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The fact that the guy's a wanker, and a potentially disruptive influence, along with the fact that Matt Holland and - is it Kevin Kilbane, Dara? - have been a quite satisfactory midfield pairing could prove a double edged sword

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Yeah, Keane's as big a tosspot as they come, but Ireland are unquestionably better without him in the long run. With Keane in the team, we'd almost certainly have qualified for Euro 2004. The team's positive reaction to his departure in the last World Cup was something of a shock, but not wholly unexpected. McCarthy had inculcated an even better esprit de corps in the Irish team than Charlton had at his peak, everyone rallied round, and in Holland and Kinsella we had a readymade central midfield pairing with a good understanding. Neither of them anything more than good decent pros, but right then pretty much at the top of their game, and they overperformed in the World Cup.

Unfortunately, Mark Kinsella then made the mistake of moving from Charlton to Aston Villa, and his career fell apart. A classic case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and "just because it worked for you at one club doesn't mean it will at another" (same thing happened Eddie McGoldrick hen he went from being Crystal Palace's best player to Arsenal's worst). Kinsella is now struggling even to find a club, his international performances dipped way below satisfactory and McCarthy's loyalty to him was part of Big Mick's downfall. Kerr has tried Lee Carsley, Colin Healy, Liam Miller and a few others in the position since, but none are up to snuff. So a midfield partner for Holland was needed, which is why I think Kerr was so keen to get Roy back.

Kilbane plays on the wing. He's the gamest player you'll ever see - he'll run and run all day, and it doesn't matter how many times his solitary "trick" (run at the defender with the ball and hope he mistimes his tackle) doesn't work out, he'll keep trying, keep covering back mistiming tackles of his own, and keep popping up in the box unexpectedly and even scoring the odd goal (though more often than not ballooning it over the bar towards the Beckham stratosphere). McCarthy even used him as an emergency left back in the World Cup after Ian Harte blew up, and he did surprisingly well there for a guy who is slow, can't tackle, and has no positional sense.

Slan libh,

Dara

There is no word so short, that an Australian will not make it shorter. So, poker machine becomes pokey. Wetsuit becomes wettie. Tasmania becomes Tassie.Heldencrow

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I forgot his name, but I think thát choice said it all for Euro 1996.

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If I remember correctly Alan Shearer was picked as the Player Of The Tournament. I think it was the 5 goals he scored plus his positive attitude that got him the title. Still I would have given it to Germany's Matthias Sammer, not as a fan but for the simple reason that it was him who led an average German side to winning the tournament. A full power player with very good technical abilities and: a character.

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(...)because you, when you named the players that you remembered, actually call them 'characters'. Intentionally?

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Fully intentional. As I said there was not much high-class football going on, none of the games had the speed and flow that quite a few of the 20004 tournament had. But still there were some very interesting characters on the fields, players of special abilities, players with some sort of extra-class surrounding them. Players you would always like to watch and whom you would always expect to come up with something special, most notably of course was Paul Gascoigne.

I didn't call them the stars of this tournament because in the end neither of them delivered enough grand style and success to fully convince, some of them even failed like Bergkamp.

Still it was a good tournament, for all the tight matches we got and for the wonderful atmosphere the whole country was in. And I was there, the whole three weeks.

And I want to believe
In the madness that calls 'now'

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I'm not sure I'd consider it to be the best ever.

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I never would and never did. Not as a sole winner.

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The best European championships I can remember overall is 1988. (...) These Championships (2004) were hampered to a large degree by the big countries underperforming.

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A bit of a contradiction here. Look at the big countries in 1988 and you will see that England were a disaster, Spain got nowhere and Germany and Italy failed to impress the two winners of the other group (Russia, Holland). And in the final Holland was at least half a class better than Russia. So there was actually only one big country that really impressed us and that was Holland.

Still I agree that it was an okay tournament for the other reasons you mentioned.

And I want to believe
In the madness that calls 'now'

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This group's nasty stumbling block: Albania.

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They are indeed: Albania beats the highly famed Greek 2:1 in the first qualifier for WC 2006. Some interesting results in other games as well as England only get a draw in Austria after being 2:0 up and France only draws with Israel at home. Russia, Belgium, Turkey and Denmark drop points at home as well. Seems like this is getting tighter than many countries would have thought.

And I want to believe
In the madness that calls 'now'

Okay, the WC qualifying has reached the decisive phase. About half of the games in each group have been played, time to check who is going for glory at the moment and how good our predictions were.

Group 1, current standings:
1 Netherlands - 7 games, 19 points
2 Czech Republik - 7, 18
3 Romania - 8, 13

- What we said -
Dara:
Winners: Czech Republic
Runners up: Netherlands (who will advance in playoffs)
Dark horses: Romania

NoGame:
Group 1: Holland is in the worst group imaginable. First of all the Czechs. Those bloody Czechs again. I envision Holland getting only one point from them in the home game, and getting ourselves hammered (again!) in Prague. Finland is not the strongest of teams, but they can prove tricky, and Romania has a good reputation as well. The other countries I don't know, and don't really fear, but that Holland is in a strong group is for sure. winner: Czech Republic.

