Euro 2004 starts on Saturday. For the uninitiated, Euro 2004 is the trendy name of the European Football (soccer) Championships. It is basically the Europe-only version of the World Cup and in my opinion (and the opinion of many people inside the footballing world) is more difficult to win than the World Cup. Sixteen teams split into four groups of four. Each group plays round-robin with the top two teams from each group going through to the Quarter Finals. The key difference between the European Championships and the World Cup is the fact that there are relatively few mediocre teams. In the World Cup there is quite often one or two weak teams from Central and South America, plus teams from Asia & Africa that are not always top class. In the Euro's all the teams are quality (except for Latvia, but no-one knows how they managed to qualify) and every game is hard to win.
England have a good chance of doing very well. Last time I checked they were 8-1 sixth favourites to win the tournament, but I think their chances are better than that. They have a very difficult opening game against the favourites and holders France but man for man against France I think there are a number of favourable match-ups for England. France's defense is a bit long in the tooth these days and so hopefully Micahel Owen and Wayne Rooney (England's attackers) can run them ragged. The other two teams in England's group are Croatia and Switzerland, neither of which should be a problem for England.
So, from this Saturday (June 12) there will be games almost every day until the final on the 4th of July. Stay tuned for updates.
www.euro2004.com
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