So yeah I'm gripped by Euro 2008 fever. Obviously I haven't been able to watch any games live since last weekend (damn job... expecting me to show up just cos they pay me to... what's that all about?). Fortunately, one or another of the many ESPNs have been re-running a game in the evening. Mostly tho I've been getting my fix by reading the liveblogged coverage. ESPN's site is pretty good for play-by-play. BBC's is more opinionated and puts the games in better context. But they don't post as much so there are details of the game that you'd just miss if you only read them. My fave so far is the Guardian which is a good mix of game coverage, big picture context, and snark. I was going to link to their coverage but Euro 2008 links won't be any good in a month from now. Oh, and while I'm singling out the coverage I've enjoyed, I should point out how awful the NYTimes has been. Or at least it was at the beginning of the week when they had nothing but AP wire stories with the results and that not even in a timely manner. I gave up and stopped checking.
So far, I like Portugal and Netherlands for the finals. Assuming they don't have to play each other earlier. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it's A-B winner vs. C-D winner for the finals. Anyway, groop play continues thru next Wed. Netherlands could suit up a bunch of fans against Romania and still win the group. Portugal might need to at least draw a point off the Switzerland match to win, altho they're guaranteed to advance. Germany hasn't impressed me so far. Italy's looking better but they waited a little too late to show up, I think. France didn't stank out the joint against Netherlands like they did in game 1. I noticed that the ESPN broadcast seemed much more charitably inclined towards France today than either of the liveblog coverage. Maybe that's revealing some UK-based anti-French bias. Any-anyway, Sweden v. Spain tomorrow should be good (Russia v. Greece, maybe not so much). Also Turkey v. Czechs on Sunday and Austria v. Germany on Monday.
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