EURO 2012

Anyone would be forgiven for not eagerly anticipating Poland vs Greece but the tournament kicks off in TWO DAYS. Get used to these sights:

http://emajmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/english-fans-at-england-algeria-game.jpg

http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/Jun/Week4/15655059.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/5/16/1337124297217/Yulia-Tymoshenko-protests-008.jpg

http://i.mnpls.com/306/30622.jpg

Anyone would be forgiven for not eagerly anticipating Poland vs Greece

I am though! Coupla Celtic players in either side. Don't know if the Polish guy will play tho.

Don't know if the Polish guy will play tho

If his Celtic "career" has been anything to go by, I suspect probably not.

who's that, brozek? nah no chance

i am officially riding for polska this tournament fyi

Generally hope for the best for Poland but they are invariably utter shite in tournaments

oh i know, believe me

I have my Yulia Tymoshenko t-shirt at the ready.

Brozek's still probably the second best striker Poland has so i'd imagine he'd get a few sub appearances.

If only their best strikers didn't keep playing for Germany

Lewandowski is pretty handy tho. The Guardian podcast tipped him as a decent outside bet for top scorer

Poland should be p good with their all Dortmund right hand side + Lewandowski. Excited.

I love Eastern European footballers, since USA 94 I've gone into pretty much every tournament hoping for a new Stoitchkov and Hagi and I've usually been disappointed. Any decent Ukranians out there who could have an impact?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andriy_Yarmolenko

rafal wolski at legia warsaw's meant to be handy on the left too, dortmund are trying to do a deal

konoplyanka at dnipro

yarmolenko is a paaar n pace epl type

hrvatska

can't imagine supporting poland, too maudlin, too boring

Slawomir Peszko (Cologne)

The winger won't be going to Poland and Ukraine after being dropped following a drink-fuelled incident with a taxi driver but his experience reveals plenty about Smuda and his relationship with his players. (Also, the Cologne player has four kidneys, which was only discovered when he joined the Bundesliga team in 2011. His mum reportedly said about her son: he just "goes to the bathroom more than most people".)

He swallowed his twin brother when he was 3 iirc

Igor Denisov

He is, without a doubt, the Russian Mark van Bommel. The Zenit St Petersburg midfielder has been involved in a series of incidents on and off the pitch, including: a brawl with the Spartak coach, Valery Karpin; a refusal to join the national team before Euro 2008; a fight with a team-mate, as well as with a driving instructor and several security officers. He is a really good chess player, which may surprise some considering his tough-guy image. He has two South African pitbulls. Never gives an interview.

what's not to love!

2       Russia 	DF 	Aleksandr Anyukov
3 	Portugal 	DF 	Bruno Alves
4 	Italy 	DF 	Domenico Criscito
6 	Belgium 	DF 	Nicolas Lombaerts
8 	Serbia 	FW 	Danko Lazović
9 	Russia 	FW 	Aleksandr Bukharov
10 	Portugal 	MF 	Danny
11 	Russia 	FW 	Aleksandr Kerzhakov
14 	Slovakia 	DF 	Tomáš Hubočan
15 	Russia 	MF 	Roman Shirokov
16 	Russia 	GK 	Vyacheslav Malafeev (captain)
17 	Italy 	MF 	Alessandro Rosina
		
No. 		Position 	Player
18 	Russia 	MF 	Konstantin Zyryanov (1st vice-captain)
20 	Russia 	MF 	Viktor Fayzulin
22 	Russia 	GK 	Dmitri Borodin
23 	Hungary 	MF 	Szabolcs Huszti
24 	Serbia 	DF 	Aleksandar Luković
25 	Russia 	MF 	Sergei Semak (2nd vice-captain)
27 	Russia 	MF 	Igor Denisov
29 	Russia 	FW 	Andrei Arshavin (on loan from Arsenal)
30 	Belarus 	GK 	Yuri Zhevnov
34 	Russia 	MF 	Vladimir Bystrov
63 	Russia 	DF 	Denis Terentyev
99 	Russia 	FW 	Maksim Kanunnikov

bruno alves looks like a departure from their traditional 'no blacks' policy

Also, the Cologne player has four kidneys

oh of course.

WHAT?

Nikica Jelavic

The Everton striker's colourful uncle, also called Nikica Jelavic and nicknamed "The Boxer", is said to be "the uncrowned king of Zagreb". He has been linked to several high-profile incidents, one including a failed assassination attempt using a handheld rocket launcher in the city centre, when a passer-by was blown up in 1999. Each time he was cleared of all charges by the court. "He helped me a lot in my career because he loves me, and our relationship is strictly family," says Jelavic the footballer.

Think the CM for Russia, Shirokov, once faked a broken leg or smthg like that.

russia should surely have a bunch of sub-standard brazilians in their squad these days, c'mon let's diversify.

Evhen Khacheridi. Not so long ago Oleksandr Aliev called his Dynamo Kyiv team-mate "The woodpecker". Khacheridi was known for his stupid behaviour on the pitch, which saw him sent off several times, but he has now matured and is playing his best football. He is a cool, collected and reliable operator.

http://en.euro2012fantasy.uefa.com/my-leagues/67725/join/?autojoin-code=13714-677

anyone interested?

Yes. It doesn't seem to be mobile-accessible, but I'll have a look shortly.

Poland's passionate coach Franciszek Smuda is so excited by the prospect of Euro 2012 that, according to assistant Jacek Zielinski, he's behaving like a feral animal.

