Euro 2004 Official Thread

C'mon Holland!!!

I fear that Portugal will knock them out on wednesday,

I'll then have to support Portugal as the United connection will live on until the final!

Hoping the Greeks win the other semi, cant have a Liverpool player threaten to steal the limelight from Ruud or Ronaldo in the final now can I ;)

Originally posted by Old Blue There is an odd statistic that on three occasions a team has lost it's opening match but gone on to reach the final, against the team that they lost to in the first game! So Portugal v Greece isn't completely out of the question.My money is still on Czech Republic though.

There's another statistic that on, at least, 5 occasions the hosting country was kicked out in the semi-finals. Holland in euro 2000, England in '96, Sweden in '92, WestGermany in '88 and Italy in '80. So my money is still on those cheeseheads:D:D:D

The final will be between two fine beer-making nations.

Portugal X Czech Republic.

We do have 3 or 4 greek beers, but i didnt know u guys liked them so much .

I had a bottle Myrthros whilst holidaying in Corfu earlier this year. Soon switched back to Amstel!!

Originally posted by Old Blue I had a bottle Myrthros whilst holidaying in Corfu earlier this year. Soon switched back to Amstel!!

Mind u, accordin to Tim here, mythos is one game away from to be considered one of the best beers worldwide . Seriously now, not the best beer possible, but i ve had worse in my life, besides, i dont remember who was it that said "each country has to have a descent football team and some beers of its own to be considered one" ;) .

israel: love hapoel tel aviv...worst brewers of beer in the world!

Originally posted by Elias > Originally posted by Old Blue I had a bottle Myrthros whilst holidaying in Corfu earlier this year. Soon switched back to Amstel!!

Mind u, accordin to Tim here, mythos is one game away from to be considered one of the best beers worldwide . Seriously now, not the best beer possible, but i ve had worse in my life, besides, i dont remember who was it that said "each country has to have a descent football team and some beers of its own to be considered one" ;) .

The restaurant in front of my house has a picture with a lot of famous mentions about beer, and this one is there. I'll look again and tell you later

Originally posted by Old Blue I had a bottle Myrthros whilst holidaying in Corfu earlier this year. Soon switched back to Amstel!!

When I worked in Greece in 1999, that stuff sold for about 200 dracs a bottle. I wasn't going to complain.....

To PORTUGAL and the fantastic football they've played today against Netherlands: a beer called SUPERBOCK !

Portuguese, of course !!!!! I hope that on Sunday Big Phil and his guys will give me reasons to drink a lot of beer, Brazilian, but beer, :D

"And the Dutch are weeping in 5 languages at least......" (MES, Tempo House)

And so to tonight. My heart wants Greece to win but my wallet demands that the Czech Republic win, in normal time. More chance of a pay out in the office prediction competition that way...

Originally posted by Old Blue And so to tonight. My heart wants Greece to win but my wallet demands that the Czech Republic win, in normal time. More chance of a pay out in the office prediction competition that way...

Just about the same here. I would love Greece to win the whole thing as it would be best for the development of football in Europe, but fear very much that it will make no difference who wins tonight, the trophy has already been guaranteed to Portugal. Sunday's ref being Mr.Homer of Hometown, UEFA-guaranteed back-scratching Portugal-have-to-win-at-all-costs as a thanks for voting for Germany 2006. FIFA and UEFA are so corrupt it is embarrassing. I wouldn't mind betting that guarantees are given these days to host nations to preserve interest from the local public. If Portugal had bombed out the group, Portugal's economy would suffer. Can't allow that, they've been soooo nice to the suits of UEFA........kicker conspiracy indeed.

Greece for me too. The comments about UEFA & FIFA are spot on my man. Blatter will probably get a nice holiday home out of this.

Originally posted by Old Blue And so to tonight. My heart wants Greece to win but my wallet demands that the Czech Republic win, in normal time. More chance of a pay out in the office prediction competition that way...

I had a bet on 3 coutries to win the tournamnet, Italy, England and Chech R., so u can imagine the state im in right now . But.... in the end, to h**** with the stupid bets, lets hit the final boys !!!!! As for Portugal, congratulations to them for a well-deserved win yesterday, but sorry guys, i cant support u on the final, since ure gonna be playing against my bet, or my very country ;) . As for the FIFA/Uefa issue, i think there's no doubt that these ppl care more about business and public relations . On the other hand however, i must say that we didnt witness referee's crimes to the (unbelievable) extent we did on 2002. Portugal may have been treated with a bit of "respect" (especially in some challenges in the middle of the filed), but they deserve to be on the final as they have played well. Now if its "guarranteed" they 'll get the trophy, thats something we re gonna have to see, but i dont think anyone will give it to them if they dont show anything on Sunday...

