most unexpected…shame really, after England, the Czechs probably have the most Liverpool players…
It’s amazing!
I think that you have to give credit to the coaches for both teams. Scolari’s record is solid, having taken two teams to the Copa Libertadores Championship and Brazil to the World Cup.
Rehhagel coached Kaiserslautern when they were relegated to the second division in 1996-1997. They won the second division, got promoted and won the Bundesliga Championship the next year.
As an American living in Greece, and not much interested in soccer before this championship, I’m thrilled to find one of my favorite blogs mentioning this. There’s no one I can call and tell in the States. (When I lived in Seattle (1979-2003) it took until 1995 when the Mariners won the Conference for me to get into baseball. This has been a lot quicker!)
Certainly not the Grauniad’s preview of the tournament. Confident predictions of a first round knockout, if I remember rightly…
Certainly not the Grauniad’s preview of the tournament. Confident predictions of a first round knockout, if I remember rightly…
The winner always seems the ‘better’ team but in such a low-scoring sport many games are decided by luck.
As someone else pointed out in a previous thread, luck and incompetent officiating (this match was reasonably fair but why does FIFA resist introducing TV replays?) play far too important a role in football these days when 1-0 is a typical score. I hate to be a spoilsport, but anyone with the faintest training in science will know that this match — indeed the entire Euro 2004 — is statistically meaningless. The most we can say is that the Greeks seem to be luckier than their opponents. Still, it’s fun to see them beat the favourites!
Whod’a thunk it?
The gawd-knows-how-many flag wielding Greeks partying outside my apartment in Astoria, Queens for a start. If Greece wins the final, 30th Avenue subway station may just be levelled!
:^)
Whod’a thunk it?
The gawd-knows-how-many flag wielding Greeks partying outside my apartment in Astoria, Queens for a start. If Greece wins the final, 30th Avenue subway station may just be levelled!
:^)
Cannot just be luck, could it.
Portugal, France and now the Czech republic. When you consider the teams that made it to the champions league final, no one had predicted Monaco or
Porto to make it. Seems to be more a case of steady play winning over unispired or cocky opponents.
Remember Nedved was talking about possibly missing the final in case he got booked in the semis. He did not say “One match at a time”. Sure seems like he was cocky.
It’s just great. I love to see the big teams out. I’ve had enough of celebrity champions on Nike ads and Coke bottles and Pringles boxes. It’s become next to impossible for coaches to leave home players when they’ve got such huge advertising contracts, even if they’ve turned crap. No names, just saying, in general…
Not many! You could have got 40/1 on Greece before the start of the tournament. They’re down to twos now. If wishes were horses…
The commentators on UK Radio Foopball (“Five Live”) have been making ever such a fuss about the fact that no foreign coach has ever taken a national team to victory at the Euros or World Cup.
I think the odds on that may have shortened a little.
I hate to be a spoilsport, but anyone with the faintest training in science will know that this match — indeed the entire Euro 2004 — is statistically meaningless.
Frankly, Rearguard, you couldn’t spoil it if you tried. Of course it’s statistically meaningless - but who prefers “statistical meaningfulness” to real life drama? Sure, luck and penalties play a huge role in football, but as others have noted here previously, most fans consider that a positive: it adds to the drama, and the sense of football as “a funny old game”. Or, as the Russians would have it, to the notion that “the ball is round” - which I take to mean “anything can happen”. (Not sure if this is a correct interpretation, though.)
On a related note, there seem to be a lot of nationalities on this site. Anyone want to contribute their own (or another) nation’s favourite football cliches?
One more note: The big football tournaments are very analogous to American baseball’s playoffs, in which the team that is best over 162 games often doesn’t win the World Series. Ask any Atlanta Braves fan about this one.
SHKOSE TO GAMHMENO DEN BORO DEN BORO NA PERIMENO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
À Gauche
Jeremy Alder
Amaravati
Anggarrgoon
Audhumlan Conspiracy
H.E. Baber
Philip Blosser
Paul Broderick
Matt Brown
Diana Buccafurni
Brandon Butler
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Certain Doubts
David Chalmers
Noam Chomsky
The Conservative Philosopher
Desert Landscapes
Denis Dutton
David Efird
Karl Elliott
David Estlund
Experimental Philosophy
Fake Barn County
Kai von Fintel
Russell Arben Fox
Garden of Forking Paths
Roger Gathman
Michael Green
Scott Hagaman
Helen Habermann
David Hildebrand
John Holbo
Christopher Grau
Jonathan Ichikawa
Tom Irish
Michelle Jenkins
Adam Kotsko
Barry Lam
Language Hat
Language Log
Christian Lee
Brian Leiter
Stephen Lenhart
Clayton Littlejohn
Roderick T. Long
Joshua Macy
Mad Grad
Jonathan Martin
Matthew McGrattan
Marc Moffett
Geoffrey Nunberg
Orange Philosophy
Philosophy Carnival
Philosophy, et cetera
Philosophy of Art
Douglas Portmore
Philosophy from the 617 (moribund)
Jeremy Pierce
Punishment Theory
Geoff Pynn
Timothy Quigley (moribund?)
