Any predictions for the 2004 European Championships winner? Any Sam's Army people planning to attend? Can anyone recommend using soccervacations.com for this event? I'll be cheering for Germany and England and against Italy.
Welcome to BS hans-heinz! As a moderator here, I'm gonna move your thread to a board where you'll get more responses. But please come back here (FIFA and Tournaments) for discussions in World soccer topics.
Welcome, Hans-Heinz. First of all, how can you be rooting for Germany and England? They're huge rivals - gotta pick just one. That'd be like rooting for the Packers and Bears in the NFL or the Yankees and Red Sox in baseball - you simply can't root for both sides of a rivalry. There's a law about that. On to your topic, as always this tournament will be outstandingly competitive. I'm not going to make any predictions until I see the draw, but I imagine the teams to look out for are the teams that did well last time (France, Italy), the hosts (Portugal), the teams that did well in the most recent World Cup (Germany, Turkey), the teams with something to prove after the last World Cup (France, Portugal, plus the Netherlands & other teams that didn't qualify), also the ones who feel they were cheated at the last WC - Italy - and the other teams that were elminated in overtime or penalty kicks (Sweden, Ireland and Spain). Never hurts to throw in England, who got out of the toughest group and were eliminated by the eventual champion. And for good measure, it never hurts to include the next host(s) - Austria and Switzerland. Teams that have emerged recently without playing in the big competitions, like Wales, are also good to keep your eye on. I've probably included nearly enough teams to fill the entire field there, which goes to show that this is the best tournament from top to bottom in soccer. There's a good chance that at least one or two of the teams I listed may not even qualify. I guess if you asked me right now what I would expect, I'd say Portugal will do well, but there will be too much pressure on them and they will not win. I think France has what it takes to be champion and that they will be keen on showing that Korea/Japan was a fluke brought about mostly by the absense of Zidane and Pires to injury. Turkey was a pretty young side in the World Cup and I think they could continue to get better. Rounding out the semifinals, I'd pick those three teams plus Germany. On to your question about attending, I'm inclined to put together my own trip instead of using a tour company. Nothing against tour companies - I just like to be the one deciding my itinerary from day to day. Get to Lisbon or Madrid flying and take trains from there - or just stay put in one of the areas that's accessible to more than one venue. Lisbon has two venues and the area in the north with Braga, Guimarães and Porto has four stadiums in a small area. The schedule is up at UEFA.com and tickets go on sale beginning April 28. You can put together a great package on your own if you begin to plan it this far in advance. If you don't care which teams you see in each match, pick some matches now and catch a variety of different teams.
I'd disagree. I had hoped to be following England next year, but after that post I've changed my mind and I'll follow those 3 instead.
Surely Real Madrid have a great chance of winning the Euro Championship as well? They are the 'Dream Team' after all.....
No reason why not. They've done it before. Beating the mighty Germans on penalties aswell. What a sight that must have been. I felt a little sorry for them being drawn in such a tough group last time around and it would give the competition a lift to see a team outside of the traditional Western Europe superpowers performing well.
Hes just afraid to answer about his allegiance for England and Germany! thats like support both Barça and Madrid!
I'm rooting for... 1. Wales 2. England 3. Ireland 4. Spain 5. Portugal : : : : 98. France 99. Holland 100. Italy