Euro 2008

[backfireNL]

After GTA IV, something else keeping me away from forza: Euro 2008...

Anyone else watching this ? After yesterday's victory over Italy the "orange-fever" is spreading fast over here

[Fit4aking]

The only thing that keeps me up all hours of the night is womens tennis.  Australian Open absolutely ruined my sleep schedule, Rolland Garros (French Open) wasn't too bad, and Wimbeldon will have me rushig home from work.

Bring on the US open, its in my time zone!! 

Congrats to Ana Ivanovic, #1 in the world, and rediculously hot!!  Sorry Maria Sharapova.

[BarbecuePete]

I watched a bit of the Germany Poland game the other day, but as England aren't in it this year  its kind of lost its intrest...

Be good to see Holland do well for once though, they're another team like England and Spain that never seem to do very much in the finals...

Edit:- Oh yeah, not seen her before but.. Ana Ivanovic... Damn, shes hot! 

[backfireNL]

as England aren't in it this year  its kind of lost its intrest...

Be good to see Holland do well for once though, they're another team like England and Spain that never seem to do very much in the finals...

Real shame England doesn't play, It shows again that a bunch of world class players don't necessarily make up a winning team. We learned that back in '74 (Cruijff, Neeskens) though it did work out quite nice in '88. You might remember the 3-1 ? (Koeman-Rijkaard-Gullit-Van Basten vs. Shilton-Lineker etc.) Well that's what you get for buying all our top players to the premier league

The only thing that keeps me up all hours of the night is womens tennis.  Australian Open absolutely ruined my sleep schedule, Rolland Garros (French Open) wasn't too bad, and Wimbeldon will have me rushig home from work.

Haha I don't really care about womens sports in general but of course Ivanovic and the like make me change my mind every now and then

The problem with euro 2008 is that it's on from 1800 till midnight every day, so that leaves me just enough time to throw some beers in the freezer and light the bbq when I return from work. I don't really get around to anything else these days..

[TheJohnNewton]

Lol Fit.  I forgot about your women's tennis fetish... um... I mean appreciation for the sport.  Yeah Ana is not so hard to look at.  Kind of weird that Henin retired but hey going out on top isn't so bad.  Weird that she didn't do it after the French though.

Euro 2008??? Is that soccer?

[Fit4aking]

Something tells me there will be a little Justine or Justin in a few months.  She had some play left in her, and a baby would require a sudden stop in professional game play.

And there's nothing wrong with my appreciation.  Its the only sport in the word that can be construed as X-rated if you listen to it instead of watch it.  A local radio station recaps each match by playing 3 seconds of straight audio and its hilarious to listen to.  Specially the Ivanovic-Sharapova match from the Austrailian open.  It was dubbed the Glam Slam and it featured the Shreiker(Sharapova) and the Squeeker (Ivanovic), priceless to listen to but honestly a very good match.

...Now back to football...

[TheJohnNewton]

Interesting theory on Justine.  She just recently got divorced right?

Oh yeah, football, not soccer.  I'm so US centric.  Sorry.

[backfireNL]

Yep Soccer/Football indeed. It's the European Championship for national team's. Quite a big thing here in the Netherlands. The 3-0 against current world champion Italy was watched by over 7 million people. (That's roughly half the population) So basically everyone over 5 and under 70 is watching and whole neighborhoods are painted orange (color of national team) Fantastic atmosphere

[sk15kev]

Looks like it is between Portugal, Germany, Spain and Holland so far.

I am supporting the Dutch with no England or Scotland.  The only phrase I know to shout is "Prachtig doelpunt!".  Hopefully will get plenty chances and some Shhexy Football.

[TravBot]

Is it true that there was some deal involving the Austrian team that the first player to score a goal would be awarded beer for life?  If so, does the game-tying PK in stoppage at the end of the Poland game count for that? That game was silly, because the only two goals were scored 1) on an uncalled offside and 2) on a PK.  Ridiculous!

[backfireNL]

Looks like it is between Portugal, Germany, Spain and Holland so far.

