Actually, UEFA has already decided that Markus Merk (a German) will be refereeing the final, so no such luck there. 
Colophon: yeah, Davids didn’t look exactly fresh during that goal. Mind you, the header was way too fast and way too well-placed to be stoppable, IMHO. But Edgar certainly didn’t look the part there, whereas he played a pretty good match overall.
I think UEFA’s view is that all refs are, by definition, neutral :rolleyes:.
I agree with the general sentiment of a badly-reffed competition. Has been fun, though, and cheer up England/Holland etc - at least your teams have an outside chance in the Euro & World Cups. My own Scotland look like they’re going to struggle for results against the likes of the mighty Faroe Islands for many years, with the SFA’s (ha, appropriate initials huh?) head collectively stuck in the sand refusing to admit there’s a problem (our league is reffed to allow the ‘physical’ side of the game to dominate, with the result that when our teams - club or national - go abroad we get penalised every time :smack: ).
Anyway, time for one more bit of bad commentary (from John Motson at the end of last night’s game):
I sometimes think the commentators have a wee competition themselves, see who can make the daftest remark. 
Actually, that’s kind of amusing. Admittedly in an irrelevant, almost groan-worthy way, but amusing nontheless.
It was funny enough to have the BBC pundits practically rolling off their seats. I’ve seen plenty of player’s actions getting criticized on TV, but this was a first time I’ve seen one getting howls of laughter. It was that ridiculous. He stands on the goal-line, one hand on hip and the other leaning casually on the post. Ball comes across, header flies in, Davids barely moves. It was like he’d stopped to take in the view, and was damned if a game of football was going to spoil it. All he was missing was a flask and a sandwich.
Oh wow! Not a particular well played match but who would have thought that? Guess there’s gonna be a party in Athens tonight. Greece has been tipped the loser in every match they’ve played, perhaps except against Russia, and yet there they are. Good for them – today they played at least as good as the Czechs.
:eek:
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
I’m lost for words. Congrats, Greece - however the hell you did it.
Bah. Cynical defensive football 1, the Beautiful Game 0. I love the way the Czechs play, and we had a potentially great final lined up there, but now it’ll be 120 minutes of Greeks rolling around like they’ve been hit by a sniper. Hoping against hope that Portugal thrash them.
What’s with Portguese TV replays, by the way? A 40-yard shot screams past the post and you get an instant replay… of the the ref booking someone ten minutes ago. Let’s not even mention them completely missing Maniche’s wonderful goal the other night because they were showing a replay of Ronaldo tying his shoelaces.
I was looking forward to the final.
If I wanted to watch a drama or a Greek tragedy I’d go to the theatre. I’m just fed up with shots of Greek players rolling over and over clutching their calves/ankles/thighs/heads/backs/shoulders/etc./etc.
So much for the beautiful game.
For the lab: GO PORTUGAL!
Oh… Your… God!
So what were the odds on Greece winning this thing at the start of the tournament? Only I think we may be in for another game like tonight on Sunday, and personally, I think the Czechs are a better team than Portugal. There may be a few very rich punters and some very pissed off bookies on Sunday night.
I’m disappointed. Like Vetch, I was looking forward to the final.
Full marks to the Greeks for getting to the final, but honestly theirs is not the kind of football I look forward to watching.
After Holland went out, I was looking forward to Figo and Ronaldo battle it out with Nedved and Baros. Now I’ve got to look forward to Figo and Ronaldo. Disappointing.
Bloody feta-munching catanaccio playing last-minute-header monkeys. 
I bet it was a wild night in Athens. I wonder how many people show up for work today, in Greece?
“Uh, hi, yeah chief, it’s me. I have this… headache, coupled with this… indigestion problem. Can’t make it to work today. Sorry.”
I think Otto Rehhagel may actually play a very large part in the Greeks getting this far. When he was coaching Werder Bremen he had some less than stellar teams, but they always seemed to end up in the Pokal (German version of the FA Cup) finals. They didn’t necessary do that well in the competition, but when it came to an elimination tournament, they always would end up winning 1-0 on some lucky goal. His team was always prepared extremely well, and they were deadly in any dead-ball situations (corners, free-kicks, etc.). They would not make any mistakes on defense either. Hmmmmmm, sounds a lot like what got the Greeks to the finals of Euro2004 doesn’t it?
Greece V Potrugal is TV death for UEFA. They are spitting teeth that all the big teams fell out of the tournament early.
To counter this they now want all the premier leagues to reduce to 16 teams ( the thinking being that all the “big four” players were knackered).
The old issue of restricting the number of foreigners per team has reared up again (quite rightly IMHO).
Any thoughts?
Also Edgar Davids is probably coming to Spurs - which is nice. Even if Ian Wright did call him a “dreadlocked teapot”.
He’s going to be hard pushed to be a raw-herring with diced onions eating, not good at wars since 1588, monkey in London. London has thousands and thousands of restaurants offering the worlds greatest cuisines. It only has one Dutch one (called “my old Dutch” - and that sells pancakes)
I agree it was a shame all the big “fancy” teams dropped out. The standards weren’t very high this year all round really, but in some of “big team” matches you could see glimpses of what they could do if they’d get it right. I’m not saying these teams deserved to actually win, just that when they are (were? would be?) good they’re better than what we’ve ended up with. No disrespect to either Portugal or Greece intended, they won fair and square, but I hope people will understand what I’m trying to get at.
While I agree Greece have been fairly dour, Pookah, I have to say that Portugal have been one of the most exciting teams in the tournament - real brilliance from Ronaldo down the wing, especially, and great runs from Figo too. I’m glad they are there.
Reduced Premiership - agree.
It’s the same old teams (usually) that go up and down each season, pointless.
I completely disagree with the reduction of the number of foreigners per team.
That’s infringing on peoples’ rights to work wherever they want. If you have the skills to do it I see no problem with working in a foreign country, footballer or not.
Boo to that statement. It’s bordering on racism saying to a player that he can’t play in England/France/Germany/wherever just because he wasn’t born there.
66/1 supposedly, but you could have got 200/1 plus on the betting exchanges. And as for pissed-off bookies? I don’t think so! Bookies love it when outsiders win! Sure, you’ll get a Ladbrokes spokesman saying something like “So-and-so lorry driver had £100 on at 66/1, it’s a huge payout for us” but how many millions did they take on the favourites, France? If Greece win the bookies’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. The Czechs… now they might have been a different story, as they started around 20/1 and quickly got driven down to about 12/1. I daresay a few bookies will be relieved they’ve gone.
(I’m not, I had a tenner at 16s… 
)
Ah, I don’t thin it was meant that way. Just another opportunity for monkey species definition.
Though Owl, we did explain many times over just how completely wonderful Dutch food is.