Or not. Anyway, that is Ace’s excuse for not manning up and taking Group D, so I’ve assumed responsibility. After this hopefully we’ll shit out a quarterfinal post by week’s end and we can wrap this shit up. Group D contains Spain, Russia, Sweeden, and Greece. Without further ado, the ladies:
Spain:
Russia:
Sweeden:
Greece:
And the table:
Spain
Sweden
Russia
Greece
And there ya go. Thankfully, the quarterfinals are going to be taken care of in one post, so we are almost through with this shit. The quarters will match up like this: Switzerland v Germany, Turkey v Croatia, Italy v Sweden, Spain v Romainia.
Also, on a spur of the moment decision the roster of writers for GetBoofed will be growing to four, so be on the lookout for that.
You’ve seen the rules. You’ve seen group A. Let’s carry on, shall we? Group B includes Germany, Croatia, Austria, and Poland.
Germany:
Croatia:
Since the first picture included 2 ladies, I don’t feel bad for this one only containing 2/3rds of a lady.
Austria:
So glad euro2008girls.com doesn’t post the age of the people they photograph……..
Poland:
As hard as it is for me to preclude the Austrians from advancing, I’m pretty sure the girls in that first picture are both 16. As much as I love that, I don’t want to go public with my support of that. Therefore, Croatia to win the group and Germany to advance as the second place finisher. Here is the table.
Kicking things off is a pretty wide open group containing Portugal, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and co-hosts Switzerland. Most of these images should let you click on them for a bigger version. Let’s get right to it:
Portugal:
Czech Republic:
Turkey:
Lot of entrants in this one, but I’m paying the most attention to the two wingers at right.
It appears as if Lindsay Bluth/Funke is a Turkey supporter… For reference sake, here is Lindsay:
Switzerland:
Well there ya go. A very strong first day showing. It’s quickly becoming clear to me that there are going to be no losers in this tournament. I’m going to have to give the Swiss hosts the nod for the group A win, which comes as a surprise to me, at least. A good initial showing, plus they have the depth to make some noise in this tournament. I think I’m going to have to go with the Turks for second, narrowly edging out the Portuguese. Despite their lush skin tones and chiseled physiques, the Portuguese ladies will end up leaving one a bit unsatisfied. They lack solid substance underneath all the glitz and glamor – amazingly similar to the football team they support. Anyway, lets get the official table:
Group A:
1. Switzerland
2. Turkey
3. Portugal
4. Czech Republic
Disagree with me? Let me have it in the comments.
Also, before anyone gives me flak for missing this photo, it came to my attention that it was taken at the Euro 2004 tournament (hence the presence of English fans in the background). Regardless, the photo still deserves to be on this blog, so here ya go, a little group A bonus.
We here at Get Boofed are major advocates of taking a good thing and straight up overusing the shit out of it. For that reason, we hereby present to you, our loyal reader(s), the GetBoofed Euro 2008 Ladies Championship. The tournament will utilize the same formant and nations as the actual event, only the teams will be advancing based solely on the caliber of female fans they were able to get to Austria/Switzerland.
The group stages will last one day apiece, beginning with group A later today. Winners will be chosen arbitrarily by us, with the possible exception of reader polling being done for the semis and the final. Two pictures will be allowed per country during the groups, one a piece during the elimination rounds. However, multiple girls in one picture is acceptable, and it will still only count as a single picture. The same picture may not be used twice, and only genuine fangirl groupies and wannabe groupies will be allowed…none of this pompous WAG business.
One quick note. Most of the material for this comes from the fine people at Euro2008girls. They don’t know who we are, they don’t know that we’re doing this, and they surely don’t endorse this site. That being said, they truly are doing the lord’s work over there, and we strongly recommend you check them out.
Anyway, let the games begin. Check back later today for all the group A action. And, to get the ball rolling, here are some ineligible famous fans. Don’t let them cloud your judgment later in the tournament, I just had to somehow get them on this site.
Sylvie Van der Vaart – wife of Rafael
Sarah Brandner – girlfriend of German Bastian Schweinsteiger
Belen Rodriguez – Argentinian girlfriend of Italian Marco Borriello
…because I’m leaving the window open for some EuroGirls posts.
BV put me on the spot for a more in depth Euro final post earlier, but really, what can one say? The forearm tat loving Spanish were simply better than the Germans, themselves afficianados of bad dye-jobs. To quote the mighty Cardillo over at Deadspin:
When a team plays six games and wins six games, outscoring them 12-3 and playing an attractive brand of soccer, there’s not a whole lot to breakdown. Again, so many times moments of lunacy, or mistakes, or referees whistles determine big matches in world soccer. If one side is simply better – Germany couldn’t even get the ball in the dying minutes thanks to the pressure of Xavi, Senna, Carzola, Güiza, etc. in their own half – it’s almost as much call for celebration.
Spain absolutely fucking dominated. The game could have just as easily been 3-0. Germany played with the same flaws that they had been all tournament (ie: an overreliance on set pieces, a lack of form at the front, and an uncanny resemblence to the Dutch while playing Russia in their lack of desire to move away from the ball/generally maintain possession), though the Spain were the first second team to convert those flaws into a German loss.
