. He has less talented backup players, which will affect him. He has shown to be lazy when he doesn't get the best passes (and he was indeed terrible in the WC).

Larsson is indeed beyond peek, but he was still old when he engineered Barcelona's Champions League win and the United episode. He may be old, but he's a physical phenomenon. His greatest asset is the effect he will have on the team though - he's an incredible leader and will raise the morale a lot.






Edited by Styrbiorn - 28-May-2008 at 15:08

Yeahhhhhhhhhh!  Football's back(in a week)

Love Euro Cup!  Love Copa America too but the competition drops off after top 3-4 teams. 
First I'll start out with what I see as strongest to weakest.  I can only watch the bigger leagues so if I'm biased to the teams with players that performed well in bigger leagues, please forgive me.  I can only write as I see them.

The Contenders(Teams that should be in Semi and can win it all)

1.     France                                            
2.     Portugal                                       
3.     Netherlands

The Dark Horses(Teams that can be in Semi and outside shot at winning)                               
4.     Italy                                               
5.     Germany                                        
6.     Spain                                            
7.     Croatia

The Pretenders(Teams that has outside shot at Semi but won't win it all)                                      
8.     Romania
9.     Turkey
10.   Swiss
11.   Czech Republic
12.   Greece                                         
13.   Russia
14.   Sweden

Thanks for showing up(Teams would need much luck or home cooking to get out of Group stage)
15.   Poland
16.   Austria

Don't get upset if I didn't give your team favorable view.    Though I will stand by my pick, I do have touch of death thing.  I'm good at jinxing good teams, so perhaps you don't wanna be at the top of my list.

I will  go through  group by group and several contenders roster and analysis later.


Edited by King Kang of Mu - 28-May-2008 at 17:22

There is no United Kingdom football team. Stupid really they might actually win something then.

Originally posted by ulrich von hutten First goal for the Bundesliga.   57 participants of the different EC Team are earning their fees in the Bundesliga. 43 are playing in  the Premier League , 41 in Primera División (Spain) and 36 in the Seria A (Italy).   This result is a bit blurred cause the team for the british island (England ?) didn't qualify.

Wow, cool stat!   Yeah, if England got in that would shot up their numbers because  most of them play in England.   German Clubs seems to have more Eastern Euopean national team level players.  Spain and Italy get bigger participation from S. American players.   Seria A  is also still suffering from  game fixing scandals.   

I wonder what would be numbers for last world Cup?   Or for every world Cup and Euro Cup.
Thanks for the cool stat!

I did put Germany originally in as contenders but I saw the Belarus highlight.  You are right I shouldn't judge this German squad based on just one game.    I still think they overachieved little bit in WC and they still got some questions in the roster.  Mainly either Poldolski or Schweinseitger have to contribute more.   Ballack's been playing better in the later part of EPL so that will definitely help Germany.  If Gomez can solidify his spot next to Klose that will help a lot too which I see it happening for sure.  Borowski can also step up big time in this tournament.  Kahn's presence on and off the field will be missed too.  So I think they have some questions to answer but there are many unproven elements that could turn out positively.  So I have no Problrm putting back on the contender spot. 

Edited by King Kang of Mu - 29-May-2008 at 20:38

Originally posted by King Kang of Mu I did put Germany originally in as contenders but I saw the Belarus highlight.  You are right I shouldn't judge this German squad based on just one game.    I still think they overachieved little bit in WC and they still got some questions in the roster.  Mainly either Poldolski or Schweinseitger have to contribute more.   Ballack's been playing better in the later part of EPL so that will definitely help Germany.  If Gomez can solidify his spot next to Klose that will help a lot too which I see it happening for sure.  Borowski can also step up big time in this tournament.  Kahn's presence on and off the field will be missed too.  So I think they have some questions to answer but there are many unproven elements that could turn out positively.  So I have no Problrm putting back on the contender spot.

i pretty much agree with yoru assessment, but considdering all that, Germany still compares more favoruably to most others, particularly France, because simply France has soem men as you demonstrated but major leagues and national teams are always two worlds entirely, just look at the Netherlands. i expect the results you expect from France achieved by the oranjes. you know oranjes and Germany are arch-enemies and i'm quite favourable towards France but thats what i think. the Dutch can shape a team but France can't. Ribery and only Ribery can make a difference and i don't think he has reahced his best perfromance yet, so France will only make a potent competitor in (near) future tournaments.
in regards to Germany, i could mention dozens of issues but it would make Germany look even more pathetic than Austria i'm very critical afterall.

In my opinion pre-Euro friendly games have no importance and especially results. Coaches just check diffrent options so I wouldn't be very optimistic despite last Germany result. Especially that I think it wasn't the first team.

The augurs gave their statements. But the ugurs will fail once again.

It is difficult to do predictions...We're talking about 16 teams in a continent full of good teams. I believe the key is focus and stability from start to the end. The groups phase is the one that will put a mark on the teams and their mentality. In the knock out matches anything can happen. When we're talking about knockouts, I believe the Italians are the most venomus. I guess we all know how capable they are to get a result in the last minute. The Germans as we know are fighters who can chase the vicroty from the first to the last second. Russia is a team with players playing together in their club teams, they will be a hard nutt. I feel this euro will be once again a hard contest...