its looking like a 3-0 win jason they can’t lose against the swiss
Heh! I wasn’t far off! I didn’t watch the game…I was at training…I doubt whether the Lions would have missed a training session to watch me run 
How did England play? Rooney is the emerging star it seems…
damn i should have placed a bet on the final score
England were fine. It wasn’t the most gripping of games, but they seems comfortable. There are still doubts over the keeper though. Hakan Yakin took pretty much any free kick in the England half, and was firing them in between the keeper and the defenders. On another day two or three of them could have gone in.
Rooney’s temper flaired up again - he kicked the Swiss keeper in a challenge, was booked, then for some reason complained. YOU KICKED THE GUY IN THE HEAD - what do you expect! Owen looked poor. Don’t imagine he’ll do well against some of the better defenses - lacking in confidence. Do you put him on the bench, or hope he’ll get his head in gear…?
I missed the France game last night. Any comments?
I think France was awful (in relation to the standard they set recently), far worse than against England.
Viera and Zidane did well, forget about the rest. Their forwards did not come into play at all, defenders made crucial mistakes - Croatia deserved to win. (although playing poorly during the first 60 minutes and the penalty was none!)
If the French don’t change a lot I do not expect them in the final.
But the worst performance was delivered by the referee - reminded me of WC in Jap/Kor (were almost every single referee was a catastrophy).
To me most convincing teams so far: Germany, Sweden, Czech
Biggest disappointments: Netherlands and France
So,first round is closed what’s next???
2nd Round:
Portugal vs England (should be good game)
Sweden vs Netherlands
France vs Greece (God, I can’t stand France, their just to damn cocky)
Czech vs Denmark
England is doing pretty well, Denmark has a decent team, the rest won’t go further…
Czechs - Very good panel Dark horses - steady games, great depth of talent on whole panel, plenty of experience.
France haven’t been tested yet - but are a good team, with plenty of talent, but if Zindane is held, no one else is having a good enough tournament to step up and take over or carry the can.
Sweden have a good team also, especially with Larson, (who I regard as one of the best players in the world at the minute, and one of the most truly honest and genuine) but they haven’t the talent to win out.
Holland are coming strong and are starting to click just now, however they will have tougher tests ahead.
England won’t win becuase, defensively they are a mess, midfield is settled and up front they’re relying only on Roooooonaldo - if he’s held and even if the opposition don’t score - it’s back to penalties
Portugal are going ok and are starting to come good - They need big games form Figo and Ronaldo on the wing to challenege seriously though, if Figo especially has one poor game - they’re in trouble
England are good, but the Rooooonaldo fator and bullshit is hiding weaknesses in their game, Goalkeeper is a disaster and the defense are panicking as a result. Campbell and Terry are very poor at the moment. Apart from Rooney, no one else can score, Sure Lampard and Gerard might if the score is 2-0 and England are cruising but they aren’t really on fire yet. Beckham is having a quiet tournament also. Scholes is only 75% fit at most and England badly miss him as an attacking otption. Englands biggest loss is Butt. If Butt was playing and satyed in a holding role completely, it would allow others to attack and give gerard and Lampard a freer role.
Owen is annonymous and anyone would be better than him at the moment.
I fancy Portugal to win tonight. Ronaldo will give Cole a heart attack running at him all eveneing and him and Figo will win plenty of free kicks for calamity James to drop
Tie up Rooooooonaldo or kick him hard early on and they can definitely beat them.
… and oh yeh … I’d keep and eye on the Czechs!!!
My bet: Portugal, Netherlands, France and Czech are going to win - only unsure bout Portugal, the rest seems 100% for me…
Bye Bye England!! I think the ref did a better job here, than with the Italy vs Bulgaria game. I know, I know…of course I would say that cuz I’m Italian, but at first when it seemed that Campbell scored in the last few mins of regular time and then the ref denied it, I thought to myself, “man this guy is blind”, but when I reviewed the replay it was clear that it was goaltender interference (not from Campbell) and it was armed in, not headed/chested like some english players were claiming.
I think the ref was ok, the keeper was being pushed down.
The Portugese were denied a goal, too - I still do not know if the ball was behind the line - never saw a good replay.
The English played so well at start, but stopped playing at about 35 mins. Then only destroying the game, committing a lot of fouls. Good players (except for that terrible goalkeeper) but wrong tactics (so basically I’d blame the coach) - they could have won…
great game.portugal deserved the win no matter what.england had good defense but as no23 stated earlier they rely on rooney too much.beckham wasn’t given an inch leading to a quiet game for him and what a penalty kick heh!!!
in ireland that strike would have earned him 1point.deco played crap for portugal but scored his penalty.
great game and alot of happy faces aroung europe.sorry england but you are the weakest link!!! BYE BYE
Portugal were much better and they deserved it. I just didn’t see the replay for that shot in the extra time for portugal. I believe it was a goal. I do believe so. But I never saw the replay. So that was going to save a lot of stress in penalty kicks. But to say the truth, they were good. Its the only time when I believe that football players start to get the real feeling of how it is to sit on the 100m start!!!
The last 2 penalty shots were great for portugal. You saw the one before last was tricky and really needed a lot of guts to be done. God!! Then the Goal keeper stopped one for England and went on to score the most accurate kick of all of them WAW. What a goal Keeper. Good luck for Portugal. I wish france goes no where from here. I get sick everytime I see french players!! I just get sick!
French team are just too damn cocky, hopefully Greece will eliminate them, although unlikely.
The Pork-Chop goalie, I think his name is Ricardo, I didn’t think he was a great goalie, but when he made his last save on penalty kicks, did you notice that it was BARE handed?? Great Job!! and then his goal, was just sweet revenge I imagine.
Great Job Greece! that was one of the best goals I’ve seen thus far.
greece in the finals against portugal, i love it.
Great job Greece!! Personally I think Porto’s gonna take it and I would like to see them lose b/c of their many band-wagon fans, also, Greece was ranked as 3rd from bottom of the list, so it would be nice. This tournament has been all underdogs…good soccer!
I don’t know - good tactical performance of Greece, but I can’t help the feeling that the better team lost. It was a lot of luck, too - could easily be 2:0 for the Czech after 10 minutes as well.
And the final would have been more attractive with two teams with a strong offense.
But still - respect to Greece.
I won’t say a word, cause all my bets gone to hell.
very strange!!! The first game is replicating its self as the last game!! But who’s gonna win this time. I guess Portugal will be heading for revange. But is greece gonna let them??