Euro Cup 2012

[Mindbender]

Originally Posted by Rissask

David, those were hilarious!

That's the only entertainment I get from football - watching any sport bores me solid.

The Queen's jubilee was good though, especially the pageant down the Thames.

Next for Great Britain, something called the Olympics. I will watch the opening and closing ceromonies for sure. Look out for Boris, our eccentric and wonderful Mayor of London.

[Andiline]

I only take interest because I am betting with my colleagues. After Germany just won I am on rank 40 (of 44). Guess this makes it pretty clear how valuable my expertise is....

[ryberg]

You bet against Germany?!?

[ryberg]

Some of those quotes are quite good, but I don't know that anything beats Gary Lineker's famous one:

"Soccer is a game for 22 people that run around, play the ball, and one referee who makes a slew of mistakes, and in the end Germany always wins."

[JEZ]

England vs Sweden tomorrow at La Rana. It's going to be a fun time.

[Andiline]

Originally Posted by ryberg

You bet against Germany?!?

Not exactly, I said 1:1. But we have to forecast ALL results and we had to forecast too who will be champion in the end, who will be in the quarter and who will be in the semi-finals. So it's not only the Germany-games. It is still early days but I am not overly optimistic that I will win in the end.

[Andiline]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Some of those quotes are quite good, but I don't know that anything beats Gary Lineker's famous one:

Well, it was true yesterday thanks to Super-Mario.

[ryberg]

Well his second goal was pretty straightforward. I mean, not taking anything g away from him, and it's always tricky to score goals even given good chances (as Ronaldo displayed twice yesterday!), but I'm not sure why the Dutch defense wasn't a bit more on top of things there.

However that first goal, and especially that nifty bit of footwork to set it up, was great on his part, and he has been getting his job done! Again in contrast to Ronaldo. Just saw this scary report about him:

Cristiano Ronaldo hits out at Lionel Messi | Mail Online

Even at this tournament, Messi is very much in his head!

[Mindbender]

Here's some more

"He dribbles a lot and the opposition don't like it - you can see it all over their faces."
Ron Atkinson

http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/gex_dtrs.htm

[kirbyfan]

Tried to watch Spain vs Italy on Sunday because a friend of mine is from Spain and is a big fan. I still dont get it. 3 hours and a final of 1-1....its like watching paint dry to me.

I guess its like sushi....I think it tastes awful but millions of people like it so....

[Seashell]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Where are you? I've been happy to see full coverage in the US on ESPN.

Denmark definitely not inclined to go gentle into that good night...

I am in Canada, we did get coverage of the game, thank god! The scheduling was screwed up, which was corrected. I watch Portugal play from 7:00-8:00 and from 8:00 - 10:00 Germany. I did not see the complete Portugal game but the first half was good.

[Seashell]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Some of those quotes are quite good, but I don't know that anything beats Gary Lineker's famous one:

"Soccer is a game for 22 people that run around, play the ball, and one referee who makes a slew of mistakes, and in the end Germany always wins."

I am liking this quote very very much...

[Seashell]

Originally Posted by Andiline

I only take interest because I am betting with my colleagues. After Germany just won I am on rank 40 (of 44). Guess this makes it pretty clear how valuable my expertise is....

We have too many people in our company pool to do the ranking, once the round robbin is over then we will have some results in. If Germany does not make it to the quarter finals, I will never hear the end of this until the World Cup.

I just looked a tthe vacation data base and there are alot of people booking this afternoon off. I wonder what they will be doing...?

Tomorrow is Soccer Jersey day at work, and I will wear mine proudly (sticking my chest out and stomach in)

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by kirbyfan

Tried to watch Spain vs Italy on Sunday because a friend of mine is from Spain and is a big fan. I still dont get it. 3 hours and a final of 1-1....its like watching paint dry to me.

I guess its like sushi....I think it tastes awful but millions of people like it so....

It is the group stage of a tournament, though. Just as in the World Cup, there are 3 options (win, draw, lose) at this stage, each with its own effect on the group results (3, 1 or 0 points). You have to take it for what it is, which is to say in the case of that match, a disappointment for Spain and a very nice and positive outcome for Italy.

The options are reduced to 2 (win, or lose and go home) as soon as the 3 games of the group stage are completed. They will play an additional half hour at the end of full time, and then they'll go to PKs, if necessary, to decide the winner. Thus it is exactly the situation as in the NFL: a tie is permitted as an outcome during the regular season, but not in the post-season.

If it's the lack of more scoring that's getting you, well then again you can't make too much out of 1 match. There were 8 goals yesterday, 5-6 of which were very nice indeed, in just 2 matches.

Dunno if that info/context helps any, but at the end of the day, honestly if you didn't enjoy that Spain–Italy clash (for whatever reason), then I'm afraid you probably just don't like soccer.

For me, I'm glad to see probably the single biggest indicator of the continued growth in popularity ofthe sport in the US: the entire Euro 2012 tournament being broadcast in high profile on ESPN.

[ryberg]

And Croatia now says game on!