Category — Soccer

Germany versus Spain today. Looks like a cracker of a game. Caught the second half of the MLS game between DC United and LA Galaxy playing in Washington DC. Great crowd that got into the game.

It’s a great day for soccer.

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The semifinal game between Turkey and Germany should be a cracker of a game even with the fact that the Turkish side is somewhat crippled by injuries and players out on yellow cards and suspensions. The long association between Turkey and Germany with turkish workers in Germany for decades doing the more menial type of jobs and not getting easy access to citizenship will make this an emotional game for sure. However I expect a total domination by Germany in this game. With the Netherlands out, the Germans are the ones to beat for the tournament.

In the other semi final between Spain and Russia, it is difficult to say who will prevail.  I would give the edge to Spain based on their group play rather than their quarterfinal effort.

Just hope, the game today is rebroadcasted later this evening.

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Starting this week, it is the time for Euro 2008 or the European Football championships. Even without the English squad, there is a strong mix of good national teams here: Germany, Spain, France and Italy.

This year, the championship is being hosted by two nations: Austria and Switzerland. Similar arrangement to the World Cup sharing by Korea and Japan 6 years ago.

The one thing about the Euro series is that the games are play during working hours so except for the weekends, I would be unable to see any of the games live. That is irritating to say the least but I will have the Yahoo, sports channel online with their game channel feed to keep be updated.

To get even more in the swing of things, I put together my team for the Fantasy League associated with the game. Not sure how valid my choices were but I picked a few familiar faces along with some up and coming stars so that I stayed within the 200 million budget for the team formation. The point system is a bit complex since it is all stats driven even more so than the NFL football fantasy league I was part of this past year. But it is all for fun and I must say, playing the NFL Fantasy League allowed me to really know the game better last year and the players on the team.

As always, my personal favorite team is Germany. Second choice is France followed by Croatia. Should be lots of fun if I ever get a chance to watch any of it.

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