Anyone Watching Euro 2020?

Location
Seattle
Name
Andrew
We are fair-weather soccer fans - when there are international tournaments we get interested, but the US has such a dismal showing that MLS games mostly bore me. But we decided to pay for internet TV for long enough to watch the UEFA Euro 2020, and it's some fantastic soccer! Anyone else watching? Things are heating up!
 
Being Dutch, it's... Not quite inevitable, but certainly more likely than not, that I'm following it. At least my own country, and the odd game between other countries.

I mostly stopped watching club football out of chagrin after someone on Twitter pointed out that Manchester United's defensive side - all 8 players - had cost more than the annual defense budget of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a nation twice the size of France whose population is suffering from perennially fighting warlords. And that was something like 6 years ago; top clubs' budgets have become exponentially bigger (worse) since then. Also the imbalance between clubs is just taking much of the unpredictability out of it.

Still, every once in a while I look up Lionel Messi's latest goals on youtube and try to figure out how he hid a magnet in the ball...
 
Club football to me seems little better than the NFL or NBA in the US - overly glorified and horrifying when you think of how much people are paid to... Kind of be dirtbags. But, to me the World Cup us kind of like the Olympics, and this is the first time I've watched the Euros. There's something about international games where countries are being represented. The WC is the best for that.

Croatia is my soft spot, love to watch Modriç play.
 
Well, to nurture my absolutely non-existent nationalism as a citizen of the world of course I can't miss the moment when our boys get kicked out. Besides that this hype passes me by.
 
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I love it. I'd happily watch football all day long, but then I grew up plying football in the streets with my friends pretty much every day. money - often dirty money - has corrupted football at the top end of the game and UEFA and FIFA are disgraceful organizations but 99 percent of football isn't played at the top end and remains largely free of the greed and corruption.

Football is still one of the few games where almost anyone with talent can make it. Even little guys like Messi and Kante can be superstars. Many other sports you have to be a freak in terms of size or strength to succeed.

I understand the disgust about the vast salaries the players at the top make but, again, the vast majority of players aren't making that kind of money and, if they're lucky they might have a 15 year career in football. Compare that the actors, pop stars and corporate COE's who make the same kind of money and often much more and keep getting it year after year, decade after decade even if their films are rubbish, they can't sing, and they run every business into the ground. I'd rather give it to Messi.
 
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I understand the disgust about the vast salaries the players at the top make
You’d be surprised how many of them end up insolvent. Many of them gambling addicts. I remember businessman and former Tottenham Hotspurs owner Alan Sugar referencing many players saying if they weren’t playing football they’d be in prison.
 
Same old same old with England, going into the tournament with the whole country thinking they’ll win it then…..Well, the next game is against Germany, we’ll see what happens.
I've been telling my partner that historically it normally plays out that we have (unrealistically) high hopes for England before a tournament. Look at the players we've got etc. Then there's a sobering collision with reality during the group stage, when it turns out that our players have only recently been introduced to one another and they're all tired after a long domestic season. Then in the knockout stages we have a glorious victory against one of the favourite sides, which we will talk about for the next thirty years. Then in the next game some minor team boots us out.

So hopefully we will get a glorious victory against Germany at least. Unless it goes to penalties (German players practice taking penalties before a tournament, which is considered unsporting over here).

-R
 
I understand soccer (football) very little beyond knowing a ball kicked into the net scores a goal. However, my university alma mater just won the US major college national championship, its first. It was given so little chance of winning it wasn't even seeded in the tournament, but in the course of four games Marshall defeated the team that was hosting the tournament, this year's top ranked team, the defending champion and in the title game, the team that had won the title more than any other school. While I'm 40 years removed from my undergraduate studies, I couldn't help but feel a swell of pride over the "little guys" running the table in the tournament.

The delicious irony is that my small, impoverished state of WV now hosts the last two collegiate national champions, as a small school in our capital city 30 minutes away is the most recent winner of the small college national soccer championship. It may be small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but a regional soccer tournament held nearby last week drew a huge turnout, and reports are that Marshall's national title was a common topic of conversation. Will the enthusiasm last? Who knows, but it's cool while it lasts.
 
Well, to to nurture my absolutely non-existent nationalism as a citizen of the world of course I can't miss the moment when our boys get kicked out. Besides that this hype passes me by.
Football hooligans and their inevitable craziness aside, I think this form of nationalism is fairly harmless. Of course, I say that as an American, where nationalism ain't necessarily harmless much of the time. Maybe it's my inherent nationalistic programming that draws me to the tournaments like this, but I think it's fun to see the different nations fielding their best players, and the celebrations back home going nuts for their wins. It makes for good entertainment!
I love it. I'd happily watch football all day long, but then I grew up plying football in the streets with my friends pretty much every day. money - often dirty money - has corrupted football at the top end of the game and UEFA and FIFA are disgraceful organizations but 99 percent of football isn't played at the top end and remains largely free of the greed and corruption.

Football is still one of the few games where almost anyone with talent can make it. Even little guys like Messi and Kante can be superstars. Many other sports you have to be a freak in terms of size or strength to succeed.

