A great start (6/14)

Ouch!

COEUR D'ALENE, IDAHO - I was thinking that unlike the World Cup, you wouldn't get routs in the Euros as the competition is tougher.  Well, wrong.  Host A1-Germany scored five goals (well, six since they scored an own goal) to destroy A2-Scotland, 5-1, breaking a few records.  As a first game, it also featured a lot of oddities with one PK being called back, one PK being given along with a red card, goals taken from the semi-auto offsides, and SCO getting 1 goal on zero shots on goal and only one shot overall (0.01 expected goals).

Listening to the match while driving to Idaho (after flying into Spokane) and, boy Darke and Landon are quite a bore to listen to.  We got a Euro record 58 entries (from 39 people), topping the 49 in 2021.  It also topped the 47 we got the Women's World Cup last year.  12 entries have been in all 4 Euro pools and 30 entries have been in at least 5 of the 15 soccer pools we've had.  France (17) and England (13) were the overwhelming favorites but 7 other teams were also picked.

56 of 58 picked GER.

I could've gotten seasick!

Continuing my trend of wearing jerseys during game days as I wander around, I wore my 2022 Germany home jersey with the cool gold crest.  Lots to see but here I am at the world's longest floating boardwalk at Coeur d'Alene Lake in Idaho.  It was very windy and water was splashing on the bridge and it was rocking.  Pretty cool.  Also then got caught up with Car d'Lane Classic Car Cruise with hundreds of cars made before 1980 showing off on Main St.  

Admin picks!

About 15 hours until Euro 2024 kicks off!  We have 40 entries already which already surpasses our Euro Pool totals in 2012 and 2016.  We are on track to break the Euro Pool record of 49 entries in 2021 and become our 5th highest entry total for any of the 15 soccer pools (behind World Cups 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022).

I will be on a flight tomorrow morning so I'm hoping there will be a bunch of entries when I land and will send out any modifications to picks late Friday night (right now, tiny issues on 11 of 38 (29%) entries, not to bad considering we have to deal with 3rd place permutations).

But here, here I lay out my two picks for the tournament.  Will it be $20 down the drain?

• Futbol Fab Fünfzehn - Since 1998, I have always tended to pick France to win the World Cup (was the only one to do so back then).  With their talent, hard to pick against them.  My bracket laid out a good path for Portugal, even though they wouldn't necessarily been my top 2 to make the final.  Fünfzehn (or fuffzehn if the U with umlaut causes me any troubles) is German for fifteen (15), which this is our 15th soccer pool.
• Germany Minus One - The host has not won the Euro since 1984 (France).  Germany is uncharacteristically ranked #16.  Yet, yet, if they can get past the Iberian peninsula teams (Spain and Portugal) in the Quarters and Semis, it's a coin flip in the final against France or England (in this case, England - sorry, it's not coming home).  Having seen the masterpiece Godzilla Minus One on Netflix, this German team is down, knocked by a poor 2023 record, but could they rise out of the ashes to claim their 4th Euros to match their 4 World Cup titles?

Not as expected....

 Well, these are just friendlies, right?  In a few days:

• At home, #4 England lost to #72 Iceland (again, remember the Euro 2016 Round of 16).
• At home, #2 France were held to a nil-nil draw by #49 Canada!
• #26 Hungary lost for the first time since 2022 to #60 Ireland but bounced back to beat #78 Israel.
• And both #14 Mexico and USA were down 2-0 and scored a second half goal... but while Mexico then tied it before losing in extra time to #5 Brazil 3-2, the U.S. poor passing led to a 5-1 trouncing at home by #12 Colombia.  How is USA #11?  And why is Berhalter still coach (the consultant company that determined he was still the best choice of coach should never get another job again)
• #6 Portugal split their games with Ronaldo, heading for his record 6th Euros, scoring twice.  

So USA faces Brazil in a friendly today so let's cross our fingers.  Luckily, USA's Group C is winnable with #45 Panama and #85 Bolivia but do have #15 Uruguay (remember, Colombia was #12).  Go USA and wouldn't it be great if two CONCACAF teams met in the Copa America final??  Well, I can dream...

As for the Euros, has any of these results changed your mind?  The deadline to enter the pool is Friday at noon (PDT).  We already have 18 entries.