yeh, big style! did you see that studs-up slide takle on the Swiss goalie? How barbaric!

Yeah, he easily could have gotten the red card there, and then the english would have been in serieus shit.
They'll have a though match against Croatia, if they fight and play with their hart as against the french, england is far from qualified.

And the French play football like a bunch of sissies. Dammit they may thank god on their knees for inventing Tudor, without him they would surely have lost.

The french haven't been able to convince me so far, they really have trouble creating opportunities and the strikers don't look sharp .. but if the opponent keeps giving goals away, they won't lose easily (stupid Tudor, stupid Gerrard, stupid ..).

So up untill now they didn't score a single goal (out of 4 they made) by really creating an opportunity .. that's promising for the rest of the tournament, they only can get better. My money is on france now.

Mine's on Sweden. Though Italy was better for most of the match (it must be a releive for Italy to be rid of Totti), that Ibrahimovic goal was grand.

Hehe, everything Zlatan does is grand. He rox0rs. Way more than Henrik "way too much credit too his name" Larsson.

The French got lucky in the end, but don't forget that the croatians got a fraud penalty and never dominated. Overall the French were by far the better team, even if they played a bit slackingly. Their problem is that everyone they playa against is holding back big time: England, Croatia, and soon Switzerland: they're all SO afraid, and get to score lucky goals against a French team that idd can't really dominate either. Things should get better from the quarter finals on, when teams need to score goals against them to win, instead of hoping to draw. Having said that, there might even be a big win against the Swiss in a few days. Swiss need to win, so they might play more attacking.

Tonight Czech Republic-Holland. BRING ON KOLLER!!(the bane of the Dutch team lol) Not surprising if you see the Dutch

->Davids, Sneijder, Van der vaart, Van der Meyden, Zenden, Overmars etc. =midgets
->Koller= GIANT

I remember on the last EC, when Holland got a stolen win over them: corner, and Stam defending on Koller, but also Davids who threw himself against him PLUS De Boer that tried to pull Koller's shirt, and he STILL managed to get the header in, hehe. He's not even that good a header for his height, but bleh.

What do they say about Koller in the previews of the match in Holland Arathorn?

Haven't read any.
I think Advocaat hates Wesley Sneijder. I see no other explanation for him not starting tonight. He was the best Dutch player against Germany, he was the one making sure we're even here, and he's still no base player!
My bet is 1-0 or 2-1 for the Check Republic.

Nice result, 0-0. Actually Latvia deserved a penalty.

One of the best matches so far, 3-2 after a rather spectacular comeback from the Chechs .. i could comment more, like how advocaat signed his own C4, but i'm not really in the mood. And my beer is getting warm.

Good reason.
I'm not gonna comment too much tonight either, except that that referee should not be allowed to lead one more professional match. I know he's the UEFA's favourite referee at the moment, but that cunt ruined his second match this tournament, and not even by a bit.
I wanna kill that motherfucker.

Hehe..it wasn't his best match, for sure Just a few things that I noticed;

->second Dutch goal: Van Nistelrooy is WAY offside, should have been disallowed
->Van Nistelrooy being held by czech defender, should have been penalty
->heitinga's second yellow was arguable (not TOTALLY undeserved but still)

and those are just "major" things. Were a lot of smaller things too. But the second Dutch goal and Van Nistelrooy being held were horrific mistakes.

In any case, the Dutch were playing a lot better this time, surprised me too. And WTF was Advocaat thinking when he substituted Robben?! lol If anyone should have been substituted it would have been Van der Meyden. Van Nistelrooy was playing better too tnx too Robben crating space for him etc.

Dutch defense was a disaster again btw, with the exception of Stam and Van Der Sar. Bleh, in any case I predicted that they'd lose from the czechs, draw against the latvians and be elimlinated in the first round, it's looking like i'm gonna make a good € on this. hehe And all that tnx to Dickie Advocaat

Yeah stupid Advocaat. The second goal was no offside though, it's a little argueable, but the moment the ball was played to Robben, van Nistelrooy was passive, and then when Robben made the assist to van Nistelrooy he was behind the ball.
That penalty was rediculous, Gonzales wasn't that far off, the official on the side must have seen it too, and the defender hold his arms around Ruud's chest for seconds. I mean, what do you have to do today to get a penalty? Get a gun and shoot at your opponent?
Heitinga's foul that got him his second yellow wasn't word a card, and certainly not one that gets someone send off.
Apart from that Gonzales stopped the game for every fucking fart, I want an English referee next time (though not Reilly (sp), he wasn't that good with Germany Latvia either).
Bah, what a cunt.

With a little bit of luck it could have been 5-4 or something, lots of shots on the bar, just past the post, on the inside of the post etc.
I think this was a very enjoyable match to watch as an independent onlooker though, even though Gonzales did his best to ruin it.

My 2 cents about the second dutch goal: I agree that Van Nistelrooy is passive offside when the ball gets played to Robben, and when Robben gives the ball there's no offside either. But now, Van Nistelrooy takes advantage from his previous passive offside, so the goal shouldn't be allowed. That's the way i see it. You can argue about it though.

The second yellow that Heitinga got was deserved if you look at the offensive action Nedved was taking. I mean if he makes the fault at the middle of the field he also gets a yellow card, it was potentially dangerous and Heitinga had no chance to get to the ball. BUT the only problem is that Heitinga didn't really commit a fault, prolly he made Nedved trip by accident. So if you take that into account, the second yellow is very harsh. I'd have no problem with it if you give him yellow for it (a first one), but red (second yellow) is really hard to swallow for Heitinga.
On the other hand, you can imagine that a referee looks at the fault itself and decides if it's worth a card or not, regardless if the player already has a card or not.

At least we watched a great match.

Wich leaves me to hope that the Chech do their duty against Germany, but I fear they'll play safe, though they only have to draw in order to get Holland to the second round (with a win against Latvia).

Exactly...Van the Man was passive when the pass departed towards Robben, so that wasn't offside as such. BUT he also cannot take part in the offensive action anymore either, as a result of that, thus should not have been allowed to touch the ball anymore (and score). Referees seem to have a hard time dealing with this rule, because it's a bit more elaborate than "regular" offside. Saw the same thing with the goal Riise made for Liverpool in the European Supercup two years ago. (at least i think it was 2 years ago) Even more surprising is that very few commentators and spectators noticed it, and we have replays from like 10 angles

Blah. I do agree that the second yellow was very arguable, altho not totally unthinkable. But the penalty foul on Van Nistelrooy was definitely a huge mistake. is it me, or was heitinga crying when he left the field btw? Same with Advocaat...eyes looked watery.

Spain-Portugal tonite...for my overall tournament prediction Portugal should win, so go Figo! On the bright side, unlike Greece and Russia Spain doesn't play defense. (cos it can't for lack of good defenders lol. Puyol is ok tho.) I say: 4-3 for Portugal. Better make it spectacular I say.