Euro 2020 and Copa America Football Tournaments.

Euros start this weekend.
Which teams will you be supporting?

 

Italy. Looking good. Eight straight clean sheets. 27 matches undefeated. Favorites to win Group A.
Italy vs. Turkey this Friday, 3PM Eastern time in the US, on ESPN. I already set my DVR as I'll be at work. Can't wait.

 

Let's hope they do better than they did at the last World Cup.

 

And let's hope that the French do worse than they did at the last World Cup, LOL.
ESPN has France as the favorites to win the Euro, followed by Italy and Portugal, with Denmark running outside as a dark horse.

 

What? No mention of England in the top 3?
The betting odds say different with England as joint favourites.

England 5/1

France 5/1

Belgium 11/2

Spain 13/2

Germany 7/1

Portugal 15/2

Italy 9/1

Netherlands 12/1

Denmark 25/1

Croatia 25/1

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/euro-2021-favourite-betting-odds-b1860614.html#r3z-addoor

 

Why, England, of course, Monty. I'll be rooting for Croatia, too.

That being said, I expect France to win.

 

Sunday is going to be difficult for you then.

 

Oh. This UK source with UK betters puts England as the favorites. How unusual.
Sorry, but at the risk of sounding offensive (and you're such a nice guy, you don't deserve it), I'm used to this.
Since 1966 the English are always saying that "this is it; this is the year when we win big again."
And then it doesn't happen. Yawn. You haven't even made the final of the Euro, ever.
Look at these betting odds. Germany higher than Portugal and Italy? LOL. Germany has just lost 6-0 to Spain and 2-1 to freaking Northern Macedonia.
And, really? You think England are as good as this fabulous French team?
They still have 9 of the 11 who won the WC 4 years ago. Mbappe, Benzema (back to form), and Griezmann, that's a lot of fire power.
Home field advantage? Pffft... no hosts have won since 1984.

 

I didn't say England are as good as France.
I just expressed surprise that they weren't in the top 3 according to ESPN.
England are ranked 4th in the world behind Belgium, France and Brazil. They were semi-finalists in the last world cup finishing 4th.
They won their qualifying group with ease.
I think that merits being considered in the top 3 with France and Belgium.

 

OK, my "you think" was the "you" as in "you all" since your source did grant to the English team, the same odds as France's.

Winning the qualifying group with ease - oh right, playing against spectacular soccer world powers such as Kosovo, Bulgaria, and Montenegro! You guys even lost to the Czechs 2-1 (OK, you did beat them 5-0 too). So is the argument, ease of qualifying? Well, Italy played 10 qualifying games, won all 10. Perfect 30 points. So, did better than England. Still, your source puts Italy as 7th best odds. So you say that ease of qualifying merits being considered in the top 3 but you don't put Italy there, despite them having done better than England in qualifiers? Makes no sense.

FIFA Rankings: They don't matter that much. Belgium is #1 in FIFA rankings. Nobody is putting Belgium as the #1 favorites for the Euro. Eden Hazard hasn't been very good lately, and Kevin de Bruyne had eye surgery.

So your top 3 are France, Belgium, and England.

For me, France does belong in the top 3, but England and Belgium do not. You seem to be just taking that FIFA ranking and subtracting Brazil given that they obviously don't play the Euro. Nope, the FIFA ranking is not the same as the real odds of winning the Euro.

Look at Italy's defense. 8 freaking consecutive clean sheets. No team has scored any goal on Italy for the last 8 games. They are undefeated in the last 27 games. I consider them much stronger than England.

Immobile helped by Chiesa and Insigne will be a force to be reckoned with, in offense. Phenomenal defense with Chiellini, Bonucci, Florenzi and Spinazzola, not to forget that Donnarumma is a wall. Hopefully Verratti will be healthy for the midfield.

Forza Azzurri!

 

Azzurro

Cerco l'estate tutto l'anno
e all'improvviso eccola qua.
Lei è partita per le spiagge
e sono solo quassù in città.
Sento fischiare sopra i tetti,
un aeroplano che se ne va.

Azzurro,
il pomeriggio è troppo azzurro
e lungo per me.
Mi accorgo
di non avere più risorse
senza di te.
E allora
io quasi quasi prendo il treno
e vengo, vengo da te.
Ma il treno dei desideri,
nei miei pensieri, all'incontrario va.

Sembra quand'ero all'oratorio,
con tanto sole, tanti anni fa.
Quelle domeniche da solo
in un cortile, a passeggiar.
Ora mi annoio più di allora,
neanche un prete per chiacchierar.

Azzurro,
il pomeriggio è troppo azzurro
e lungo per me.
Mi accorgo
di non avere più risorse,
senza di te.
E allora
io quasi quasi prendo il treno
e vengo, vengo da te.
Ma il treno dei desideri,
nei miei pensieri, all'incontrario va.

Cerco un po' d'Africa in giardino,
tra l'oleandro e il baobab,
come facevo da bambino,
ma qui c'è gente, non si può più.
Stanno innaffiando le tue rose,
non c'è il leone, chissà dov'è.

Azzurro,
il pomeriggio è troppo azzurro
e lungo per me.
Mi accorgo
di non avere più risorse,
senza di te,
E allora
io quasi quasi prendo il treno
e vengo, vengo da te.
Ma il treno dei desideri,
nei miei pensieri, all'incontrario va.

 

Actually, I enjoy watching two teams I like playing one another, but I'll be pulling for England in that match and I fully expect them to win in front of a home crowd at Wembley. My only wish is that the match would have been scheduled for later in the day - it starts at 4am our time.

