Euro 2004 draw

Actually, France’s big names are mostly past their best now, so while they may look “on paper” to be a great side, their greats are fading fast. A typical line-up would be:

Fabien Barthez - never a great keeper, and way past his best now. Currently warming the bench at Man Utd after some rum performances.

Lilian Thuram - a great player still, but not as good as he was, and he’ll be well on his way to 33 by the start of the tournament.

Marcel Desailly - Desailly, once one of the best defenders in the world, will be 36 by the time the tourmanent ends, and is long past his sell-by date. Chelsea are looking to off-load him.

Mikael Silvestre - one of Man Utd’s average performers.

Bixente Lizarazu - another playing facing his final tournament, past his best, and nearly 33.

Patrick Vieira - an exceptional player.

Claude Makelele - a quality player, and possibly France’s main playmaker, considering a fading Zizou.

Zinedine Zidane - injuries and age mean that Zizou, who will be 32 when the tournament kicks off, is no longer the greatest player in the world. Still good, but now eclipsed by many other quality midfielders, including Beckham.

Sylvain Wiltord - an Arsenal make-weight

Thierry Henry - very dangerous.

David Trezeguet - won’t be one of the stars of 2004.

From the looks of it, France have three great players, half a dozen fading stars, a few make-weights, and a handful of untried youngsters. They are still one of the best teams at the tournament, but I suspect a younger team, like England’s, may find the going easier after a long season of endless league and cup games.

but I suspect a younger team, like England’s, may find the going easier after a long season of endless league and cup games.

But that’s the same thing people always said about Portugal’s ‘Golden Generation’ or Holland in the past years and they never made it.

Strange, I don’t remember anyone suggesting that Portugal’s Golden Generation would do well, because they could deal with the excrutiatingly long season better than older players. They didn’t have excrutiatingly long seasons back in 1966, with massive domestic league and cup programs, dozens of Champion’s League games and multiple full international qualifiers. Many commentators believed the reason that so many big name teams fell at the first hurdle in the 2002 World Cup, was because so many of their big name stars were worn out from playing at the highest level for a long season, especially in the now gruelling Champion’s League. This is borne out by the failure of teams relying on their older stars, like France and Portugal, and the successes of teams which brought in fresh talent, like Brazil, and the surprising success of teams that don’t have many players based, or playing regularly, in the top flight of Europe, like the USA. My point wasn’t that England will win, or that they are the best team, but that they may end up doing better than France, just because their younger legs can carry them further.

I wasn’t talking about Eusebio and 1966 when I was referring to Portugal. Link

I’m not sure what your point is. Portugal did very well in Euro 2000, topping a group that included both Germany and England, and even thumping the Germans 3-0 in the process of winning all of their games. They were only squeezed out by an excellent French team, who eventually won, by the one Golden Goal late into extra-time. I don’t see how that contradicts what I am saying about older national teams fading in modern tournaments, in fact it underlines it, as Germany and England were both relying on very old hands in that tournament, like Matthaus and Shearer, and paid the price for it. Although I’d say that England suffered mostly because Keegan was and is such a poor manager.

Kirkland?

Thank God Poland is out of it, I’d rather not have to see them embarassing themselves on TV like they did in the World Cup. Long ball my ass.

Back when you scored that one goal in the World Cup. A classic moment in Swedish Television history.[/quote]
What goal was that?

Norway-Mexico, Kjetil Rekdal.
They have the footage from Norwegian television and the commentator just goes crazy. DETTE ER DET STÖRSTE JEG UPPLEVT! (or something)