Twenty minutes to play still, but, gooooooooooo Croatia.
No! Much as I hate to see the French win, a Croatian victory would be bad news for us. At least now we’ve beaten the Swiss, the French no longer have the chance to stitch us up by throwing their last game… not that I’m suggesting they would of course 
Only for people with English accents, apparently. I’ve always heard Basel (or Bâle) pronounced Ba:zl and my German dictionary concurs. My (American) English dictionary has it as Bä zel, with the “e” as a schwa (don’t know how to get that in character map). I can see how with some English accents the first syllable might sound as if it had an ‘r’ included.
…And yet I’ve only ever heard the French pronunciation from native Swiss, both French and German speakers, in which the s is not pronounced.
And in news beyond the world of phonetics, congrats to Croatia for showing that France really aren’t all that and a bag of frites. It did seem to be a game of defensive blunders rather than attacking prowess though. Boy, I hope Igor Tudor remains in the team to face England…
I have a sore throat (and by rights should have a sore head but I have managed to dodge the bullet this time).
Three goooooooooooaaaaaaalllls is good, but some of our players are still misfiring (Yes you Owen, you too Beckham). Hopefully they’ll be right for Croatia who are suddenly looming rather ominously on the horizon.
Good to see that player power made Sven abandon the diamond.
Can anyone explain to me why Rooney’s second goal wasn’t credited as an own goal by the Swiss keeper? All the stats sites claim it as a Rooney goal. It’s quite clear that the ball would not have gone in had it not hit the back of the keeper’s head - it would have rebounded off the post and headed for the centre circle. Surely in that case there is no way it can be counted as a goal for Rooney? I know several people that are annoyed about this, having backed Gerrard to score the second goal (with own goals not counting).
I say “would have rebounded off the post”… of course it had already hit the post. I mean it would have ended up somewhere in the middle of the pitch.
Colophon, from BBC’s Ceefax pages:
Don’t throw those betting slips away yet. I have a feeling that seeing, as it won’t take the record of youngest scorer in a European Championships away from him, they won’t credit him with it.
There’s no way it can be Rooney’s goal, surely, as at no point did he propel the ball towards the target. I’m not sure where you would stand on bets placed on goalscorers in the match though. The views of the UEFA technical comittee may be relevant to betting on the overall tournament top scorer, but bookmakers normally settle bets on goalscorers in individual matches on the basis of the consensus of a group of nominated national newspapers - if the papers all have Rooney, they will settle on that.
Well I’m wrong and UEFA representatives are clearly blind and don’t understand the rules. Ceefax’s page now has:
bolding mine, obviously
But if it was on target, why did it hit the post? :dubious:
Congrats again, Denmark.
Tonight: Czech Republic vs Nederland. Any bets? I’ll say 3-1 Czech Republic. [but don’t mark my words. 
]
btw: What’s with the goddamn hooligans? You’d think they’d keep quiet when their team doesn’t play. 
The post is part of the goal, and balls can go in off it as well as out. Compare this to Tudor’s own goal in the France vs Croatia match; that ball was definitely going to miss the goal before it deflected in off his leg.
But it didn’t go in. In this case, not only was the ball going to miss the goal, it was travelling in entirely the opposite direction, before hitting the goalkeeper and going in.
Read the official UEFA ruling:
“Shots which are on target but are then deflected, or a ball rebounding off the goal frame and hitting a defender or goalkeeper, will not be considered as an own-goal.”
The reasoning is that such bounces are accidental as opposed to something the palyer has done or failed to do.
Just 'coz it’s official doesn’t mean it’s not crazy.
He failed to get out of the way
That’sa corking result by Latvia. Both the Germans and the Italians could be out soon. Mike Riley had a nightmare, at least one good penalty shout by the Latvians, and another that was certainly a “possible”.
I still suspect a bookies’ conspiracy here. There have been some seriously odd results. 
Maris Verpakovskis looked very good. Seemed to be heavily involved in everything the Latvians threw at Germany. I hope Graeme Souness was watching - we could use another good, relatively cheap striker to partner Jon Stead.
Really excellent game tonight between Holland and the Czech Republic. The rest spoilered in case people haven’t seen it yet:
[spoiler]Czechistan win 3-2 having been 2-0 down after 20 minutes. Fine attacking play from both sides, good goals, loads of near misses too. Just a top class game.
My concern now is that the Czechs, who have already qualified for the quarter-finals, will take it easy against Germany and allow them to squeak through at the expense of the Dutch. Nothing against our ruthlessly efficient deckchair-reserving friends, but Nederland are much more entertaining and deserve to go through from what I’ve seen so far. They should beat Latvia, so there is hope.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]
Coldie must be gutted. Knowing that is the only thing that keeps me from being raucously overjoyed at seeing The Little Genital come a cropper in such spectacular style.
If it’s any consolation Coldie, after last night’s Bohs-Dublin City game I know what it’s like to see your team lose after being up 2-0 in the 20th minute (feck off Twisty )![/spoiler]
I thoroughly enjoyed this game, tremendous entertainment and some super skills on display.
O’Neill for Ireland!