Euro 2008: Matchday Two
Good morning everybody. Day two of the European Championships is fast approaching as Group B prepares to kick off. Co-host Austria will begin its tournament by facing Croatia (11:50pm, ESPN2) while tournament title favorites Germany open the chase for the trophy against Poland (2:30pm, ESPN2).
Today's schedule looks like mismatch central, but Austria will look to pounce on Croatia the way Switzerland jumped all over the Czech Republic on Saturday (Well, except for the whole not scoring thing). The Croats are one of the more fun teams in the tournament to watch so it will be interesting to see how they start the match.
The Germany-Poland tilt is always an intense one and while Germany should win, I don't think we will see a blowout.
If you will be following the matches today, or if you need some place to follow the matches, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions on the action in the comments section below.
Enjoy the tournament and today's opening matches.
Ives Galarcep is an American soccer columnist for ESPNsoccernet.com and creator of SoccerByIves.net.
Have a tip, story idea or suggestion? Send it to:
I think both matches will be close and tight, rather than sound defeats, but Germany and Croatia will both nick winners in the final fifteen minutes to win.
Posted by: tedhill | June 08, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Allow me a bit of reflection on this Sunday morning: while I navigate the waters of my wife's niece's day-long graduation party on the west coast today, I have high def futbol to keep my spirits up when I encounter crazy relatives (and they encounter me). It warms my heart that I can appear to be in Oregon but my heart will be in Europe (and the Meadowlands) all day. I'm feeling good. Pretty soon wars will end, inflation will moderate and common sense will prevail. God bless America.
Posted by: sidenetting | June 08, 2008 at 11:50 AM
I heard the Polish and German fans clashed yesterday. Hope for some goals today for both matches.
I hate the crawl on the screen. Who needs scores that often?
Posted by: Pat the Red Bulls Fan | June 08, 2008 at 12:00 PM
I'm pumped to catch Luka Modric do his thing. I've caught a little of him in CL and UEFA Cup, but not since the hype got as big as it is now.
Posted by: eric | June 08, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Whats Tommy talking about. A CLEAR penalty. Croatia 1-0
Posted by: doug | June 08, 2008 at 12:06 PM
4th minute- GOAL CROATIA. Modric with the PK. I think it was a legit PK call, not sure what Tommy Smyth is complaining about.
Posted by: Ives | June 08, 2008 at 12:06 PM
I dunno guys. I'm loathe to agree with the Lephrechaun (AKA Tommy...) but that seemed a pretty soft foul to me.
I'd call it an "MLS-quality call" except that without and blood, I don't think that gets called in MLS either.
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Croatia is gonna be handful this whole tournament. They'ye basically playing with 2 central attacking MF in Modric and Krancjar, a withdrawn forward in Petric, and 1 frontman in Olic. Pretty creative if you ask me.
Posted by: doug | June 08, 2008 at 12:09 PM
I like the crawl - keeps me from having to flip channels to keep an eye on baseball games.
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:10 PM
I just rewinded it, and nothing I saw made me agree with Tommy. He came in high on the roatian players thigh, after he was beaten. The ball was still 4 yards from the end line, so it wasnt one of those cant reach the ball penalties. Now lets see when Austria get there penalty shout
Posted by: doug | June 08, 2008 at 12:10 PM
The crawl? Gotta love that new 1990s tech!
Posted by: RK | June 08, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Sidenetting - whatever hallucinogens you're on? Send me some!
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:13 PM
ow
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:23 PM
Heading to Nevada Smiths before going to the Meadowlands tonight... where are you guys watching the action?
Posted by: Original Aaron | June 08, 2008 at 12:23 PM
I'm in the group that thought it was a clear penalty, the defender hip checked him, dumb play. I did think it was interesting that they had Modric take the penalty, he's good but still so young. The team really has confidence in him, or they're trying to get him on track for the tourney.
Posted by: eric | June 08, 2008 at 12:24 PM
boy I love The Guardian...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jun/08/euro2008.euro2008groupb
the caption about the 'test pattern' is awesome :)
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:27 PM
so far, Austria-Croatia is the ugliest game of the competition. On every cross, it looks as if these folks should be playing with gridiron lines. The ref seems to be obvlivious and he is in danger of losing control of this game.
Posted by: Gene | June 08, 2008 at 12:29 PM
Oh, I think it was a deserved penalty. The only thing that the fouls the ref is not calling are so much more blatant in comparison to what has been deemed worthy of a penalty.
Posted by: Gene | June 08, 2008 at 12:31 PM
Can we just call this one the Hapsburg Derby and play it every year? Or is that a lil' too highbrow for an American audience?
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:32 PM
nice one
Posted by: eric | June 08, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Austrians ain't quitting... I like that they keep shooting, even if from distance, but you gotta put it on net and make the keeper react. Get him out of positing for a carom or challenge with a hard follow and force him to handle cleanly and not bobble anything. It only takes 1 mistake to get in there.