"Smuda? He's like a wild fox in a cage," champions Zielinski. "He just wants to waste them all. He can't wait."

knew that would be a bullshit translation, and so it proved

waste dem wastermen

Heiko Wastemann (born 14 August 1983 in Alzenau, West Germany) is a German footballer who plays as defender for German Bundesliga club Hamburger SV and the German national team.

http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/fourfourtwoview/archive/2012/06/06/possession-jon-harley-amp-foreign-coaches-henry-winter-s-blueprint-for-a-better-england.aspx

lulz

Did McManaman ever actually play for England after that? I'm struggling to remember.

http://en.euro2012fantasy.uefa.com/my-leagues/67725/join/?autojoin-code=13714-677

anyone interested?

i'm in.

mcmanaman never got a decent go for england, ludicrous.

You could cast him in with Hoddle, Le Tiss, Rio, etc. as too suspiciously foreign for England. He did play in the 4-1 Holland game I'm sure, but seemed to fade out of the reckoning as he got more accomplished.

england's mythical left winger, too good for them imo

was "no way no way, mcmanaman" ever a chant?

hard 'ch'?

not today

don't get fresh with me

lol

http://i.imgur.com/BC0Eh.gif

great country by country previews at zonal marking: http://www.zonalmarking.net/category/euro-2012/

yeah been reading them, good stuff.

Wait are Italy really playing Cassano and Balotelli upfront these days? Ohboy.

has cassano even been playing regularly for milan or are they merely seeking lols?

mcmananaman had the starts but never really did it for england in my recollection

rarely failed to underwhelm throughout his whole career tbh, hindsight be kind to him

hes been sick for most of last year

in any case he is 29 and is fairly sensible these days

balotelli, provided he has no defensive responsibilities, is less of a problem than the great british public's ardently expressed need for an angry black hate figure would have you believe

knew i shouldve just typed macca xp

mac mañana mañana mañana man

tbf to the great british public for a change that is not quite the need they have of mario is it, it's more the carrot/stick gazza loony angle

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/b/banana1.jpg

balotelli could be a love figure but insists on being a cunt so idk i'm giving the great british public a free pass on this one regardless of his colour

don't rly see the vermin with the little england flags treat loveable bipolar wifebeater gazza in the same fashion as balotelli

trea-ting

anyway deems good luck in poland, don't say anything nasty about the dead king of pederasts karol wotyla and you should be fine

gazza's wackiness well within the realms of the oddball pal of your little england vermin, balotelli's brand of mentalism all his own.

He was much-loved 'til he was acting like a dick around Easter and he's still not really hated, maybe save the racist aspertions for whatever next catches your displeasure.

everyone loves his (fictional) off the field antics

i wasn't in love with him kicking scotty parker in the head, after all scotty done for the queen gawd blesser in WWI

yeah i think after his slightly derange performance vs arsenal the linekerite bantuhstans seeking a king in the mountain have given up on mario and are probably looking for another bantuh legend to patronize

he actually seems bothered about playing for italy and pranelli is super suspect of him so i don't really envisage any problems

maybe more worrying for italy would be whether their narrow, pedestrian midfield is going to do enough running to make up for balo & cassano

Platini and Collina have both warned him about being booked already.

UEFA president Michel Platini has told the official Euro 2012 kick-off press conference that any player who leaves the pitch due to racist abuse will be given a yellow card.

Platini confirmed that the rule preventing players from leaving the field of play without the referee's permission would be enforced even if they are the victims of racism from the stands in Poland and Ukraine.

The comments came after Mario Balotelli last week threatened to walk off the pitch if he suffered racist abuse during Italy's Euro 2012 games - and Platini confirmed he would be punished in that event.

"It's a yellow card," Platini said at a Warsaw press conference dominated by the theme of racism. "We'd certainly support the referee if he decided to stop the game. It's not a player, Mr Balotelli, who's in charge of refereeing. It's the referee who takes these decisions.

"So the referee has been given advice and he can stop the game if there are problems. We will stop the game if there are problems because I think racism is the worst of this.''

UEFA's chief refereeing officer, Pierluigi Collina, underlined Platini's sentiment, insisting the teams had been informed of the procedure in the event of racist abuse being a problem.

"Things are clear,'' he said, confirming that officials had also been fully briefed. "Referees have a protocol so they know what they have to do. The match director, who is responsible for each match, knows what has to be done on the field of play."

Platini, though, refused to be drawn on the findings of last week's BBC Panorama programme, as well as Sol Campbell's warning that black fans who travel to the tournament risk "coming back in a coffin''.

The Frenchman, who was increasingly angered by the line of questioning, added: "What would you like me to say? How would you want me to answer this?

"Everyone can do what they like. I don't think there's any more racism in Poland and Ukraine than in France or anywhere else, or even in England. It's not a footballing problem. It's a problem for society.

"I'm not charge of what goes on in football stadiums. It's the states that need to take charge of this. There have been problems with violence in the 1970s in England.

