Day 2: It’s Not Easy Being Green

South Korea 2 – 0 Greece

Argentina 1 – 0 Nigeria

England 1 – 1 USA

If today’s blog comes across as a little haphazard and shaky, that’s because my nerves are in tatters after watching England draw with the USA. More on that in a moment. Group B started in slightly frustrating fashion as South Korea cruised to a routine win over a limp, lifeless Greece side that made a mockery of its European triumph six years ago. I would have liked to have seen just a little more enterprise form the South Koreans because they really could have pushed up further and taken advantage of Greece’s complete ineptitude. On a day in which the Argentinean forwards uncharacteristically missed a hatful of chances, South Korea will be wishing they’d cashed in in case goal difference becomes an issue later. Park Chu-Young was impressive leading the line for the Koreans, with a dogged, determined performance that never let the Greek defenders settle and opened up space for Park Ji-Sung in particular to forge opportunities.

Greece were hideous. On this form they’d be lucky to emulate their achievements two years ago in Austria and Switzerland where they lost three out of three, scored no goals, and conceded ten. I couldn’t understand why Otto Rehhagel refused to throw on Sotiris Ninis, who as the one flair player, albeit a young one, in the squad, was the only real option for a plan B that seemed available. South Korea, while probably flattered by Greece, should probably go on to make the second round on this form.

Their rivals for that spot, Nigeria, were a bit of a letdown, although they did show signs of getting back into the game towards the end of the second half as they realised that Argentina might not actually put the game to bed as they’d been threatening to all afternoon. Maradona sprung another hilarious tactical surprise by contradicting his earlier statement that he would “not play full-backs. Who needs full-backs? I have wingers to attack on the sides. I will play four centre-backs in defence” to play not a centre-back, but a left winger at right-back in Jonas Gutierrez, who, if Peter Odemwingie had started for Nigeria, could easily have been exposed. If he persists with that option then I’m sure a team with more awareness will take advantage. Lionel Messi was in good form, though, and while he didn’t score despite having one or two opportunities, it definitely seemed that he’s being given more freedom to play in a position and a role that suits him.

And, well, I can’t delay it any longer – let’s talk about England 1 – 1 USA. As an England fan one is trained to deal with disappointment but it was hard not to be optimistic after the team started brightly with Steven Gerrard’s goal, a deft finish from a great pass from the excellent Emile Heskey, who totally justified his selection over Peter Crouch with a hard-working and industrious showing. The nerves kicked in, though, when Rob Green let in an absolute howler to gift the USA an equaliser which on the balance of play they probably deserved. 1-0 up at half-time and you felt that England should have been able to close out the game, but the mistake seemed to put the team back into a familiar mindset of things inevitably going wrong. There were chances to retake the lead in the second half but nothing outstanding and in the end the draw was a fair result, but it is the manner of the draw that will worry England rather than the draw itself.

It’s tough not to feel sorry for Green who’s had to wait a long time to get a sustained run in the side and he looked understandably distraught after the goal went in, but it was poor. I would have liked to have seen Joe Hart in goal for this game despite his lack of international experience and the clamour for his inclusion in the next game will increase as a result of this. I’m not sure what message it would send to Green and to the rest of the squad if Capello were to replace him, but I wouldn’t put it past him.

Another frustrating occurance was the withdrawal of Ledley King at half-time. The depressing predictability of it was just awful – what exactly were people expecting? The man has been crocked for literally years. He’s a liability, just like Ferdinand was, and I suppose England fans should be thankful that it happened now rather than during a semi-final (not that, on this sort of form, England would necessarily get that far). Still, no reason to panic too much just yet – a draw with the USA isn’t a bad result, it just means that England need to do as much damage as possible to a resilient Slovenia defence later on in the group. It should be important to come top of this group as I wouldn’t fancy playing any side that tops Group D.

Man of the Day: It’s a toss-up between Messi and Heskey (and how often do you get to say that?). I’ll give it to Heskey who will have reassured some of his doubters today – and I daresay Messi will have even better days in this tournament at any rate.

Tomorrow, in the other Group C match Slovenia should beat Algeria, Serbia should prove too much for Ghana, and Germany will need to battle but you would expect them to come out on top against Australia. I’ll speak to you then.

