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Footie footie footie, footie footie footie, footie footie footie, England, England

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10:31 / 26.06.04

I like the European Championship again. I’m that fickle. Hah hah!

There's nothing fickle about that. This turn of events is enough to cheer anyone up. I will thoroughly love Euro 2004 if Portugal and that smug little prick Ronalda get knocked out as well. Good luck to all the rest of em.

[I really wanted us to beat them after hearing Portugal talking about how Rooney's a good player, but Ronaldo is better of course. I mean, they're bound to say that, but I still wanted them to pay...]

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:47 / 28.06.04

Well, Larsson, Rooney, Henry and Trezeguet are all out, and it looks like Baros is going to be the striker of the tournament. Two good feet, nippy, classy... I'm interested to see how he does for Liverpool, after last season was such an injury-dampened squib.. although Cisse and Owen might keep him out, which would at this point seen like slightly bonkers selection... Possibly he will turn out to be a Vassell, but if I were a Liverpool fan (which I sort of am), I'd find this quite cheering.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:13 / 28.06.04

You know that Gasgoigne goal they're always showing, where he sort of bobbles the ball over the guy, runs round him and scores? I keep wanting Baros to do that. I think he could. His first goal last night was almost like that. Between Baros and Koller's easy header, the Danish keeper was made to look foolish. One could even say that letting goals like that in is a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance. HA HA. FOOLISH.

Ahem. Anyway, that Nedved can take a few hard knocks and keep on rocking, can't he? Let's hunt some orc!

nedrichards is confused

11:22 / 28.06.04

Well Baros has come out and said nasty things about that nice Mr Houllier who never did nothing. Getting Rafa Benitez is looking like a better move every day. With a decent manager Kewell, Owen, Baros, Cisse, Gerrard, Smicer and maybe even Diouf could cause some serious probalems for people going forward next year. On second thoughts maybe not Diouf.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:53 / 28.06.04

Um... Gerrrard? Are you sure?

It's an interesting ne, ain't it? My office's resident Liverpool fan sees Houllier as a good coach who shouldn't be allowed a transfer budget, but I'm inclined to think that many of his buys are not as bad as they seem, but that he has proven unable to motivate then to perform consistently and at the desired level.

nedrichards is confused

12:43 / 28.06.04

Gerrard is awesome going forward. However he'll be even more awesome in the speed of his departure, sadly. I was merely revelling in my prospective Football Manager 2005 side where I'll go through hell and high water to buy him back.

Agreed with your assessment of Houlier btw. it's telling that his best years were running the France Academy and te best things he did at Liverpool were setting up our academy and bringing through players who were already at the club but hadn't really expressed themselves like Danny Murphy. Essentially I think he knows exactly what a good football player looks like, hejust doesn't know how to get him paying like one. Yet despite all that we did win a hell of a lot of stuff with him, more so than Souness or Evans anyway.

00:32 / 29.06.04

El Hadji Diouf is probably one of the ten best strikers in the world (and Baros may also now be considered such.)

Here's an idea: don't play the former on the wing, and the latter - well - occasionally.

Houllier was terribly frigid tactically; as is Sven.

Did you all like my predictions? They were shit.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:20 / 30.06.04

Having suffered the shredded nerves of failure on penalties and the frustration of watching leading players underperform, England football fans yesterday received the biggest shock of Euro 2004: they were praised for good behaviour.

Regrettable Juvenilia

06:59 / 02.07.04

Fuck. You can Czech out any time you like...

Nedved's face after he had to limp off the pitch said it all. I am gutted.

07:46 / 02.07.04

Watched the Czech/ Greece game in the Czech bar in West Hampstead. A good time was not had by all.

I feared for the Greek Restaurant around the corner, but it was alright, as I realised I was judging them by English footie fans (previous - see flowers link) behaviour!

08:04 / 02.07.04

Well, I bet the Portugese team are delighted by this turn of events. If Greece play using the same tactics that have carried them so far, I think they’ll find the ref to be strangely unsympathetic in the final. On the other hand, if they do manage to pull it off, I’m sure there’s a couple of bookies cowering at the prospect of their Greek customers coming in to collect. What with Greece having been 80-1 before the start of the tournament.