"They made great strides actually to change the situation, and we need to do work in the field of racism and we need to stop this from happening. How can you say outside the stadium: 'He's a racist - he can't come in, he's not a racist - he can come in'? You can't do it."

ugh i can imagine the leading questions from the english hack scums

england's peerless and unblemished post-racial paradise is now another myth for boorish patriots to cling to

now every retard on twitter has been prosecuted, england is free of racism and we can sneer at those horrible eastern european countries where they hang foreigners from trees and drink their blood

Is this tournament thread going to be 75% "Daily Mail" / "Dem not gonna con dis nation"-type content?

thought mario was going to get sent-off in the 2nd half against Russia the other night. He looked to be heading that way. Still he played well. Cassano didn't.

i wasn't in love with him kicking scotty parker in the head, after all scotty done for the queen gawd blesser in WWI

― irrational angst that makes me innocuously thingy (darraghmac), Wednesday, June 6, 2012 6:14 PM (19 minutes ago)

that was pretty good, suarez kicking him in the balls was a hans molemanish classic

http://i.minus.com/ibz2dg0uThuYMd.gif

http://www.boxofficefootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/1417a86.gif

suarez beautifully naturalistic mea culpa gesture is better than mario's obviously feigned fall

http://h9.abload.de/img/untitled-11cyali.gif

content tbh

Is there a decent downloadable wallchart out there that i can get for this thing?

noble mario and luis are just trying to whack the shellshock out of the poor blighter's noggin. xxp.

lol boxall

btw i am very annoyed at my department for making june the most important month of the year, don't you see that i have PRIORITIES?

(it's also prevented me from going to lol deleuze workshop in notlol new orleans. D: )

iirc there was a study about how boys underperform scholastically in even years (except for 2008 and 1994 presumably)

it's also prevented me from going to lol deleuze workshop in notlol new orleans

I have no idea what this meanz

being stuck here through june means i can't be excessively geeky and go to deleuze2012.com , nor be ungeeky and happen to be in new orleans for summer.

Is there a decent downloadable wallchart out there that i can get for this thing?

― You can do it Sun Myung Moon (NickB), Wednesday, 6 June 2012 18:44 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I haven't checked to see if this works and is free from errors but:
http://www.36sports.com/latest-news/euro-2012-schedule-betting-tips-download-excel-and-jpg-2/

i made the mistake of reading the times a couple of months ago, and in the g2 aping pullout section full of insincere lifetsyle dogshit some waste cunt was explaining how scott parker made him proud to support the h'england team on the grounds that i) he ran around a lot and ii) his throwback haircut exacerbated the dunkirk spirit of the whole thing

de leuze sounds like an underachieving Belgian u21 prodigy

with de leuze and de ridder you have the midfield of a solid mid-table championship side.

just reading thru the excellent ZM previews, realizing how much i like the 16 team format and how crap the early stages are likely to be when it moves to 24 teams

Thanks for the link Onimo, that looks great!

his throwback haircut exacerbated the dunkirk spirit of the whole thing

I rather like his haircut. It looks quite good on him but what grown person seriously talks about a footballer's haircut in relation to their support for a national side?

http://news.7msport.com/news/upload_img/20120529/go2_2012052910320133.jpg

Someone needs to undo his top button to release the pressure

tbf to wayne he does look very much better with the hair.

but. still.

he's getting overconfident is the problem

ya he isn't fair from growing an raf moustache and hanging around on brick lane with that look.

far

why does our scotty wear those fucking horrible skintight shorts all the time? god i can't stand him.

Beckham is looking immense these days, speaking of 'that look'

and hanging around on brick lane with that look.

I just read the wiki about Brick Lane but I'm not sure I infer everything I'd like to about this post. /tuomas

Is there some kind of UKIP provocation thing that goes on there?

Waine Pryce

Yeah beckham's current look is great .

wellll tbh i'd say becks' damn good quality beard is putting an american deadwood kinda slant on it that sets him apart from joey barton's zorg look which itself is on the punk fringe of the stu pearce/parker/twp ukip look

(parker being on the furthest opposite end of that scale leaning towards apolitical general debonair)

I saw a flash of colour on Parker's boots the other day. Fucking sell-out.

set up a league. code is 336437-76498

ach with the brick lane thing i just meant that wayne, retro side-parting and all, was beginning to let out his inner hipster. i'm evidently not v good at being understood tonight.

I think Rooney's 'do is less retro side-parting than comb-over because his fake hair isn't working out quite how he planned. Good enough for Bobby Charlton.

who is the most hipster of the England squad?

i have a feeling i may have asked that question before

obv ilx hero leighton.

not jim.

Lawro just daringly picked France to win it on BBC's shite preview show. Shearer, mindful of past embarrassments no doubt, went for Germany.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02240/englanders_2240922b.jpg

some odd-shaped heads going on there

Everybody next to EBJT is white.

set up a league. code is 336437-76498

I'm in. Nobody else is.

http://i.imgur.com/2BpIn.png

Defoe has gone home (due to the death of his father, sadly). Just Welbeck and Carroll available for the first two games

robo-roon rockin this look imho:

http://www.futuredude.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/prometheus-david-michael-fassbender-android.jpg

set up a league. code is 336437-76498

I'm in. Nobody else is.

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 7 June 2012 10:25 (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

done

too late to call someone else in?

he's expected to return "in due course"

english funerals take forever iirc

Who is that? Looks like the guy from Deacon Blue (xxxxp)

So disappointing that nobody is tipping England to do well this year... apart from Phil Brown

joined the league.

predos:

Winners: Germany
Runners up: Italy
Poland and France in the Semis
England knocked out of Group Stages by Sweden

Top goalscorer: Nando Torres

Theo will score a beautiful insane goal against a 10 men Ukraine that guarantees he'll be shitty and not live up to expectations next season.

lol 'up' to 'expectations'

Pretty sure it's Geordie from Killing Joke xxp

xpost

tom d - ricky ross = michael fassbender in prometheus

So when you subtract Ricky Ross from me you get Michael Fassbender? Cool.

