Sporting Madness

Photo: Croatia's Ivica Olic (right) celebrates with teammate Luka Modric after scoring his team's second goal against Germany Thursday. (Photo from The Daily Mail ). Breaking down Day Six of the European Championships... Match XI: Croatia 2, Germany 1 A reasonably shocking defeat for the Germans, given their marvelous form against Poland and Croatia's struggles against Austria. Still, Croatia is a strong side, and one many thought could cause an upset or two coming in. Fortunately for the Germans, the draw between Austria and Poland means they're still in prime position to advance: they only require a draw against the Austrians to advance. Unfortunately for them, Croatia's already clinched Group B (the first tie-breaker is head-to-head results), so it looks like they're slotted in to face Portugal in the quarter-finals. That will certainly be an interesting match. Related : - " Germany does some soul-searching " ( The Associated Press , via The Globe ...

Photo: Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates with teammate Deco after the two combined for one of Portugal's three goals against the Czech Republic Wednesday (Photo from CristianoRonaldos ) Breaking down Day Five of the European Championships... Match IX: Portugal 3, Czech Republic 1 So much of the talk about Portugal so far has been about moves taking place beyond the pitch, with the endless transfer speculation about Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid and the just-confirmed appointment of Portugal manager Luis Felipe Scolari to take over Chelsea after the championships conclude [Ben Knight has some good analysis of that move at On Soccer : Stephen Brunt also weighs in ]. Their performance Wednesday against a very solid Czech team showed that they deserve lots of credit for their play on the pitch, though: they dominated the entire match, scored three brilliant goals, and ensured their qualification for the next round after Switzerland lost to Turkey in the late game. It wasn't just th...

Photo: Lukas Podolski, who scored twice for Germany against Poland (Photo from soccerati.net ) Breaking down Day 2 of the Euro 2008 Championships... Match III: Croatia 1, Austria 0 I didn't get the chance to watch this one live, as I was watching the Jays finally snap their losing skid . Still, I caught up with the details afterwards, and according to reputable authorities such as the Globe 's John Doyle , the Austrians surprisingly gave the Croats all they could handle. In the end, the only difference between the sides was a fourth-minute penalty kick. Croatia did well for the first half, but the Austrians rallied and were the dominant side for much of the rest of the contest. Really, the only reason this finished 1-0 was Croatian keeper Stipe Pletikosa, who was recognized for his superb play with the award of Man of the Match. As Doyle points out, this not only shows that the Austrians (ranked 92nd in the world going in, beneath Iceland, Qatar, Mozambique and Armenia and a wh...

For the three people who didn't hear about it yet, the 2008 European Championships got underway yesterday in Switzerland (the matches in Austria will start later today). In honour of this fabulous tournament, I've decided to present a new feature: a daily recap of past games with a look ahead to the next day's action and predictions for the upcoming matches. The plan is to call it "Earning the (re) cap". Aside: For the non-soccerphiles, a player is said to have earned a cap when he appears for his country in international matches: thus, the player's number of matches played for his country is referred to as his caps. This comes from the old tradition of wearing caps in soccer, which Colin Jose suggests originated in the English public schools. When international matches began, all players were issued with a cap for representing their country, and the term stuck even after that practice stopped. So, without further ado (and certainly without further Adu or Ed...

The FIFA U-20 World Cup continues to provide quality soccer. Only eight teams remain in the competition, and by Sunday night, they'll be reduced to four. Without further ado (Freddy or other), here's my previews and predictions for the quarter-final clashes. Saturday: Austria vs. USA (BMO Field, Toronto, 2:15 P.M. ET) This should be an interesting tilt. The U.S. has had a strong tournament so far, defeating such South American powers as Brazil and Uruguay. Freddy Adu has shown why everyone rated him so highly several years ago, and has lived up to his tremendous potential. Danny Szetela has also been terrific, producing several goals in addition to his solid play as a defensive midfielder. Austria has also been strong, especially defensively, where they have only conceded two goals. Their attack has been reasonably one-dimensional though, with Erwin (Jimmy) Hoffer producing half of their goals. Surprisingly enough, the pre-match lineups have listed Hoffer as starting on the be...