I know and care, though not really about any particular team so much as just seeing some great games. Except I’ll support any team playing against Italy.
Great story, garius.
Well my gut is that we’ll be seeing a Germany/France final, which could go either way.
My money, however, is on the Czech Republic.
My supersecret darkhorses for the tournament are Poland 
I drew Sweden in a sweepstakes; if we make it out of group we’ll get killed in the quarterfinals.
Like Dead Badger (woohoo! Another LFC supporter!) I’ll probably back Spain because Torres is my boy, but I really enjoyed watching Germany in 2006 so they’ll be a close second.
The matches are at 11a and 1:30p in my time zone so it’s looking like I’m going to have a few “appointments” the next couple of weeks. 
chique, I expect you will like this video, then:
I suspect it’s remarkably close to the truth.
Haha! Man, that video is awesome. Thanks! 
Welp, no big surprises so far - other than Austria didn’t end up spread across the field like dead bugs. They really turned it on in the last half, eh?
Any other American watchers want to kill Tommy Smyth?
Even more than before.
I’m surprised ESPN hasn’t sprung for Gazza or someone by now. I’m sure there are any number of ex-footballers who wouldn’t mind retiring to Connecticut. Vinny Jones ought to be available when he’s not making movies - with the added bonus that he’d be around to kick the shit out of that annoying Scot when necessary.
I thought Germany would have abandoned what Klinnsmann brought to the team as manager by now… but they were playing some really pretty football- particularly the right winger… Fritz?
An ad set in Liverpool about a Spanish player… in Swedish. Eh?
SWEDISH??? :eek: :smack:
Try Hungarian.
I didn’t see the Portugal v Turkey game, but what I read about it gives me hope for the Portugal v France final I’m expecting.
I saw the second half of Germany v Poland today. Poles had some play, but not very much, and Germany sure took the resistance out with that sloppy second goal. Not many obvious weaknesses in that German team.
Tomorrow is the day of the tournament. Group C is the one to watch; the winner is coming out of that group this year, and it could be any one of the four teams. I’m hoping that Romania prove they belong.
Do you really not get it? Four Liverpool players are Spanish; it’s just a really cute joke about where the hearts of Liverpool fans may be lying this summer as England whiffed it.
Hey, now - Gray’s well respected in places that speak English and call the game football. I’ve never heard him call a match before but, frankly, anyone can do a better job than Smyth.
I was really disappointed in the Poles - the Germans seemed to be passing circles around them and their defenders…uh…didn’t.
I’m interested. I’ll tell you how interested I am once the US v Argentina friendly ends.
I too am a yank who is following the tourney.
I’ve always been a fan of the German team (after the US squad). Even though my heritage is Italian, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the Italian team. I tend to find a lot of the rooters for Italy to be obnoxious whiners who find it okay to blame a Korean who dared to score against you in the World Cup but are okay with diving all over the place to eliminate Australia and making excuses for that thug who cowardly hit the brave Brian McBride in the face in their competition in the last World Cup. Because of that, I’m a silent anti-Italy fan.
On the other hand, I like that they won the World Cup and got their fourth win. I find it annoying that they’re not rated number one in the world but only third. I’d hate to see them fail to qualify for the next round. Even though they flop around a lot, their success is not because of that but in spite of it.
I should add that I think Italians are fine people but when it comes to rooting for the Azzurri, they tend to get on my nerves.
Yup.
A friend in the UK and I seperately read an article and have come to the conclusion that Italy and Portugal must go down.
Preferably in flames.
I too am a yank, and I gotta say that I thought Poland was going to pt p a better fight. They came on strong in the first four minutes, but as soon as the Germans scored 1 lousy point, their heart was no longer in it. That was my take at least. I have no favorite yet. In these tournaments that I have no dog in, I tend to look for a scrappy underdog in the first round and root for them. It sadly ends quickly, like when I rooted for Trinidad and Tobago at the last world cup.
American interest is growing. The American v Argentina game today filled an 80,000 seat stadium, and was broadcast on ESPN (granted it wasn’t the main ESPN channel). But I’m a coach for my 8 year old son’s team, and only 2 of the parents have a clue as to what is going on in the world of soccer, and one of them is from Barbados. So we’ve still a long way to go.
What I found to be very encouraging was that out of a packed stadium at Giants Stadium, against a top Latin American team, there was just as much support for the US team as for Argentina, if not more. Of course, I watched the game on my laptop on ESPN360.com and wasn’t actually there, but it seemed to me that there was significant cheering for the good American plays, booing for the poor calls against the US, and late in the game, when a European/Latin American style singing chant took over the stadium, I’m pretty sure they were saying “USA” somewhere in there.
[QUOTE=NurseCarmen]
but as soon as the Germans scored 1 lousy point
Point?
And you are a coach
To be fair, the German defenders weren’t doing much to brag about. Their day was saved by a good keeper, plus the fact that Poland couldn’t seem to find the back of the net if you gave them GPS 
:smack:
Also, Switzerland wuz robbed. Gah. Poor Frei.
Count me in as another one rooting for Germany. Partly because of my German background, partly because I work with a Turk, a Pole, and two Swedes, and I had to find a neutral team for my own sanity
I assumed it was in Swedish since you were rooting for them. Now I realize you’re a Liverpool fan :smack:
I meant Smyth, not the big bald guy. Who is he?
I don’t mean to throw a wet blanket over your hopeful enthusiasm, but we’ve seen it before. Like right after the 1994 World Cup, which, by the way, was the best attended World Cup ever, IIRC. Right here on US soil. After which, we had a large number of games where huge crowds showed up for friendlies, for qualifiers, and for Gold Cup games. MLS padded their attendance stats for a while by scheduling such games as double-headers with MLS games afterward.
And yet, your statement about the parents is the classic conundrum of the sport in the US. What’s even worse is that the players (the kids) don’t learn anything about the sport. They get coached by people who don’t follow the game internationally, they get refereed by people who barely understand the laws, let alone have an appreciation for the game itself, let alone watch it in all its various incarnations around the world(!), and they get rooted for by parents who then go home and turn on baseball, or basketball, or American gridiron football, and who don’t do anything to help their child develop an affinity for the game they’ve chucked out $50+ to sign them up for, so that they have them out of their hair every Saturday in the Spring and Fall.
Not that I’m venting or anything. :mad:
And that’s not the worst part.
The worst part is that it’s no different for those few who end up on elite teams that travel to play. I’ve coached such a team, and those kids are just as unenlightened as any others. They do it for the social aspect, but they don’t ever get converted into true soccer fans. Hell, I bet that most of them know who David Beckham is, and not just because he is Posh Spice’s husband, but have any of them ever bothered to watch a Premier League game to see what his heritage is? Have they been rooting for Fulham (the American Premier league team )?
Do they even KNOW that Euro 2008 is going on?
Well, MY sons do. Sadly, one of them is a Manchester U. fan. <sigh> Well, it’s a start… 