DISQUS

Hudsonland · 1 year ago

I watched (wearing my Spain jersey) with two Swedes and three neutrals. Occurred to me later I should have attempted tapas and smörgåsbord rather than just laying on chips-n-dips.

eplnfl · 1 year ago

To my great luck a new Irish Pub opened down the street from my office. A real pub menu and charm with several nice HD TV's.

The Irish food is fair, the American grub better, but the big thing in a Chicago suburban location you can have lunch and get Euro 08 action. What a stroke of good fortune.

Friday, was the first day I took it in and it was the best lunch I had in a long time. My normal lunch hour covers the 2nd half of the first game. Just wonderful!

Sanjay · 1 year ago

Do u seriously believe its been better than Copa America 2007?
You are looney, mate...

Kartik · 1 year ago

Copa in 2007 was the best tournament recently I can recall. Copa in 2001 was pretty darn good as well as Amado Guevara dominated the event.

The Gaffer · 1 year ago

Sanjay:

Sure I do. Name a few games from the opening round of Copa America 2007 that were better than Holland v Italy, Spain v Sweden, Holland v France, Croatia v Germany and Italy v Romania.

Cheers,
The Gaffer

Brad · 1 year ago

I think some euro-snobbery is into play with saying that Euro 2008 is vastly superior to Cope America 2007. Last year's Copa America was a firecracker of a tournament, and while Euro 2008 has heated up starting with the Netherlands-Italy game, those first two days were pretty dull.

kurtmiro · 1 year ago

Please help I don't want to watch the games as they are too early in the morning here in Vietnam but want to doze whilst listening to them. From the UK originally but radio 5 live is blocked - anybody know any web sites?

Hudsonland · 1 year ago

There's a standard America restaurant/bar in town where one of the owners is English (and if his 'Yiddoes' chants are any guide, either a Spurs fan or a rather virulent anti-semitic). I saw all the WC2006 England games there, sometimes over full English breakfasts for the early games.

As the tournament progressed the crowds got bigger and noisier. The Portugal game was on a Sunday morning, before the local laws allow alcohol to be served. I guess they knew there might be trouble if they had hundreds of thirsty Englishmen waiting a couple of hours for the bar to open, so they put a guy on the front door.

"Are you here for the private party?"
"Huh?"
"The private party"
"Uh, yeah, sure"

And thus the beer did flow. There must have been four or five hundred people in there by kick-off, couple of hundred past fire regulations, about half English ex-pats and the rest were youngish Americans who were totally digging the atmosphere. Word had spread that this was an experience unlike anything American sports had to offer.

By late in extra time, the floor was covered in spilled beer and broken glass, and the crush was easily equal to anything I'd experienced on the terraces in the pre-Hillsborough days. It was dangerous, noisy, exciting, and the only time watching a game in a bar ever really matched those good/bad old days for atmosphere.

Irish pubs have never seemed particularly 'Irish' to me. I guess it's like Indian food in Britain, it's not necessarily like food in India, but it's what the British have come to expect.

tampasoccerfan · 1 year ago

Hmm, Euro v. Copa '07?
Copa last year had boatload of goals, crazy scores and very offensive display. And Brazil winning yet again without their top two/three players.
This Euro has had 3/4 really boring games, and several superb ones(all the "group of death" except Romania-France), Croatia-Germany, Portugal's games, Spain's games.
And 4-5-1 is definitely not the death of football. I know defense wins tourneys(Greece, Italy in previous two big tourneys), but it seems that offense will win this time around: look at the potential champions: Portugal, Spain, Holland, why not Croatia.
Bottom line, while the European teams are much more disciplined than South Americans in terms of tacics and emphasis on defense, entertainment in this tournament is not lacking. There are plenty of thrills, even with "safety first" approach. Yet, 2/3 of the goals scored so far have been on counter-attacks...tells you where football is going.
My $ is on Turkey today: they are the better side, but we'll see.

Chris_Walker · 1 year ago

im not sure its 'snobbery' as such. Oustide Europe there are probably only 2 teams capable of winning the world cup and they are Brazil and Argentina. The Euros are a lot more competitive as the quality is generally higher, hence we get to see great games like Netherlands vs France the other night. The flip side to this though is that there always a chance of watching 2 great teams in their own right totally nullify each other

Im not saying the euros doont feature some poor teams though, look at Switzerland, Poland Austria, and this year Greece

Kartik · 1 year ago

Ranking the top 10 footballing nations in terms of national team talent right now:

1- Argentina
2- England
3- France
4- Spain
5- Germany
6- Holland
7- Brazil
8- Italy
9- Mexico
10- Portugal

Subjective rankings based on technical skill and talent. Obviously controversial, but my point is that three of what I consider the top nine sides are OUTSIDE Europe and do play in Copa America. Thus neither competition has the overall top level talent that the World Cup has, but the Copa matches I prefer as they are artistic and wide open. Five of the top six sides are in Europe.

The World Cup does have minnows like some of the lesser African qualifiers, the US, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia and Japan who more often than not disgrace the competition and give the seeded teams more glory than they may deserve. So on that level the Euros are more competitive.

Tomas Rose-hickey(formerly ale · 1 year ago

kartik its your opinion and we respect your opinion.
christopher walker, i dont think switzerland is a poor team.
senderos, gelson fernandes, johan djourou, hakan yakin, barnetta, alexander frei are quality players.

Michael · 1 year ago

To add onto Alex's list, Valon Behrami and Ludovic Magnin are good players as well.

Kartik · 1 year ago

Frei's injury really changed the tournament no doubt. I just think the Swiss would have been strong if they had had him.

Hudsonland · 1 year ago

Didn't the Swiss play better in the first game after Frei went off? Jus' sayin' ....

Shane Breslin · 1 year ago

Tomas Rose-Hickey and Michael,

You're missing Switzerland's best player of the tournament, midfielder Gokhan Inler.

Nice blog Gaffer.

My experiences of watching Croatia-Germany in a pub in Ireland (as opposed to an "Irish pub") can be read here:

http://www.eleven-a-side.com/blogs/viewblog.asp...

Shane

Michael · 1 year ago

Inler has been good, but there is no doubt that Yakin was their best player all tournament, and he would've been even without scoring two goals yesterday.

Dave · 1 year ago

2 on the ranking: England?

Made me laugh hysterical!