Arlequino:
Winner - Czech Republic
Runner Up - Netherlands
Banana Skin - Romania

EJSunday:
1 Czechs
2 Netherlands
Romania will certainly have a word in there and also the Finns will certainly not give the big guns an easy pass.

Prediction quality: Very good, though we all put the Czechs above the Dutch. Romania is well placed on our lists too.


Group 2:
1 Ukraine - 8 games, 20 points
2 Greece - 8, 15
3 Turkey - 8, 13
4 Denmark 7, 9

- What we said -
Dara:
Winners: Greece
Runners up: Denmark (who will probably advance in playoffs)
Dark horses: Turkey

NoGame:
Group 2: A confrontation between the new European champion Greece and their arch enemy Turkey (came in third at the WC 2002, but missed EURO 2004 due to Latvia) will prove interesting for sure. Of course the Turks are more than willing to prove that they are better than Greece. Honor's at stake here. I'm looking forward to those games between those two countries. Denmark could be the outsider in this group, profiting. Winner: Denmark (hard choice though!).

Arlequino:
Winner - Turkey
Runner Up - Greece
Banana Skin - Ukraine

EJSunday:
Tough call. Can Greece repeat the miracle of Portugal? I have my doubts, the other big teams will have learned their lesson. So I say:
1 Denmark
2 Turkey

Prediction quality: Very poor. Neither of us had the Ukraine on top, at least Arlequino put them the Bana Skin category. Denmark is way off from where we put it and Turkey is a bad bet either.


Group 3:
1 Portugal - 7 games, 17 points
2 Slovakia - 7, 14
3 Russia - 7, 14
4 Estonia - 8, 11
5 Latvia - 7, 10

- What we said -
Dara:
Winners: Portugal
Runners up: Russia (who will probably advance in playoffs)
Dark horses: Latvia

NoGame:
Easy one for Portugal. Mind those Russians though.

Arlequino:
Winner - Portugal
Runner Up - Russia
Banana Skin - Portugal - but only to themselves!

EJSunday:
1 Portugal
2 Russia
Latvia will not make it this time.

Prediction quality: Okay. Portugal was an easy tip which we all got right but neither of us opted for Slovakia, whose centre forward Marek Mintal was the Bundesleague's top scorer this season with 25 goals. Miracle factor: Mintal plays for Nuremberg who only just avoided relegation!


Group 4:
1 Switzerland - 6 games, 12 points
2 Israel - 7, 11
3 Ireland - 6, 10
4 France - 6, 10

- What we said -
Dara:
Winners: France
Runners up: Ireland (who will not advance in playoffs)
Dark horses: Swizerland

NoGame:
Easy one for France, although their fame has gone downhill enormously. Again against Cypres... Ireland will have a difficult time, but they should be able to beat Switzerland in the race for second place. Israel, hm, what to think of those guys?

Arlequino:
Winner - France
Runner Up - Republic of Ireland
Banana Skin - Switzerland

EJSunday:
1 France
2 Ireland
Switzerland may cause a few problems but won't be good enough to go through.

Prediction quality: Mixed. Of course Ireland and France both have a game at hand and may well storm to the top notches as predicted but we underestimated the rest. Switzerland is pretty good for an outsider and Israel was on nobody's list as a serious contender. NoGame had a suspicion though.


Group 5:
1 Italy - 6 games, 13 points
2 Norway - 6, 9
3 Slovenia - 6, 9
4 Belarus - 5, 6
5 Scotland - 5, 5

- What we said -
Dara:
Winners: Italy
Runners up: Slovenia (who will not advance in playoffs)
Dark horses: Norway

NoGame:
Italy has a win-lose group. They could loose to teams like Scotland and Norway, but beat them just as easily. If they keep focussed, it shouldn't be too hard. Winner: Italy.

Arlequino:
Winner - Italy
Runner U - Norway
Banana Skin - Belarus

EJSunday:
1 Italy
2 Norway

Prediction quality: Very good. Italy and Norway as expected, and even Slovenia was mentioned correctly.


Group 6:
1 Poland - 7 games, 18 points
2 England - 6, 16
3 Austria - 6, 11

- What we said -
Dara:
Winners: England
Runners up: Poland (who will not advance in playoffs)
Dark horses: Wales

NoGame:
I think some of the groups are made up badly. Just take a look at England now. At first sight it seems to be a tricky group, but we all know in the end that they will qualify easily. Even though some 'neighbours' are present in the group, good for some heavy confrontations, I still think England got a fairly easy group. Too easy.

Arlequino:
Winner - England
Runner Up - Wales
Banana Skin - Austria

EJSunday:
Difficult to see who comes second. Number one is of course
1 England
2 Wales

Prediction quality: Very good to bad. England was easy but then some failed miserably by overrating Wales who have even fallen behind Northern Ireland. Exact evaluation by Dara with Poland on two and Arlequino had Austria waiting in the wings.


