Official EURO2004 Thread #2

[Register]

w00t, we made it to 500. Here's the new one.

[Pac man]

Congrats to Greece on an amazing feat, free Gyros for everyone.

[Register]

At this time tomorrow, I will write an evaluation on the Italian team and what they need to do to win the next tournament.

And I must say, it includes Roberto Baggio.

[joacqin]

Greece fulfilled the tournament perfectly. The only surprising thing really is that every team consistently played the Greeks in their laps. Why insist on lobbing high balls into the penalty area when there are six Greeks there who all are better headers than the best Portuguese?

Perfect game from Greece, they have truly earned their trophy. A defence is never better than the oppositions offence makes it in my opinion.

[Sarevok•]

Greece started at 100/1 outsiders to win. Jeesus all that money I could have won argh I would be rich

[Pac man]

I agree that Greece was in control of this game, Portugal was in one word - crap.

But they shouldn't have been here in the first place. They'll never be able to pull off stunts like against France and the Czechs again, noone has THAT much luck. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't even manage to qualify for Germany 2006, they've used up all of their luck for the coming 100 years.

[Viking]

To be fair, not only did the best team win yesterday, but other than the Czech Republic, Greece were the best team out there full stop.

Sure, not perhaps the most attractive team to watch, but a team with a plan and organisation is always hard to beat.

Congratulation to Greece, fantastic performance.

[Mithrantir]

But they shouldn't have been here in the first place. They'll never be able to pull off stunts like against France and the Czechs again, noone has THAT much luck. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't even manage to qualify for Germany 2006, they've used up all of their luck for the coming 100 years

We passed first in our group leaving Spain behind and frankly i do think that we will pull these stunts again. We were the team that managed to get the most out of our players and at least they played as a team.
And as for Mundial we haven't even play a game yet. Wouldn't it be better to worry if Holland or England or France will manage to qualify because i don't think it is that sure as it seems you do.
As for the luck part i can only say that the only games we were lucky were the one against Russia and Czechs. The rest were won fair and square and at least with the certain palyers we were good at this defensive play, and we played it better than anyone so far.
We never lacked the needed quality to win France or Spain or Portugal, we just lacked the phycology and from now on, we don't. World BEWARE

[Register]

No offence, you greeks, but without your current manager, I am pretty much certain that Greece will never achieve something this big in my lifetime, and I am pretty young.

[BOC]

Caleb, you are right but Rehhagel's contract with the greek football association ends after the 2006 WC, unless Beckenbauer decides to pay lot of money . Ofcourse, if this happens, it will be Rehhagel's absolute pleasure to listen the pleas of his enemy.

@Sarevok

I've read that a brit has bet 650 english pounds on Greece before the tournament. Apparently you are not this guy.

[Register]

650 pounds? Damn, what a lucky bastard. Well, I won 300 Swedish Kronor(~25-30 Euro IIRC) that France didn't win the tournament. A pal of mine from France betted against me, sucker.

[Sniper]

Go my Olive Huskies!

[Pac man]

A guy in London placed 4 bets on Greece to win, he had a total profit of 500.000 €.

Sorry, i don't have a link, i heard it on the news last night.

[teekc]

So, now that Euro 04 has came to an end, anyone follow Copa America? i heard that top teams will not play all of their best players.

[Mithrantir]

No offence, you greeks, but without your current manager, I am pretty much certain that Greece will never achieve something this big in my lifetime, and I am pretty young.

No offence taken but you haven't understand that Otto gave to Greek team something that will remain even if he leaves tomorrow (i hope not for that option).
The team spirit was never, untill he came, a quality shown by the Greeks and he managed to plant this ideal inside every Greek player. And i mean every one even those who were not in Portugal. The self cofindence we now possess was earned by the players themselves. If you ask me Otto has managed to complete his work before they arrive in Portugal and frankly that was his major achievement. The winning of the Euro 2004 was team work from the whole team not only Otto. The supremacy and the high standard quality of Dellas, Kapsis, Zagorakis, Charisteas, Giourkas for example was not something out of the blue.
I dare say that from now on we will be able to play against any opponent like we can and not loosing the match purely because the opponet has a bigger name and reputation. I can give this example look what happened in Greek basketball after we won the '87 European championship. Untill then we were considered the outsiders but afterwards we amanged to have the best championship in Europe and the best teams in Europe. Not that the same will happen with football but i expect to see something better than what i have seen so far from the Greek teams.

[ July 06, 2004, 11:05: Message edited by: Mithrantir ]

[Sir Belisarius]

I can't say I'm a huge Europoean football fan, but this DID grab my attention!!! Take a look:

The girls of Euro 2004!!!

From a purely hotness point of view, I'm a big fan of England and Portugal...But what do I know. Anyway, It's on a chinese news site, but worth the look, nonetheless...Enjoy!

