The simulpost strikes again!
Fair enough.
Ha, dutchboy, you need to learn to think like the English.
Apropos of nothing, Esquire magazine (the American one), lists “Watching English soccer hooligans beat up Frenchmen at the 2004 European Cup” as one of the 34 reasons to be optimistic about 2004.
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He was born in Cardiff, but went to school in England and played for England schoolboys (which, as it says, is based on where you go to school, not on any nationality qualification). Giggs was born in Cardiff to Welsh parents and, contrary to what a lot of people believe, was never qualified to play for any country other than Wales.
On the other hand, to the chagrin of my Welsh friends, Michael Owen is Welsh…
Wow, you’re quite right, and I’ve been under a misapprehension for years. I agree, not many people do know Giggs isn’t qualified to play for England.
Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come this far. International matches seem to be easier to control than club matches, but it still happens occasionally where it goes horribly wrong. Euro 2000, where English fans ashamed their team and nation, and the Belgian police ashamed us all by not nipping it in the butt. The Dutch police seemed to be more effective during that tournament. Then again, Holland got fewer risk matches, I suppose.
Who remembers that (BBC?) docu about English hooligans freely entering Belgium per Eurostar during Euro 2000? Fascinating, if revolting, stuff.
And then there’s the German hooligan who critically injured a French policeman (maybe even killed him?) at the 1998 World Cup.
All joking aside, Shibb: these stories make me sick. They’re a disgrace for arguably the most exciting and most widespread game on the surface of the planet, and certainly should not be a platform for silly jingoism as per your Esquire example.
Sorry to get all judgmental whilst quoting you - I know you love the game, and for the right damn reasons. But trivialisation of football hooliganism just irks me.
Coldfire, that comment from the magazine was almost certainly meant to be humorous, whether in good taste or not. I know that humor often doesn’t translate well and is sometimes tasteless. #23, for example, was “No new Harry Potter book.” #34, “Thanks to a new ‘draftee’, Colorado’s Eagle County correctional facility wins the penitentiary league basketball championships.” Not sure if you’re getting inundated enough with Kobe Bryant news to quite get that one. Anyway, I mentioned it more for the noteworthy event that a US based men’s magazine even noticed the Euro 2004 event, which is fairly extraordinary. I thought that the humor in the statement was an ironic attack on jingoism, although perhaps not. Hopefully it will end up as just bad humor and not eerily prophetic. I’m sorry about the offense it caused.
I know a quite a few Yanks who are going just to watch great football. We don’t have that many fans here, but the ones we do have truly love the game for the beauty of it, as much as anyone else.
Don’t wish to trivialize hooliganism, and I’m not defending the English ones, but how come EVERY East European country England play in there’s missiles flying left right and centre, flag burnings on the terraces (and terraces being used for that matter), monkey chanting every time a black player touches the ball, fireworks in the crowd (I can’t even get a can of fucking Vimto into Preston North End games, and they get fucking FIREWORKS in?), etcetera etbloodycetera, yet when two fat lads give Beckham a hug in Sunderland it’s threats of expulsion, sad day for the game, English disease blah blah blah?
At Euro 2000, you’ll not convince me it wasn’t the Belgian police’s fault. C’mon, England WON in Belgium and there’s trouble, LOST in Holland (and therefore got knocked out) and there’s not - you work it out.
I am English. Well, I was born and raised there, at any rate. I just don’t happen to think Giggs is all that good. If there were any justice, Matt Etherington would be playing for England…
Yay! Another Etherington fan!
The short answer is history; the sentence being served for 20+ years of past crimes. I’d appreciate it if we could keep this thread off hooliganism as far as possible.
Maybe he needs to sign for Chelsea?
Shibb, no offense caused by you, I assure you. Although yeah, I wasn’t too pleased by the Esquire quote - which is obviously not your fault. I agree that it’s telling they even noticed Euro 2004 so far ahead of the first kick-off. 
And yeah, back to the topic at hand - which isn’t hooliganism. I’ll gladly drink a pint with any supporter of any nation, even when they beat Holland in the finals.
[sub]I do reserve the right let them frickin’ pay for it if we lost, though.[/sub]
When Portugal loses once again, will the entire home nation cry, mope and whine as much as the team? 
… 
Without home team bias, who has a legitimate chance of winning it all? I haven’t been paying attention to world soccer since World Cup.
I don’t think I’m exaggerating if I say that it will be a surprise if France don’t win, Louie. They have by far the best record in qualifying (having won all eight qualifying matches, albeit against mediocre opposition), good quality players in all positions with plenty of cover in case of injuries. Their biggest problem will be complacency, which screwed them at the World Cup.
Spain, Italy and whichever team wins Group D should all be taken seriously though.
It’s gonna be a repeat of 1988, mark my words, Louie! 
1988? No, Russia won’t make to the final this time.
More like 1992 I’d guess – a French team qualified for the finals tournament with a 100% record but blew it in a group they shared with England; Germany lost in the Final to a team that struggled to qualify at all?
Hmmm ;).
Well, that last part sounds good enough for me.
(We didn’t need a Balcan war this time, thank God…)