Days 9 & 10: Groups A and B resolved

Firstly, my apologies for not covering Day 9 yesterday – I’ve been busy setting up my new laptop. Hooray for me. Anyway, here’s a double-header to make up for it.

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So on Sunday it was the first of the simultaneous group wraps, with Turkey completing a stunning comeback to beat the Czech Republic 3-2 in one of the strangest fifteen minutes I’ve seen for a long while. The first half was a bore, the Czechs running the game without any real Turkish resistance at all. When Jaroslav Plasil made it 2-0 I was sure that was game over, and considered switching over to the Switzerland-Portugal game. Thankfully my decision to stick with it was worth it – first Arda Turan confirmed his growing reputation with the Turkish opener, then, more sadly, Petr Cech confirmed that he hasn’t been the same keeper since Stephen Hunt kicked his head in a year or so ago. That really was a first-grade howler – the Cech of two years ago would have caught that cross 100% of the time, no question. A real shame, but what made it more painful was the exquisite winner two minutes later, Nihat breaking the offside trap with ease and powering a fantastic shot in off the underside of the crossbar. Brutal.

As if that wasn’t enough, Turkish goalkeeper Arslan Volkan decided that it was a good time to blatantly push Jan Koller over in the penalty box. The most obvious red card you’ll ever see, you have to wonder what the hell he was thinking – and if I was Fatih Terim, I’d seriously consider not bothering to pick him after his ban even if they get past Croatia into the semi-finals. Luckily, I’m not Fatih Terim – I have no desire to be a Turkish Terry Venables any time soon. So, the Czechs were knocked out and Croatia-Turkey looks like being an interesting quarter-final.

As I said, I didn’t see any of the Swiss-Portugal game, aside from one replay of the disallowed goal (not enough for me to make a judgement on whether or not it was offside), and the two Swiss goals. I mean, seriously – what the hell were Portugal doing losing 2-0 to that side? I know they made 8 changes and were already through, but surely those 8 players wanted to earn a place in the quarter-final line-up? Difficult to argue with the heart of the Swiss performance, though, by the sounds of it. They’ve certainly given a better account of themselves than their co-hosts.

So on to last night’s action, where Germany qualified courtesy of Michael Ballack’s free-kick goal (the first decent free-kick of the tournament, I might add) in a 1-0 victory over Austria, who made a mockery of the nostalgia-fest covering their famous victory in Cordoba all those years ago by showing just how useless they are, particularly, again, in the opponent’s half. Despite the ineptitude of their opposite numbers, Germany weren’t great either, and again it was the strikers who were the issue. Miroslav Klose did pretty much nothing all night, though at least he did nothing wrong per se, which is more than can be said for his partner Mario Gomez. Having been hyped by everyone pre-tournament, including yours truly, he topped his anonymous first two performances by being actively bad last night, missing a tap-in nearly on a par with the easiness of Hakan Yakin’s puddle-aided goal last week. His confidence is clearly shot and I doubt we’ll see him start a game again in this tournament.

Meanwhile, what on earth went on between Jogi Low and Josef Hickersberger, the two managers, on the touchline shortly before half-time? I didn’t catch all of what was happening (more laptop fiddling) at the time, so am still quite clueless about the whole thing – but it looked surreal, Hickersberger not once but twice strolling into the German technical area and harassing the staff for no apparent reason, then as the two managers continued bickering, ignoring the referee’s attempts to get them to stop, they were quite rightly sent to the stands. Then, Low had the cheek to go and get his jacket first, before the two managers shook hands on the way out. What on earth was all that about?

In other news, Croatia top the table with 9 points having beaten Poland 1-0 thanks to Ivan Klasnic’s goal. That is all I know about the match, having seen none of it. Sounds like Croatia did pretty well despite playing a second team. I tell you, they’re going to the final.

Day 6: Croatia shock Germany and Austria rescue a point

That’ll teach me for losing the faith. I’d thought before the tournament that Croatia would make the semis and now it looks like they probably will. Beating Germany 2-0 makes them group winners courtesy of the Austria 1 – 1 Poland result, so they will face either the Czech Republic or Turkey in the quarters – two teams that on this evidence they should beat well. Croatia were absolutely first-class against Germany yesterday, showing the discipline and organisation that was lacking from their second half against Austria. The switch to 4-5-1 definitely helped, though I was slightly disappointed by Niko Krancjar in the playmaker role – normally reliable in front of goal, he missed two relatively easy chances, which would have put the Germans out of sight. He worked hard though, as did every Croatian on the pitch, who in the end thoroughly deserved the win.

