Oranje Crush

Any other recent world champions Holland can take apart?

Also, short of beating the Dutch, is there any way that Romania can advance? That would be kinda neat.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 9:43 pm and is filed under A Fistful Of Euros, Culture, Life, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. club-cordelier Says:
   June 13th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

   Brasil ? Ireland ? No, not Ireland, sorry, they are only European Champions, just for one day… or maybe more…
   For Romania, they advanced in 2007, “faut pas exagérer”, like we say in french

2. Kimberley Says:
   June 13th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

   Romania can advance if both games are draws. If France and Italy draw, and Romania loses, it gets complicated. Or so my pet statistician tells me, I’m too tired to figure it out for myself.

3. rz Says:
   June 13th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

   if Romania wins they and the Dutch will advance regardless of the outcome of the other game!

   This is how it will work out: Holland will play with its B-Team because they will be first in the group anyway and don;t want there star players to get injured. This will give Romania a chance to win. And they will take it!!!!!

   And then: both the World cap winner and the 2nd will go home.

4. Kimberley Says:
   June 13th, 2008 at 10:15 pm

   rz, that is a good analysis and much better than giving myself a headache by staring at spreadsheets of other options. And it would indeed be nice to see Romania go through.

5. Guy Says:
   June 13th, 2008 at 10:52 pm

   I am absolutely stunned. I had my sister (in Belgium) on the phone for the entire second half, we watched together this way. Wow, just wow.

   Romania will, I think, also advance if Italy and France draw (depending on the goal difference). The Dutch provided enough margin for this to be a distinct possibility.

   Anyway, the France-Italy match is going to be awesome!

6. Toader Says:
   June 13th, 2008 at 11:02 pm

   I agree with rz’s analysis. If they play with their A-team…well, we’ll see. In any case, at least the Romanians will not lack confidence; they’ve beaten the Dutch before, and while I’m hesitant to guarantee they can do it again, at the very least they’ll give them a run for their money. Should be a good match.

   And, of course, after much abuse, Guy’s beloved Oranje come through. Congratulations! Though I must admit, I’m a bit jealous of your team’s position, winning the group of death and whatnot.

7. Doug Merrill Says:
   June 13th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

   “Anyway, the France-Italy match is going to be awesome!”

   Is anyone in London running a book on how many head-butts we will see in this match?

8. P O'Neill Says:
   June 14th, 2008 at 8:16 am

   It’s hard to judge two teams that have looked bad in both matches but the French are younger and weren’t out of it against the Dutch till quite late. So it could easily be the Italians out in the group stages.

9. eni Says:
   June 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 am

   Uau… the unthinkable has happened. Oranje is out too. I simply love it when underdogs beat the absolute favorites. Beautiful match anyway. Well, the Russians had the big comfort of having nothing to loose and the Dutch underestimated them. However the Russians were awesome. I wish them luck and the final. They deserve it! I think the Russian football revival and the winner song at the European Song Contest is at perfect sync with the general reemergence of Russia as a great power. It may have something to do with the rising self esteem of Russians. Moscow was in a rage yesterday after the match and in Germany there were Russians celebrating all over. Hell, even Georgians celebrated.