Thursday, June 19, 2008

Euros.. win or go home..


To take a catch phrase from the NBA, its time in the Euros now to win or go home, and so far the first game was a delight. These hot swedish fans are going home now, and man I wish Sweden would have made the World Cup 2006 in Germany as I did not run into 4 hotties like this from any other country. Thanks to the Sun in the UK for letting me "steal" their picture.

Germany vs Portugal a game that I had picked to take place in the semi-finals took place in the quarter-finals due to the upstart Croatian team. I had picked Portugal to win the game as watching the group stages Germany looked a bit shaky and Portugal was like a machine. Well the machine came up against a machine killer, the super duper tall German backline. Portugal missed a ton of goal scoring chances and it seems this is a one-trick pony team with Ronaldo having to do everything, well everything that is but mark his man on free kicks. No way Klose should have been to free he used his head/shoulder/collar-bone to score the 2nd goal. Ronaldo you can throw your hands in the air, wave them however you care but you didnt mark you man. Portugal does not have an out and out scorer, a killer striker, a Torres, Villa, Podolski, or any of the other players in this tournament who have proven they have a thirst for the back of the net. The end of the game looked like a possible Turkey come-back and all was needed was a tie to send it to an extra 30 minutes and then penalties, while it did not happen in this game, i'm sure at some point we will get a total nailbiter 120 minute game.

The Friday game between Croatia and Turkey is not by any means a snoozer, the teams don't have the big name cache as Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany etc but both of these teams have played amazing. Turkey with their comeback kid spirit and ability to come from behind. And Croatia with their unbeaten record and tons of talented players, just imagine if Eduardo was around for these games. I will be watching this one for sure, as i've been watching all the games.

My Heart is still with the Dutch, as I feel they should have bottled it againt Romania, but even their second 11 players were better, plus with Huntelaar in the shop window looking for a big money move you know he was going to do his best to find the back of the onion bag. I watched the Netherlands vs France game at the bar Tonic in NYC that was packed with Dutch fans. There is a chance I will be watching Netherlands vs Russia at the same place as the atmosphere was simply amazing for mid-day NYC but I did not like the service. Aside from the $8 beers, I gave a $20 to the very cute bartender wearing her offical KNVB jersey and she gave my change to an old white bald dude at the bar.. I collected it from him, stupidly tipped her a buck and mentioned to her she gave me change to someone else, she then was like hey look its busy and didnt say sorry.. for sure that was the last overpriced Heineken I ordered from this place.. Yes it was crowded but shit this was before the game even started..
Anyway some pictures from Tonic and other days watching the games will be posted later, good times had so far by the fans

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