[Register]

BOC - Yeah, I understand what you mean with the team spirit thing, but it can be gone as well. Italian players , for example, have from 1994 to 1998 always thinking on themself first and the team second, some players exkluded, and it wan't until Ceasare Maldini(That's right, Paolo Maldini's father) took over as a manager before the WC 1998 that they started to work together. That year Italian WC football was great, with both team spirit and invidualness but unfortunatly they went home due to another loss in penalties. Afterwards, Ceasare Maldini quitted and Dino Zoff took over and most of the old feelings returned, resulting in some worse playing and team spirit than before. After he left, after the Silver in 2000, Italy were back to square one, and you see the results the two last tournaments. I hope the same will not happen with Greece, but you never know.

[Pac man]

@ Mithrantir

I can understand where your optimism is coming from, but before you forget to come back down to earth again, i'd like to remind you to what happened to the Turks. When they came in third at the last worldcup, they also said to anyone who cared to listen to them, that from now on they were among the topnations in the world. They came out of nowhere, and suddenly they were the third best country in the world. For a little more than a year, the Turkish people lived in an almost orgasmic state of mind, patronising lesser succesful teams, and thinking they were gods or something.

And what happened ?

Only two years later, the same group of players failed to qualify for Euro 2004. They've vanished as quietly as they came, and nobody even seems to have noticed it, except for the Turks themselves.

Now before you start thinking the Greeks suddenly are among the world's topnations, consider these facts, and enjoy the moment while you still can, it might all be over in less than two years, and the Greek team might also vanish into oblivion like the Turks.

Even a dog's ass gets a little sunshine now and then.

[Register]

Hey, Pac Man, I have noticed a little thing about the magical, underdog, third place in world cups.

Third Place 1990: Italy, missed 1992 EC

Third Place 1994: Sweden, missed 1996 EC

Third Place 1998: Croatia, missed 2000 EC

Third Place 2002: Turkey, missed 2004 EC


See a pattern?

[Pac man]

Nice detectivework.

Would could be the explanation for that ? Attitude ?

[Register]

Well, I would think the same, but for Italy, they can't play games in Sweden, where the 1992 tournament were held. In 1958, they missed to qualify as well, and that was held in Sweden as well. Also, in 90% of the friendlies I can remember, Sweden beats Italy if Sweden is at home. Italy just can't win a game played in Sweden.


Sweden had a lot of their best players retired after 1994 and was not really a great team, so no-one was really suprised that they missed the 96 tournament. They actually also missed the 98 WC.

Croatia lost in the play-off qualifications against a really good nation, cannot remember which.

Turkey lost against Latvia. I saw both games, and it really wasn't fair, but I think that after watching the 2004 tournament, Latvia was good enough for the EC.

[Harbourboy]

What I think it shows is that there is actually not all that much between the top soccer teams in the world and that despite what we may like to think about the quality of certain teams, the nature of international soccer is that there are more than a dozen teams that are capable of winning a tournament like Euro or the World Cup.

Look at what South Korea managed at the last World Cup as well.

That sort of closeness is what makes these tournaments exciting to watch.

[Register]

Well, South Korea was a ****ing cheating team. I am sure that FIFA told the referees to give them the advantages they needed to qualify to the semi-final. And even though they still had this advantage in the semi's, Germany managed to win, kudos to them, but they didn't have this advantage in the bronze game, making them loose easily against Turkey, letting in a goal after 17(?) seconds into the game.

[Mithrantir]

@ Pacman I see that you are missing the point of my words. I do not think that we are among the best football nations in the world. I do not think that from now on we will win every world or European tournament. All i am saying is that Greek football is better than the rest of the world thought and we only needed a couple of good results in an international tournament, in order to have the players believe in themselves. Because noone can achieve even the easiest thing if he does not have self confidence.
Ans as far as it concerns the Turks, they have given citizenship to many good football players from former Yugoslavia that had slim chances to play in their national teams and some of them were the key players of their miracle. Here we did not do that and furthermore i can tell you that the team you saw in Euro is not the best possible. They had defencive orientation and a number of good players did not play or was not even called.
Secondly Turkish players managed to gain fame and a good move to a team abroad after their achievement. Most of the players in the Greek national team are or have played abroad and they only now hoping for a bigger salary not recognition.
I certainly do not expect my national team to win against Brasil for certain. I only know now that they will get in the field and look their opponent in the eyes and fight for victory, and not get in scared with their pants down waiting for the innevitable to happen.
I am pointing out again that we have good players not the best possible, but they can play good ball and not only defencive football but attacking as well. And i expect that this tournament will be the beggining for something really good in our championship and for our teams as they present themeselves outside.
Maybe it is a wish but i live here and since i have a different perspective than any foreigner i can tell you that Greece now has a chance which if used it will provide to the rest of the world more suprises.

[Pac man]

Hm, i thought the Greek league already had quite a few good teams. Panathinaikos, AEK, and PAOK are well respected teams in Europe. At least that's what i think.

How are the salaries in Greece btw ? Can the big teams play their best players enough so that they don't feel the urge to look for a contract in Italy, Spain, or England ?