Archive
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Issue # 9.2.5 "It's Coming Home" - History of our Pool
The European Championship Final
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 1934 WC Champs
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 1938 WC Champs
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 1968 Euro Champs
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 1982 WC Champs
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 2006 WC Champs
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vs
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 1966 World Cup Champs
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ITA - Italian Rep (Italy)
 Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC)
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ENG - England
 The Football Assoc (The FA)
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#7 | 1A | Winner | 5-0-1 4th Final ('68, '00, '12) A1: Beat Turkey 3-0 A4: Beat Switzerland 3-0 A6: Beat
Wales 1-0 R16: Beat 2C-Austria 2-1 (ET) QF: Beat
1B-Belgium 2-1 SF: Beat 2E-Spain 1-1 (PSO 4:2)
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#4 | 1D | Winner | 5-0-1 1st Final D1: Beat Croatia 1-0 D4: Tied Scotland 0-0 D6: Beat
Czech Rep 1-0 R16: Beat 2F-Germany 2-0 QF: Beat
3C-Ukraine 4-0 SF: Beat 2B-Denmark, 2-1 (ET)
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ITALY GOING FOR 2ND EURO TITLE; ENGLAND ITS FIRST
Final is Noon PDT Sunday
ROSEMEAD, CA (smt) - After watching Lionel Messi get his (hard-to-believe)
first international trophy (Copa America) in Argentina's foul-filled, what happened to VAR, 1-0 win over Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) (in front of some fans for once),
you wonder if 1D-England will suffer the same fate as BRA at home to
1A-Italy. ENG is 4-0-1 in London's Wembley Stadium this tourney but ITA
does have an extra day of rest. ITA is making its fourth Euro Final but
haven't won it since '68 while ENG is just making its 2nd final, Euro/World
Cup combined, but did win the WC Final in '66.
For years, people have asked about the Euro pool, usually right after each
World Cup. Having not watched the Euros (I don't think it was regularly
on live TV until the '08 one), I didn't know what to expect. Considering
each World Cup has "token" teams from Africa and CONCACAF (e.g., blowouts),
the '12 Euros only had 16 teams and all were quality. So even though the
setup was different from the World Cups (32 teams), I managed to get it to
work. Granted it was a little easier because it was just the top 2 teams
(no 3rd place to worry about like in '16 and '20). But folks like Eric F
convinced me people would be interested and they were, with 39 entries in our
first year.
Just our 3rd Euro pool,