The official Euro 04 thread

Germany v Holland : 1 - 1

Well it looked as if the two teams were trying to make my prediction come true in the first half - even if Holland did try to get an early look in!

Germany threatened the goal from about the 11th minute until that sucker went in - but what a scrap!

That referee was useless - always in the way unless fouls were being committed, and there were so many he missed most of them - just the token yellow cards liberally doled out!

Great comedy!!

Czech Republic v Latvia : 1 - 2

Those Latvians are sooo fast! Great to see them keep their advantage - and great goal from Heinz!

Must go out and replenish the fridge...

diddy wrote: What a game...I aged a lot during this 90 minutes.   But what a mistake that led to the equalizer, you can't loose the ball like this in the corner. The referee HAD to give a penalty, Stam hit Kuranyi on the HEAD, that wasn't nice

I think it was an accident.. he didn't do it on purpse, but he was not very careful on the other hand.

What a crappy game. Germany was a little better than Holland I think... what a waste of time! Why don't they play some music instead?

I watch the games with the sound turned down and some music playing on my hi-fi. The ITV games have particularly crappy commentary - and if you pick the music right it enhances the game no end. The only thing you miss out on is crowd noise - but in my opinion the English crowds make the best noise!

I was listening to "Live at the Target" by Twelfth Night for the first half, and "Live and let Live" for the second half.  

The  meant that I was only saying that because I'm English - I totally agree otherwise! It's the sheer quality (or familiarity, more like) of our songs that makes me turn the sound back up.

The English do tend to only sing when they're winning - we've made football chants out of it that go "You're not singing any more", when our team gets one up on a rival, and "You're going home in a Saint John's Ambulance" by way of traditional response.

Other English classics include;

"We hate Tottenham and we hate Tottenham, We hate Tottenham and we hate Tottenham, We hate Tottenham and we hate Tottenham, We are the Tottenham haters"

I'm really not too sure what the lyricist was trying to say when he wrote those, but my observation is that the theme of hating Tottenham runs quite strongly...

And who could forget;

"We love you Chelsea, we do, We love you Chelsea, we do, We love you Chelsea, we do, Oh Chelsea we love you."

And, of course, the ubiquitous

"What the fing, What the fing, What the fing hell was that? (hell was that?) What the fing hell was that?"

Sheer bloody poetry! (set to “Cwm Rhondda,” John Hughes, 1907).

Yes, the English football chant is a joy to behold - so much so that Pink Floyd set one to music in "Fearless" (Meddle); Can anyone who does not live in the U.K. name the song - and for bonus points, the composer(s) and original source (what the song was written for)? Additional bonus if you can tell me which team it is associated with!