** France 2 - Spain 1 **
How did Raul managed to miss those two opportunities??
Typical Spain, they always play blindingly in the qualifiers, have one or two good games in the finals and then choke before they can get to the semis.
sigh
I guess I’m cheering for Portugal now.
Yeh…I like watching Figo…he’s amazing.
But somehow, I like the french team more than the portugal team. But then again, I know nothing about soccer.
Yer pal Clog Boy checking in. Fucking A, what a match!! I was at London City Airport, awaiting my flight to Amsterdam. I arrive 3 hours early for my flight, only to see the match. Guess what. NO FUCKING TV IN THE ENTIRE TERMINAL. Yeah, in the duty free shop. Tuned to MTV. So, Clog Boy applies all his Dutch charm on one of the employees. Male, if you must know. But when it comes to the the national team, I have no shame.
And fair enough, the man goes into the storage room and comes back with a table and a small TV set. Poor reception, colours fading every now and then… but I got to see the match!
I was amazed. Sure, I expected them to win, like any other patriotic Dutch idiot would. But I never expected them to be THIS dominant. The Yugo team is normally not one to mess with: their strikers are the finest of Europe, without exageration. They do have a bad side as well: a poor defence. Kralj is a much better goalie than could be seen today. Did you see the SPACE that the Dutch strikers where allowed? Kluivert is a striker pur-sang, but Overmars? He would NEVER have made that first goal he made if he had been defended more closely.
But I second the sentiment: Yugoslavia did NOT play a bad match. The Dutch team was just incredibly dominant. Wow - what a match. If they keep this up, the tournament is very likely ours.
Didn’t see the France - Spain match. Heard the final score, predictable. Too bad it stops here for Spain, but hey: they lost to the reigning World Champs.
As for the Dutch chants (and the match was indeed played in Rotterdam): Let me translate a few.
“Wat zijn die Yugo’s stil, wat zijn die Yugo’s stil, etc etc.”
[How silent those Yugos are, etc. Insert nationality of choice ;)]
“Hup, Holland, Hup, laat die Leeuw niet in zijn Hempie staan. Hup, Holland, Hup - trek dat beessie geen pantoffels aan”
[Go, Holland, Go, don’t leave that Lion standing in its shirt. Go, Holland, Go - don’t put slippers on the poor li’l critter. (I know. Long story, m’kay?)]
“Hij… is… een… HONDELUL, hij is een hondelul, etc.”
[He… is… a… DOGS DICK, he is a dogs dick, etc. (used to adress an underachieving referee)]
That’s it for now 
Dunno about anyone else but I’m very sorry to see Portugal go. I’ve really enjoyed watching them.
Does anyone know the final red card count, btw?
I was wondering that myself. According to ITV (although Ron Atkinson is probably not the world’s most reliable source) Luis Figo left the pitch in a huff. The only red card went to Nuno Gomes - although I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a ban or two imposed by FIFA.
It was a disappointing game, I thought. Both of those teams have been so much more entertaining. I’m relying on Coldfire’s mob now for tomorrow’s TV viewing.
RTÉ said after the game that Figo had been red-carded too.
Yeah, I’d rather have Portugal as an opponent in the finals!
But it weren’t so. France were marginally better, and it was a penalty. Luckily, France didn’t look too impressice. We can take them Frogs
Matt: I too hope for a repeat of last sunday’s display of Gallery Play. Somehow, I doubt we will be able to put in six goals against the Italians, though. Great defence, and obviously, the team will go in full Catanacho (sp?) mode after having seen the Yugo match.
I hope for a beautiful game, but I’ll settle for an ugly 1-0. I’m confident that the Dutch team is currently better than the Italian squad, quality-wise. We CAN beat them - it’s just gonna be incredibly hard because of the two opposing styles of play.
:wally
That was pretty much the phrase of the day at my house.
First of all, unlike in Europe, all the Euro 2000 matches in the United States are on pay-per-view cable at $20 a match. :mad: Since my dad didn’t want to watch the France/Portugal match in scramble-vision :rolleyes: , we called up the cable company and ordered the game.
Fast forward to overtime. France and Portugal were going back and forth and it was getting to be a great game, when suddenly…
“now he passes the ball to…”
static
Apparantly, the cable company thought that the 154248th viewing of The Bachelor was much more important than showing the rest of the overtime of a semi-final match. :mad: :mad: I called up the cable cable asking (more like yelling) why the game was cut off. Their excuse was that the satellite transmission of the game was cut off, not the cable. :mad: :mad: :mad: I hope we get a refund for that cutoff.
But it was probably a good thing because we didn’t get to see the Portuguese team piss and moan about that penalty and the team literally fall apart after the game (I heard about those red cards being given out. Also, the coach of the Portugal team, Humberto Coelho, quit as coach after the game).
By the way, why is the mascot of Euro 2000 a devil-headed mulit-colored Koosh ball? Is it suppose to make you want to kick it like a football whenever you see the annoying thing?
I read this headline on the Portugal team section of Euro2000.org
“Portugal to follow Spain example”
Yeah, to lose horribly to France! ugh
We have to play them in their first match in the World Cup 2002 qualifiers! the more Suspentions the better!!!
Come on Holland!! Attack the referee!! Please!!!
(we have them in the match after!)
I think it’s fair to see Holland’s qualifying for the 2002 World Cup looks pretty damn easy
Benelucky (or the multi-coloured devil headed kooch ball) is basically a lion with manes in the colours of the Dutch and Belgian flags. And yes, we all hate the stpuid fucker too 
OK guys, wish me luck! In 5 minutes, I shall commence my daily bike ride home. After changing into something more comfortable (like slacks and a t-shirts - get your minds out of the gutter!) I shall head over to a friends house where we will be watching the Holland - Italy match.
The next post I place in this thread is either suicidal or in full extacy 
FWIW, I’ll be cheering for Holland.
Although, given that so far I’ve supported England and Romania until their timely demises, that may not be a good thing.
Prediction: Holland 2 (Kluivert, Zenden) Italy 1 (Inzaghi)
Well you know I’ll be rooting right along with you, FreezerBurn - and listening to it at http://www.talksport.net/index.html (which I thank you for finding for me!).
Go Holland!
Didn’t expect I’d be disappointed if either loses…but the Netherlands losing like that…how could I not be…hmmm…
Sorry Coldfire I was shouting for Holland but they really should have killed that game well before it got to penalties. 
well I didn’t even get to see the game since I had to go out flat-hunting (at least I was successful at that though! yay!) Sorry Coldy. I’ll definitely be cheering for France in the final.