EURO 2008 INFO

England fans still wake up screaming with this image: Jan Tomaszewski

Let’s take a look at the nations that together form Group B.

This group consists of Austria, Croatia, Germany and Poland. I know we have some history buffs on the blog here who could make some interesting comments on the relationships between these countries in the past. But I won’t go there, especially not with my German roots :-).

Austria, being the host country, would normally be a favorite. But not this time. With all due respect for the Austrians, there’s no Ernst Happel, Franz Hasil, Hans Krankl, Bruno Pezzey or Toni Polster in this team. The question is, would they have qualified if they had to play for it? But…never the less, they’re there. And they will be supported by the home fans, so who knows, a finals Austria - Oranje? Nah…. It’s not going to happen. Still, it’s not an easy group for - say- Germany. Austria will see a win over the Teutons as winning the whole bloody tournament.
Manager Hickersberger came on board in 2006 to stop the decline in Austrian football. This is basically the first time at an EC tournament and as I said, they didn’t need to qualify.

We did see a bit of their strength against Oranje some months back, when the Austrians came up 3-0 in front from set pieces. They did allow Oranje to score four times to make it 3-4 but the egg was on our faces and the Austrians showed the world they know how to kick a ball. I’m sure Henk Timmer received some free vouchers to come skiing though…

Big name players in their current group are Martin Harnik (Werder Bremen), Thomas Prager (Heerenveen), Andres Ivanschitz (Panathinaikos) and Rene Aufhauser (Salzburg).

Germany is a fave for the title, of course. Because they’re Germany. They have the quality, the spirit and the mentality. They may not have the individual class countries like, well, Holland has, but that didn’t stop them under Klinsmann two years back. But Jurgen has moved on, so we’ll have to see if their current manager, Joachim Low, can have the same impact.

What else can you say about them? Gary Lineker: “Football is a game between 22 players and a ball, it takes 90 minutes to play and at the end the Germans win.” We know they were very successful in World Cup and Euro Tournaments. And yes, they had great players in the past. Here goes: Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer, Jurgen Grabowski, Uli Hoeness, Gerd Muller, Overath, Netzer, Rummenigge, Litbarski, Fisher, Hrubesch, Moller, Effenberger, Voller, Matthaus, Brehme, Kahn, Sammer… I mean, it’s not even funny anymore.

In the 2006 WC, Germany went all the way to the “little finals” beating Portugal 3-1. Klose won the Golden Boot, Podolski was talent of the Tournament, etc etc, blablabla, suck suck suck…

Germany became the first team to qualify for this EC and deserves the favorite’s role. Players to look out for: Michael Ballack, Miro Klose, Podolski, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Metzelder, Phillip Lahm and Jens Lehman.

Croatia is maybe also the Brazil of Europe :-). They can play that technical positioning play and through the years gave us some fab football. Slavn Bilic is their current success coach and with tactical prowess and bravado he and his men outplayed England. To name one. In the past, whixch is short because until the 90s the Croatian players would play for yugoslavia, they reached quarter finals in the WC98 and the quarter finals in the EC 96.
I’m sure most of us remember the great goals of Suker and players like Boban and Prosinecki.

Today, Croatia has players like klasnic (Werder Bremen), Pranjic (Heerenveen), Leko (AS Monaco) and Simic (AC Milan). Croatia plays total football, has technically skilled players who like to attack and playing fancy is second nature to them.

Their win over England at Wembley in the qualifications for this EC is already a classic.

Poland is an outsider. The first time they compete at this level in Europe. But, having said that, they impressed during the qualifications and with seasoned Leo Beenhakker as their coach, who knows what might happen.

Poland’s best performance ever was in the WC1974 (not a bad tournament, that). With big guns like Lato, Deyna, Smolarek, Gorgon and legendary goalie Jan Tomaszewski, when they reached the third spot. Eight years later they repeated the performance in 1982’s Spain’s WC. With big guns like Zbigniew Boniek, Buncol, Zmuda and again Smolarek.

The Smolarek genes traveled further, with Wlodi’s son Ebi (like his dad a former Feyenoord player) an important striker in Beenhakker’s team. Other big names in the squad are Jerzy Dudek, Kuszcak (Man U), Krynowek (Woflsburg), Matusiak and Saganowski (Southampton).

Beenhakker can be trusted to prep his team to the max for the couple of matches they play this summer. In particular the game against Germany will be a finals for Don Leo and his troop.

In a normal world, Germany and Croatia will move on. But Poland could hurt the Germans while Austria with their home advantage and mysterious forces in sports could do some damage here and there too. No matter what, Croatia guarantees good football and most other matches will just be tense.

Bring it on!