Official EURO2004 Thread #2

Remove all ads!

Well, I would think the same, but for Italy, they can't play games in Sweden, where the 1992 tournament were held. In 1958, they missed to qualify as well, and that was held in Sweden as well. Also, in 90% of the friendlies I can remember, Sweden beats Italy if Sweden is at home. Italy just can't win a game played in Sweden.


Sweden had a lot of their best players retired after 1994 and was not really a great team, so no-one was really suprised that they missed the 96 tournament. They actually also missed the 98 WC.

Croatia lost in the play-off qualifications against a really good nation, cannot remember which.

Turkey lost against Latvia. I saw both games, and it really wasn't fair, but I think that after watching the 2004 tournament, Latvia was good enough for the EC.

 

What I think it shows is that there is actually not all that much between the top soccer teams in the world and that despite what we may like to think about the quality of certain teams, the nature of international soccer is that there are more than a dozen teams that are capable of winning a tournament like Euro or the World Cup.

Look at what South Korea managed at the last World Cup as well.

That sort of closeness is what makes these tournaments exciting to watch.

 

Well, South Korea was a ****ing cheating team. I am sure that FIFA told the referees to give them the advantages they needed to qualify to the semi-final. And even though they still had this advantage in the semi's, Germany managed to win, kudos to them, but they didn't have this advantage in the bronze game, making them loose easily against Turkey, letting in a goal after 17(?) seconds into the game.

 

@ Pacman I see that you are missing the point of my words. I do not think that we are among the best football nations in the world. I do not think that from now on we will win every world or European tournament. All i am saying is that Greek football is better than the rest of the world thought and we only needed a couple of good results in an international tournament, in order to have the players believe in themselves. Because noone can achieve even the easiest thing if he does not have self confidence.
Ans as far as it concerns the Turks, they have given citizenship to many good football players from former Yugoslavia that had slim chances to play in their national teams and some of them were the key players of their miracle. Here we did not do that and furthermore i can tell you that the team you saw in Euro is not the best possible. They had defencive orientation and a number of good players did not play or was not even called.
Secondly Turkish players managed to gain fame and a good move to a team abroad after their achievement. Most of the players in the Greek national team are or have played abroad and they only now hoping for a bigger salary not recognition.
I certainly do not expect my national team to win against Brasil for certain. I only know now that they will get in the field and look their opponent in the eyes and fight for victory, and not get in scared with their pants down waiting for the innevitable to happen.
I am pointing out again that we have good players not the best possible, but they can play good ball and not only defencive football but attacking as well. And i expect that this tournament will be the beggining for something really good in our championship and for our teams as they present themeselves outside.
Maybe it is a wish but i live here and since i have a different perspective than any foreigner i can tell you that Greece now has a chance which if used it will provide to the rest of the world more suprises.

 

Hm, i thought the Greek league already had quite a few good teams. Panathinaikos, AEK, and PAOK are well respected teams in Europe. At least that's what i think.

How are the salaries in Greece btw ? Can the big teams play their best players enough so that they don't feel the urge to look for a contract in Italy, Spain, or England ?

 

In the most of cases the top greek players' contracts are ranging from 400000 to 600000 euros, so I don't think that the greek clubs can compete clubs from other european countries in this issue. For example Nikolaidis' contract with AEK was 600000 euros, while his contract with Athletico Madrid was above 1 million euros.