Nice thing that Portugal and Greece ware through, but was it just me or was the Russia - Greece match more fun to watch? Both the Dutch tv and the BBC aired Portugal - Spain off course.

I think the offside rules should be revised to make them clearer, as this controversy shows, but I still think it wasn't off side off course.
AND off course camera help should be allowed for referees. You can't have games depend on faulty referees no more.

Im getting really annoyes with how much diving is going on!

coming from an (wannabe) italien...they invented the diving game, they are way worse than anyone else at doin it too

england 4 croatia 2.

'Ave it.

lol...England superceding my expectations there. Nevertheless, I see them being eliminated by the portuguese. (feel free to scold me if i prove to be way off lol)

France winning without being convincing again, but that's usually the hallmark of a EC/WC-winning team. Germany played awful on last WC and made it to the final Anyway, so far we have

Portugal-England
Greece-France
Czech republic-X
X-X

Things looking worse every day for the Dutch...apparently just about every good czech, apart from the keeper, will not be playing against Germany. And Latvia isn't an easy prey either, with the Rocket from Riga front lol.

Btw Arathorn, newspaper today featured the UEFA commision saying that the second Dutch goal should have been disallowed for Van Nistelrooy's offside, so i pwn the referee on offside rules w00t.

Hehe, i knew that it was offside. It was pretty obvious to me, don't understand why so many footballplayers, -coaches, .. had doubts about it.

I see the B-team Czechs win though, they aren't tired, are motivated to show their skills to their coach and possibly scouts, .. holland will have a though cookie indeed, but if they manage to score one goal i think the resistance will be broken. They shouldn't miss as much chances as they did against the czechs though.

And diving really is a disease, i mean as soon as they think a fault might be commited they fall down screaming and rolling. SISSIES !!!

Latvia won't be the problem, the Chechs will. I keep hoping for at least a draw in Germany - Chech Republic though, that should be enough, and maybe it's better to have a b-team then an a-team holding back. Germany still hasn't convinced me either.
But France keeps playing badly, I would really like to see them get their asses kicked by Portugal who has found itself again it seams.

Yeah France isn't playing good, and next round: Greece, i don't see them losing against the greek, especially since their morale must have decreased dramatically due to the loss against Russia.

You're right that the B-team will prolly play better than an A-team holding back, so not all hope is lost for the dutch, and yeah, Germany hasn't shown a great form itself. So it can go either ways.

Btw, i didn't see england play a good match yesterday, it was more croatia that seemed to have a bit of an offday, defense was like .. invisible at times. The drive to win (that they showed in their match against France) wasn't there. They had a dreamstart and made the mistake to start defending. So you could say england deserved the win because they went for it. The question for next match is: how will the portugese play against them? If they play like they did against spain, i give them a good chance, england hasn't played well so far, and owen is kinda invisible imo.
Today match of the last chance for italy, i read they (Italy) are placing extra cameras to see if things are played fair .. i wonder if there is any rule that prevents denmark and sweden to make a deal for a 3-3 draw for instance so that both teams are through. Not ethically i mean, but written.

Bribery maybe.
The English defense was not good again, espescially with free kicks they are shaky. The first goal was a tactical mess.

Yeah it's striking that the english, who have always been known for their kick-and-rush and have the reputation of being strong in the air, are so shaky on high balls, free kicks and corners.

Looking at some statistics now, like most passes complete, dunno what's that good for. France is leading the passes completed category, .. i think this is more a bad thing than a good thing, it prolly is an indication of how slow their build-up is. Of course it's good to lead this thing, but it doesn't make their football fast and flashy. England is leader with shots on target % btw .. italy made 5 handballs this far, and they're a match behind

Its over.

The Italians are out.

Could they have gone out any more disgracefully?

If they can just manage a bare win over Bulgaria then they dont deserve to be in the tournament.

To hell with it all.

And to hell with all the English bastards and their Rooney Mutant.

Mwuahaha, Italy out! Let's hope now that the Dutch get eliminated tomorrow hehe I'm predicting a draw against Latvia, but if the Dutch manage to score early in the game it might be a walkover.

Btw:

Journalist: "What will you do if Advocaat substitutes your best forward if you're leading against Latvia?"
Van Hanegem (assistant coach Advocaat): "I'll knock him out". lol Go Kromme!

Bah, he should have done that earlier. He was on that bench and didn't try to stop Advocaat.
I'm for Gullit or van Basten as next coach.
I'm predicting Chech Republic - Germany 0-0, and Holland - Latvia 1-0 or 2-0, unless Holland scores an early goal indeed, cuz then we may be in for some firework.

And fuck you Rinox, you Belgians are just jealous you never win anything.

lol, it's not like the Dutch won much. One EC, to be exact. And anyways, it's been over 20 years that you won an important match against us (like on a WC or in barrage or whatever) so bleh. hehe It's just that the quality of the Dutch team has been declining year by year, but the ambitions (and arrogance) stayed the same, making them look quite foolish at times. Of course, if they miraculously make it into the quarter finals and then go on to win the EC i'll look like one big fool.

ooh, and to tease you even more

Belgium > Czechs (1-0 and 0-1 wins in WC barrage)
Czechs > Holland
=
Belgium > Holland

sorry, just can't help it. I'm sure you'd feel the same way if it were the Germans on the verge of elimination.

We didn't really decline, although we were at our best in 2000, but there's a bunch of youngsters with potential at the moment.
Take Robben or sneijder, and I'm sure van der Vaart will start behaving like he should next season.