If you're a football or soccer fan you're likely watching Euro 2008. There have definitely been some surprises, great goals, and amazing comebacks.
Let's start with 2006 World Cup finalists Italy and France. Both are in pool C with the Netherlands and Romania. You'd think they'd be favored based on the 2006 World Cup. Whoops! Pool C is probably the toughest pool of the four.
Italy started Euro 2008 without their captain Fabio Cannavaro, who is injured. They are also without Alessandra Nesta and Francesco Totti who have retired from world play after the 2006 victory. You do remember Totti right? He taunted Frenchman Zidane in the 2006 final and was head-butted, which resulted in Zidane being ejected from the game.
I never thought I'd see both Italy and France lose to the Netherlands by 3 goals each. Both teams tied Romania in pool play as well. France seems to be lost without Zidane. In the must-win game between France and Italy, France's Franck Riberry suffered an injury and was carried off the field. He's since had surgery for a ruptured ligament. Plus they played most of the game with 10 men after Abidal was given a red card. Despite scoring chances France just couldn't score and lost 2-0 to the Italians.
The Dutch have been brilliant! Their swift counter-attack has resulted in some beautiful goals. They seem to have peaked at the right time.
The best comeback award, at this point anyway, should go to Turkey. They were down 2-0, at the 74th minute mark, in a must-win game with the Czech Republic. They came back to win 3-2 and advanced to the quarter-finals.
I'll admit that my favorite team going into Euro 2008 was Portugal. They made it to the quarter-final round but were eliminated by Germany today. Portugal is a fairly young team but, like France, miss their former captain Figo. They had numerous scoring chances and some deft passing but just couldn't match the Germans.
Spain have looked sharp winning all three pool games. David Villa is the tourney top scorer with 4 goals. They play Italy in a quarter-final match on Sunday, June 22nd. That should be a very exciting game!
Croatia play Turkey on Friday, June 20th and Russia take on the Dutch on Saturday, June 21st. There's no telling what surprises and thrills Euro 2008 has in store!
