It’s two years before the FIFA World Cup heads to the Motherland, to South Africa. That must mean Europe is holding their championships and indeed they are. The Euro 2008 is set to begin 7 June and end 29 June. Hosts Switzerland and Austria will compete with 14 other national teams to be considered Europe’s best and earn a bid into the FIFA Confederations Cup which is 14-25 June, 2009 in South Africa.
Euro 2008 is being held in both Switzerland and Austria. Portugal, Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Greece, Russia, Spain, and Sweden will join Switzerland and Austria to determine Europe’s best national team.
In 2004, Greece were crowned champions surprising many including myself beating Portugal in the championship match 1-0. After losing 1-2 to Russia and drawing 1-1 with Spain in the first two matches, Greece went on to win the rest including two wins over Portugal, a win over France and the Czech Republic. This year Greece is back in it in Group D with two familiar opponents from 04′ (Spain and Russia) and Sweden. Both my teams Portugal and Spain should advance. I think Portugal is in the toughest group in the tournament. All four teams in Group A were part of the World Cup in 2006 and two of the four (Portugal and Switzerland) advanced into the latter rounds [Switzerland defeated by Ukraine in the second round, and Portugal defeated by France in the semifinals and again by Germany (hosts) in the consolation match]. However, that was then. I don’t know if there’s a favorite to win it all or not, and if there is I certainly don’t know who it would be. There is a team that I expect to advance far in the tournament and that’s the Italians. They are the world champions and in my mind have an obligation to defend that status not only in 2010 in South Africa, but in every major tournament and important friendlies or exhibition matches. Yet, at the same time I understand how hard it can be to win two different tournaments with same but “different” national team. I’m not at all confident in my abilities to foresee a champion yet, but I’m fairly confident about who should emerge from the group stages to advance:
Group A — Portugal and Czech Republic
Manchester United winger, favorite player, and likely FIFA Player of the Year (42 season goals); Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal).
Group B — Germany and Croatia
Michael Ballack part of Chelsea F.C. Champions’ League runners-up and captain of German national team.
Group C – France and Netherlands (I know, I’m going out on a limb here and contradicting myself not picking the world champs, especially after what I said I expect from them. I just have a weird feeling about this group.)
Ryan Babel (Netherlands), Liverpool player acquired from Ajax. Unfortunately suffered an ankle injury (torn ligaments) and will not be participating in the Euro 2008.
Group D – Spain and Greece
There they are, Euro 2004 Champions! I don’t think they’ll repeat. Then, they could surprise us again.
I cannot wait for this to begin. The first match is Switzerland vs. Czech Republic on Saturday, 7 June, 11:00 (CST). I’m glad ESPN and especially ESPN360 will be covering so many matches. I’m also glad to see ABC getting in and broadcasting a couple of matches as well (Quarterfinal match 21 June and the Final on 29 June). Hopefully ABC’s coverage of the Final will ignite some more interest among Americans in the sport. Let’s also hope that there will be more knowledgeable commentators who can do more than just call what we see and not be so critical of a star player if that player has an off match.
Posted by Adam 
