EURO 2008 INFO

Group A consists of the Czech Republic, Turkey, Portugal and Switzerland.

The Czech’s are tipped as potential winners. They have performed pretty good in the last 12 years, all in all, and still have some big name players in their group.

Coach Bruckner will again manage the Czechs at this EC. We call him Caesar Karel in Holland, but in the Czech Republic they call him Kleki Petra, derived from a Native American leader with whom Bruck shares his facial festures. Bruckner is regarded as one of Europe’s most astute and inventive coaches. The 68 year old will retire after this tournament.
Thomas Rosicky, the Arsenal midfielder and playmaker of the team, won’t be present this season, due to injury problems. Target man Jan Koller will play, but he will also retire after this EC. Other big name players are obviously Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalie and Thomas Galasek, the former Ajax captain.
Rumor has it that Pavel Nedved may return to have a last go at a big prize, but these are just rumors.

Portugal will also be among the faves of this EC, as they always are. But even four years ago, in their home country, the Portuguese lost against the Greek in the finals. How low can you go :-). They are called the Brazil of Europe (the Dutch won’t concur, I guess). With brains Deco on midfield and best player of the world Handbag Ronaldo (as Goose calls him), Portugal will again rank among the faves, but that never did them a lot of good in the past. The Portuguese qualified second after Poland, which was a surprise. Coach Scolari can select big name players from clubs like Chelsea (Carvalho), ManU (CR, Nani), Juve (Andrade, Tiago) and Inter (Maniche).

In my view, the Turks are a dark horse. They can surely play football. They have a lot of skills and heart, but sometimes lack the discipline to reach the absolute top. Fatih Terim is the Turkish coach since 2005. They reached the top 4 in the WC 2002 and made it in the last eight in Euro 2000. They’ve failed to qualify a lot for the EC’s but this year’s group oozes quality and experience. The influx of big players to Turkey (Van Hooydonk, Roberto Carlos, Kezman to name a few) certainly helped push the quality up. Players like Kavehci (Villareal), Hakan Sukur ( Galatasaray) and Altintop (Schalke 04) know how to score goals, while players like Altintop (Bayern Munich), Sahin (Feyenoord) and Ozkan (Besiktas) know how to set them up. Turkey combines physical toughness with finesse and could be the dark horse in this group.

Switzerland normally wouldn’t be a real fave for football prizes, but in this case Switzerland has the home-advantage. In most cases, host countries did very well at EC’s and WC’s.
And, to be honest, Switzerland is really on the up. They have their natural discipline and physical fitness and also bring some big name players to the fore. Kobi Kuhn is the Swiss manager and will be relieved after the EC by Ottmar Hitzfeld, the current Bayern manager. History doesn’t bode well for them, though, they’ve never made it past round 1 in an EC.
But, with experienced players like Johann Vogel (ex-PSV, ex-AC Milan), Blaise N’Kufo (FC Twente striker), Johan Vonlanthen (ex PSV) and Philip Senderos (Arsenal), who knows… They could surprise us… Actually, they already surprised us in a friendly, if I’m not mistaken…

It’s a tough group, this one. Could well be named the group of death… But then again, are there any easy groups in EC football? It could go either way. I suppose most will say Switzerland doesn’t stand a chance. It will be between the Czechs, the Handbags and the Turks… I guess Portugal and the Czech Republic are the obvious choices…

More on Group B…later….