The only difficult question surrounding the match was who the man of the match for Spain was. Torres and Sergio Ramos seemed the early clear cut choices for me, but as the game went on it became clear that Marcos Senna insisted on giving Germany fits throughout the second half. He was a major reason the Germans didn’t mount more of a comeback effort than they did. Really, you could have any of the three for MOTM and not be wrong. I think we all know who Spain’s Queen Sofia would vote for though….
Oh yeah, another thing? 5 of Spain’s 10 starters in the field are under 25 years old. There were 12 total <25 players on the squad this summer. I guess what I’m saying is keep your eyes open for a Spain/Argentina final in South Africa as Spain due to get better for the next couple years.
Some things I was right about in my terribly inadequate Euro “preview”:
Six of the eight quarterfinalists.
The Dutch winning their group — and their generally having a team that had the ability to do some damage.
Some things I was wrong about:
Fabregas making this his tournament, since his manager refuses to start him. (Thought he did score the clinching goal in the Spain/Italy shootout.)
Worrying about the French’s younger generation. Manager Raymond Domenech is terrible. I mean, I’m no tactician, but his starting selections across the board seemed akin to Van Basten benching the likes of Sneijder, VanderVaart, and Robben in favor of Davids, Cocu, and Kluivert. For those of you who don’t know who the hell I’m talking about, the French basically trotted out the team that won the 2000 European championship. Eight soccer years is a really, really long time.
Christiano Ronaldo doing anything of note. Well, I suppose he did have one of the harsher injuries of the tournament. Yep. Here it is. I mean, how can you blame him for being so ineffective against Germany with that terrible injury to deal with?
Anyway, we’re down to four teams. The Spain/Russia matchup should be a watchable, fast-paced affair. Russia will likely try to defensively play Spain similar to the Italians, but the Russians will be sure to throw more men forward. Also, the Russian’s lack of size should open things up some more for Spain’s offense. If Aragones starts Cesc Fabregas on the bench again I am going to shit.
Turkey’s comebacks and last minute insanity have been one of the more improbable displays in all of sport in recent memory, but they can’t possibly compete with Germany as the Turks are going to missing a shit ton of players due to injury/suspension (six regulars, to be exact), can they? I mean, Turkey might be forced to play their backup to the backup goalie in the field.
Anyway, my prediction is worth fuck all but if you’re wondering (you aren’t) I’m taking Germany over Russia in the final. I’m typically hesitant to jump on bandwagons of teams like Russia at this point, but it’s hard for me to imagine Spain beating them for the second time in a couple weeks. However, I would like to see Spain win it, though. Fernando Torres is just so pretty. Wait, what?
So yeah. Just a few more matches until the Andrei Arshavin bidding war can begin. Don’t worry, if Arshavin can’t be had by your team, Schweinsteiger, Podolski, and David Villa look to be on the move as well.
Anyway, most of the reason why I made another soccer post is so that I can post a picture of this unnamed Italian fan. As much as I hate the Italian soccer team, wow, just, ok, I’m going now.
Tomorrow brings with it the sans Brazil version of the world cup. Time is pressing, so this writeup won’t be as good as it should be, but I’ve never let that stop me before. Without further delay, here is yet another uninformed American’s look at the groups and some predictions as well.
GROUP A
Czech Republic
Turkey
Switzerland
Portugal
This is Ronaldo’s group, unless his incredibly long season with Man U has him wore down. Portugal and the aging Czechs to advance.
GROUP B
Poland
Austria
Croatia
Germany
Germany and Croatia look to be the strongest in this group of countries that were overrun by Germans in the 1930’s and 40’s.
GROUP C
Italy
Netherlands
Romania
France
In what looks to be the strongest group, my homerism forces me to pick the Orange. They have a good set of forwards who, due to some more experience, should perform better than they did at the world cup, it’s a question of their midfield showing up and creating enough space for the strikers to work with. Basically, the opposite of that they were doing during the world cup. Holland has a team to go deep into the tournament, though. The French, admittadly, are a complete enigma to me. Most of the names from their prior international squads are over their peak, and I, frankly, am not familiar with their younger players. Damn you, sportscenter. They’re quite talented, but it remains to see if they can gel as a unit against the talent they’ll be facing. Romania is a complete dark house with the talent to go a long ways, but I’m still going with the Italians star power.
GROUP D
Spain
Russia
Greece
Sweeden
Another intriguing group, with Greece being the current cupholders and Spain being a popular pick to win the damn thing. Sweeden seems to have a team built for advancing out of the group and losing their next game. Sweeden and Spain to move on. Cesc Fabregas might make this his tourney.
And since we’re talking international soccer, here is a little thing I like to call blatant homerism.
Not the spectacular goal at about 1:10 in this one:
In what looks to be the strongest group, my homerism forces me to pick the Orange. They have a good set of forwards who, due to some more experience, should perform better than they did at the world cup, it’s a question of their midfield showing up and creating enough space for the strikers to work with. Basically, the opposite of that they were doing during the world cup. Holland has a team to go deep into the tournament, though. The French, admittadly, are a complete enigma to me. Most of the names from their prior international squads are over their peak, and I, frankly, am not familiar with their younger players. Damn you, sportscenter. They’re quite talented, but it remains to see if they can gel as a unit against the talent they’ll be facing. Romania is a complete dark house with the talent to go a long ways, but I’m still going with the Italians star power. 
