Germany?

While walking and raising money for American Cancer Society (Relay for Life Alhambra), I took a look at our homepage. According to our poll, it looks like the lack of David Villa (as Albert pointed out) has pushed Spain behind Germany as the favorites. But a great team is still a great team so Spain should be able to compensate for a while.

Referrals

Just a reminder and incentive that if you can get five new people in the pool, you get a free entry (funded by me) with one paid. That is what the referral field is for. The idea is that if you are successful, that is seven entries for our pool.

A to the Z SPORTS! # 1: Favorites: Spain, Germany, and Italy

Please visit Albert's original post.

Welcome to the A to the Z Sports Blog!  This is where I will talk soccer , boxing and any relevant happenings in sports.

Since the Euro Cup tournament is right around the corner, I have dug through the numbers in search of some interesting stats regarding the 16 participating nations.

 For now check out these impressive stats involving three tournament favorites: Spain, Germany and Italy.

SPAIN

New non-exclusive column!

I'd like to welcome our second guest columnist to the fold.  Albert Perez has just started his own blog and has graciously allowed me to use his Euro-specific posts for our pool.  Albert's A to the Z SPORTS! columns (though I had suggested The Grab Gab Sports Blog) add to Eric's Foster's Football Brew to enhance the variety of the pool so you aren't just hearing my rants and ravings. 

Fill in PDF entry form up!

For some weird reason, Adobe Acrobat lets you create a form but the person filling it in can't save it if they only have Adobe Reader.  You have to go like three levels down in the menu to activate Adobe Reader enhancements.  So if you got my email, you have to print (you can print to using Cute PDF or other PDF creator) it out and send it to me.  Or you can just download the corrected file from the menu above.  This one you should be able to save your entry and email it to me.  Let me know if there any issues.

Issue # 1.0.1 "First Spin-Off: The EURO 2012 Pool"

Here is the official kickoff.  Just 10 days left to enter.  Please answer our poll question(s) on this page and make sure you follow/subscribe to this blog for the latest info.

http://www.hwci.com/euro/2012/e2012_01.htm
---


CAN SPAIN BECOME THE FIRST TO WIN BACK-TO-BACK EURO TITLES?
Whether you're a Euro snob or just love beautiful football, EURO here we come

Ties are an option

Sitting here watching the baby while my wife and kid wait in line for some spinning helicopter ride. Holiday weekend and amusement parks don't mix but we're here with friends so it doesn't matter. Since I can't nap, I'm thinking about the pool. Just want to reiterate that in the round robin phase, you can pick ties which either makes it easier or harder to pick.  So you can pick Team A, Team B, or TIE.

Sneak peek

Here's a sneak peek at the email blast I plan to send out Tuesday morning when everyone is hopefully recovered from the long Memorial Day weekend.  There might be some slight changes in the next couple days but the gist will still be there.  My first update...

Monday, May 28, 2012 -- Happy Memorial Day!
Issue # 1.0.1 "First Spin-Off: The EURO 2012 Pool"
[ Home | Blog ]

CAN SPAIN BECOME THE FIRST TO WIN BACK-TO-BACK EURO TITLES?
Whether you're a Euro snob or just love beautiful football, EURO here we come CERRITOS, CA (smt) -- I do not get much feedback on our pools but virtually all of it is positive, which is the opposite of how reviews usually go (you only hear when things are bad).  But the one comment I usually get with our World Cup pools is that people want to pick ties during the Round Robin phase.  So, we are introducing the choice to choose "TIE" for the 24 Round Robin matches.  It'll be interesting if more or less points are earned during this phase (as about 33% of World Cup Round Robin games in the past have ended in ties). 
Spain is the favorite having won EURO 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.  My sentimental favorite is the Dutch, having loved the Oranje style of play for years, but that 2010 World Cup final was just so ugly (basically "foul Spain"), it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Will a team like Greece come out of nowhere and win the championship, as they did in 2004?  Or will it be powerhouses Spain, Holland, Germany, and England/France/Italy in the semifinals?  Will the co-hosts, Poland and Ukraine make it out of their groups?  Should we choose teams based on financial stability considering what is going on in Europe these days? Well, that's why you pay the big bucks (okay, $10) to answer these questions.  And with no African, USA/Mexico, or lower-level South American teams to mess you up, you really don't have any excuses for doing well in the pool.  But there will be.