In order to try and reclaim my 1st place (which should be mine......miiiiiiiine, dammit!) from o o o I went for a pretty much all-German team, because I thought that was going to be the easiest game to call... I was surprised at two fronts:

1. Great play by Turkey! Offensive football! Until last night the only thing that had been exciting about Turkey were their spectacular comebacks, but yesterday they were more on the attack than they had done in all their previous games combined. Even with 9 players missing they still were the best team on the pitch in my opinion. The biggest surprise of Euro 2008.

2. Poor showing by Germany yet again. Two great goals (Schweinsteiger's and Lahm's) but other than that it was a piss-poor performance by die Mannschaft. The only good game I've seen them play this tournament was against Portugal... who weren't on their best either that night. Still, I thought they would've found their form after that game. Yesterday they proved me wrong. It was ugly, it had no flair, but in the end it got the job done, beating the Turks with their own weapons. They deserve respect for that, but currently they are a far cry from the exciting German team led by Klinsmann at the 2006 World Cup. They seem to have returned to the ugly football from 1990, 1996, etc... That has proven to be more successful of course, but I'd be disappointed if they'd end up winning it like this.

Ts ts.
Please tell who will win the final , and it will be the other one.

Poor Russia, they were nowhere tonight, forwards faded even more in the second half.
Fabregas was brillant. It seemed easy most of the time.

So now, it's a o o o - pokkeherrie mano a mano for the first place. I wouldn't bet on the latter, but who knows, nominating the right guy for captain and it could do the trick. And prevent o o o from winning a big tournament again.
For the third place - as obviously the rest of us would have to have four captains to get higher - there's a pack of three teams with 211, 210 and 210 points, followed by another pack a goal and an assist away.

I hope Spain wins.

ive stuck with torres for the whole tournament and it hasnt really paid off
have i learnt?
not at all, theres a hat trick coming in the final

Good, don't drop someone you held on to.
In a past tournament, I waved a Blackburn player bye bye and he scored 6 goals in the 4 games he played before I got him back (which brought someone I won't name to ridicule me).

Keep faith !

Besides, the German full backs are not top notch.

Yeah, better and better, I'm 10th !!!
Good shot, Spain !!!

russians were rally fucked wernt they.. shame.. villa out for final... and im now 5th... its close between the top tho...

now the final and to throw a spanner in the works.. ballack is looking likely not to play!!! but uncertain ..

anyone saw any match by Poland ?
they were so poor...

and the last match today Spain - Germany
i'm with spain tonight, I root them since Poland lose out.

europe itself is a fantasy to me

well... the sport of football won in the end! great spainish performance.. germany were appalling...

now the real race is on.. ive my sights on 3rd in the table but it will be close.... results are being processed!

olé!!!

i tought the german pigs would win, though.
my score is going down.

8th to 3rd in the league is fucking damn close.. i hope of my gamble of not picking ballack paid off..... im unsure tho!

i'm going 3rd to 8th, but fuck yes spain won!

pos / team / player / points in final / overall total points

1 Los niños del parque Emmanuel B. 41 303
2 Obiku FC Mike Obiku 48 291
3 eurofauxhemians fc paul boggan 43 252
4 George Best's Liver Bertrand Di Cesare 47 249
5 Allantoic Parasites Christoph Weikinger 32 242
6 Ball in the Heather nic fit 44 242
7 bolanarede joa fer 30 241
8 lionel hutz Charlie Bakhos 29 233
9 FC Gangrape Chris Thomas 55 207
10 ShongleFest Sean Thomas 37 206
11 Tchernobyl Boys Heckler Spray 38 203
12 Glasgow Enculouz 2 Philippe Pachot 17 160
13 Bulldogs FC D. Tatarian 6 155


THE FINAL PLACINGS
congrats emmanuelle and mike but 3rd.. fuck yeah... im happy! and i beat bertrand by 3 points!!!!

well, I think I did really good...started off lame (erm, didn't even read the rules properly...) then kinda resurrected in the last few games.
Almost catched up with you pauly...watch your back for the next challenges......

Edited (cuz hadn't seen nicfit's post, whose progression had to be stopped)

^ Thanks, bolanerede coach, my final place feels much more comfortable ^

And apart from Pauly usurping the third place, it was quite fun.
The real life result satisfied me.
Lahm's replacement surprised me.
And I chuckled, thinking about those who had him in. Same for Ballack, I encouraged the referee to give him another card, but he didn't hit the whole line of midfielders, so I guess he didn't deserve it.
Will Mertesacker and Metzelder (and Friedrich too) be there during the 2010 World Cup qualifying games? I doubt they finish the series of matches if they start them.
Oh, and a big thank you to Atari; even though he didn't replace his players in the last games, I thought it was great to see a non-European playing along.

that was a nice fucking game

who won all the money?

Good to see Spain won. They've been consistent throughout and have shown a few different styles this tournament. They totally deserve their title for the next 4 years. How Germany could have reached the final is still beyond me... the only reason I can think of is that it's because they're German. Granted, they didn't have the most difficult path, but apart from that one good game against Portugal they haven't impressed at all (although I did not see their first game). The Spanish weren't even at their best tonight compared to their semi-final, but still they were in control and should've scored more.


Overall, anyone willing to agree that Euro 2008 was the best (most entertaining) international tournament since ages? If Euro 2004 was the tournament of the defensive teams with a champion who perfectly reflected that, then the same can be said about Euro 2008 regarding forward-thinking football, with a well-deserved champion. One reason perhaps being that none of the 16 teams had a solid defence really?
Plus, there were so many exciting games... more than any recent tournament I can think of now. The final wasn't the best game perhaps, but then again it rarely is.

Not as good as Euro 2000, but a really good one.
Viva Espana !!!!
I was expecting for a more scrappy german team...