Really looking forward to this

[Wyatt Earp]

That's all.

[Furtho]

Really looking forward to this

Tournament football. It's the best thing.

[ad hoc]

Really looking forward to this

I'm sort of not. I can only see one winner (Germany) and while I think they will win well and deservedly, I can't really find it in myself to support any of the teams in the tournament. Indeed if I had select the 16 UEFA teams who I dislike the most to put into one single tournament, the current 16 might just about be it (Israel is the only obvious missing one).

Mind you, by the time next summer comes around I'm sure I'll get excited.

[Duncan Gardner]

Really looking forward to this

That's just greedy Ad Hoc. Try restricting yourself to serious loathing of two teams (while hoping the Krauts crash out early's a given).

[Bored Of Education]

Really looking forward to this

I am really looking forward to it as it will be my last tournament before I am - hopefully - gainfully employed and, seeing as it has sensible kick off times, I might try the "drinking from the kick off of the first game to the final whistle of the last game of the day" game

[Bored Of Education]

Really looking forward to this

Are we doing "Kraut" now? I missed that memo

[Mumpo]

Really looking forward to this

ad hoc wrote:

I'm sort of not. I can only see one winner (Germany

Funnily enough (although not funny at all), I can only see one winner - Spain.

[sw2borshch]

Really looking forward to this

I've managed to get away with not being at work for the first two weeks of every World Cup & Euro since I left school and I inten to keep this record going this time.

And as we're talking about epithets that don't really have any bite but we still shouldn't want to use, I've seen "Boche" spelt as "Bosch" twice in the last week. God help us if there's a war.

[A Doctor Speaks]

Really looking forward to this

Furtho wrote:

Tournament football. It's the best thing.

It really isn't. Another bore-fest beckons.

Can't we just fast forward to a Germany-Spain final?

[Purves Grundy]

Really looking forward to this

I disagree - the last three European Championships have been terrific tournaments, particularly 2004.

Infuriatingly, there are no highlights anywhere of the astonishing Czech Republic vs Netherlands game from that tournament anywhere on the internet, except for a very shonky 2 minute thing on some Russian site. A real shame, as I can find my old tape of it anywhere.

[Furtho]

Really looking forward to this

The only winner I can see is, of course, football.

[G-Man]

Really looking forward to this

Bored of Education wrote:

Are we doing "Kraut" now? I missed that memo

I think you'll find that DG is using it with a wink. He is a great fan of Bundeskrautler Konrad Adenauer.

[Bored Of Education]

Really looking forward to this

Who with the what now?

[historyman]

Really looking forward to this

Purves Grundy wrote:

I disagree - the last three European Championships have been terrific tournaments, particularly 2004.

Infuriatingly, there are no highlights anywhere of the astonishing Czech Republic vs Netherlands game from that tournament anywhere on the internet, except for a very shonky 2 minute thing on some Russian site. A real shame, as I can find my old tape of it anywhere.

Yeh I prefer the Euros to the WC - there's simply too much football to digest in the first two weeks of the WC. Two matches a day for the first two weeks is ideal.

Ahh Pavel Nedved...

[Outside Agent]

Really looking forward to this

I'm looking forward to this more than I did for the World Cup. Actually, I prefer the Euros. Much better quality across the board and the likelihood of getting groups where all four teams have a good chance of emerging are much higher. The two best tournaments of the last twenty years were Euros - 2000 & 2008 - and I'm pretty certain this one will be far better than WC2010.

[Sean of the Shed]

Really looking forward to this

Except that most of the poorest and dullest teams at the 2010 World Cup were European. Switzerland, Greece, England, France, Italy, Portugal (ignoring the freak result against North Korea), and all but the Swiss (thank fuck for small mercies) have qualified for this one.

[Sean of the Shed]

Really looking forward to this

And let's not forget that the Dutch absolutely stunk the final out.

[A Doctor Speaks]

Really looking forward to this

Quite right, Sean.

Duncan Gardner wrote:

Try restricting yourself to serious loathing of two teams (while hoping the Krauts crash out early's a given).

Unless you hate Germany and Spain, why two??

Or be against the former as they probably won't spend most of the time stinking the place out.
Like around at least ten other sides.

[sw2borshch]

Really looking forward to this

Bundeskrautler Konrad Adenauer

He was the boche of West Germany during the Wirtschaftswunder.

[Outside Agent]

Really looking forward to this

Sean of the Shed wrote:

Except that most of the poorest and dullest teams at the 2010 World Cup were European. Switzerland, Greece, England, France, Italy, Portugal (ignoring the freak result against North Korea), and all but the Swiss (thank fuck for small mercies) have qualified for this one.

They were no worse than Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Ivory Coast, North Korea or Honduras. I think we just expect more from European sides.

[E10 Rifle]

Really looking forward to this

Euro 2000 was one of football's all-time peaks - for all the praise now lavished on tiki-taka and Barca/Spain's formations and all the fancy new tactical innovations like false 9s and what have you, the across-the-board spread of flair and skill on view in Holland and Belgium 11 years ago will take some beating.

The only thing is, it didn't really have any fuck-my-old-boots old-school seismic shocks, whereas Euro 2004, though won by a dour team, did, that Czech-Holland game being the standout.

Euro 2004 is also the only tournament this century in which England have been in any way remotely watchable.

[imp]

Really looking forward to this

Although I've always been primarily against the expansion to 24 teams, I've had a bit of a re-think in the last few weeks of qualifying. It would have been really great to see countries like Armenia, Estonia, Macedonia and Bosnia qualifying for the finals. True, the overall quality will be diluted in 2016 (and I agree, the last three Euro tournaments have been much better than the World Cups), but given the continent's expanded number of nations over the past two decades I can see the case for 24 teams, even if I still really don't like it. And I bet Scotland still find a way to not qualify (edged out 1-0 over two legs in the playoffs to a much improved Moldavia - you read it here first).

[Sean of the Shed]

Really looking forward to this

a much improved Moldavia

And newly independent too.

[imp]

Really looking forward to this

I could pretend that's what I really meant, because the gag would still work, but I did confuse Moldavia with Moldova. Should stop listening to Herman Cain on foreign policy.

[dalliance]

Really looking forward to this

Watching a successfully qualified Sweden and their sub-Championship defence last week was a sign of things to come. If they were good enough to make it while it is still 16 nations, imagine the standard you will get when we go to 24 nations competing.

I could live with this more if we did not have the utter nonsense of the qualifiers in advance. Fourteen months and around 270 matches to reduce 51 nations nearly in half to 24. If UEFA want a bigger championship with more games then they should be made by the clubs to have less qualifiers to compensate.