Conor Roddy
Sappho's Breathing
Anders Schoubye
Wolfgang Schwartz
Scribo
Michael Sevel
Tom Stoneham (moribund)
Adam Swenson
Peter Suber
Eddie Thomas
Joe Ulatowski
Bruce Umbaugh
What is the name ...
Matt Weiner
Will Wilkinson
Jessica Wilson
Young Hegelian
Richard Zach
Psychology
Donyell Coleman
Deborah Frisch
Milt Rosenberg
Tom Stafford
Law
Ann Althouse
Stephen Bainbridge
Jack Balkin
Douglass A. Berman
Francesca Bignami
BlunkettWatch
Jack Bogdanski
Paul L. Caron
Conglomerate
Jeff Cooper
Disability Law
Displacement of Concepts
Wayne Eastman
Eric Fink
Victor Fleischer (on hiatus)
Peter Friedman
Michael Froomkin
Bernard Hibbitts
Walter Hutchens
InstaPundit
Andis Kaulins
Lawmeme
Edward Lee
Karl-Friedrich Lenz
Larry Lessig
Mirror of Justice
Eric Muller
Nathan Oman
Opinio Juris
John Palfrey
Ken Parish
Punishment Theory
Larry Ribstein
The Right Coast
D. Gordon Smith
Lawrence Solum
Peter Tillers
Transatlantic Assembly
Lawrence Velvel
David Wagner
Kim Weatherall
Yale Constitution Society
Tun Yin
History
Blogenspiel
Timothy Burke
Rebunk
Naomi Chana
Chapati Mystery
Cliopatria
Juan Cole
Cranky Professor
Greg Daly
James Davila
Sherman Dorn
Michael Drout
Frog in a Well
Frogs and Ravens
Early Modern Notes
Evan Garcia
George Mason History bloggers
Ghost in the Machine
Rebecca Goetz
Invisible Adjunct (inactive)
Jason Kuznicki
Konrad Mitchell Lawson
Danny Loss
Liberty and Power
Danny Loss
Ether MacAllum Stewart
Pam Mack
Heather Mathews
James Meadway
Medieval Studies
H.D. Miller
Caleb McDaniel
Marc Mulholland
Received Ideas
Renaissance Weblog
Nathaniel Robinson
Jacob Remes (moribund?)
Christopher Sheil
Red Ted
Time Travelling Is Easy
Brian Ulrich
Shana Worthen
Computers/media/communication
Lauren Andreacchi (moribund)
Eric Behrens
Joseph Bosco
Danah Boyd
David Brake
Collin Brooke
Maximilian Dornseif (moribund)
Jeff Erickson
Ed Felten
Lance Fortnow
Louise Ferguson
Anne Galloway
Jason Gallo
Josh Greenberg
Alex Halavais
Sariel Har-Peled
Tracy Kennedy
Tim Lambert
Liz Lawley
Michael O'Foghlu
Jose Luis Orihuela (moribund)
Alex Pang
Sebastian Paquet
Fernando Pereira
Pink Bunny of Battle
Ranting Professors
Jay Rosen
Ken Rufo
Douglas Rushkoff
Vika Safrin
Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
Frank Schaap
Robert A. Stewart
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
Ray Trygstad
Jill Walker
Phil Windley
Siva Vaidahyanathan
Anthropology
Kerim Friedman
Alex Golub
Martijn de Koning
Nicholas Packwood
Geography
Stentor Danielson
Benjamin Heumann
Scott Whitlock
Education
Edward Bilodeau
Jenny D.
Richard Kahn
Progressive Teachers
Kelvin Thompson (defunct?)
Mark Byron
Business administration
Michael Watkins (moribund)
Literature, language, culture
Mike Arnzen
Brandon Barr
Michael Berube
The Blogora
Colin Brayton
John Bruce
Miriam Burstein
Chris Cagle
Jean Chu
Hans Coppens
Tyler Curtain
Cultural Revolution
Terry Dean
Joseph Duemer
Flaschenpost
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Goodwin
Rachael Groner
Alison Hale
Household Opera
Dennis Jerz
Jason Jones
Miriam Jones
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Steven Krause
Lilliputian Lilith
Catherine Liu
John Lovas
Gerald Lucas
Making Contact
Barry Mauer
Erin O'Connor
Print Culture
Clancy Ratcliff
Matthias Rip
A.G. Rud
Amardeep Singh
Steve Shaviro
Thanks ... Zombie
Vera Tobin
Chuck Tryon
University Diaries
Classics
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (moribund)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Music
Kyle Gann
ionarts
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Greg Sandow
Scott Spiegelberg
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari (moribund)
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh (moribund)
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Josh Rosenau
Universal Acid
Amity Wilczek (moribund)
Theodore Wong (moribund)
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Stephen Hsu
Irascible Professor
Andrew Jaffe
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
String Coffee Table
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Andrew Gelman
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Petter Holme
Luis Rocha
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions (moribund?)
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Who Knows?
Bitch Ph.D.
Just Tenured
Playing School
Professor Goose
This Academic Life
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Boston Review
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review