Aah, Dutch cuisine… beings back memories. Kroketten, Hagelslag and boiled cabbage - the diet of my Dutch roomies when I lived in England.
hagelslag = good.
kroketten = I can live with.
boiled cabbage = urgh.
Reduced Premiership: Call me a cynical old owl, but I would bet my bottom dollar that what would happen isn’t that the likes of Owen and Rooney get a few extra weeks off, just that they get to go and play in Thailand, USA etc in meaningless “tournaments” against the likes of Real Madrid Celtic and any other team with glamour players and/or large expat communites.
I do think that the number of non-nationals needs to be limited. It is denying the chance to young english/italian/spanish etc players to have cheap scandiwegian or Eastern Europeans taking what would otherwise be places for them. I also think that a football club (all of which are named after places - well apart from one and they never stay put in any place for long) should at least reflect some sense of place.
Quite how it would work with the UK as NI and wales basically don’t have a league I’m not sure. n any case it’s prbably moot as the EU will stamp on it. Buch of wankers that they are (subsidised canteen meals eating. stealth state building monkeys)
I haven’t had the opportunity to watch any of the matches so far, since they’re all pay-per-view in the U.S. and I can’t afford the $20-25 fee for each match (besides the fact that I don’t have a satellite dish, and that most of the matches take place in the afternoon while I’m still at work). I’ve been trying to follow matches online, but this obviously puts me at a disadvantage.
Anyway, I have a question about the officiating in this tournament. Is it as bad as at the 2002 World Cup? I remember Korea benefited from many extremely dubious decisions (in their respective matches against Portugal, Spain, and Italy).
From what I’ve read about Euro 2004, it seems like Portugal has been playing very well. However, comments that I’ve read on discussion boards and letters suggest that Portugal has been enjoying blatant favoritism from the referees–particularly during the quarterfinal against England, and the semi-final against the Netherlands. The consensus (on England-based websites, anyway) seems to be that the referee of the Portugal/England match (Urs Meier, who I had thought was a fairly respectable referee) intentionally disallowed Campbell’s goal–presumably because he was piqued that England had beat Switzerland in the group stage. And then you’ve got Ruud van Nistelrooy complaining that the referee in the Portugal/Netherlands semi-final was definitely a “home whistler” who gave every decision to the Portuguese, thus disrupting the Dutch flow of play (apparently, this is why the Dutch couldn’t get a shot on goal until 90th minute…).
While as an Arsenal supporter, I admit to feeling a strong degree of schadenfreude at Ruud’s anguish (and even more at UEFA’s pending investigation of Ruud’s United-style confrontation with the referee–I’m just wondering if there’s any truth to these conspiracy-theories. I don’t normally buy into them, but after the officiating at Japorea, I can’t completely discount them without seeing it for myself.
The only personal insight I can offer to this thread is that the Telegraph journalist who complained about Portuguese food is full of sh*te. He’s apparently never had feijoada a transmontana. And Mycroft Holmes is right: bolinhos de bacalhau are muito saboroso, and fun to pronounce.
While I agree that some of our younger players can be frozen out by non- Brits, I have seen younger players now copying some of the skills and regimes (diet and boozing) and becoming better for it.
Foreign managers too, have brought new ideas to our game. It may stick in your throat owl but I’m sure you remember the “boring old Arsenal” days, well it’s not like that any more with Wenger and as I hope you will find out with Santini. I’m pretty sure you’d prefer Spurs to have success even if it means foreign players and managers.
Anyway, legally I don’t think you can stop EU players.
The refereeing hasn’t been that bad (and at least all the refs are european, not “tokens” from Oceania etc who have never even seen a top level game).
Each country has a few gripes (whilst ignoring decisions that went in their favour), but these thing really do even themselves out over the years.
An Arsenal fan in Florida eh? Give it long enough and they’ll move there so you can see them (they’ve moved everywhere else after all)
There’s no doubt that getting the CREAM of foreign players has made for a much better premieship. It’s not them that bother me. In short, the Henry’s Vieras etc are always welcome it’s the Stepanovs, Kanus and Van Bronkhorsts that I don’t want.
