Euro 2021

[dr. b 492]

I'm not a huge football fan, but I like to tune in for the big tournaments. I don't really know who's who when it comes to the players, aside from the super duper big names. Don't know which teams are supposed to be the strongest, who is the favourite to win, etc. I just want to watch some good games. Turkey vs. Italy is up on the TV now while I halfheartedly pretend like I'm still working. The Euro is going to be a nice distraction over the next few weeks, because I'm still working from home most days.

 

Who else is watching? Who are you cheering for? etc.

[Vic Boss 612]

Is there a youtube channel where I can watch full-game highlights of everything. Soccer in general is the absolute worst sport in the world for stuff like this

[dr. b 492]

No clue   I did a YouTube search but for recap videos and for some results, but I think you have to go to the UEFA website for the official videos… and they have a Euro 2020 Official app that they’re promoting. I’m probably not downloading that. 

 

All the matches are on TSN. I’m just going to put them on the TV in the background whenever I remember to. 

[Vic Boss 612]

Oh shi, TSN is actually putting the highlights on youtube

 

How about CR7 murdering Coca Cola?

[dr. b 492]

I heard about the Coca Cola thing a bit on the news, not really clear on all the details, but if I was a high performance athlete then I wouldn’t want to drink that stuff either  Who cares if they’re a tournament sponsor. 
 

Speaking of Ronaldo, I rather enjoyed watching Germany thump Portugal this weekend  

[dr. b 492]

Who you got winning it all?

 

There could be some pretty tasty quarter final match-ups! Portugal vs. Italy and France vs. Spain should both be good matches if that's how it plays out. I hope the Netherlands come out of the bottom half of the bracket. I've always cheered for them. No special reason why  

 

[Vic Boss 612]

I-TA-LIAAAA I-TA-LIAAAAA

 

I dunno shit about soccer atm so I'll just say Spain wins everything

[dr. b 492]

Wales got beat bad by Denmark today. 
 

Italy vs. Portugal or Belgium ought to be a good match next round. IIRC Belgium was quite good in the group round. 9 points. Not the strongest group though. Anyway, I don’t know jack, but it appears they’re a good team. 

[dr. b 492]

Not a great showing for The Netherlands today…

[dr. b 492]

Portugal is out too—good job Belgium!

[Vic Boss 612]

This man definitely owns Coca Cola stock

[dr. b 492]

 

I don't necessarily dislike Portugal, but the city I live in now has a pretty big Portugese population and the celebrations if they had won the Euro would have been rather annoying. I lived in Greektown in Toronto when Greece won Euro 2004 and it was nuts. Didn't sleep a wink that night. People were driving around honking their horns and making all kinds of noise all night long.

[dr. b 492]

France gone now too. 

[dr. b 492]

Germany went down 2-0 to England today. That was a bit of a surprise to see.

 

Also it looks like Sweden is about to lose to Ukraine. Down 2-1 with very little time left on the clock. Quite a few teams that I assumed would be strong have made early exits in this round.

[Vic Boss 612]

Who's left that's a traditional favourite? Italy, Spain. Belgium?

[dr. b 492]

I don’t know if they’re a favourite, but I think Denmark has a pretty solid team.

[dr. b 492]

Updated bracket. I wish the match dates were flipped. I think Belgium vs. Italy and Switzerland vs. Spain could both be exciting, and they're both on Friday when I'll be at the office  Ukraine vs. England and Czech Republic vs. Denmark on Saturday just don't seem as tempting to watch...

 

[Jane 100]

 

I'm not into football really but end up watching some when it's a tournament (because Woofie, lol). How about the 8-goal Croatia-Spain match and the and Sweden-Ukraine one where the guy scored a goal in literally the last minute of extra time the other night?? Those were pretty good/interesting even to me.

[dr. b 492]

I didn’t get to watch much of those matches, but I wish I would have seen Croatia vs. Spain. 
 

It is going to be dead at work tomorrow so I’m going to play the games in the background in my laptop, hopefully nobody cares or notices

[Jane 100]

I wasn't paying attention but apparently Belgium vs Italy was good. Woofie has lower expectations for today's. (ENG-UR-LUNDDDD. Though tbh the team seem like a decent bunch of lads so I might be a little more spiritually generous to ENG than usual.)

[dr. b 492]

I was pretty bummed for Switzerland yesterday  Tough way to go out.

 

Italy vs. Spain should be an exciting match. I kind of expecting the winner of that match will go on to win the tournament, but you never know what will happen. 

[dr. b 492]

Kinda feels like this is Italy’s tournament to lose now.
 

Crummy ending to the match today. Going to penalties isn’t fun. 

[Vic Boss 612]

[dr. b 492]

I'll probably cheer for England today and in the final if they make it there, just 'cause they've never won it before, but I think any outcome will be satisfying as long as the final match is good. I was kinda surprised to see Italy has only won the Euro once. Denmark has also won it once. Germany and Spain have the most Euro wins (3 each) so, for the sake of variety, I'm happy neither of those countries are in the final.

[Jane 100]

Oh, man. As mentioned before I was feeling more sympathetic to England than usual (nice lads, and no-one is immune to Gareth Southgate)... but jeez if the pundits and fans haven't tested me. As well as keeping on booing other countries' anthems, an England fan shone a laser in the Danish goalie's face during the penalty. And the penalty was one that really probably should have been cancelled anyway, but the pundits were playing up the "this is amazing, we all love England don't weeee" stuff so much that they barely questioned it (if it'd been Italy they would have instantly brought up the rep the Italian team's always had for diving and playing dramatics for penalties). I don't begrudge a bit of extra enthusiasm but the ITV commentary really was woeful... I wish they'd had a non-English co-commentator at least. Seeing the Tory govt playing up the nationalism, and the effect a win would have on folks' senses with covid restrictions being relaxed too early (a week or so before my birthday ) doesn't help either.

 

tl;dr I like the current England team but despite not being the most jingoistic Scot out there I still can't bring myself to actually want them to win.   If they do at least the players are giving a lot of money to NHS charities, so I'd take some joy from that.

 

 

[dr. b 492]

It sucks going to penalties, but I think Italy played better most of the match. I’m gonna have a Peroni now

[Vic Boss 612]

FORZA ITALIA

[Jane 100]

 

It's going to Rome, it's going to Rome.....

 

Wow, well my concerns about an annoying large minority of England fans was justified I really feel for the players. I'm glad that they do all seem so close knit, so many of them are young and I hope it doesn't affect them badly. On the plus side for them, they're a young team and should have a lot of time left, even if Italy deserved the win today. I hope enough people are disgusted by the racism towards the players that it bolsters the cause they've been campaigning for... I've also seen kids' letters to some of the players on Twitter and it's just so touching.