Euro 2008 Preview

Outside of the World Cup, European Championship (ofter referred to as "Euro"+year; this year's edition is Euro 2008) is probably the biggest soccer tournament in the world. In fact, I believe Euros is a better competition in terms of quality than the World Cup, as most soccer powers are based in Europe and the 16-team field, vs. World Cup's 32, means there are no pushovers in this tournament.

With Euro 2008 set to kick off in less than 3 days, here are my knee-jerk predictions for the group stage:

Group A: Portugal, Czech Republic, Turkey, Switzerland

Portugal should have no problem advancing from this group. In addition to superman Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese have loads of attacking talent with Deco, Simao, Quaresma, etc. Defense is solid if not spectacular.

#2 is tougher to call between Czech Republic and Switzerland. You can never underestimate Switzerland's advantage of playing in front of their home crowd (see World Cup 2002, Korea and Japan), but the Swiss do not have any big-name talents. The Czechs are without international-retired Nedved and are missing Tomas Rosicky and will be a big blow to the team. Regardless, with Petr Cech in goal, I don't see them conceding too many goals. Switzerland and Czech Republic are playing against each other in the first group A matchup, and the winner of the game will most likely emerge from the group along with Portugal.

Pick: A1: Portugal. A2: Czech Republic.

Group B: Poland, Austria, Croatia, Germany

Relatively straight forward group. I don't foresee Poland or Austria giving Croatia and Germany too much trouble. The Germans are experienced, have loads of talent and must be considered one of the favorites to win the tournament. As long as mad Jens Lehmann doesn't do anything crazy to unsettle the team, Germany should easily qualify. Croatia (with their tablecloth shirt and all) should be able to cope with missing their qualifying-round leading goal scorer, Eduardo, and qualify alongside Germany.

Pick: B1: Germany. A2: Croatia.

Group C: Italy, Holland, Romania, France

This is a perfect example of a "group of death", with WC2006 champs Italy, France and Holland all drawn in the same group, plus Romania (sucks for Romania). A victory (and the 3 points) is especially critical in this group. Holland goes into every competition with high hopes and almost never fail to disappoint, but this may be the year they finally deliver. Their first game is against Italy, who are still shell-shocked by the loss of their captain Fabio Cannavaro for the tournament through injury. I see Holland taking the first game against Italy and qualifying from the group.

France has a good mix of experience (Henry, Thuram, Gallas, Makelele, Ribery) and youth (Nasri, Benzema) and should take advantage of Italy misfortunes to qualify also.

Pick: C1: France. C2: Holland.

Group D: *Spain, Russia, Greece, Sweden

Not a terribly exciting group. Spain will overwhelm this group and wouldn't be a surprise if they win all three games and finish at the top of the group with 9 points. Greece was the surprising winner of Euro 2004 with their suffocating brand of soccer but I don't see them repeating their 2004 performance. Do you recognize a single name on the Russian team? Me neither. Sweden has enough talent and experience with Larsson, Ibrahimovich, Ljungberg, Mellberg, Issaskson, et al. to finish runner-up to Spain.

Pick: D1: Spain. D2: Sweden.