I hope Belgium win it, the really have to play together as a team because they have the quality to do so
Portugal in EC the last 20 years 1996 - QF 2000 - SF 2004 - F 2008 - QF 2012 - SF but the Pasta eater does not put them in the top 8 contenders, was there suddenly a vortex that consumed every Portugal player on the earth that I was not aware of? they will still have a 3 time ballon D'or winner on the field and a host of other players, and there is currently a lot of new youth coming up who can make the 2016 squad.
Past success doesn't guarantee future success. I would personally put Portugal at #8 instead of England, but I think those other 7 all have better squads than Portugal right now.
I wouldn't be shocked if England had a good Euro. They are constantly mocked in the media when they fail, but people seem to forget that they are probably the most athletic team in all of Europe. It's going to come together in the next decade - and they'll shock people. QF exit: Portugal (no depth), Poland (dark horse), Netherlands (down cycle), Italy (reloading for 2018) SF exit: England (shock of the tournament), Germany (will lose to the winner) Finals: France over Spain
My personal opinion in terms of probability: 1. Germany 2. France (home advantage) 3. Italy 4. Spain 5. Netherlands 6. England 7. Portugal 8. Croatia
England don't have a chance, every team across all levels of the national team go into opening games with a fear of losing. Once we draw or lose the first game then the fear increases into the second game and so on until we're knocked out (the women's team being the exemption in the recent World Cup). What I've not seen from the men's team in a tournament for a while is the attacking nature that got us through qualifying. If we went all out attack against most teams then we'd win hands down but we take the cautious approach. I think Belgium have a bigger chance as long as they can create chances, they seem to struggle at times for some reason. Tactics maybe?
That seems a bit harsh. - The United States has made the KO stages in 3 of the last 4 World Cups, despite being put in really difficult groups pretty much every time. In the KO stages, they've ultimately only lost very close matches (extra time to Belgium in 2014, extra time to Ghana in 2010, 1-0 to Germany in 2002). - They've finished #1 at every stage of CONCACAF qualifying for the last 3 qualifying campaigns. CONCACAF isn't very good, but that still involves always outperforming Mexico (who consistently makes the World Cup KO stages) and random teams like Costa Rica that actually are pretty good. - They won the CONCACAF Gold Cup (the continental competition) in 2002, 2005, 2007, and 2011. They lost to Mexico in the finals in 2009 and 2011. And they barely lost to a randomly-invited Brazil in the semifinals in 2003 (who sent an U-23 squad that was nevertheless stacked with real internationals like Kaka, Robinho, Maicon, Alex, Thiago Motta, etc.). They're currently in the 2015 edition's semifinals. - They broke Spain's unbeaten record in the 2009 Confederations Cup, beating them 2-0 in the semifinals. They then went 2-0 up at halftime against Brazil in the finals, before eventually losing. They were slightly disappointing in the 2001 Confederations Cup, losing close matches to soon-to-be 2002 World Cup semifinalists Turkey and soon-to-be World Cup winners Brazil. They beat Germany 2-0 in the 1999 Confederations Cup, before ultimately losing to Mexico in extra time. __________________________ Overall, despite not necessarily having talented names playing in Europe, it seems pretty clear that the US team is actually pretty good. In the last 10-15 years, the United States has basically only ever faltered against World Cup KO stage-quality opposition. Teams like Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Ghana, 2002 Turkey, and recent Belgium. Basically, they don't have a meaningful competitive loss to a team that isn't World Cup KO stage quality. So I struggle to see how they wouldn't make the Euros. Euro qualifying groups don't typically contain more than one World Cup KO stage quality team. The US would find it hard to make the Euro KO stages, but they'd almost certainly make the tournament. Just for some additional information, here's the USA's record against top European teams in competitive matches in the last 15 years: Germany: 1 win, 0 draws, 2 losses Spain: 1 win, 0 draws, 0 losses England: 0 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses Italy: 0 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss Portugal: 1 win, 1 draw, 0 losses That's 3 wins, 3 draws, and 3 losses in competitive matches against European countries that would always be expected to make the Euros (and indeed even be expected to make the KO stages as well). The US is about as good as the tier of teams that includes Portugal, Mexico, Uruguay, etc.