never failed to feel

I've been thoroughly enjoying Euro Cup 2008. Makes me a little less sad that the next World Cup is still two years away. Originally I had predicted that Portugal would defeat Spain in the championship game. I still could see that happening, but there are some other teams that have really proven themselves in the group stage. Netherlands has probably been the most dominant team in the tournament thus far. Germany and Italy have both under-performed so far, but seem to be improving and could get back into form in the second round. Turkey, Russia, and Croatia have been the big surprises--at least positive surprises--but the only one of those teams with a real chance of getting to the semifinals is Croatia. France and the Czech Republic were the two big disappointments to go out in the group stage; Sweden and Greece to a lesser degree. In the second round Croatia and the Netherlands should be able to handle Turkey and Russia, respectively. The really exciting matches should be Portugal versus Germany and Spain taking on Italy. While I still think my Portugal over Spain prediction for the final may pan out, I wouldn't be shocked to see something like the Netherlands against Germany instead. We shall see...

I wish that the South American World Cup qualifying games were also being aired on TV. The United States completely destroyed Barbados 8-0, and sadly we have to play them another time. In the three games the U.S. has played against Barbados, the cumulative score now comes to a total of 19 goals to none.