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:39 PM
like that
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:40 PM
or that - gorgeous diagonal ball thru space almost results in a sweet cross/shot. good defense
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:40 PM
Wow, Austria is pressing now and seems to outrun Croatia.
Posted by: Gene | June 08, 2008 at 12:41 PM
I know the Austrians and Swiss are co-hosting, but does that mean they have to share uniforms, too? What happens if they play each other? You're going to have to read names to tell who's who...
I'm not crazy right? Those are the same jerseys the Swiss had yesterday?
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:42 PM
The Hapsburg Derby is a very fitting term for this match. Don't know if I could stomach it every year though:)
Posted by: Gene | June 08, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Most infamous dive in int'l competition - Croatia in '98 Cup 3d place match v Germany? (couldn't find it on YouTube...)
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:45 PM
actually v. Netherlands in 3d place game, not Germany... oops
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:46 PM
anyone know if any of these games can be watched on the internet? especially the u.s. game tonight.
Posted by: Murphy | June 08, 2008 at 12:52 PM
Murphy - I've had some luck with justin.tv on both Mac and PC...
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 12:58 PM
If you ever want to watch games online, www.myp2p.eu is your site, has games from all around the world including all MLS games.
Posted by: Mark | June 08, 2008 at 01:00 PM
OK - I found the dive....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VAw8ZqAe-eQ
It's at the 7:25 mark or so.
The guy who took the dive is now the Croatian coach.
it was v France in the semis... I knew it was out there somewhere.
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 01:05 PM
thanks brant...
Posted by: Murphy | June 08, 2008 at 01:08 PM
Boy - you gotta think one of these times an Austrian cross is going to accidentally hit a red jersey and ping into the net.
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 01:16 PM
I get the feeling the Austrians have 11 decent-quality players, but only 7 brains distributed among them. They seem to have problems getting everyone paying attention to the same thing at the same time.
3 guys will make a fantastic series of passes, and the 4th guy is picking daisies and just gives the ball back.
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 01:19 PM
The last 4 Austrian attacks have ended with passes going straight to Croats. Not great plays by the Croatian defense, mind you, just crap passes. My freakin' indoor pickup game this morning was more accurate than that.
So much wasted effort on the part of the Reds that their fans just have to be sooooo disappointed. I haven't seen passing this bad since... well, since the US @ Wembley 2 weeks ago, but before that, it'd been a long time.
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 01:28 PM
Finally - an Austrian attack that results in a cross toward the net. If it was anyone other than Austrian, you'd say "it's just a matter of time" but they've shown so little so far...
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 01:33 PM
Anyone beside me watching this?
Sloppy but exciting.
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 01:38 PM
Austria deserves a goal and a point.
Croatia is not going to finish ahead of the Polish in this group, not if that is any indication of how they play.
Posted by: KC | June 08, 2008 at 01:47 PM
Well that was disappointing for the hosts. Too bad they can't get that 1 last touch into the net...
Off to the mall to argue with FYE about returning an alarm clock!
See y'all at the Germany game :)
Posted by: brant | June 08, 2008 at 01:53 PM
Big props to Austria and their subs, who really shook the game up. They put up a great fight to win.
Croatia might be capable of going deep in this tourney, but I found them very unlikeable as the game went on, thuggish and faking injury left and right to waste time.
Posted by: eric | June 08, 2008 at 01:59 PM
This game just confirmed to me that Romania is a far better dark horse than this toothless Croatian side.
Posted by: Bobo | June 08, 2008 at 02:09 PM
Someone defended the crawl? It takes all types.
Who's cheering for Poland?
Posted by: Pat the Red Bulls Fan | June 08, 2008 at 02:47 PM
1-0 Germany. Podolski. 20th minute. Pretty.
Posted by: Pat the Red Bulls Fan | June 08, 2008 at 03:05 PM
I'm cheering for Germany. I have to say Podolski had better start looking for work elsewhere. Man has too much quality to be a supersub.
Posted by: HomeyBoehme | June 08, 2008 at 03:11 PM
Is Puma sponsoring everyone with red kits? Austria, Swiss, Poland...uniforms are about identical all that changes are the crests.
Posted by: KC | June 08, 2008 at 03:15 PM
Poland squandered chance count officially at 2.
Posted by: HomeyBoehme | June 08, 2008 at 03:21 PM
I will say if Germany donest win it all it will be on an error from Lehmann. The guy should not be the starter. I also think Hildabrand should be on the roster. Heck Rensing got more playing time the Lehmann this season maybe he should be on the roster I think he would do better.
Lets go Germany time to be 4 time Euro champions.
Posted by: Keith G. | June 08, 2008 at 03:22 PM
If Poland do not tidy up in the back, the score will get a lot more ugly for them before the game is over. They keep getting beat by essentially the same play.
Posted by: Gene | June 08, 2008 at 03:24 PM
And it appears Poland have adopted the "shoot from anywhere inside 35 yards" approach
Posted by: HomeyBoehme | June 08, 2008 at 03:25 PM