Posted on 12/03/2011 3:22:38 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
In many quarters, the European Championship is the soccer tournament, ahead of the World Cup, because there is no fluff, no Saudi Arabia, no United States, no Paraguay, no North Korea, no Honduras, no New Zealand, but also no Brazil and Argentina.
“Tougher than the World Cup,” England Coach Fabio Capello told The Associated Press before the draw. “The teams that finished first, second and third in the World Cup came from Europe.”
Friday in Kiev, UEFA staged the draw for next summer’s 16-team tournament, which will be played in Ukraine and Poland and follows the co-hosting scheme used four years ago in Austria and Switzerland.
(Excerpt) Read more at goal.blogs.nytimes.com ...
The finals schedule has been confirmed with Poland starting the tournament against Greece and other opening games including Germany v Portugal, Spain v Italy and England v France.
Yikes! Group B is terrifying!
I bet Fabio Capello is breathing a huge sigh of relief at avoiding that group.
This is what makes the Euros more intriguing, in some ways, than the World Cup. Very few dud teams reach the Euro Finals.
“Tougher than the World Cup,” England Coach Fabio Capello told The Associated Press before the draw.
Well then England has no chance. After all, if they couldn’t win their group in the World Cup (we Americans won it), then they might as well save the money and not even show up at this tournament.
That’s not the spirit bobjam! It’s tradition. England always have ridiculously high expectations going into major tournaments, and either perform abysmally, or eventually go out in a heartbreaking agonising, futilely heroic, fashion.
It wouldn’t be a major tournament without that happening!
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