For me, actually, this was the perfect result. My Croatia prediction looks much better, and now the Germans can take a morale-boosting win over Austria in the final game (don’t pretend it won’t happen) and then beat Portugal in the quarters. They’re too good not to come back from this, and happily, the Prancing Prat will be the one to suffer for it. Then Croatia can beat them again in the semis and half of the table will be as I have foreseen.

A quick word on the Austria-Poland game – neither team played particularly well. Artur Boruc, who I’ve always thought of as one of the world’s best goalkeepers, played outstandingly well, but even accounting for his heroics the Austrian finishing was abysmal. They should have been 3-0 up within 15 minutes and Boruc should have been given no chance at all to deny them that. Instead, Christian Leitgeb and Martin Harnik (twice) made tame efforts and were punished for it by Roger Guerreiro’s goal. OK, it was marginally offside, but it was exactly what they deserved for being so impotent at the other end of the pitch. Three cheers for Southampton’s Marek Saganowski for getting the assist, carrying the torch for the mighty Saints at these championships while Rudi Skacel rots on the Czech bench.

I was glad to see Howard Webb give the Austrian penalty at the end of the game – it was a clear foul, but the kind that gets flagged up so rarely that it looks controversial. If more refs gave those decisions the game would be better for it.

Everything is falling into place. See you tomorrow.

Day 2: Croatia disappoint and Germany win

Hello mum!

Austria 0 – 1 Croatia. OK, so it’s a win for Croatia – we all expected that much – but looking at the two sides on paper it really should have been a more convincing scoreline, never mind performance. I was thoroughly disappointed with Slaven Bilic’s team yesterday, particularly as they’re my tip for losing finalists, and on this form there’s no way they’ll get past Germany in the semi-final. For the first twenty minutes of the game, they were brilliant, carving through Austria at will, with Modric running the show. And then, for some inexplicable reason, they stopped caring. Austria huffed and puffed and nearly snatched themselves an equaliser – more embarrassingly for Croatia, they deserved one. Bilic emphasised the positives to the press afterwards but he must be frustrated that his side didn’t finish the co-hosts off before half-time. Must try harder.

Germany 2 – 0 Poland was a better game, as I suspected it might be regardless of the outcome of the previous encounter. A repeat of a great game at the 2006 World Cup, Poland matched the Germans for long periods of the game, though the difference was in the final third. With Podolski on the left, Germany essentially had three forwards, though Klose was out of sorts and Gomez wasn’t quite the immediate sensation I’d been looking forward to. Poland, on the other hand, struggled to create chances for Smolarek, with the captain Zurawski remaining mostly anonymous. The slightly fortuitous second goal killed them off, but if Zurawski gets his act together they could give Croatia a run for their money in terms of qualification, which I didn’t think I’d be saying 24 hours ago.

Tonight the Group of Death Relative Predictability kicks off, with France playing Romania in what should be three easy points, and Italy taking on Holland, which again should be a win for the former. I hope Holland prove me wrong, but I stand by my prediction of a comfortable third. See you tomorrow.

Euro 2008 Preview: Group B

Team: Austria

Manager: Josef Hickersberger, who played for Austria at the 1978 World Cup and managed them at Italia ’90. Since being sacked after losing to the Faroe Islands in 1992, he’s been managing various Arabian teams (including the Bahrain national side) before returning home to the Austria job in 2004. Suffice to say, he isn’t the messianic figure Austria need.

Strip: Red shirts and socks, white shorts. Second strip is black with gold trim.

Captain: ‘The Austrian Beckham’, left-winger Andreas Ivanschitz is Austria’s only good player going forward. Only 24, he’s played regularly for his country since 2003 and has a beastly shot. He is, however, it.

Form: It doesn’t matter. They’re screwed. (for the record, it’s been abysmal.)

Man to Watch: Sturdy centre-back Martin Stranzl is good enough to be occasionally linked with Birmingham. Yep, that’s the best I could come up with. This is probably the worst squad ever in the European Championships.