Have you ever genuinely thought England would win a tournament?

I did in 2002 - I was utterly convinced it was going to happen, at least from the first round when dodgy penalty/Argentina battering on the door to no effect, and maybe before. I could watch the start of games before going to work, and seeing Owen's jammy goal against Brazil just confirmed that it was all written.

It seems kinda insane in retrospect, but when I arrived at work to find that Ronaldinho, Rivaldo et al had turned it round, my brain could not comprehend how this could have happened.

No.

nah to be fair i reckon england have a great chance of winning the carling cup with wellbeck and carroll up front.

i thought england would win euro 96 tbh

^^ aye, with the home advantage i thought they were a sure thing

I thought they might after Gary McAllister expertly aimed that penalty kick at David Seamsn's arse

i think england will get through the group stage, then somehow scrape victory from jaws of defeat through the knockout stages, john terry will be suspended for the final, england gets outplayed for 90 minutes by another team that misses 40 barn doors and england equalises in the 88th minute then the other team miss a penalty and england win euro 2012 in a penalty shootout with John Terry coming back out wearing a beefeater uniform and fuck the world

wonder if sheva has any terry beef and if he could get someone to stamp on his face in the group stage

ireland are obviously going to win. the country needs a lift and this will be our f u to our euro overlords.

darraghmac will feature in an iconic newsreel

wait, if we win don't we have to host the next one? It'll sink the country!

Nice try Ireland, the whole of the southern eurozone is in the queue ahead of you.

the country needs a lift and this will be our f u to our euro overlords.

You're sounding like a Englishman now

it's a ruddy disgrace what they've done to us.

we used to have our own pound!!!

Have you ever genuinely thought England would win a tournament?

I've never thought pre-tournament 'England *will* win this', but when England reached the semis in Euro 96 I thought they had the best chance of the four teams still in it. Euro 2004 was looking good up until Rooney's metatarsal went. World Cups of 90 and 02 didn't start off promising much, but reached a point where I thought 'if we can beat Germany/Brazil, we'll probably win the whole thing' (but that was always obviously a big if).

just got italy in the work sweep. shame they're going out in the group stages.

they are?

you've obviously not noticed ireland are in that group??

i suppose tho spain or croatia could also fail to get the 4 points to our 9

will prob depend on who concedes the most against us in the end

reading the zonal marking thing and he makes ireland sound like the most depressing team going. obv they'll win it.

also i'll never not be amazed by stats like this: Cristiano Ronaldo (146 goals in 144 games for Real Madrid)

ireland's formation featuring one player in the opposition half is p good.

Roy biting Trap's style or vice versa?

andy carroll would be so good in trapp's ireland team.

Walters should play ahead of Doyle really

loved trap's "no tracking back = ur pontius pilate" line

one must also fully commend cox maintaining remarkable journalistic sangfroid in painstakingly enumerating quite plausibly the grimmest international side in the history of football

Little over the top. We're hardly the first side to play defensively, and even if we ignore some creative players the issue of whether we could succeed with a better brand of football is debatable.

a hoy hoy tempering his challops by safe betting germany for championees

I've switched from thinking Germany would win this a month ago to thinking that they won't even get out of their group now. Possibly crystallised by so many of the BBC pundits tipping them.

Their predictions are incredibly safe. Going for an england semi makes Shearer the Stockhausen of punditry.

His reasoning? "I'm a proud Englishman".

Group winners: Russia, Germany, Spain, France
Runners-up: Poland, Netherlands, Croatia, England
QF: RUS def NED, ESP def ENG, POL def GER, FRA def CRO
SF: Russia over Spain, France over Poland
France 2-1 Russia final (Ribery, Giroud; Pavlyuchenko)

Russia haven't a hope in hell of beating Spain!

I rather hope you're right, would like to see Spain beat lesser like they ought to, just suspect they're going to struggle.

beat lesser sides*

Now I have them in the work sweep, I expect Russia to win everything.

The ZM piece on Spain was v good I thought. I wonder if Spain do try to get both Silva and Iniesta in the starting 11 on the wings. It kinda worked for City with Nasri and Silva sometimes, but then sometimes it didn't and they needed YaYa to step forward to save them. Also I haven't watched much of Spain post South Africa so interested to see what kind of role Cesc plays presuming he's even starting.

Poland beating Germany is the crazy prediction there.

I'm in two minds on Spain. On one hand I feel they're knackered and bound to hit a wall at some point. On the other they're clearly better than everyone else except maybe Germany, and they have forwards too, so might mop up at a canter.

Spain-Italy's a belter of a first game, really looking forward to that.

Russia have impressed me most in the warm up games, maybe France too fwiw, which is probably not much.

I think Pirlo might have to do too much defending vs Spain for Italy to be effective. Then again it least it won't be counter attack defending where his lack of pace would really be exposed. But seriously in their last game the positioning of the Italian full backs in a back four was woeful and was easy pickings for clever passes inside them which should suit Spain to a tee.

I haven't watched any warmups, I needed a break to try to come to this fresh. I could've done with a couple more weeks tbh, the calendar's so draining these days.

Man, I've almost been reduced to actually doing jobs around the house and gardening and crap now that there haven't been multiple games on my DVR waiting for me when I get home from work. Thank G_d for the NBA play-offs.