I totally agree. Czech did surprise me but I don't think they will be able to beat portugal or germany. lol@ Prachtige doelpunten You know how to pronounce it as well ? If so you might be ready for "Allemachtig prachtig negentien achtentachtig" and you might be the only english speaking person that I know of who is able to pronounce Gullit and BerGkamp

Is it true that there was some deal involving the Austrian team that the first player to score a goal would be awarded beer for life?  If so, does the game-tying PK in stoppage at the end of the Poland game count for that? That game was silly, because the only two goals were scored 1) on an uncalled offside and 2) on a PK.  Ridiculous!

Don't know anything about the beer thing. Austria-Poland was a bad game indeed, shows why it's ridiculous that the countries hosting the tournament are qualified automatically. Now we get to see players from the second division of norway (I am not kidding) instead of for example England and Scotland. I wasn't really surprised by the PK, the player making the foul was warned before and the UEFA announced before the tournament that they would be extra strict on that type of fouls.

I'm a little nervous for tonight's game against France. If they play as bad as they did against Romania it shouldn't be a problem (if so the so called "group of death" turns out to be a "group of walk in the park" for Holland at least but Henry and Vierra are probably playing so I don't expect anything easy.

[BarbecuePete]

Saw a little bit of last nights Croatia / Germany match... I think Croatia could be another one for the final..

They'll probably end up playing Germany again though, now that they've lost that game they won't want to lose again..

[sk15kev]

Looks like it is between Portugal, Germany, Spain and Holland so far.

I totally agree. Czech did surprise me but I don't think they will be able to beat portugal or germany. lol@ Prachtige doelpunten You know how to pronounce it as well ? If so you might be ready for "Allemachtig prachtig negentien achtentachtig" and you might be the only english speaking person that I know of who is able to pronounce Gullit and BerGkamp

Good clip, got plenty of practice at shouting.  I don't know if I get it right, but I was told when I was in Amsterdam that if I shout it loud enough you just can't get it wrong.  I was watching a game in the smallest bar in Holland, literally.  Had a great night and people kept buying my wife and I drinks because we were from "Schotland".  I always wondered where Sean Connery got his pronunciation from! Lol.

Not sure about your next one, is it something to do with winning Euro 88?

"Kom op Nederland"  Easy one tonight, France are too old now.

[backfireNL]

4-1 !!!!!!  So after beating the worldchampion and the runner up we are through to the quarter finals!!! I strongly believe we can make it to the finals now. Probably Sweden/Russia in the quarter finals and Spain/France/Italy/Romania in the semi finals.

Not sure about your next one, is it something to do with winning Euro 88?

Indeed, it means something like "Absolutely fantastic 1988" (in dutch it all rhymes), but it's just a funny thing we make foreigners say because they usually break there tongue over all the "g" and "ch".

Funny thing you mention Amsterdam (I lived there for a couple of years) , I still got some phone numbers and addresses from people from Scotland who told me to visit them if I ever come to Scotland, after I met them in a pub and we talked about football all night.

I think Croatia could be another one for the final..

Croatia did surprise me as well, but I can't see them beating Germany and Portugal. Especially Germany should never be underestimated. They've got past the group stage 6 times and played the finals 5 out of 6. (And won 3 of course). The exception was the '88 semi finals against the Netherlands. Which is by far the best and most emotional football match I ever watched in my life. At the time that match was even bigger then the finals against Russia. After the tournament everyone said "The finals were on tuesday" (the semi finals were on tuesday) For our American friends: Netherlands vs Germany is something like 80's Lakers vs. Celtics or early '90's Pistons vs Bulls only bigger because of the patriotism.

*edit: lol @ Dailymail

[BarbecuePete]

From Daily mail list... LOL

7. The Dutch are a notoriously tall people making them easy to follow, even in a crowd

And if my trip to amsterdam a few years back is anything to go by.., especially when its a bloke walking down the street wearing a basque, stockings and high heels....  LOL