Prediction: If they’re lucky they might get a  0-0 against Poland, but anything more is impossible. It’s not going to be fun for the co-hosts.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Alex Manninger (Siena)

21. Jurgen Macho (AEK Athens)

23. Ramazan Ozcan (Hoffenheim)

Defenders

2. Joachim Standfest (Austria Wien)

3. Martin Stranzl (Spartak Moscow)

4. Emanuel Pogatetz (Middlesbrough)

12. Ronald Gercaliu (Austria Wien)

13. Markus Katzer (Rapid Wien)

15. Sebastian Prodl (Sturm Graz)

16. Jurgen Patocka (Rapid Wien)

17. Martin Hiden (Rapid Wien)

Midfielders

5. Christian Fuchs (Mattersburg)

6. Rene Aufhauser (Salzburg)

8. Christian Leitgeb (Salzburg)

10. Andreas Ivanschitz (Panathinaikos)

11. Umit Korkmaz (Rapid Wien)

14. Gyorgy Garics (Napoli)

19. Jurgen Samuel (Sturm Graz)

20. Martin Harnik (Werder Bremen)

Forwards

7. Ivica Vastic (LASK Linz)

9. Roland Linz (Braga)

18. Roman Kienast (HamKam)

22. Erwin Hoffer (Rapid Wien)

Team: Croatia

Manager: Slaven Bilic looks like being a very good manager indeed, having success with both the Croatia Under-21s and now the full national side. Numerous club sides have come calling, but to his credit he’s refused the big bucks (for now) in order to continue working on the side he’s turning into real contenders.

Strip: You know, the red-and-white checked shirt. Second strip is blue with, er, red-and-white checked trim.

Captain: Erstwhile central midfielder Niko Kovac is retiring after this competition, and, though a little slower than he has been, is still the most powerful force in the Croatian engine room, complementing well with Luka Modric. He’s done this sort of thing before and will be ready to lead the charge.

Form: Only one defeat in qualifying but they’d already secured their place anyway. We all know about their victory over England, where they showed just how good they really are, though they were surprisingly held by Hungary in their final pre-finals friendly. I wouldn’t read too much into it, though.

Man to Watch: Difficult to go for anyone other than Modric, who’s just signed for Tottenham for 16.5 million pounds. A brilliant creative central midfielder, he’s gaining more and more authority in the team as he grows and much of Croatia’s play will go through him.

Prediction: Dark horses. They’ll probably beat Portugal or the Czech Republic in the quarters and I can see them potentially overcoming Germany as well. Watch out – Croatia mean business.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Stipe Pletikosa (Spartak Moscow)

12. Mario Galinovic (Panathinaikos)

23. Vedran Runje (Lens)

Defenders

2. Dario Simic (Milan)

3. Josip Simunic (Hertha Berlin)

4. Robert Kovac (Borussia Dortmund)

5. Vedran Corluka (Man City)

6. Hrvoje Vejic (Tom Tomsk)

13. Nikola Pokrivac (Monaco)

15. Dario Knezevic (Livorno)

Midfielders

7. Ivan Rakitic (Schalke)

8. Ognjen Vukojevic (Dynamo Kyiv)

10. Niko Kovac (Red Bull Salzburg)

11. Darijo Srna (Shakhtar Donetsk)

14. Luka Modric (Tottenham)

16. Jerko Leko (Monaco)

19. Niko Krancjar (Portsmouth)

22. Danijel Pranjic (Heerenveen)

Forwards

9. Nikola Kalinic (Hajduk Split)

17. Ivan Klasnic (Werder Bremen)

18. Ivica Olic (Hamburg)

20. Igor Budan (Parma)

21. Mladen Petric (Borussia Dortmund)

Team: Germany

Manager: Joachim Low’s transition into the manager’s role has been seamless. An innovative coach, Low has continued in the philosophy of Klinnsmann’s team by defying tradition and playing expansive, attacking football. Recently had his contract extended until 2010.

Strip: White shirt, black shorts, white socks with a black stripe across the chest. Second strip is all red with a vertical black stripe down the chest.

Captain: Michael Ballack has really come into his own at Chelsea in his second season there, and a lot of people seem to have taken it for granted. I haven’t once seen an article praising his ascension to vital part of their central midfield, and I think much more should be made of it. He’s in good form and has always led Germany well. Ballack will be a big influence this year.

