Only a couple of days before the big European sporting event of 2008 kicks off in Austria and Switzerland. Who will be crowned European football champion of 2008 in Vienna on June 26th?
For my own country The Netherlands, which finds itself in a Group of Death with France, Italy and Romania, the odds do not look very good. Solid individual players, apart from maybe the current defence line-up, but not always up to par as a team.
Current world champion Italy recently lost star defender Cannavaro because of an injury, but even so the signori di catenaccio won’t have much trouble keeping the gates tightly closed.
The French side, the current vice world champion, looks pretty solid too, with fresh new players like for instance attacker Bafetimbi Gomis. And then there is the Romanian side, a strong outsider wolf comfortably clad in underdog’s clothing. Nobody seems to expect the Romanian inquisition, but this side has nothing to lose in this group and could very well upset at least one of the higher ranked teams.
Last year a Dutch clairvoyant (or maybe somebody who just follows Dutch football very closely) already predicted the Orange Team won’t make it past the group stage. And to add insult to very probable Dutch injury the English, who failed to qualify for EURO 2008, have taken it upon themselves to have some preemptive fun at the expense of the soon to be blue orange squad.
A certain Jon Gledstone from the creative design agency 5th Of November thought up a web campaign called Just Go Dutch to urge his compatriots to support, of all possible teams, the Dutch. You can find the guy’s rather funny webpage here. The Dutch, being the good sports they are, have already thanked Gledstone for his support with an official orange T-shirt showing his name in ‘Dutch’: Van Gledstone.
Anyway, what is your favourite team to win the EURO 2008 Championship? Or, alternatively, who would you like to see defeated? After all, as those dastardly English are showing us in a reverse psychology kind of way, cheering against a team can be fun as well.
PS: A big kiss to Gledstone & Co for at least giving us Dutchies a little bit of attention before we inevitably sink into total oblivion.
*end counter jinx alert*
Feed: A Fistful of Euros
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Go Romania! I’d love to see everybody get upset by them, especially considering how few people expect them to advance past the group stage.
I’d also like to see Austria do well, mostly out of a sense of pity (their own countrymen want the Austrian team to pull out) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7431605.stm
The team I most want to see fail? Hmm…that’s a tough one. Probably the Czechs, since, if I remember correctly, they’re the ones that prevented Romania from clinching a World Cup spot in 2006. But I don’t have any notable enmity to any country.
Good luck to all teams!
-Toader (a Romanian)
PS: I’ve read this blog for a long time now, and I find it almost saddening that the first issue that compels me to post is about a football competition.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
My 5 yo almost knows the words to ‘hup holland hup, laat de leeuw niet in zijn hempie staan’ by heart
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Toader, if my team plays really badly, I’ll cheer against them and for Romania! On the other hand, if the Dutch happen to play well…
Marbel, I am sure your 5 yo would love this shirt. Dutch football attire really deserves closer scrutiny by sociologists and psychologists alike
The Swiss are apparently dreading the arrival of the (in)famous “Orange Legion” or hordes of Dutch football supporters. Travel agency TUI used a photo of one such supporter to invite people to leave Switzerland before the start of Euro 2008. Check out the image at the left of this page. “Er kommt, Sie gehen” means “he is coming, you are leaving”
LOL!
*rummaging through his affairs in order to find his own orange T-shirt and scarf*
June 4th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Speaking of the…devotion of the Dutch, did anybody else hear about FIFA making about 1,000 Dutch fans watch Holland play the Ivory Coast in their underwear during the World Cup? The story amused me to no end.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5096198.stm
June 4th, 2008 at 3:29 am
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June 4th, 2008 at 5:59 am
LOL Guy, both at the shirt and the Swiss. I doubt Blokker has them in kiddy sizes, otherwise I might be tempted to buy them for my three little boys. And the British/Irish husband only watches sport if he can’t avoid it, sight, so no takers there.
I must admit that the fact that I allready hear songs on the radio about how wonderfull 1988 was doesn’t radiate confidence in the Dutch team.
If the Dutch fail I’ll have to choose between the teams still there.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Toader, I remember. Commerce, thy name is sports
June 4th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Marbel, check out the photo gallery at the Blokker site.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Mine are rather skinny, by the looks I could fit all three in one shirt
June 4th, 2008 at 11:52 am
OMG, it gets worse ROFL!
June 4th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Interesting site…and nice post…Italy will still have some sting even the leadership be missing…i wonder who will be captain in Cannavaro’s absence?
June 4th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
There’s this German Fiat Bravo advert casting aspersions on the Dutch chances: “be home quicker than the Dutch team”.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Well I don’t have anybody to cheer for this time, so I’ll fall back on the Dutch as my standby side.
It may be childish but I loved them ever since one Frank Rikkard / Rudi Voller incident many moons ago… Well, not really but I did enjoy it, but I do enjoy Dutch football.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
@bganon: AARRGGH! That (and the last game they played against Portugal) is one of the things I do not want to see a repeat of. Okay, Völler’s hairdo was maybe something to spit at, but no, you do not do those things. Not even in football.
Thanks for reminding me, though
June 6th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Multiculturalism in the Netherlands: a football jersey with the known Dutch war cry “Aanvalluh” or “Attack!” in pseudo-Arabic. Love it.