BOF Posted May 29, 2012 Moderator Share Posted May 29, 2012 It's slightly worrying when Yoann Gourcuff can't get into France's squad :shock: And 11 of them are foreign-based which sounds a little high to me for a French squad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 he has been atrocious for Lyon since signing and his call up to preliminary squad was a surprise in france. they are dark horses for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 I'm getting some bets on. Group winners: Russia, Netherlands, Spain and France. Winners Netherlands. Might have Mr RVP top scorer, does he take their penalties? England knocked out by Spain in QF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 im standing by my tips 1. Lewandowski/Kerzhakov to be top scorer 2. France to win tournament 3. Spain to not get out of group stage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 im standing by my tips 1. Lewandowski/Kerzhakov to be top scorer 2. France to win tournament 3. Spain to not get out of group stage :shock: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 im standing by my tips 1. Lewandowski/Kerzhakov to be top scorer 2. France to win tournament 3. Spain to not get out of group stage :shock: The first two are hardly that ridiculous. The top scorer tends to be someone who manages to get a hat-trick in an early group game and gets one or two more throughout the tournament. Picking the main striker from the teams likely to go through in the easiest group seems like a fairly sensible way forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 am sure in Euro 2008 Villa was top scorer and didnt score after 2nd group game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Drew Spain in the sweepstakes at work but I expect Germany to win it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I got Germany in sweepstakes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Spain defence is poor. they have only technically brought 4 defenders as Alba and Juanfran are converted wingers and Javi Martinez is a centre midfielder. They have brought Arbeloa and Pique who had poor seasons, Albiol who will be woefully lacking match practice and Ramos who you never know what he will do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Thing I look forward most is Euros is always a better tournament than World Cup. all teams are quite equal and can beat anybody. Plus its usually more attacking as well as Euro 2008 was a great tournament Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 The Euros is good but I look forward to the expansion to 24 teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 1, 2012 Moderator Share Posted June 1, 2012 The Euros is good but I look forward to the expansion to 24 teams. When 50% of the entire continent gets to qualify for the 'finals'(sic)? I find the qualification process a bit pointless in that scenario. The larger nations have been trying to get the Liechtensteins, Andorras and San Marinos to do a pre-qualifying round for years now. This is basically an albeit larger way of achieving the same thing. It's not a 'finals' if practically every European nation ranked higher than 100 in the world gets to play in it. Not to mention the fact that by expanding the tournament you are almost guaranteeing that it needs to be co-hosted because of the number of large enough stadia required. Meaning you take away at least 2 and maybe even 3 spots from the teams who 'qualify' the right way. They need to be careful not to de-value the tournament. In my view a 24 team tournament hosted by 3 separate countries would be nothing more than a glamourous qualifying tournament followed by a few actually meaningful games at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 agre with BOF 100% expanding tournament will probably devalue competition and will have lots of weak teams qualifying. 16 is a perfect number Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siminjo Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 do you think any less of WC, it has teams like: NZ, north korea, honduras, algerie etc. im just happy that the tournament gets expanded and more matches to watch. it would like be teams like belgium, boznia herz, turkey, montenegro, norway, switzerland, scotland, serbia, etc. these teams arent too shabby at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 1, 2012 Moderator Share Posted June 1, 2012 That's a silly argument. The WC has over 200 countries attempting to qualify for it. Those who qualify are the top teams from their confederation. About 10% of the worlds countries get into a world cup finals. A 24 team Euros would have nearly 50% of Europe in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 will have lots of weak teams qualifying Turkey, Serbia, Belgium, Switzerland, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovakia etc - these are not exactly weak countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 That's a silly argument. The WC has over 200 countries attempting to qualify for it. Those who qualify are the top teams from their confederation. About 10% of the worlds countries get into a world cup finals. A 24 team Euros would have nearly 50% of Europe in it. The thing is, it should be easier to qualify for your continental tournament than it is to qualify for the World Cup. At Euro 2012, there were 14 places up for grabs. At the 2014 World Cup, there are 13 places up for grabs for European countries. This is too similar. At Euro 2016, there are 23 places up for grabs. This is much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siminjo Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 no its not a silly argument because you cant say that belgium or turkey are a worse team than north korea or NZ, so the quality of the teams involved in the euros wont be going down just because 2/3 placed teams in europa will qualify, since the 2/3 place teams in europa often is much better than any teams from asia or oseania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Turkey, Serbia, Belgium, Switzerland, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Slovakia etc - these are not exactly weak countries. yes they are. Turkey, montenegro were beaten convincingly by weak teams in playoffs , Serbia lost to Estonia to the palyoffs who Ireladn destroyed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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