Form: The first non-hosts to secure qualification for the tournament, they still managed a couple of strange results – 1-1 with Cyprus anyone? 0-0 with Wales? More astonishingly, they somehow managed to only put 13 past San Marino… A good friendly win over Serbia the other day puts them in good stead for the finals.

Man to Watch: 22-year-old Mario Gomez (zero-time winner of the Most German-Sounding Name Award) has scored 33 goals in the last two Bundesliga seasons, propelling mediocre Stuttgart to the title in 2007 against the odds. He’ll be pushing Klose very hard for the starting berth and will probably use the tournament to secure a big-money move abroad.

Prediction: Quite capable of beating every side in the tournament, you’d be foolish to rule Germany out, but I do have a sneaking suspicion that they’ll lose to Croatia in the semis. Their (probable) two clashes will be fascinating.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Jens Lehmann (Arsenal)

12. Robert Enke (Hannover 96)

23. Rene Adler (Leverkusen)

Defenders

2. Marcell Jansen (Bayern Munich)

3. Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin)

4. Clemens Fritz (Werder Bremen)

5. Heiko Westermann (Schalke)

16. Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich)

17. Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen)

21. Cristoph Metzelder (Real Madrid)

Midfielders

6. Simon Rolfes (Leverkusen)

7. Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich)

8. Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen)

13. Michael Ballack (Chelsea)

14. Piotr Trochowski (Hamburg)

15. Thomas Hitzlsperger (Stuttgart)

18. Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen)

Forwards

9. Mario Gomez (Stuttgart)

10. Oliver Neuville (Borussia Monchengladbach)

11. Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich)

19. David Odonkor (Real Betis)

20. Lukas Podolski (Bayern Munich)

22. Kevin Kuranyi (Schalke)

Team: Poland

Manager: Leo Beenhakker, one of my favourite names in world football. Having defied expectations to get Trinidad and Tobago to the 2006 World Cup, the Dutchman’s done a great job at Poland qualifying them for their first ever Euros. A canny coach, he likes to switch formations – he used 4-4-2, 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 in qualifying.

Strip: White shirt, red shorts and white socks. The second strip is the inverse.

Captain: Maciej “Magic” Zurawski, formerly of Celtic but now with Greek side Larissa, is a clever striker but his goals-to-caps ratio isn’t great – 17 in 70.  At 31, this may be his last major tournament, so he’ll be desperate to take advantage.

Form: A six-match winning streak in qualifying helped them finish above Portugal in their group, having been solid throughout the campaign. Zurawski scored Poland’s 1,200th goal in international football in the 3rd minute to beat Albania in a friendly a few days ago, but they face a sterner test against Denmark tonight in their final warm-up match. That should tell us more about their form.

Man to Watch: Contrast Ebi Smolarek, who scored 9 goals in qualifying, and Marek Saganowski, who had a brilliant first half-season with my beloved Southampton but only 3 goals this year in a highly disappointing campaign. Potentially, they could complement each other well up front, but Zurawski will start ahead of Saganowski. Smolarek in particular should shine.

Prediction: They should beat Austria (hell, my granny could), but getting past Germany and Croatia will be too much to ask. They’ll be respectable, but third.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Artur Boruc (Celtic)

12. Tomas Kuszczak (Man United)

22. Lukasz Fabianski (Arsenal)

Defenders

2. Mariusz Jop (FC Moscow)

3. Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw)

4. Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucharest)

5. Dariusz Dudka (Wisla Krakow)

6. Jacek Bak (Austria Wien)

13. Martin Wasilewski (Anderlecht)

14. Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos)

15. Michal Pazdan (Gornik Zabrze)

23. Adam Kokoszka (Wisla Krakow)

Midfielders

8. Jacek Krzynowek (Wolfsburg)

10. Lukasz Gargula (Belchatow)

16. Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund)

17. Wojciech Lobodzinski (Wisla Krakow)

18. Mariusz Lewandowski (Shakhtar Donetsk)

19. Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan)

20. Roger Guerreiro (Legia Warsaw)

Forwards

7. Ebi Smolarek (Racing)

9. Maciej Zurawski (Larissa)

11. Marek Saganowski (Southampton)

21. Tomasz Zahorski (Gornik Zabrze)