Brain says Ronaldinho

Heart says “A man can’t possibly have the satisfaction of both Champs League and World Cup glory in the same year”.

Thierry Henry (GOOOOONERS)

Golden Boot: Peter Crouch (set piece after set piece God willing)

But the teams I support have an infuriating habit of doing rather badly when it comes to the real crunch, especially when I have all my hopes riding on them. So, since I happen to be massively superstitious, I will not risk the chance of bringing bad luck on them by suggesting they might win it.

Glad to see another neutral believing the Czechs can go ahead and win the damn thing though. But I’m not neutral as far as the Czechs are concerned, so I can’t really evaluate them with a critical eye.

As for Spain and Portugal, Spain have class oozing out of their ears, but their national team has always underperformed. Do you see why it should be any different this year?

Portugal have never fully convinced me, even when playing at their best. Let me remind you of how they’ve done in the past, starting a bit way back:
82- didn’t get to Spain, knocked out by Scotland and Northern Ireland
84- made the semis in France, lost to France, the hosts and eventual winners, in extra time, having seen through West Germany in the first round. An excellent performance, and a pretty unique one.
86- knocked out in the first round by England, Poland and Morocco
88- didn’t come near qualifying
90- didn’t make it, knocked out by Belgium and the Czechs
92- failed to qualify, Holland responsible, losing to Greece in the process
94- didn’t get to the USA, knocked out by Switzerland and Italy
96- v. Czech Republic 0-1 in the quarter finals
98- didn’t get to France, knocked out by Germany and the Ukraine
2000- chaos rules when they get knocked out in the semi by France, giving us one of the funniest moments of the tournament into the bargain, as Figo and a few others are red carded. Figo throws his shirt down in disgust, provoking more laughter
2002- knocked out by South Korea and the US, with more red cards being awarded
2004- lose final to Greece. At HOME. Lose opening match to Greece. At HOME. Don’t create a single chance during the whole final. ‘Nough said.

I can’t really expect Portugal to be a serious contender with that sort of pedigree, can I?

In fact, one European team who just might do well this time around is the Ukraine, whom you;ve forgot to mention. I watched them in their qualifying group, so I know how they bore people to death, like most good Eastern sides do, and then suddenly all hell breaks loose. But I can’t see them actually winning it. And they do depend hugely on Sevchenko.

Back to swthrhs:

ENG – Here in The Netherlands, virtually nobody believes in ENG. I do, cos they are strong. They DO have a serious striker problem, which no matter what else, will always have a huge role in their play. It’s up to them to show if they have the backbone or not.

HOL – Will be stronger than what most (including myself) were assuming. Still, I feel they lack something that gives them an edge.

FRA – Huge question mark for me.

ITA – Haven’t done nothing special in the past 4 years. Won the semi’s in EC2000 with some luck, against a very strong dutch side. Surelly, always a team to be respected, specially because of their magnificent (and hugelly boring) defense.

GER – Poor team, but playing home. Germany has never based its strength in pure quality, rather than in collective power and brilliant organization. Again, nobody can say they’ll be out just now.

You’re forgeting Spain, Portugal, Croatia and Czech. And I can imagine why. :-) But remember, POR and CZE were the best teams (for me they were) in EC 04 and made good qualification runs for this WC. SPA and CRO, no matter what, are also quite strong and I’m sure EC2004 would have been different, with SPA and POR going through groups, rather than GRE and POR.

To greekfreak: Pauleta can either be the best or the worse. A bit like the rest of the POR team, actually. If the team plays with all the “brain screws” and if he’s fired up, I bet ya he doesn’t just score a lot against weak teams!

To Aldo: Cristiasno Ronaldo also has a catchy smile, plays for Man Utd and also has a nice Nike logo on his chest… ;-)