Soccer wars

well then he's okay - at 23 he can support losers And he certainly has tendency because there are no bigger losers in soccer but Spain I also support Spain sometimes, they are certainly my favourite european team (except for Ireland, and, of course, Croatia).

too bad he probably doesn't even know what Team Handball is - it's attractive and cool sport and in it he could enjoy lot of croatian wins we are current world champions, and olympic winners from Atlanta.

Well, North Americans mostly don't know what Team Handball is (I used to play it, and whenever I mention it people from USA think that I was banging ball against the wall ), maybe Latin Americans do - after all, Croatia (once again, those "crazy Croats") on last world championship won against everyone except first game against Argentina /Argentina finished 15th or something/.

Btw, nice job in eliminating USA from Olympic baseball tournament Although I am sorry that Roger Clemens will not pitch in Athens

Not much handball on this side of the world, really. After football, the more spread team sports are baseball and basketball.
Do you know Greenland is considered a part of the Americas for some sports. I remeber once reading about a handball game between Mexico and Greenland in the Panamerican Championship.



We only paved the way for the Cubans and Canadians to qualify

Honestly, it's unfair that the Americas get only 2 baseball slots, Europe gets 3 and Africa gets 1.
Fairly, the Americas should get 4 slots, Asia + Oceania 2, and Europe + Africa: 2.
I know, they do it to promote the game, but it's still unfair.

Yeah I know about Greenland - they even played on one World Championship - I think that they came fourth, and Americas had three spots, and then someone withdraw (I think Uruguay)

I agree for baseball, although I am not sure that Europe has 3 spots...well, actually, while I am writing it I realized that it is three - since Greece as host is playing also.
If they want to promote game they can have 12 teams, and not 8...so Americas can have 4, Asia 3, Europe 3, Oceania 1 and Africa 1.

But to be honest, same thing is upseting me in basketball - Americas have way too much spots there. And european basketball is absolutely dominant, excluding USA. And on last world championship Europe had 5 teams, and Americas I think at least 6 (Brazil, Argentina, USA, Canada, Venezuela...I think that Uruguay was sixth team).
And, excluding USA and Argentina, there are at least 10 european countries that will beat other Americas teams in at least 9 of 10 games, if not in all 10....and even Argentina is very good only recently, so how exactly Americas deserved 6 spots is really something I can't understand.

Uruguay basket can beat no one, nowadays. It must have been Puerto Rico.

Only Brazil and USA have always been powerful in the continent. Years ago, Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico were strong. Now it's Argentina, Canada and Puerto Rico.

In basketball, you have the same thing as in soccer. It's China, Angola, Australia, America and Europe. The problem is, perhaps, too many spots for regions that have to be "conquered" by the game.

Of course, Croatia has to eliminate with Germany, Russia, Lithuania, Greece, Spain, Italy, Serbia-Montenegro... tough stuff.

[Mexico has had this strange ability lately: it wins some "hard" games (Argentina and Puerto Rico), starts winning other hard games (Brazil, USA), which we lose; and it also starts winning apparently simpler games (Canada, Venezuela), only to lose again ]

of course it's Puerto Rico - they almost always play, how could I forget them.
And in croatian list you can add Turkey and France as well

I mean, I am not saying that Latin American basketball sucks, just that european generally is much stronger. Except USA and except Argentina on last WC I think that all other medals on all World championships were taken by european teams.
And we are once again crazy Croats when it comes for qualifying for WC. On EC'99 we were only team to beat Italy (that became european champion), only to be crushed by 35 points against Germany. On EC'01 we were leading against host Turkey 19 points with 12 minutes remaining in quarter final, only to lose in extra time.
And on EC'03 we lost 4 crucial games with 1-2 points, and 3 of them we were leading from first until last minute.

MyOwnUsername

Did I miss that post or did you already report somewhere about the U21-Euro-success of your national team? :wink:

grrrrr......
But we can still go to Olympics, just wait

They suck so much, they should have at least 4 points and they have 1 (they had to tie at least with Serbia and to beat Belarus, and two goals in last minutes, and...). But if we win against Italy tonight and Belarus-Serbia game does not end with tie, we are still alive

What have we ever done to you?!?

As much as it pains me to clear this up, I have noticed that there has been several mentions here of British soccer hooligans. As far as fans travelling abroad to support the national teams go, Scotland, Wales, Rep. Ireland & N. Ireland are well behaved. It's only the English ones who start the riots.

There, I've admitted that my country's fans are hooligans!

you are actually quite right Grand Duke - it was not fair to say British, since only English ones are trouble makers

About your other question, I don't know...England is big imperialist so when it comes to sports and politics people generally dislike it. But, no bad feelings about English people generally - british music, british TV shows, british sitcoms...not to mention Monty Python as category for itself...well...England rules outside of politics

but, on the other hand, you at least managed to stop hooligans inside England - most of the Europe (not to mention South America) still has to do the same.

