Euro 2008 Power Rankings

2008-12-08T14:15:26-05:00

2008-06-12T10:48:22-04:00

2008-09-10T06:38:35-04:00

2008-06-13T01:58:43-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/286/59/thumb/basil.jpg 170 MN

Nursedude

Minneapolis 28719

I have to agree with the harsh assessement about France. With all of the potential fire power they have, they should have been able to smoke Romania. Now they are going to have to try to grind out at least one win against Holland and Italy. If they don't beat the Dutch, their last match with the Italians should be very, very interesting because it will come down to both teams needing a win-and they don't much like each other, either. 1969571

2008-06-12T13:18:55-04:00

DriveC

Madison 210470

Completely agree with you forbes and I certainly think Italy will win but I'm not ready to write off Romania in the game completely. This tournament has the look of a real dud for Italy but they certainly have time to turn it around. 1964639

2008-06-12T13:07:30-04:00

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j11forbes: Go Jo-Jo Go!

Denver 28709

DriveC - if it weren't for the Dutch having humiliated the Italians in Game 1, I might be inclined to agree. But Italy will come out with a mindset that they must not lose that game. There has been talk of Donadoni switching to a 4-3-1-2. Playing Cassano behind Del Piero and Toni. It will be extremely hard to prevent those top three from scoring. With Grosso starting and Zambrotta playing down his preferred right side, I don't see Romania being able to hold Italy scoreless. Italy is physical team, and the Romanian tactics won't work as well against them as they did against France, whose current players are somewhat soft. (It's why they need Vieira on the field.) Based solely on the first game performances, I have to agree with the power rankings as listed. The Dutch may not have looked great in qualifying, and they may get knocked out in the first elimination round, but they easily turned in the best performance of the first round of group games. I am somewhat amazed at how inept the French look offensively. They have the talent. I'm not sure they have the physical or mental toughness with their players to get the job done, though. It's an underrated element of Zidane's play. He gave the French attack aggressiveness, toughness, and bite that none of their other players have. As of right now, the group games I'm most excited for are France v. Italy and Czech Republic v. Turkey. I also have high hopes for Spain v. Sweden, though I don't think the Swedes have the midfield to truly compete with the Spanish. 1964550

2008-06-12T13:00:18-04:00

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Carson8184

Edmond 438510

How in the world does Fritz continue to start over Schweinstieger? He's crap! SS ignites the German attack. 1964487

2008-06-12T12:56:05-04:00

DriveC

Madison 210470

Wow Larry B thanks for the insight. Don't rag on Romania so much. They play a defensive style but don't group them with the Greeks. I think they have a decent chance of nicking a 1-0 against Italy and moving on ahead of both Italy and France. 1964443

2008-06-12T12:49:08-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/373/21/thumb/scotland_football.jpg 39 MO

Saint Louis 37451

"Netherlands number one in the power rankings? " I believe if you read the second paragraph Wahl is pretty straight forward in his explanation of his rankings, "based solely on their performance so far in this tournament". I believe the Dutch will continue to play compelling soccer, but will probably get burned in the elimination rounds. A team that is a little more defensive-minded will most likely end up taking it all. The Netherlands and Spain are too vulnerable on defense at times, the back four and Lehman aren't looking very special. I could see Portugal going all the way if the defense can play solid, and even Italy, you can't count them out just yet. 1964349

2008-06-12T12:36:29-04:00

PatrickNH

Weare 439712

It isn't strange that many Euro 2008 coaches already announced before the tournament that they will be leaving. The contracts for national teams are ,money wise, small compared with club contracts. For example: Dutch coach Marco van Basten has already a new contract with Ajax. Coaches for countries are being selected by their own playing abilities in the past or by achieved coaching results in the past so these are coaches who get a lot of offers from teams and countries. Netherlands number one in the power rankings? The Dutch team did poorly during the qualifying rounds and people were calling for Marco van Basten to step down. I am Dutch and believe me, the Dutch team had one good match against Italy compared with many bad ones in the last couple of years. The game against France will show if they are a valid number one power ranking team. For me, Portugal would be number one. 1964265

2008-06-12T12:36:01-04:00

Wonga_89

No City 439715

all the good teams look great on the counter, yet also vulnerable to it. should be interesting how it all plays out .... hopefully, less france v romania and more turkey v switzerland drama 1964284

2008-06-12T12:33:57-04:00

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Was Buf., Now Was.