I hear you - I pointed myself towards the Sopranos box set instead. Kind of aggrieved the footy's going to get in the way of that now, it's effing great.

just when you thought you were out...they pull you back in

I'm for Italy all the way now anyway

set up a league. code is 336437-76498

― Michael B Higgins (Michael B), Wednesday, 6 June 2012 22:46 (Yesterday)

i'm in. also i picked paul mcshane. cower.

i'm in two minds about all of the big hitters, france starting to look attractive purely out of unpredictability

fwiw poland gave germany a damn good game they were unlucky not to win in a recent friendly

i don't want to know what savage and cruel god of efficiency germany are worshipping if mertesacker is a better fit than hummels (per zm)

yeah i read that with disbelief too! Surely there's no way.

so many of the teams have major questions at the back, no?
bruno alves and pepe & terry and lescott might be among the best center back pairings in the tournament.
and whoever plays for italy i guess.

I'm betting on a red card for either bruno alves or pepe.

QF: NED def POL, ENG def SPA, GER def ???, FRA ?omg? IRE

SF: NED def ENG, GER ??? ???

F: NED def GER or FRA def NED

feel the fuckin vibe

alternatively and quite possibly, SPA def SWE in the QF and sail through to win it

inglund av it in um ta goo all tha way.

bloody hell could it be that mizzel's right about cb pairings??

errr cos that would then also mean that jagielka-lescott would undisputably be the best

kjaer - agger? heitinga - mathijsen? maybe it's the greeks. has shakira really ruined pique that badly?

didn't see much serie a this season but italy's two juventus guys are presumably no bad.

kjaer seems to blow hot and cold. certainly not the dutch.
pique ramos certainly has the potential to be the best, but it's not certain.

true Bonucci- Chiellini both from Juve should be the best pair.

i looked them up

Chiellini was awesome at the last Euros, especially in the knock-out game vs Spain. He's a terrible one for faking tho.

an italian faking?????????!!!!!?

ha, i know, but even by those standards he's the king.

ZM guy pointed out today that bad CBs = DMs camping deep = goalless tournament ahoy.

yeah he can be frustrating to watch. he's no pepe though. xp

joined the league too btw.

starting to think france will do well this year, they'll definitely walk the group stage and should manage italy in the qf.

who's this Polanski who's been selected in 36.3% of the fantasy teams?

mm barzagli-chiellini as a duo would probably be the tournament best, bonucci is the iffy one of the juve 3

eugen polanski, german dmc playing for poland who before the reality of his career sank in once said he'd support germany over poland

Euro 2012 was plunged into its first racism controversy after the black players in the Holland squad were subjected to monkey chants during an open practice session in the same city where England will also invite the public to watch them train on Friday.

Several hundred people targeted players such as Nigel de Jong and Gregory van der Wiel when 25,000 spectators attended the Dutch practice session at the Stadion Miejski, the home of Wisla Krakow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/07/euro-2012-holland-racist-abuse

Wisla hooligans are amongst the worst. I'd hope that the practice matches had a higher percentage of ultras who'd turn up for anything and the proper matches have a more balanced, normal crowd.

I have a feeling this might be a bigger issue in Poland than Ukraine.

Man oh man I can't wait for this to start. Even though I won't be able to see games since the first ones start at midnight for me. Also, all of you picking France to do well in this tournament, i'll repeat what i said on the other thread iirc: you're all crazy. As much as I want to believe I still fully expect them to do something stupid, like maybe fight with each other on the pitch while the opposing team scores goals like there's no tomorrow. Or ben arfa menez and ribéry having an on-pitch contest to see who can keep the ball for longest without losing it/who will play the longest while refusing to pass the ball, ever.

who's this Polanski who's been selected in 36.3% of the fantasy teams?

― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 7 June 2012 23:04 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this will be thrown off by some players being rlly cheap sub options so ppl can try and fit in ronny, rvi and ozil or whatever

i only managed to fit two of those three :'(. paul mcshane, you're seemingly no polanski.

i am in this league. jelkino breus

http://i49.tinypic.com/35iugdx.jpg

Beautiful. I don't know why I always spend time designing the kit, I get nothing out of it. At least you can see it, unlike my carefully-selected avatar.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2012/06/08/3157385/xavi-mourinho-will-not-go-down-in-footballing-history

do you ever get the feeling this truce might not be 100% for realsies

"great set of lads though the madrid boys," he said balling his fists so tightly they bled

That's it, Muller has to start ahead of him

Mike Helms (via Facebook): Who would you like to swap places with, just for a day?

Götze: Justin Bieber. I mean there’s quite a lot of hype surrounding us players, but that’s small beer when you look at this guy. I’d just love to be in his shoes for a day, see what it’s like being on stage as a singer or actor.

That's the hubristic setup that was missing for a Spanish disaster here, good work Xavi

‏@TheRealEboue
Enjoy your holiday @rioferdy5 . Roy is gonna regret that decision. Licking John terry's salty balls. I hope he chokes on it.

@TheRealEboue
Just bcuz @rioferdy5 stood up 4 his brother that was racially abused by Mr JT. U disrespect d guy & drop him. Mr Roy shud shit & eat it

What, is Müller not starting? I've a fantasy team depends on him.

He'll be starting IK, don't worry.

Van Bommel OTM

When it was put to Van Bommel on Thursday that the chanting was a protest against Euro 2012 organisers, he said: "Open your ears. If you did hear it and don't want to hear it, that is even worse."