And as of stories about who we support - ah, damn, Venezuela lost ( And i was starting to hope that they will finally go to World Cup once in history

I feel aggrieved that people (apart from the Scots) will support whoever they are playing against an wish us to lose, when we are (for our size as 3rd biggest country in EU) the worst football team in Europe! No-one needs to want us to do badly - we are quite capable of doing badly on our own!!!

That's the beauty of it, Grand Duke.

Why England?
Because their tabloids always say they are superior.
Because the players act as if they were superior.
Because of Beckham ("10 warriors and one stupid kid", a very rich stupid kid who has done nothing and Nike puts him in the same league as Michael Jordan or Mohammed Ali, a very rich stupid kid who has a terrible year, both in sports and real life, and gets a worldwide endorsment by Gillette ).
Because of the fake goal of '66 (you see, Walter, once in a while we'll be with the German side).
Because after Heysel I saw a chap with a T-shirt that read: "Liverpool 39 Juventus 1".
Because it was actually God's hand in '86.

Indeed. It speaks volumes about the quality of British football, when the keeper can't even out-jump a coked-up Argentinian midget... :wink:

I agree with nearly all of your other points as well, except that Beckham can sometimes be really good. He's still an overpaid fool though.

Surely the British tabloids aren;t the only ones who believe that their national team should win games that they don't? I can't belive that the American press ever doubt that they have the best team in the world... :wink:

Who do you fancy to win, Fbaezer? I'm going for a France-Holland final, with France edging it. England will be lucky to qualify from the group stages...

I'm not too optimistic about Holland ... they dont really have a "team" yet, its all still very aflux (or something).

Then again, there's this pattern ... of Holland getting it together only at the last moment, for one. I think last two times we did really bad in the qualification rounds, that is: only just scraped in our qualification - and then only when the Championships started getting steam, did they start to perform. But there's also this pattern ... of wanting to do it too beautiful, of thinking too highly of oneself, vain stars that just dont really want it enough. So I dunno about making it to the final ... I doubt it.

Since the teams are so similar in power, Eurocup is almost a tossed coin (didn't Denmark get invited in the last minute and win?).

I can say neither Latvia, nor Greece, nor Switzerland, nor Bulgaria, nor Russia shall win.

I believe England will do better than expected (perhaps due to lower expectations), but not enough to win the tournament.
I haver never thought too highly of France, even if I like the way the play.
Italy will be a hard bone to swallow, but their system hardly ever pays all the way to the final.
Portugal has a edge (and it's a generation's last chance), but -seems to me- lacks mentality.
Spain gets too desperate in the bad moments (another case of excessive media hype).
Croatia is going through a generation change. Was very good, will be very good. Just not the right moment.

So that would leave Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republik and the surprising (for good or bad) Scandinavians.

After writing that, and just to make everyone mad, I'd say the Czechs are going to win.
And Nedved is better than Beckham

well, you will not make me mad with our slavic brothers Czechs are great, but I doubt they will actually win. But they should go far.
I would say Latvia, Greece, Switzerland, Russia and Croatia will not win (well, Bulgaria will not win also, but if I will rephrase fbaezer I think they are on higher level in relation to Croatia at the momet). We sometimes went completely crazy like in France'98, but not this time. Maybe we will pass group if we manage to beat Switzerland. Then maybe we can send England home early - GD is right, lots of countries are supporting their teams too hard, but problem with England is that it really sucks as a team And Eriksson really sucks as a coach - I don't know I haven't seen really good England game in this circle - including qualifying and friendlies - okay, maybe home game against Turkey was decent one.
Even Croatia had few really good games (Belgium 4:0 and in extra round of qualifiers 1:0 in Slovenia /and it should be 11:0/)

Holland...well, this time I disagree...I like them, sometimes even support them but nah...it is even possible that they will fail to reach quarter finals.

Scandinavians - they can always surprise, but I hope not, because if I hate something in soccer, then it's scandinavian kind - especially Norway, I hope citizens of Norway will all live good and healthy lives, having great time and winning 1.537 medals at Olympics, just that I don't have to see their soccer ever again.

Portugal can be great. In fact I see in them everything I saw in Croatia'98. Same situation, same quality (never before completely used), everything...they could be extremelly well.
Germany...no, I don't think this time - France'98 once again.

Spain...I would really like them to do something finally, but here I agree fbaezer - they're hopeless.

So, France-Italy as final?

I am not sure if I pointed enough how much I hate norwegian soccer??