Footie Fever!
Twenty years ago, Greece shocked the footballing world by winning the European Championship in football. That is one more Euro than the English have won. Man, I love saying that! But unfortunately, Greece did not qualify for this year’s edition of the tournament.
The 2024 UEFA European Championship kicked off with host nation Germany dispatching Scotland 5-1 in München. The Germans (and their brilliant kits) looked solid but hard to judge as Scotland were just not at the races. Florian Wirtz opened the scoring 10 minutes in followed by a goal from Jamal Musiala in the 19th. Kai Havertz added a third on the brink of halftime from the penalty spot after two footed challenge was made in the area by Ryan Porteous. Germany scored three more times in the second half, including a rather unlucky own goal by Antonio Rüdiger.
Reigning European champions Italy faced off against Albania on Saturday. Albania scored the quickest goal in the competition’s history, 23 seconds into the match. Italy had a throw-in deep in their own half which was errant and saw Nedim Barjarmi pounce and beat Donnarumma at his near post. But Italy answered through goals from Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella. Italy hung on for a 2-1 win.
The other matches on Saturday saw Switzerland dispatch Hungary 3-1 and a young Spain side breezed past an aging Croatia side 3-0.
Yesterday saw the Dutch edge out a Lewandowski-less Poland side that gave the Netherlands a fair match. A late Wout Weghorst goal sealed a 2-1 win for Oranje. The second match of the day saw Denmark and Slovenia draw 1-1 despite Danish dominance. The big news here was Christian Eriksen scoring in a major tournament for the first time since his cardiac arrest.
The final match of the day saw England face Serbia in a match that had Germany authorities on high alert because of the potential for clashes between supporters. Even the beer had a reduced alcohol content! The match ended 1-0 to England through a Jude Bellingham flying header. England otherwise were rather unimpressive and not terribly worthy of being one of the tournament favorites.
Later this morning, Romania face off against Ukraine, while the noon match features Belgium and Slovakia. The final match of the day will be France versus Austria.
The Euro’s are not the only competition this summer. The United States is hosting Copa America and that kicks off on Thursday with reigning World Champions Argentina, led by the great Leo Messi taking on Canada, who recently hired former New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Salzburg and Leeds manager Jesse Marsch (who by all rights should be the US Men’s National Team manager, but I DIGRESS!). The United States kick off their tournament with a match up against Bolivia on Sunday. The US is coming off of a 1-1 draw versus Brazil, but before that were embarrassed by Colombia 5-1.
This is an important tournament for the United States. Since the US is hosting the 2026 World Cup, they do not have any qualifying matches to play. A good showing in this tournament will go a long way in restoring some faith in US manager Gregg Berhalter. If the US does not progress far in the tournament, I would imagine that the USSF will part ways with Berhalter. They should have done so already after the fiasco with Gio Reyna.