Huh. It’s difficult, because everytime they cut the cameras to a public square with a huge crowd of one persuasion or other watching on a big screen/dancing with silly delight, I find I’m actually really happy for the Greeks. And for the Portugese too, come to that, and their fantastic paradise of a country, where a good result is treated as an incitement to party rather than to riot. I’m just rather - how can I put this? I’m sorry for football. Football is the loser here. Who’d have thought the unpredictable could be so fucking dull?

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:29 / 02.07.04

Ye Gods... Greece in the final. This is very odd. One can probably put it down to form and fluke, but nonetheless... although I'm sad to see flair teams like the Czech Republic and to a lesser extent the Netherlands (the Netherlands/Czech Republic was my dream final, after the cracking game in the first round), I can't stop being happy for the Greeks. How cool is it that they made it from being unfancied to get a single point to the finals? On the downside this might usher in a future of heartfelt, defensive team play with no outstanding individualsand fierce counter-attacking, but I don't think so... I mean, Greece play like that because they don't have the payers to do otherwise, and got lucky to meet teams that were underestimating them, had wodbbly form and didn't perform on the day. I'm not seeing it as a blueprint for success...

Then again, if George Graham is appointed as England manager, I'll take that back.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:08 / 02.07.04

Question for Haus:

Figo is clearly Kupp to Ronaldo's Hot Rod. Who do you think is Blur? Maniche, maybe?

19:59 / 04.07.04

Wow what an awful final but the right team won it. The Greeks are the champions and who would have guessed that they would win it before the start of the tournament.

20:07 / 04.07.04

I would never have pegged the Greeks to win... and neither did anybody else. But I thought that was a good final, both teams were playing their hearts out. There wasn't any genius football, but it was solid on both sides and it was nice to see some good teamwork. Frankly the Portuguese were the better team, but the Greeks won in the same way as they've won most of their matches - an extremely strong defence (somebody give Nikopolidis a knighthood or something) and one well-placed (if lucky) goal. Good on them! Now let's see if they can manage to get that pesky Olympic stadium finished on time...

Hey, can we start a thread for the Olympics?

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

20:15 / 04.07.04

I wish I'd made some bets.

What I love most is that everyone says "Well, the Greeks have been surprising! I mean, they're alright, I dunno how they've got this far, they're just stubborn or something. They're not that entertaining to watch. Portugal to win!" this lovely continuing dismissal, kind of like "Oh, buy they deserved to win the way they played" yes... but you need to score goals! I love it when the pundits forget that because they get so in to it. Greek play such a solid game, I pretty much expected them to win when they got to the final. It's kind of annoying though, that they'll continue to be dismissed against other "credible" teams the whole way through purely for their tactics. Maybe that will change a bit now. It just seems sensible to play that way to me! You know - by NOT LETTING THE OTHER TEAM SCORE! Why don't other people try that? What a crazy notion.

The Photographer in Blowup

21:05 / 04.07.04

Portugal played for shit!

It started with Scolari making poor decisions: putting Pauleta and Costinha in the the first half, two guys who scored zero goals in the whole Euro04, and played fuck all in every game they were in, but keeping Rui Costa and Nuno Gomes, two players who change results when they play, out until the 2nd half?

Scolari obviously does not understand the Portuguese psyche; we have a serious defect: we panic easily; if we don't start winning quickly, we'll slowly get nervous and start making mistakes... by the 2nd half, our confidence was fucking shattered... you'll notice the Portuguese fans weren't rooting for the home team, whereas the Greeks were shouting so loud it sounded like we were playing in Athens.

Deco, Ronaldo and Figo weren't playing their best... Miguel's stubborness in playing injured had us playing with just 10 capable players for 5 minutes... Greece played on the defensive, as always. The moment they scored the games was lost to us; low self-esteem kicked in, the players started playing without consistency or team spirit... by the last 15 minutes we were making more fouls than shots, I was particularly ashamed of Nuno Valente.

Greece was superior and deserved to win. I'm disappointed with our loss, but I offer my congratulations to the Greeks, you were outstanding in your defense...

Anyway, the Euro04 was better than I expected... I'm glad there weren't any particular violent events, just an isolated situation here and there. It was great watching all the competing team fans partying in harmony despite of loss or victory every night.

But I'm glad it's over at last; now we can actually start having really news on our tv again. Our current Prime-Minister just fucked off to the position of European Comission President without giving anyone satistactions, and we're on the verge of having a fascist fuck becoming our next PM without a single vote putting him there, and I just think that's more important than football.

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