euro 2008 update

alas, one of the great advantages of my 4-day escapade to chiang mai was the opportunity to catch some euro2008 matches in the comfort of a wonderful hotel room, something which of course, most of my army-bound friends couldn't enjoy.

I would still love the czechs to win, but they were crushed by portugal. absolutely destroyed, but i would still think they will progress past the group stages.

The dutch, however, have slammed me upside down. seriously they are damn good and i forgot to take into account the fact that the once-young stars are now at a ripe age to take over the world. also i didn't quite expect the two most lethal left foots in europe, robben and van persie, to be back so soon. but when u have quality like sneijder and van der vaart and de jong in the middle, along with a wonderful strike-combi of kuyt (hardworking) and van nistelrooy (anyhow han tum still score), this is the stuff of champions. of course in my opinion their defence is still suspect but they have proved me wrong so far. van der sar seems just too solid.

france and italy completely suck. i expected them to, but i thought the dutch would suck more. honestly it is just down to the coaches.

domenech is one of the worst squad-pickers i have ever seen in my life. he leaves out the best, and brings all his personal favourites on to the tournament. he left out flamini and brought toulalan, he left clichy and took along abidal, he left SAGNA at home and brought sagnol, biggest joke ever. how about the rejuvenated Cisse? nah, bring Gomis and Govou to euro instead. 36 year old thuram, ok.. boumsong to complete the puzzle. sorry but this guy's choices are a joke. malouda WHAT?!!? Oh and don't forget that the Serie A's top scorer was left at home to lick his toes.

donadoni, is pure italian throughout. he employs his team to play the most boring football ever, and expects his team to be able to scrape all those 1-0 wins again. sorry dude, ur defence sucks!!! once upon a time there was Alessandro Nesta and Fabio Cannavaro, and a humble Marco Materazzi. now? u have a cocky Materazzi, old man panucci, it's too much to take. Not even Buffon can save Italy (and the goals they concede). Yesterday's match against romania was an eyesore. I mean 80-90% of Italy's shots came from headers. can't u guys come up with something new? some neat ownage dribble and shot into the top corner or something?

By some luck, both the World Cup finalists still have a chance of qualifying, but whats the point? they're gonna get knocked out soon anyway.

Holland FTW. Beautiful football is back.