Muller's been a bit pony this year hasn't he? I'd worry about building a team around him.

i thought he had been dropped more because he was criticizing heynckes and the other players than for playing poorly

three goals and seven assists in the ten qualifying games

has the fantasy league site crashed for everyone?

never mind. i wouldn't dilly dally if you want to get a team in though.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2012/6/8/1339163180625/Philipp-Lahm-leaves-a-new-001.jpg

michael ballack as an analyst alongside alexi lolas? lol

Eh hold on, the early kickoffs are at five o'clock, not six? I'm not going to be home in time ffs.

Is that his expression upon hearing that Loew is considering Sven Bender at full-back?
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So stoked for this btw. Looking forward to the Piszczek/Kuba right wing axis this afternoon. Oh good an opening ceremony, at least it isn't 4 hours long.

12 minutes long apparently, ALL OF WHICH I WILL BE MISSING

There's a dj on a bedazzled gold shirt. And charlie adam in a tuxedo print tee shirt!

the pianist is now doing keepy uppys. i hope the london2012 opening ceremony has something that good to go with reanimated keith moon.

piano guy is rubbish at football

surprised Greece aren't starting that young Schalke CB Kyriakos, thought he was supposed to be excellent.

well his shirt has 'Adam' on the back. More LFC at the Euros#biggestclubineurope

but they said pianist used to play in one of the countries' national futsal team
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there are inflatable paddling pools on the pitch, which has been covered in a big tarpooling. and now they have organised people into a white six point star. could be an anti-jewish thing, commentary isn't letting on.

xxp yes he's raw but v physically imposing and used to playing against lewandowski, i'm surprised as well.

michel platters didn't look impressed.

greece are going to lose because of the austerity measures according to hansen

hasn't this ninis kid been the next big thing for a long time? i see he has joined palermo for next season.

looking forward to seeing ninis

the greek messi

glad to see Ninis is starting. ZM said he might just be an impact sub. never actually seen him tho

omfg my flatmate hasn't paid the internet bill which means i'm phone-tethering with not enough allowance to stream video. i'll kill um.

Sami time! A chance for the big man to infuriate on the big stage.

There's international futsal now?! xp I suppose there are really good world cups and everything going on, while we spend a few decades refusing to participate.

gekas such a goal poacher, barely looks like a footballer for most of the 90 mins.

Is this the best tournament ever yet?

2 of the last 3 Euros have been great. Bound to be a disappointment.

Poland killing it down the right.

blimey that was close. greece are looking like a mess already. everyones lewandowski tgs bets could be working out here.

LEWANDOWKI!!!!!!!!!

1-0! My man!

greece unsurprisingly looking awful

Poland killing it down the right.

Was about to post that then the goal came from the right. Greek defence is a mess, left back caught 1 v 2 umpteen times.

If Greece are gonna score it's going to be a set play surely.

tbf to Greece tho, lewandowski was going to score here no matter what.

no way a yellow there

Neither team has done much since the goal. Greece look bereft of ideas.

yeah, poland have regressed since the goal. Greece are there for the taking and poland should try to finish them. A 2nd goal would end it against this lot.

Boenisch looks ropey at LB for Poland.

Samaras has been Greece's best player by far imo

Oh G_d Mark Bright agrees with me, I give up.

not saying much when compared to ninis xp

harsh red

That's a bullshit decision.

loooooooooooool that is the softest red. poland are going to spank them.

referees a homer

some bullshit. One game in and the refs already fucking up the tourney.

Dude slipped over. No way.

Fucking bullshit refereeing.

lol thats handball

this is like south korea vs italy in the world cup

Not a pen imo

Never a pen come on AG

not a pen, but with the way it's been reffed it should be in this game.

Not deliberate, not careless, didn't prevent the ball falling to a goal scoring chance.

AG bringing the outlandish claims

The ref has actually been lenient with the cards EXCEPT for the same guy he gave 2 bullshit decisions to.

Which is bizarre.

i cant believe those 2 yellows.

No way does this ref get another game at the tourney hopefully.

Yeah the tourney organisers will be fuming about the host nation being helped out of their group.

Oh look half time is England time on the BBC. Does this happen in other countries during matches their team isn't playing?

Not sure Poland needed much help tbh

welp picking sokratis pap for my fantasy team wasn't a great idea.

not as far as i know xp to onimo

1-1!

1-1

That was ridiculous.

wtf did they play music when poland scored?

Useless Arsenal goalkeeping strikes again

onimo you should know by now not to watch the halftime bullshit

poland deserve a kick up the arse for lack of ambition since they went one up.

samaras should have taken that on his chest i think

chesny OFF PEN

lol

!

omgwtflol

great ref

He's been useless!

lol

was it offside tho

not his greatest performance

I knew it was a good idea to pick him for my FF team.

lolska

SAVED!

yessss I love it

Come on!

Proper keeper at last

shoulda been Sami tbh

Good stuff goalie

What a crazy game!

Greek coach is magnificent

lol.

Oh look half time is England time on the BBC. Does this happen in other countries during matches their team isn't playing?

Yep, I think pretty much every country in the world talks about England at half-time.

Still wanna see a replay of the thru ball that led to the pen to see if it was offside.

textbook facepalm from greek coach after that pen

Now offside. Not sure about that

chopped off

on replay correct

This is some pretty clownish football.

poland have been rubbish for the last hour

it's v entertaining. the greek keeper's flesh-coloured strip is a bit offputting though, i keep thinking he's a streaker.