I understand the disgust about the vast salaries the players at the top make but, again, the vast majority of players aren't making that kin of money and, if they're licky they might have a 15 year career in football. Compare that the actors, pop stars and corporate COE's who make the same kind of money and often much more and keep getting it year after year, decade after decade even if their films are rubbish, they can't sing, and they run every business into the ground. I'd rather give it to Messi.
Oh, I'm sure the politics of these organizations are as dirty as all the other politics, I can remember some stuff I've heard about FIFA. But everywhere you look, sports and entertainment makes money, and draws the avaricious to the top, like sharks circling the wounded swimmer (I don't know sharks well enough to know if that is more than just pop culture but it works for the analogy).
 
I understand soccer (football) very little beyond knowing a ball kicked into the net scores a goal. However, my university alma mater just won the US major college national championship, its first. It was given so little chance of winning it wasn't even seeded in the tournament, but in the course of four games Marshall defeated the team that was hosting the tournament, this year's top ranked team, the defending champion and in the title game, the team that had won the title more than any other school. While I'm 40 years removed from my undergraduate studies, I couldn't help but feel a swell of pride over the "little guys" running the table in the tournament.

The delicious irony is that my small, impoverished state of WV now hosts the last two collegiate national champions, as a small school in our capital city 30 minutes away is the most recent winner of the small college national soccer championship. It may be small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but a regional soccer tournament held nearby last week drew a huge turnout, and reports are that Marshall's national title was a common topic of conversation. Will the enthusiasm last? Who knows, but it's cool while it lasts.
Maybe one day American soccer will be good enough to compete on a world level - I can tell you I'd get pretty excited to see us in a world cup. But MLS is... not on the same level as football from south and central America or Europe. And American audiences don't care enough to provide the dollars and the support, the mindshare, to propel it forward very fast. Maybe one day!
 
I'd still rather watch Premier League soccer than the NFL/NBA/NHL or worst of all MLB. It's not perfect by any stretch but I don't think it's as bad as any of them and there remains reasons that it's called The Beautiful Game.

Go Gunners!
Yes! Soccer is a remarkably pure, simple and powerful game, from my friend's backyard with his kids all the way up to world tournaments. It scales better than almost any other game, and doesn't even require the players to share the same language. I'm minded of the scene in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty where Ben Stiller's character plays with the Himalayan warlords on his way to find Sean Penn's photographer character.
 
I watch the Euro and World Cup religiously, but otherwise don't follow the soccer/football in much detail. I am a pretty big sports guy, watching the major North American sports (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA), as well as Tennis.

Born in Canada, but my parents are both Portuguese, so I cheer them on and would love to see them repeat as champions this year, but they have a tough road through Belgium in their next game (after surviving the group of death), and if they can get through that, it's another tough competitor in Italy. We'll see how it goes - what I love above sports is, you never know what will/can happen.
 
I watch the Euro and World Cup religiously, but otherwise don't follow the soccer/football in much detail. I am a pretty big sports guy, watching the major North American sports (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA), as well as Tennis.

Born in Canada, but my parents are both Portuguese, so I cheer them on and would love to see them repeat as champions this year, but they have a tough road through Belgium in their next game (after surviving the group of death), and if they can get through that, it's another tough competitor in Italy. We'll see how it goes - what I love above sports is, you never know what will/can happen.
Whatever happens, that last day in the group of death was great fun (as a neutral), with the possibility of any 2 of the 4 teams being knocked out.
 
Yes, definitely watching. I’ve been following international football World Cup and Euro since 1972, being 4 years old back then. Lost my heart to this game, although ice hockey was the game I played myself.

Finland was first time in the games, not counting Olympics for obvious reasons. It ended the 49 years long personal waiting. And what happens, the Dane almost died, they continued the game after the pause, and Finland won. And you couldn’t celebrate either the goal nor the win.

I also lived the moments Finland was playing with high emotions. Two players on the Finnish team which I’ve been watching to learn to walk, and then play. Very emotional.

So coming back to original question: “Anyone else watching?”
Hell, YES! ❤️‍🔥⚽
 
Yes, definitely watching. I’ve been following international football World Cup and Euro since 1972, being 4 years old back then. Lost my heart to this game, although ice hockey was the game I played myself.

Finland was first time in the games, not counting Olympics for obvious reasons. It ended the 49 years long personal waiting. And what happens, the Dane almost died, they continued the game after the pause, and Finland won. And you couldn’t celebrate either the goal nor the win.

I also lived the moments Finland was playing with high emotions. Two players on the Finnish team which I’ve been watching to learn to walk, and then play. Very emotional.

So coming back to original question: “Anyone else watching?”
Hell, YES! ❤️‍🔥⚽
Glad to see another enthusiastic watcher out there! I have had to pick and choose the games I watch, and only have seen one Finland game (missed watching the one with Christian Eriksen's collapse). Denmark, however, after that very sad game, have been killing it. Just watched their most recent game. It's becoming easy to root for Denmark because it's very obvious they are playing for their stricken teammate.
 
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