h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The BBC are running adverts asking who you'll be supporting in Euro2008. Whilst I can match the sentiments of the guy who said 'The Czech Republic because their women are gorgeous' the lack of these women at the match means they won't be gaining my favour.

Similar arguements about the quality of their beer fail to sway me too, as once more it is unavailable to me.

No, I don't care who wins Euro2008. I'm glad we won't have the screaming histrionics of commentators desperately seeking new levels of hyperbole to justify their existence, and promote the marketing frenzy that is English football.

Hopefully someone will look at The Premier league and say "My Lord we're making these blokes into multi-millionaires and they can't even qualify for a tournament in their own backyard.

In fact the extent of my apathy is such that I can't even be bothered to choose a team to hate.

So - Who are you supporting ?

The French because my wife is French and I follow their football a bit.

But not in a glued to every match kind of way.

sprout

Holland because I always have

I lived in Rotterdam when I was a child and the first footy I ever saw was at De Kuip and then there was Cruijff, Neeskens, Rep followed by Gullit, van Basten and Rijkard and finally my favourite Dennis Bergkamp who I was lucky enough to be able to watch in the last part of his career at Highbury

Germany. If England aren't there, might as well look out for a team that could win the thing.

Oh dear me - when supporters choose their team on that basis they are called (among other things) glory hunters but in this case it is OK ;-0

I plan to watch an awful lot of this tournie, but I'm gonna support the team who play the best football. Doubt I'll be going nuts for anyone*, as nobody is likely to play wildly exciting football, but it always happens and I hope it does this time.

The only team I can think of who might play beautiful football is France, and only if Domenech gives the youngsters their head and disposes of the old guard, and the youngsters have a dream tournie. In short, I'm not optimistic. 4-5-1 all the way except when you're losing in the last 10 minutes.












*nobody's playing England

This isn't just glory hunting, this is international, principle-abandoning, soul-selling glory hunting, topped with a smooth layer of pot-hunting hypocrisy.

Nah, my great, great, great granddad emigrated to England from Germany, so I'll have to claim a very tenuous family connection!

Glory hunting mon coup! It's an appreciation of the beautiful game.

The Netherlands. But ill be doing it in a really laid back way..

Makes sense.

Shurely that'sh 'The Netherlandsh'.

For shure.

Well that's all right then! You have a family connection

My reason for supporting Holland is far more tenuous really (based on living there for 5 years and attending my first ever footy matches when I was a child).

Germany = the beautiful game?

Have you ever watched them play

Pedro - Sean Connery are you?

So tonight I watch Portugal Vs Turkey.

Now Turkey are a team I can hate - but then Portugese-step-over-nancy-boy hits the bar.

"OH - THAT WAS NEARLY THE GOAL OF THE TOURNAMENT ! THE KEEPER NEVER TOUCHED IT !"

And the ball didn't enter the net either. Isn't the second match a little early to be greeting the goal of the tournament ? Oh but wait - it wasn't a goal.

Commentators, do we really need them ?

I guess it will have to be Germany as I live here. Really difficult to get excited about it when you're team isn't involved, although I did watch a bit of Germany's first game.

Before the tournament started I jokingly said I would support Switzerland, as they're neutral.

Just saw this on the FP

It's Germany for me, too. We English are just 50th-generation Angles and Saxons.

france obviously. a few comments about them: first, they played all their prep matches 4-4-2, and there's no reason to expect them to do otherwise in the tournament. benzema has become n°1 option up front, the question is whether to pair him with titi or nico. ribéry's in fine form too so i think they'll be fun to watch.

in defense of the low scoring in their recent matches, it's very rare for them to get any space these days, opponents tend to bunker down no matter who they are.

as for germany, they can be pretty tasty to watch too, witness last night's match.

Well, given that there's no actual discussion thread, I'll post this here:

France vs Romania

Dismal. Well done Romania, they got exactly what they set out for, but the French may as well leave now if they want to try playing like that again. Worst performance of that match though, is the Beeb. Get rid of Shearer, Lineker and Hansen, and bring in some people with knowledge of and love for the game. 5 Live's a great place to start.

Thought the Croatian's sussed Germany out nicely today.