Euro 2008 starts this Sat (June 7th)...

[Marco D.]

Any thoughts on how Portugal will fare in the tournament? Here's hoping Cristiano Ronaldo stays healthy.

As much as I'd like to see them win it, I think there is just too much competition from Germany, The Netherlands, France and Italy... Should be a fun tournament.

[Paul_B]

So close in the last few turnaments...don't loose faith... Scolari wants to win so he can move on to something else.
The squad lacks depth in some areas of the field but we can dream....

Portugal - France
Portugal - Italy
Portugal - Greece
Portugal - Holland
Portugal - Spain

All possible finals and all exciting for different reasons....

cheers
Paul

[Marco D.]

Looks like there are a lot of Portuguese supporters in Austria/Switzerland.

They had 10,000 fans waiting at the airport when they arrived.

They had a practice session open to the public yesterday and 12,000 paid to see the sold-out session. Tickets were about $14 and traded at a much higher price on the black market.

Let's hope the support from the stands translates to the field.

[Erik Wiechers]

I just heard that there are 30 - 40.000 dutchies in Bern. However, there are also a LOT of illegal tickets outthere. Those people will be stopped at the gate if they try to enter. Ah well, i watch it at home anyways.

[Marco D.]

I was hoping to travel to Portugal with my family during the Euros and watch the games with the locals on TV there... but unfortunately airfare prices and the dollar's exchange rate prevented me.

There is so much more excitement for this event in Europe. Being the 3rd most-watched event in the world (after the World Cup and the Olympics), I am always astounded by the lack of media coverage here.

[Paul_B]

You right good coverage of the games without buying special sports channels is very hard in North America... I think you can buy the streaming video to your PC from europe and then if you can output from your PC to your TV...

This year I decided to spend a few bucks and get two High Definition sports channels from my cable provider that will show all the games... I can record them on my PVR as well.... I can cancel after the tournament...

But watching the games in a cafe/bar over in Portugal would have been much more fun...

cheers
Paul

[Marco D.]

Wow... huge win for the Netherlands yesterday... beating reigning World Cup winners Italy 3-0 for the first time in their history.

I sure Erik W. is smiling somewhere...

[Roy Hersh]

I went over to Portugal to watch the World Cup in 2006. I had one of the most fun times of any visit I've had there. Even not speaking the language, but wearing the Portuguese football jersey won over some of the locals in the bar(s) that we went to. I am unable to get the Euro 2008 Tourney here on TV which really stinks. I'll never forget some of those 2006 games ... especially the great game to beat England. Very memorable to say the least.

[Derek T.]

There have been some great games so far. Spain v Russia today was a feast of goals but the Netherlands 3-0 victory over Italy was a fantastic game. Great goals, fantastic effort by both teams and some controversy thrown in for good measure.

I picked Netherlands as my adopted team before the start and I'm happy with my choice

Roy, have you tried sourcing the games on the internet? I'm not sure how you do this but I have heard of people hooking into foreign TV channels over the net when games are not being shown at home. Maybe worth an hour on google to find out if you have options?

Derek

[Stewart T.]

ESPN (and all of it's associated channels like ESPN2, etc.) are showing a lot of the games here in the US. Unfortunately, they are at noon or mid-day when us Americans are all working hard

Fortunately, they are also replaying the games in the evening, so we can PRETEND that we don't know who already won and then be wowed by watching a game that has technically been over for hours!

I DID see the Netherlands game, and wow - LOVED that game... WOW!

So don't cry for us Argentina... oh sorry... this is EURO Cup... we can manage to eek out our football substinance by catching the games as they are made availbale on ESPN....

st

[Roy Hersh]

Good to know I'll catch a game or two now. Thanks Stewart!

[Moses Botbol]

Here's hoping Cristiano Ronaldo stays healthy.

He is too good!

[Marco D.]

Portugal vs Czech Republic is on today on ESPN2.

Let's hope Ronaldo's head doesn't get too big after this:
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/258714.asp

As if he hasn't won enough awards... geesh...

[Michael M.]

Anyone watched the match yesterday- Portugal vs The Mannschaft? A good one IMO. I was a bit disappointed about the Portuguese (I like them a lot)- barely magic was possible. I would assume that the other favorated teams had not much fun with the disciplined effort of the german team. Ballack- what a centre!

Michael

[Marco D.]

Tough game to watch. The Portuguese started very slow and the Germans were all over them. I wasn't too happy with the stomp on Ronaldo's foot and the push by Ballack to get his header... but the Germans played a better game.

The last few minutes were riveting... the Portuguese really threw it all out on the field... but too little too late.

Time to start rebuilding for the World Cup in two years.

[Derek T.]

The German team seem to be taking their normal approach to a big tournament: a bad start followed by ruthless efficiency when it gets to the knock-out stages. They should make short work of the Turkish team that had a lucky win over Crotia tonight and once again we will have a major final with Germany v Someone. Order is restored

Derek

[Michael M.]

What a simple match yesterday. I only managed 45 minutes at the monitor. Astonishing that the Turkish team reached the semi final. I hope the match today will be much better and the Dutch team will make it.

Michael

[Erik Wiechers]

Its over and out for the dutchies, they played like me and my friends used to play after school on a friday-afternoon. The russians were more inspired and played like a TEAM.

долгосрочной службы Россия !!

[Michael M.]

Very sad that they are out. Nevertheless a fascinating match. It seemed like the tie was too much stress for the Dutchies. Great goal keeper Edwin van der Sar!

[Marco D.]

Too bad the Netherlands are out. I like their style of play. I would have loved to have seen the Netherlands and Spain play.