Usually one expects the momentum to pass from one side to the other but both teams look like they're psyching themsleves out in equal measure.

Danny Mills on BBC Radio 5 live:

"Wojciech Szczesny has had an absolute nightmare. He's had nothing to do, but his concentration has deserted him. What was he trying to achieve with that? He should have gone with his hands. The referee had no option but to give a penalty and send the goalkeeper off. Szczesny has had two things to do and he's done both badly.

just checked the potential offside for the pen and it's really hard to tell (from the match angle anyway)

lovely pass there

I'd forgotten how much fun watching Samaras is.

Mark Bright deriding Samaras

one player in the box?

weird mixture of olde style blood&thunder and desultory ineptitude about this match

Mark Bright "Russia and Czech Rep watching this with their feet up in a hotel somewhere." They kick off in an hour Mark, if they're still at the hotel chilling they're in trouble.

lol chesney.

shit game, plenty of lols. b+ opener.

Greece did well after half-time but Poland bottled that.

They'll not be in too much trouble judging by that game xps

Amazing the way Poland totally switched off right from the start of the second half, polar opposite of the way they started the first. Worst team talk ever.

It's a pity that ended even, from what I saw it's practically an invitation for Russia and the Czechs to go through the motions tonight and take their chances in the other two games.

I'd wait to see how bad the Czech Republic are before writing off the other two, tbh.

who does the second placer in this group play cos that might be an incentive to win

Were Czech Rep in the same qualifying group as Scotland? If so I remember them being poor. Russia should be exciting Euro 2008 style.

winners of group of
xp

The top two both go out in the quarters to two from the Germany/Dutch/Danes/Portugal group-of-death thing.

group of death ie holland/portugal/germany
so playing the 2nd place team is no picnic either

xp

i have rudely dismissed denmark there. sorry daniel.

I quite like 'group of', in an 'end of' stylee

I could see Russia taking six points from two games which might mean, if Greece can grind a draw with the Czechs, they'd end up playing a second-string Russian side in the third match.

If Greece win the whole fucking thing again, man...

golden generation

looking frwd to seeing Gebre Selassie at RB for Czechs tonight.

Jiracek looked useful in the few games he played for Wolfsburg last season too.

Didn't realize that the Russian squad is basically Zenit and Dynamo.

Are Spartak rubbish? And do Anzhi only buy expensive foreigners?

Anzhi's squad is over 50% Russian by the looks of things.

Zhirkov is the only one who made the national squad tho

As if I don't get enough of Howard Webb during the regular season FFS

What about Rubin Kazan? It was only last year they were in the CL iirc. Russian footy is a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, to me.

aw no its no howard webb is it?

About 10 Russians in their squad but only one made the Euros. I'm clueless about how they're doing this season. Didn't the russian season just last a year and a half cos they're in the middle of switching when the league starts and finishes?

CSKA have five players in the squad, iirc, Dinamo have four.

Most of CSKA's midfielders and strikers are foreign, with the exception of Dzagoev, but their defence is pretty strongly Russian.

Teams in the wrong colours afaic

Rubin weren't great last season xp

lovely football

Davaaaaaiiiiiii!

The Russian Messi!

would have been cooler if the header had gone in

wooooo ff points

russian schweini morelike

thank you dzagoev, good news for my FF team. was hoping akinfeev would play.

Fuck, cut them open

Czechs look ridic narrow.

the fuck was that

my nan could put that on target

woeful finish

yeah that was disgraceful

flashes of samaras

Way too easy.

Russia on dis ting.

this could get embarrassing

nice chip still

cool finish tho

Sad to see the Czechs getting beaten up like this.

i put a pound on sherikov (40/1) and lewwy (18/1) today on the recommendations of various internet writers who know a lot more than i do. :D

(also went on my own hunch and went with italy each way winners.)

Ech, I thought this was an eight o'clock kickoff, I need to get myself in order here.

i would be as surprised if italy won this as i would be if england did ie extremely

Now I see why Cech was such a bargain for my ff teams.

IK having a nightmare so far. The tournament's too big for the lad, a step up.

I mean kick off times are just basic stuff

I think I saw every minute of the world cup too, this might be a tournament too far for the old-timer.

oof, should have been 3.

Russia looking very nice though.

Don't worry IK, Zidane had a nightmare start to 2006 WC and look how that ended.....well how it almost ended anyway.
xp

And just look at Rob Green in 2010

lol

fucking mexican wave

these fans are savages

nice finish

Great goal

yay for that pass and finish! game on!

love out-to-in runs from wide men

Lovely. Now shut that fucking music off.

Sorry, grandpa

He's just miffed it's not "Song 2"

the most beautiful sound at a football game is the crowd cheering after a goal, and stupid cunts all over the world ruin it with tannoy shite. atmosphere in the stadium should be created by supporters.

surely the most beautiful sound at a football game is "your shit aaaaaah" at goal kicks?

A robust audible 50:50, then collective intake of breath a quarter-second later.

Terrible finish, but this has become excellent.

beauty of a pass from arshavin

It's miles better than Poland/Greece

so many slices

have yet to see a decent long range strike in either game so far

Kerzhakov's finishing is off

it's the jabulani.

bufana bufana vuvuzela.

i seem to remember the free kicks in euro 2008 were pure shit.

wtf that finish

finish as bad as the defending

kerzhakov is a big wet lettuce.

kerzhaklolv

Has there ever been a decent Russian striker?

Odemwingie.

