As one of the few portuguese people on the board i may say i'm happy with portugal being in the final. Of course this doesn't mean by any means that portugal has been the best team in the tournament.
Above all, i'm a huge football fan, and i cheer for good football and not teams in particular.
As i usually don't post in this thread, i will now write a review on the whole euro2004.
The czechs were by far the best team in the Euro. I wouldn't call it a surprise cause i was expecting it all along. They lost to greece after dominating the whole 90 minutes (well... wasn't that what all the other teams beaten by greece did before?). Greece were actually better in those 15 minutes of overtime so it wasn't a total upset when they scored. Collina isn't the best referee in the world and screwed the czechs for the second time in 4 years. He's just another guy who's "over-pushed" :smug: for his image. Kinda like the david beckham of referees (to all english people in the board i'm not criticising england...just the way everyone talks about beckham when he's not that good).
Holland and the czech Republic were my personal favourites before the Euro started so i was thrilled to know they were playing eachother in the groups stage. I wasn't disappointed at all afterwards. It was the best match in the euro in my opinion even if it wasn't as great as Spain - Yugoslavia in the euro 2000. Speaking of Yugoslavia, i believe the euro lost in good football thanks to the absence of good teams like romania, yugoslavia or turkey beaten in the qualifiers by more efficient (and boring) teams.
There were three teams i was hoping they would lose in the early stages, cause i didn't like the way they played in the last few years. Those were:
Germany (who had a great team until the 90's but when your last great player is allready retired you assume things aren't going to be good).
Italy (a team full of good players who can't be put together cause when 7 of your starters are defensive players there isn't much room to the talent). I believe what i don't like about italy is their system... their coaches. Not their players.
England (i didn't like their style). They surprised me a lot bringing good plays and plenty of goals to the euro. They should have been first in the group so they would beat the crap out of greece afterwards. I truly believe greece wouldn't reach this far if england had come in their way. Just a reminder to some english supporters... the referee did some errors in the match vs portugal (e.g. a few fouls commited by jorge andrade weren't awarded) but the goal was well disallowed. You can't mess with the goalie in his area of action. That box is his box. He hasn't got to be kicked there for a foul to be awarded. If his action is stopped, then it's a foul. Read the rules kids.
Disappointments: Croatia - One of the best teams of the mid-90's. I guess people in croatia must miss the likes of prosinecky, suker, boban or even boksic.
Bulgaria - Read above, and replace mid 90's with early 90's and change the players to stoichkov, balakov...
Holland - Just cause i expected them to reach the finals, as i did in euro 2000. One of the best teams in the last 10 years is yet to win a major title.
France - Well...you watched the tournament...(they were better than greece though)
Teams who proved they didn't deserve the spot in the finals:
Latvia and Switzerland
Positive Surprises: Denmark - Come on fellow danish... After that lousy euro 2000 and after losing schmeichel, and both laudrups, you gotta understand i wasn't expecting much. It's true they lost in the quarters, but the quality of their midfielders in particular surprised me a lot. They were the best team in all 3 games of their group. Don't believe me? watch them again and you'll see.
England - all reasons were written above. It wasn't their progression that surprised me. It was the quality of their football...and Rooney :smug:
Finally as for my birth country... Portugal isn't playing as well as they did from 96 to 2001, but it seems to be enough. They keep the tradition of missing goals going one on one with the keeper though. That was the part they were supposed to stop doing . At least they're playing better than in the friendly games prior to the euro finals.
If the quality of play was what defined the champion czech republic would win it.
Final Things: I'm sorry if the post is too long but i almost never write in this thread, that's why i'm writing it all now. I'm also sorry if you don't understand it I know my english is only good enough to write small statements or opinions but not to write a huge report like this one.
And to put an end to everyone's pain (if anyone does bother reading this) this are only my opinions. I don't own the truth. Noone does. This is how i've seen the tournament.
Luv u all