This starts in three days? I'm Dutch, so what do I care.. xD
No, seriously.. Normally the country would be every inch an orange nation.. But.. It's just not happening here, because it simply is not happening with us there.
I've never been this not-hyped for a big end-tournament. And I get hyped over the Copa America as a European..
That being said, we just weren't good enough. Yes, could-be winners of the WC2010 and 3rd in Brazil.. But all but three (Sneijder, Robben, Huntelaar) or perhaps four players (RvP) that carried the team from 2010 are gone. In fact, if you look at the most recent squad (Robben wasn't in shape, Sneijder had schedualing conflicts, Huntelaar thanked for the friendlies, RvP wasn't called upon), there's
none that played in South Africa. Van Gaal got great results in Brazil with a relatively young group, but that hack Hiddink threw everything into the gutter and logically, Blind (just too inexperienced) just couldn't salvage it in that short amount of time.
In the Netherlands, people are calling van Gaal arrogant, because he didn't manage ManU to a championship, but at least he brought in some great players like Rashford, or basically.. youth. Blind gets criticized because he was the manager when we "didn't qualify", but Hiddink for some reason manages to slip under the radar when it was him that threw our nations squad under the bus.
As for which team I'll support? I'm a sucker for the underdogs and my last vacation was to Wales (and technically two nights in England). So that's probably my pick I'll follow during their groupstages. Probably several others during the groups as well (NorthIreland!!! xD). But during the final rounds, I'm hoping Belgium keeps up the good form.
I can't believe it's not an actual thread yet! Who are you cheering for? Who do you think is going to win?
Host: France
Start date: June 10 (France vs. Romania)
I'm cheering for Poland. They have a solid defence with Krychowiak as a holding mid, Glik as a centre-back, and Piszczek as a wing-back. They also have a strike partnership made in heaven (Lewy and Milik) with Jakub on the wing.
Who do I think is going to win.. A toss-up between Germany, Spain and Belgium I'd reckon. I think England, France are outsiders. I could see Portugal, Iceland and
Croatia being surprises as their groups aren't
that hard in comparison. Dat Croatian
midfield.. Modric, Raketic, Kovacic.. supplying the ball onto Mandzukic.. If they get the ball rolling, then they should be able to score a lot.
Sweden gets rear-ended yet again though.. They missed the World Cup in Brazil (it was either Ronaldo or Zlatan), and now they get stuck with Belgium and Italy. Ouch..
Didn't Poland just lose to the Netherlands recenly in a friendly? Milik plays in the Dutch League, and is painfully one-legged. Sure, Lewandowski is legend (
5x9), but I'm not a fan of Milik.
I'm cheering for good old England (because, well, I'm English).
Seeing as this tournament is eight teams larger than last time around, I'd be please with getting to the quarter finals, but we're limited to that, I feel, due to Roy Hodgson's involvement. He's in place to bring through the youth and evolve the squad, but not to win anything. And I'll be gutted too if we don't too our group.
All that being said, the last four will be four from Belgium, Germany, France and Spain, I feel - their teams are just on a different level, though, at such a late stage in the tournament, it'll be a free-for-all for the prize. I wanted France to come out and win it, but semi finals with such a young squad would be decent too.
As for Poland, let's see if Lewa's up for the challenge!
Stop, I'm still
crying.. T.T
As for the four you mentioned, yeah.. Those are the four I'm sticking with, with anything else being a welcome surprise.