While I would be nice if more fans were be allowed to attend the game, I am pleased that there will be 22K+ people in the stands. European soccer/football is like college basketball here in the States - it's not the same without the fans.

 

It's payback for all the times I've been up till dawn watching hockey.
GO LEAFS - oh wait, they did go, with a wimper, in the first round.

On Croatia, they've been a bit of a bogey team for England over the years. Let's hope their recent run of poor form continues.

 

Sounds like my Capitals - another year, another early round faceplant...



Their lack of effort was so irritating I didn't subject myself to watching the Bruins kick their butts the last two games.

Hopefully, both teams will play better on Sunday than they did in their warmups last week.

Speaking of which, if Lukaku doesn't get some help real soon people can forget all the talk about Belgium being a top 3-4 team. They'll get out of their Group but I'm not convinced they'll get past Italy in the second knockout round.

 

Great start for Italy. Very dominant against Turkey. 3-0.

 

Yes it was. Turkey barely got out of their own half.
They showed none of the form which led to them beating France in the qualifying rounds.

Three matches today including Wales v Switzerland in a couple of hours.

 

Hey, give us some credit. Turkey showed none of the form because of our excellent defense (9th straight victory with a clean sheet), phenomenal midfield, ball possession, and relentless pressure. We did show some right wing problems (Mancini was right in subbing out Florenzi and bringing in Di Lorenzo who made a huge difference) and our final third was imprecise in the first half, but then when the patience and constant pressure paid off and Turkey got behind on the scoreboard and had to open spaces, we showed how fast and dangerous our offense can be. Did you notice the speed and precision of the third goal?

Chiellini was a monster; all over the field; almost scored; saved a goal; he did not show his age. Jorginho was great as usual, organizing the game plan, distributing the ball and leading the midfield. Spinazzola was fast and dangerous. Berardi, Insigne and Immobile were great, all three, with Berardi being very creative and Insigne and Immobile very opportunistic. Donnarumma, perfect as usual - good positioning and reflexes. We could have scored more if not for the stupid ref not calling a clear penalty for us and calling two non-existing off-sides against us (one of which killed a very good attack), and also, Mancini subbed out several of our main players in the last ten minutes when the frustrated Turks turned violent, not willing to collect an injury to an essential player. If the choice had been to keep pressuring, this could have ended 4-0 or 5-0.

Immobile finally had a stellar performance (including scoring a goal) for the national team, taking the monkey off his back (that he is great for club but not so great for the Azzurra). I think that with the recognition and adoration he got after this performance (Italian newspapers went crazy about him, after the game), his confidence level will increase, and he will no longer be inhibited by the thought "what's wrong with me when I play for the national team???" What Italy needs is a class A striker, and Immobile *can* be that person if he reproduces for nation, his club form. Hey, Ciro, you're great; it's your time to shine and show it to the world!

We got a very good team and a smart coach. The one problem, imprecise last third in small spaces, is a matter of these players getting used to working with each other and this should improve as the tournament goes on. The other problem, weak right wing, was handled by going with Di Lorenzo; I don't think Florenzi will be the starter next game.

This is the new Italy, still with solid defense but also dominating possession (like the great Spain stretch of three major titles when they suffocated the opposition by keeping possession), and fast and dangerous when attacking. Mancini is fulfilling his promise of rebuilding the team and changing the play style, after the 2018 fiasco. All our players performed well except for Florenzi and Bernadeschi (a late sub who didn't do anything right).

I do have one concern: Bonucci and Chiellini together are 70 years old! So, given that Turkey was unable to deliver much pressure because of our excellent midfield, they didn't have an exhausting workload. This could be worse when facing more dynamic offenses down the road. They certainly passed the first test and it is good to have experienced veterans to guide the youngsters, and I love seeing that the two grandpas are still doing great, but I do worry about their stamina when they face better offenses.

Anyway, the way we are playing, the opposition shouldn't underestimate us. We do have real possibilities of going deep in this tournament.

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I'm watching the opposition now, Wales vs Switzerland, with a delay (I was busy this morning and got it on DVR so I'm half an hour behind; don't tell me spoilers). Both are playing well. Entertaining game. They are both much more open and much more offensive than Turkey, which is both a blessing and a curse for us when we face them: beware of playing open against our attacking midfielders and our offense, but also, our aging center backs will be under bigger pressure (especially against Switzerland, not to forget the extremely dangerous French offense).

 

Still behind, watching from the DVR, but I finished watching the first half of Wales vs Switzerland. We (Italy) should handle Wales with no problem. Switzerland will be a tougher nut to crack.

 

Wow, Embolo doing great for Switzerland. 1-0 right after he caused a huge save from the opposing goalie.

 

I'm watching it live. To avoid spoilers all I'll say is that the momentum has swung in the last quarter.

 

Oh boy, Daniel James was pissed about being subbed out! 1-1, very entertaining game. I'm still watching the last 15 minutes so no spoilers please. Indeed momentum has changed. Two good teams.

 

It switched again after I posted.

 

Finished. 1-1, good game. Good result for Italy, now 2 points ahead, alone on top. Again, I'm confident that we can beat Wales, and we can at least tie Switzerland and win the group.

 

On to Denmark v Finland next.
Will the Finns be this tournament's Iceland?

 

Game suspended after Christian Eriksen collapsed.
CPR administered on the pitch.
Latest reports say he's awake and stabilised in hospital.