Group 7
1 Serbia & Montenegro - 6 games, 12 points
2 Spain - 6, 12
3 Lithuania - 6, 9
4 Belgium - 6, 8
5 Bosnia-Herzegovina - 5, 6

- What we said -
Dara:
Winners: Spain
Runners up: Belgium (who will probably not advance in playoffs)
Dark horses: Serbia

NoGame:
Same goes for Spain. Now what exactly did they do to get into a group as easy as this one? The results of the national Spanish team is to cry about, but they are allowed to come to Germany through a wide open door. I hope Belgium can stunt against them.

Arlequino:
Winner - Spain
Runner Up - Belgium
Banana Skin - Bosnia-Herzegovina

EJSunday:
This could be a tight group. Two favourites (Spain, Belgium) but two good outsiders as well (Serbia, Bosnia). As I tend to belive in surprises I say
1 Spain
2 Serbia

Prediction quality: so-so. Noone expected Serbia to lead the group and only little EJ had them in the top two and Dara saw them lurking in the dark. We all expected Spain to win this group easily, an expectation which hasn't materialized yet.


- Group 8 -
1 Croatia - 6 games, 16 points
2 Sweden - 6, 15
3 Hungary - 6, 10
4 Bulgaria - 6, 8

- What we said -
Dara:
Winners: Sweden
Runners up: Croatia (who will probably advance in playoffs)
Dark horses: Bulgaria

NoGame:
Interesting group. Bulgaria, Sweden and Croatia can all beat each other. But who will do it? Winner: Sweden.

No predictions from Arlequino for this group.

EJSunday:
Noone will stop the Swedish here. But who is second best? If Bulgaria learn their lessons from the EURO they have potentially the best team, but will they defend this time?. Croatia have a new manager and are always a tough beast, but their key players are not getting younger. So I say
1 Sweden
2 Bulgaria

Prediction quality: Acceptable. Sweden overrated but still going strong and though noone expected Croatia to lead here they were still expected to do well by some. Bulgaria is a disappointment though.

Of course it ain't over 'til it's over - and with so many groups still being so tight many of our predictions may still come true. Wednesday is another match day, we'll see what's up then.

And I want to believe
In the madness that calls 'now'

Wow...between us, we aren't that bad!

All things said - and fully bearing in mind that there are around half of the group games left to play - I can see our general predictions coming out fairly accurately.

Of course, there have been surprises. Who could genuinely say that they'd seen Serbia-Montenegro as pace setters, Israel as true dangers - in spite of some dreadful playacting, and thanks in part to some awful refereeing - and Wales as such complete flops? Of course, the Welsh can easily point to the fact that they've had to reinstall John Toshack at their head, but even under Sparky they'd rather seemed to lose some of their...erm...spark.

Perhaps the strangest thing, is that we haven't seen a really dominant 'big-side' here yet. None of the European giants have shown really terrifying form yet, and there are definite question marks about each of them. I still hold out hope that England can utterly overrun the rest of the group stages, and push some good form through into a real tournament. But aside from a few good moments - see Beckham's goal against Wales and the simplicity of the victory over the Northern Irish - I've been somewhat underwhelmed thus far. And I'm usually about as optimistic as football fans get.

Of course, the constant emergence of exciting, young talent continues to fill me with positive vibes, but England have been pulling out great young talents for the past decade now. And what do we have to show for it? Perhaps Alan Hansen was right about winning things with kids...

later,
Chris...

I could stay if you asked me,
So for God's sake don't ask me to stay

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Perhaps the strangest thing, is that we haven't seen a really dominant 'big-side' here yet.

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Correct. And as discussed here before: I don't think that the Europeans will be strong enough to beat Brazil. Not from today's point of view.

And I want to believe
In the madness that calls 'now'

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I don't think that the Europeans will be strong enough to beat Brazil.

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'Tis true. Brazil are always a tough nut to crack.

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Israel as true dangers - in spite of some dreadful playacting, and thanks in part to some awful refereeing

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Saturday's ref was the worst I've seen. I've seen homers before, but never an awayer.

Also, Brian Kerr was right back when the FAI agreed these fixtures. June is a daft time to be playing competitive qualifiers. I guess now we know what the Russians feel like when they have to play the CL in the middle of their winter break.

And final also, the Israelis seemed delighted with their draw, but by my reckoning they needed to win more than we did to have any real chance of qualification.

Brazil and Argentina have to be the favourites at this point. As the French, Spanish and Italians continue to underperform, Europe's best hopes may be the hosts, and the English. The French have so much talent though you always feel they could click back into gear.

Slan libh,

Dara

"I've always wondered why the English didn't claim the white cross on a blue backround represents Wales, as it would have been basically as truthful as claiming St. Patrick's Cross represents Ireland." Sysiyo

The Dutch are doing better than I expected: Marco van Basten has brought in some fresh players and maybe they'll indeed be ready in time for the big event next year.

And I want to believe
In the madness that calls 'now'