Washington 6267

"what the heck is going on with Croatia/Hrvatska?" From one Wahl to another: take the "ia" off of Croatia and the "ska" off of Hrvatska, since they both mean "place." Now you have Croat and Hrvat, which, if you're saying them both correctly (with a really hard "H"), sound eerily similar considering how different they look. And don't feel bad about rankings based on one game... still means more than a ranking based on how well a team did in a draft! 1964241

2008-06-12T11:58:30-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/171/911/thumb/uclalogo2.gif 340 CA

BruinsWin!

San Francisco 172211

Let's go Deutchland! Podolski and Klose are about to set off some fireworks. Also, is anyone NOT ridiculously excited for a France - Italy rematch (sans headbutts)? 1963769

Time to saddle back up for two more Euro 2008 games featuring Germany-Croatia (noon ET, ESPN2) and Austria-Poland (2:45 p.m. ET, ESPN2). I’ll take a quick look at those games below, but let’s start off today with the first edition of the Euro 2008 power rankings, in which we rank the 16 teams on the highly subjective basis of which ones have impressed me the most—and the least—based solely on their performance so far in this tournament. Keep in mind a few things: • This isn’t based on the points each team has earned. I have Italy (0 points) ranked above Croatia (3 points) because I thought the Italians actually had some good moments against a Dutch side that was in amazing form, while Croatia was thoroughly underwhelming after getting an early penalty against Austria. • I am taking into account the level of the opponents so far. That’s why I have the Netherlands (which smoked Italy) above Spain (which destroyed Russia). • Teams that don’t try to attack will get penalized to the full extent of the Rankings. Say hello to Romania and Greece, two teams that any neutral should be hoping go out in the opening round. • We probably should have done this before yesterday’s games. That way each team would have been judged on one game. But that’s O.K.—the Rankings aren’t set in stone, and they’ll be back again after each team has played twice. Let’s dig in (and have at it with your take in the comments section below): 1. Netherlands. Just a mesmerizing total team attack in the 3-0 win over the World Cup champions. Can I tell you how glad I am that World Cup ’06 thug Mark van Bommel isn’t on this team? Addition by subtraction. 2. Spain. David Villa hat trick—what more needs to be said? Really enjoyed another team effort against Russia, especially by Fernando Torres. Spain has the most dangerous pair of forwards in the tournament (by far). 3. Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo really came to life against the Czechs, but the best sign was his combination work all game long with Deco. Highly entertaining stuff. 4. Germany. That was an easy win against Poland, but the Mannschaft has to be encouraged by the goal-scoring revival of Lukas Podolski. There’s not a lot of separation right now between the top four teams in the Rankings. 5. Sweden. It’s hard to get too much of a read on the Swedes, who were forced to play against the soccer version of Dean Smith’s Four Corners in a 2-0 opening win over Greece. But we did get to see one moment of 100% pure quality from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in one of the best goals of the tournament so far. 6. Turkey. That was some sterling attacking soccer in the second-half comeback against Switzerland with an injury-depleted team. Big credit on the gut-check win to Nihat, Tuncay Sanli, Arda Turan, Mehmet Aurélio and goalie Volkan Demirel. 7. Czech Republic. It’s going to be a hell of a game when the Czechs meet Turkey to see which team survives Group A. Libor Sionko has been the best Czech player sparking attacks down the right side. Much improved against Portugal than in the opener against Switzerland, but that was some horrific second-half defense against the Portuguese. 