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Euro 2008 Championships 
Euro 2008 Player Profile: Andrei Arshavin
(Andrei is on the right, fyi.)
Name: Andrei Arshavin
Team: Russia
Group: D; Sweden, Spain, Greece.
Caps (Goals): 33 (10) as of May 14, 2008
DOB: May 29, 1981 (27 years old)
Position: Attacking Mid/Second striker
Club Team: Zenit St. Petersburg
It seems only fitting to feature the man who set up what was ultimately the winning goal in today’s UEFA Cup victory for Zenit St. Petersburg.
Arshavin is easily one of the best players currently not playing in Western Europe - along with Zenit teammate Anatoliy Tymoschuk. It seems like he should have, or should be soon, making his way to one of the Big 3 leagues or the Bundesliga, but apparently he’s got a good thing going in St. Petersburg. Andrei grew up in the city, made his way in Zenit’s youth system, won a couple RPL Player of the Year awards and has now helped bring Russian Premier League and UEFA Cup titles to the club in the last year. And along the way he was named captain of the Russian National Team by The Human Knockout Rounds Ticket, Guus Hiddink.
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It’s a strategy that worked well for Egypt in the African Cup of Nations: Choose the majority of your players from a few clubs in your home country, then hope that their experience playing in the same league will help your team overcome the power of the high-paid superstars on other squads.
Euro 2008 will be the first European Championships ever broadcast in the United States, which makes it a big deal. So if you’re American and sitting on he fence about watching this fine tournament, or if you’re in need of convincing arguments to get a friend or family ... 
Last summer’s “will he or won’t he” was nipped in the bud rather quickly this year, as Pavel Nedved today signed on for another year with Juventus with one fixture still on the schedule. So that brings him to the end of the 2008-09 season and now puts off the retirement talk for good. ... 
Group: C; Italy, Netherlands, Romania. Also known as the Group O’Death.
Name: Carles Puyol i Saforcada (sometimes incorrectly spelled Carlos)
While most players are desparate to be involved in Euro 2008 (see Gonzalez, Raul and Del Piero, Alessandro) Clarence Seedorf can take it or leave it. Apparently the Milan midfielder called Marco van Basten yesterday to tell the Dutch coach that he doesn’t want to be involved in Euro ... 
Here’s a shock for you. Henrik Larsson is in Sweden’s 23 man squad for Euro 2008.
It’s about that time, with each of the Euro 2008 squads slowly being announced, often coinciding with the end of the domestic seasons. Portugal finished up their domestic season yesterday - Porto won it sometime back in January, or something - and thus Luiz Felipe Scolari has taken today to make and break some ... 
Journey back with me to 1988. Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and the country we now know as “Russia” was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR.)
I've got to be honest with you... I'm not a big Dick fan. I mean...I am not a big fan of Dick... I think he is a bit of a...eh...a wannabe Dick, you know?
Ok, he was interesting as a player. He was successful in his younger days with SVV (who??). And he did win ... 
As Dinamo went into the match with a 3:0 advantage, it was pretty much a routine 90 minutes of football. "Enriched" of course by ... 
Real Madrid lured success coach Guus Hiddink away from Oranje. He managed the team in the EC1996 and the WC1998, in the latter tournament Oranje impressed again. Hosting the EC2000 meant no qualification matches were necessary and Hiddink's assistant Frank Rijkaard was pushed to the fore, with his current Barca sidekick Neeskens on assisting ... 
Guus Hiddink named 25 man squad for Euro 2008.
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Vyacheslav Malafeev (Zenit St Petersburg), Vladimir Gaboulov (Amkar Perm)
Defenders: Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Alexei Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Vasily Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow), Renat Yanbaev (Lokomotiv Moscow)
Midfielders: ... 
sorry to cut this entry short, but will get back to you later with my personal thoughts...
Goalkeepers:
Petr Čech (Chelsea FC)
Jaromír Blažek (1. FC Nürnberg)
Daniel Zítka (RSC Anderlecht)
Defenders:
Marek Jankulovski (AC Milan)
David Rozehnal (S.S. Lazio)
Tomáš Ujfaluši (ACF Fiorentina)
Zdeněk Pospěch (FC København)
Zdeněk Grygera (Juventus)
Michal Kadlec (AC Sparta Praha)
Tomáš Sivok (AC Sparta Praha)
Radoslav Kováč (FC Spartak Moskva)
Midfielders:
Tomáš ... 
Yesterday's final of the Polish Cup (Legia Warsaw defeated Wisla Krakow on penalties) marked the end of the club season in Poland. For all the interested I provide the yearly stats and my opinions on particular players as well. Enjoy.
To start with, the league table:
1 Wisła Krakow 30 games 77 points 68-18 goal ... 
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