If each squad was limited to, say, eight and each team could field no more than about five then the top players would still be here, with the agreed benefits they bring.
I also don’t like the idea of a team being entirely foreign (Liverpool won the FA cup in the 80s with a team of non-english qualified players, although many of them were from the British Isles (I don’t count Ireland as “foreign” in footbal terms for historical reasons and the fact that thhere isn’t really a professional league there). This is a purely emotional thing, not rational.
So to sum up: Klinnsman Ya! Bunjejevic: Nein!
IMO the refereeing in World Cups is much worse, because FIFA insist on using refs from lesser footballing nations with Mickey Mouse leagues, to please the regional federations. In 2002 there was that dickhead from Ecuador, for example, who the Italians got so worked up about.
UEFA’s referees are all used to handling big games. Yeah, there have been complaints about some of them, but much of it the usual sour grapes from the losing side. On the whole the reffing has been OK, I think.
I still maintain that disallowing Campbell’s goal was the right call. I also maintain that Holland didn’t lose the semis because of Frisk. Still, UEFA needs to think long and hard about the refs they pick, vis-a-vis nationalities and matches already played. While Mayer and Frisk may not have been intentionally partial, they sure as hell looked it.
Re. the yellow card given to the Portuguese player after he bared his chest after scoring. Apparently it’s now to be official policy on account of the commercial sponsors and delicate Moslem sentiments. Reminds me of when they tried to ban the kisses and embraces during the world cup in the US, since it was too effeminate or something for the American viewers. Also haven’t there been some discussion about making the two halfs into four of 15 minutes each – better to include commercial breaks.
Screw that! If the Moslems can’t abide the sight of a naked chest they can bloddy well go back to watching camel racing. And if the Americans can’t stand to see embraces they’re better off watching WWF.
Cite?
“27: YELLOW CARD. Ronaldo is booked for taking his shirt off as he celebrates”
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_859924,001301060000.htm
Hindustan Times 
Er… if these “halves” are going to be 15 minutes each, you’d better have six of them, because four 15-minute periods only adds up to 60.
Wow! Congratulations Greece! Maybe not a victory for The Beautiful Game as such, but it is a big story and no-one can deny that Greece don’t deserve victory for their performance throughout the entire tournament. They worked hard, went for every ball, defended solidly as a team and never too deep, and always played to their strengths.
It also sends a message out to the over-paid, over-hyped, workshy prima donnas such as Beckham and Totti that individual talent only gets you so far - you’ve got nothing if you don’t have pride, passion and great tactics.
Just a pity there weren’t more goals for us neutrals… 
Excellent victory for Greece, there isn’t a team in International football at the moment who play ‘the Beautiful Game’, so why not a triumph for organisation and good honest hard work. They have put some of the other teams to shame.
What happened to the ref though? Did he not get the memo from UEFA?
Not sure what the Portuguese goalie was doing when that shot went in, but it doesn’t matter now.
Now, the real question is, who among us placed the bet for Greece before the tournament, and is now raking in the dough at 1:150 odds? Buy me a beer, willya? 
Didn’t do that unfortunately, but I did have Charisteas to score the first tonight at 10/1. On that basis, how about 1/15th of a beer?
OK, as the person who dismissed Greece as “not all that” early in this very thread I feel duty bound to report that I enjoyed my meal of Humble Pie, and the Crow and My Hat were very good too. Very well done to the, let’s see, Kasseri-Eating, Employing-A-Foreign-Coach-Who-Is-Not-A-Complete-Charlatan Monkeys. Although they did lose to Russia, as I said they would :).
Brazil?
[office space]I have the memo![/office space] if you don’t get it, nevermind
I meant a cite for the ban on kisses and embraces during the U.S. World Cup.
Congrats to Greece.
I have to say I find that smiley mildly insulting… we may not play much football, but we do watch it and love it!!
Brazil doesn’t play the beautiful game anymore… not since they perfected diving into an art form.