8. Italy. I know the Azzurri lost 3-0, but they had several decent scoring chances and looked better to me than either of the group’s other two teams (France and Romania). Andrea Pirlo needs more quality alongside him in midfield than Massimo Ambrosini and the suddenly vulnerable Gennaro Gattuso provided in Game 1. 9. Switzerland. I know the co-hosts are already out, but they outplayed the Czechs in a 1-0 loss and probably deserved a tie against Turkey. That’s a nice future there in forward Eren Derdiyok (20 years old) and midfielders Gelson Fernandes (21), Johan Vonlanthen (22) and Tranquillo Barnetta (23). 10. Croatia. Perhaps the ugliest three points you’ll ever see in a major tournament. The Croats somehow held on against Austria despite being played off the field in the second half. It’s time to see more out of midfielders Luka Modric, Niko Kranjcar, Darijo Srna and Niko Kovac. 11. Austria. The co-hosts were unlucky not to get a point against Croatia, but giving up a penalty in the fourth minute was an absolute killer. Martin Harnik was impressive on the right side of midfield. 12. Russia. I might have the Russians higher if their defense hadn’t been so god-awful against Spain (I’m looking at you, Denis Kolodin). Because from an offensive perspective Russia is fun to watch, in particular the left-sided attackers Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and (especially) outside back Yuri Zhirkov. 13. France. The single-most disappointing team in the tournament so far. Franck Ribéry had almost no impact against Romania and must show more in the games ahead. 14. Poland. At least Poland tried to go toe-to-toe with Germany in its 2-0 loss, as opposed to employing the pack-it-in tactics we saw from Romania and Greece. But that was still some amateur-hour defending that rivaled Russia’s. 15. Romania. Negative soccer will never win you many allies from the neutral camp. Don’t expect things to change against Italy or Holland, which is unfortunate for a team that includes gifted attackers like Adrian Mutu. 16. Greece. The funny thing is that for all the horrible soccer that the Greeks showed against Sweden, they actually looked better in the last 20 minutes when they were trying to score. My guess is that if the Greek players were being honest, they’d say they hate playing this way too. Today’s games: • Germany-Croatia. Holland, Spain and Portugal have set a high standard that we can only hope the Germans try to match. Michael Ballack is in good form these days, and he could take things over if the Croatian midfield doesn’t raise its performance considerably. Look for German forward Mario Gómez to have a bigger impact against Croatia’s too-old centerbacks than he did against Poland. Germany 2, Croatia 0. • Austria-Poland. Last chance for one of the co-hosts to get a result? Maybe. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Polish coach Leo Beenhakker inserts creative midfielder Roger Guerreiro into the starting lineup—he was excellent against Germany. The Austrians did perform better than expected against Croatia, but they need to get some finishing from players like Roland Linz. I don’t think either one of these teams is reaching the group stages, not least because they’ll play to a tie here. Austria 1, Poland 1. Through-balls: Isn’t it a little odd that so many Euro 2008 coaches had already announced before the tournament that they’re leaving their positions instead of hanging on for World Cup 2010? I know that a lot of contracts only go through the end of the Euro, but if you’re building a national team wouldn’t it be better to have the same coach for a four-year stretch culminating in the World Cup? ... I know some countries’ names don’t sound all that similar in English and in their own tongue (Germany/Deutschland; Sweden/Sverige), but what the heck is going on with Croatia/Hrvatska? How did that happen? ... In the same way that Red Sox fans don’t just say Bucky Dent but Bucky F---ing Dent, it’s hard for an American not to see Germany’s Torsten Frings and call him Torsten F---ing Frings. Post your comments below and check back in for Euro 2008 Blog updates after both games today ... 1339 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/194/315/thumb/wahl_grant.jpg 11 MD

Grant Wahl

Baltimore 194615