Sadly (and knowing full well that England only achieved their success in 1966 thanks to some outrageous homer decisions that are conveniently forgotten by the kneejerk press who strove to criticise all but those responsible for the latest England failure last week) football is full of corruption and incompetence by officials of all kinds and badges. Meier's spineless homer decision against Portugal is only compounded by the way in which UEFA have rallied round him as a bastion of truth when it is they who are the crooks. Sure, the scumbag English press went way too far, we've all given up condoning the wankers who churn out The Sun and the like. This is all a very clever way for UEFA and even FIFA to smokescreen the real issues here. It is very much in their interest for the home nation to at least get as far as the quarter finals, for economic purposes. We’re talking big money here, and UEFA award the tournament not to member countries who can guarantee that they will host a good tournament, but to countries who can make UEFA certain financial guarantees, that both UEFA and the host nation will make x out of the tournament. Consequently, UEFA’s minions will do all they can to ensure that these financial guarantees can be met. Refs know how to influence games by carding influential players for nothing, like Robben last night. They know how to basically rule dangermen like Overmars out of a game by winding them up with cards, and they also have the power to rule out goals if there is a big danger of the required result going wrong. Meier couldn’t do much about the penalty shootout result, short of insisting on a kick being retaken if the wrong side had saved one. There would have been little chance of Portugal coming back from 2-1 down with seconds to go, so the cheap and UEFA-sponsored decision was to rule out the goal.

Last night, a Dutch side incapable of organising themselves sufficiently to string together three passes got more and more frustrated by being penalised for absolutely nothing on several occasions, indeed every time they looked like stringing something together, Frisk stopped them. This got them more frustrated and pushed them further out of the game. Portugal were allowed to play freely, allowed to take quick freekicks, sometimes with a moving ball, and there was no insistence on ten yards for freekicks, whereas he applied zero refereeing common sense with the Dutch. That’s how teams get cheated out in a subtle way, there was no one particular incident that cheated the Dutch, just 90 minutes of gentle pressure against them from the one man who is meant to be impartial. It’s a hard enough game 11 against 11 when you aren’t playing well, but 11 against 12 is just not on. Portugal played very well last night, but it's a hell of a lot easier to do so when you have the confidence that you're going to be allowed to.

And don't even start me on South Korea's route through two years ago !

Bring on the next World Cup then. Where's it being held again ?...

Blatter has already spent the advances from his book written on the strength of his elevation to Fuhrer following Germany's success in the 2006 World Cup despite being possibly the crappest host team ever. A 99th minute penalty from Germany's Horst Hodentrager being the crucial moment in a game which saw country X have 27 goals disallowed and have 4 players sent off for smiling. Accepting the Sepp Blatter Trophy, specially commissioned to celebrate Blatter's success as the most powerful man in the world today, German captain Lother Scheisskopf acknowledged that none of their success would have been possible without the crucial role played by Blatter.....

Actually, Havelange stayed for 20 years, I guess, in front of FIFA, and we were back to a cup win only 24 years after. World Cup is pretty influenced by external issues, but not as much as a robber I would say.

If you think, German has win his last Cup in 90, Argentina in 86, Italy in 82 and England only in 66. None of these teams, one against the others, I think, would have external preference.

But I'm sure that WE dont have any preference to win next cup. If there's a team they dont want to be champion, it's US...

And when I say US, I dont mean United States...:D

Never !!!!!!

oh to be greek

Originally posted by Server Error in "/" Application And when I say US, I dont mean United States...:D

Don't worry. We'll be there soon enough with or without FIFA's aid (though I'm sure they'd love to see a pretty significant American run in Germany '06).

