Emotional night for Ronaldo

Sub Eder on top of the world

In a Euro tournament that saw 21 of the 50 matches go into halftime scoreless (3F-Portugal participating in three of them), why would the final be any different?  For a 3F-Portugal team that tied five of their six matches after 90 minutes, why would the final be any different?  For a 1A-France team that has hosted two major tournaments in the past 32 years and won both, why would the final be any different?  Uh, on that last one... A scoreless first half and a 0-0 tie after regulation were par for the course for the Portuguese (though France's Andre-Pierre Gignac late stoppage time twirl just hit inside the left post and ricocheted out) who had to play without captain Cristiano Ronaldo who left in the 25' due to a knee injury.  France had the better of the few opportunities but after the 1st half of extra time, ran out of gas.  A minute after POR's Raphael Guerreiro hit the cross bar on a direct free kick that shouldn't have been theirs (one of the few blown calls by the ref - handball on the wrong team), POR's Eder takes it in and hits a two-bouncer 25-yard shot that just beats the keeper for the only score of the night.

Moths had more fun than the fans

Ronaldo went on a roller-coaster ride by starting the match with high anticipation and pressure, in tears after being knocked down hard in the 8' and eventually having to call for his own sub in the 25' (a la moth), and in tears again after Portugal won its first major trophy.  France started off the match well but it seems the Ronaldo injury sucked the energy
out of the stadium and both teams limped to halftime.  France had the better of the opportunities but couldn't finish.  Portugal snapped a 10-match losing streak to the French and added another final loss to France (in addition the '06 World Cup).

In the pool, Rainman was the only one to pick Portugal to win it all (boy it didn't look good when Portugal couldn't beat Iceland) and won the pool by six points, just reaching the century mark.  BigRedMessi2 had to settle for 2nd place while the total goal tiebreaker of 5 gave Big Blue 3rd over The Eleven (92), who had to settle for a last to 4th story instead of a possible last to 2nd story.  Nine had France winning it all including Game of Two Halves who was eliminated (6th, 88).  Kds911 (9th, 85) was the only one to guess 5 goals correctly (no prize though) while there was only one outright tie (7th: EEChick1400 and TurboTobi (88)).  Rogue Un finished in last (63).

There may be one more update while on vacation but for now, unless you participate in our annual HWCI NCAA Pool, our next scheduled soccer pool will be in two years for the 2018 World Cup.  Thanks to everyone for participating and hope you had fun.