That really was a terrible shot

Kerzhakov's actually pretty good, tbh. Had a great domestic season and works well within the structure of the team. His finishing has been awful, though. Pav or Pogrebnyak for the last twenty minutes would have finished them off.

keeper got lucky there

good save tho

The Soviet sides, did they have any Inzaghi types? I remember them as all robotic fullbacks and cultured passing midfielders.

oleg blokhin but he was a ukrainian

Along with Portugal they don't do CFs

there you go

Rah!

dzagoev in the fantasy team, yas.

that is not good defending

Bang

the left side of the czech defence has been a disgrace

FFS! The digital box cut me off for recording two separate programmed just as that was happening. I've seen one goal out of six so far.

Pav!

Two from seven now.

PAV BOOF!

oof

Helluva goal

Harry sign him up

dzagoev will be going to real for 25m this summer now.

i <3 this side.

he should probably play next game DICK

Arshavin is like Halley's Comet

hahahahaha

Pavlyuchenko, of all people, the impact sub

well excellent day one, 22 more like it please.

Pavlyuchenko and Arshavin look useful. I can see big Premier League clubs coming in for them.

This post brought to you from 2008.

They play well for Russia. Maybe they don't travel well?

Ah, 2008...

I don't think Pavlyuchenko did an awful lot wrong at Spurs.

EVERY time I see this thread I think it is about the euro monetary crisis. Then I remember...

In some ways, it actually is

had a wonderful time rooting for greece. a good first day.

I don't think Pavlyuchenko did an awful lot wrong at Spurs.

― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Friday, June 8, 2012 4:38 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

amen, i love that dude.

Dos Santos, shit for Spurs great at international level

<3 Arshavin

dos santos just scored again for mexico.

Wojciech Szczesny has had an absolute nightmare

He's no Artur Boruc, that's for sure. Czechs were rubbish in qualifying, so bad that Scotland would have finnished ahead of them if that cheatin' Czech hadn't dived in the 90th minute @ Hampden and Levein hadn't pioneered his novel 5-5-0 formation in Prague.

Give the guy some credit, it was a much more attacking 4-6-0 (with the wide men coming back to cover as a 6-4-0 when we didn't have the ball, which was always).

http://i.imgur.com/9GHKU.gif

I enjoyed yesterday a lot more than I'd expected to - Poland v Greece was the most entertaining opening game in several years. Also lol Szczesny.

Russia looked great yesterday, I still love Pav, but it's pretty easy to see them absolutely storming through the group stages and running out of steam in time for the knockout stages.

otm xp

Yeah xp, Russia look a lot like Spain did before they started winning things. I reckon the mantle of 'greatest underachievers' is theirs now (that'd make a great tournament - it gets played in reverse, and Russia get the title by getting beaten by Mexico in the semis, who in turn lose the final to England on penalties)

really psyched for denmark - holland. haven't seen that much of eriksen, curious to see how much impact he can have on this in all other aspects quite mediocre team

Where are we streaming the Euros? I know this may have been covered up thread. All my usual sites aren't doing the business.

I watch it on telly

that was a nice little bit on the 92 win by the beeb

Yes but where can I watch telly on the Internet?

The BBC and ITV should be streaming it, no? If you're outside the UK you should be able to use a proxy server.

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/sport/football.html

yah number none, that was good

poor old huntelaar, goal a game this season? On the bench son.

It's a bit wrong that the group of should be played out in the two smallest stadiums

love story??dubstep???

exactly

I am in Los Angeles. How do I shot proxy server?

does first row not work for you?

van bommel has the look of someone who'd knife you in an alley for the bus fare home

oh come on now fucking internet shit cunt bastard arse.

dutch bench is a bit tasty

they have decent back up goalies

Gregory van der Wiel - "the bad boy of dutch football...likes his rap music"

looks like the danish keeper will be passing the ball into his net before long.

great pass rvp

I am in Los Angeles. How do I shot proxy server?

ESPN's streaming all matches at http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index (though you might not have access depending on your ISP)

Didn't van der Wiel pull out of a Dutch away game so he could go to a Li'l Wayne gig though?

really? excellent. greg van der weezy

denmark odds on to have a disaster at least once when trying to pass it out of defence.

could have shot there?

excellent attack but what the hell are you doing robben

Was a great interception, though.

half missed that, was that robben refusing to use his right foot?

go on daniel, kick his head off

robben's been great so far

Wow!

excellent!

It's been coming

swerve and nutmeg

nice goal!

erm i guess my stream is delayed.

heitinga undressed there

nice goal that guy, didn't see it coming.

wtf is this 7 nation army shit.

Should only be reserved for when / if Italy score.

"if" haha

Wasn't really a lucky strike, he's hitting full whack from about six yards. Keown being a bit harsh there.

robben trying to cross =-o

poor old affelay

getting krohn-dehli in over eriksen pays off already!

erm why's van persie at left back.

total football

Nice extended riff on Ukrainian CPI there

lol

that was the worst pass I've ever seen

looks like the danish keeper will be passing the ball into his net before long.

― Merdeyeux, Saturday, June 9, 2012 4:10 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is starting to look very like a 0-1

showing robben down the line

Mexican wave again fuck sake

was that a pass from van bommel?

taking it off each other's toes now

2 of them lining up there

denmark bossing this

get huntelaar on, rvp past it

spotted modric as ball boy in the backgroud of that replay,

De Subjectivisten's gone very quiet

are the bbc team just in the redecorated match of the day studio?