Originally posted by Detweiler 3.63 Sadly (and knowing full well that England only achieved their success in 1966 thanks to some outrageous homer decisions that are conveniently forgotten by the kneejerk press who strove to criticise all but those responsible for the latest England failure last week) football is full of corruption and incompetence by officials of all kinds and badges. Meier's spineless homer decision against Portugal is only compounded by the way in which UEFA have rallied round him as a bastion of truth when it is they who are the crooks. Sure, the scumbag English press went way too far, we've all given up condoning the wankers who churn out The Sun and the like. This is all a very clever way for UEFA and even FIFA to smokescreen the real issues here. It is very much in their interest for the home nation to at least get as far as the quarter finals, for economic purposes. We’re talking big money here, and UEFA award the tournament not to member countries who can guarantee that they will host a good tournament, but to countries who can make UEFA certain financial guarantees, that both UEFA and the host nation will make x out of the tournament. Consequently, UEFA’s minions will do all they can to ensure that these financial guarantees can be met. Refs know how to influence games by carding influential players for nothing, like Robben last night. They know how to basically rule dangermen like Overmars out of a game by winding them up with cards, and they also have the power to rule out goals if there is a big danger of the required result going wrong. Meier couldn’t do much about the penalty shootout result, short of insisting on a kick being retaken if the wrong side had saved one. There would have been little chance of Portugal coming back from 2-1 down with seconds to go, so the cheap and UEFA-sponsored decision was to rule out the goal.Last night, a Dutch side incapable of organising themselves sufficiently to string together three passes got more and more frustrated by being penalised for absolutely nothing on several occasions, indeed every time they looked like stringing something together, Frisk stopped them. This got them more frustrated and pushed them further out of the game. Portugal were allowed to play freely, allowed to take quick freekicks, sometimes with a moving ball, and there was no insistence on ten yards for freekicks, whereas he applied zero refereeing common sense with the Dutch. That’s how teams get cheated out in a subtle way, there was no one particular incident that cheated the Dutch, just 90 minutes of gentle pressure against them from the one man who is meant to be impartial. It’s a hard enough game 11 against 11 when you aren’t playing well, but 11 against 12 is just not on. Portugal played very well last night, but it's a hell of a lot easier to do so when you have the confidence that you're going to be allowed to.And don't even start me on South Korea's route through two years ago !

AND RUUD AGREES!

Originally posted by almanso my god, the greeks on the final match! i´m sure they will be out of beers tonight in Greece! congrats to the greeks and especially our NOOLers friends Elias and Sophia.

Thanks mate, but even that im tall as Dellas, goodlooking as Vryzas and clever as mr Otto, i still dont play ball, im only good at shouting :D :D :D .

Can you let me know asap if you see any bookies giving odds on South Africa reaching the semi-finals in 2010...!!!

Chris :)

Originally posted by Detweiler 3.63 Sadly (and knowing full well that England only achieved their success in 1966 thanks to some outrageous homer decisions that are conveniently forgotten by the kneejerk press who strove to criticise all but those responsible for the latest England failure last week) football is full of corruption and incompetence by officials of all kinds and badges. Meier's spineless homer decision against Portugal is only compounded by the way in which UEFA have rallied round him as a bastion of truth when it is they who are the crooks. Sure, the scumbag English press went way too far, we've all given up condoning the wankers who churn out The Sun and the like. This is all a very clever way for UEFA and even FIFA to smokescreen the real issues here. It is very much in their interest for the home nation to at least get as far as the quarter finals, for economic purposes. We’re talking big money here, and UEFA award the tournament not to member countries who can guarantee that they will host a good tournament, but to countries who can make UEFA certain financial guarantees, that both UEFA and the host nation will make x out of the tournament. Consequently, UEFA’s minions will do all they can to ensure that these financial guarantees can be met. Refs know how to influence games by carding influential players for nothing, like Robben last night. They know how to basically rule dangermen like Overmars out of a game by winding them up with cards, and they also have the power to rule out goals if there is a big danger of the required result going wrong. Meier couldn’t do much about the penalty shootout result, short of insisting on a kick being retaken if the wrong side had saved one. There would have been little chance of Portugal coming back from 2-1 down with seconds to go, so the cheap and UEFA-sponsored decision was to rule out the goal.Last night, a Dutch side incapable of organising themselves sufficiently to string together three passes got more and more frustrated by being penalised for absolutely nothing on several occasions, indeed every time they looked like stringing something together, Frisk stopped them. This got them more frustrated and pushed them further out of the game. Portugal were allowed to play freely, allowed to take quick freekicks, sometimes with a moving ball, and there was no insistence on ten yards for freekicks, whereas he applied zero refereeing common sense with the Dutch. That’s how teams get cheated out in a subtle way, there was no one particular incident that cheated the Dutch, just 90 minutes of gentle pressure against them from the one man who is meant to be impartial. It’s a hard enough game 11 against 11 when you aren’t playing well, but 11 against 12 is just not on. Portugal played very well last night, but it's a hell of a lot easier to do so when you have the confidence that you're going to be allowed to.And don't even start me on South Korea's route through two years ago !

Very sharp observations! And your in good company, the great maestro himself, Johan Cruijff, pointed this theory out, after the match. But the Portugese were better...