Awards of the Day: June 15th

Player of the Day: Nihat. Is there any other choice?

Goat of the Day: Petr Cech. I’m convinced he was replaced by an impostor during halftime. It’s the only explanation, right?

Fans of the Day: The lovely adult film actresses to the left who decided to paint their bodies in the colors of the German and Austrian national team colors before participating in some beach event. Way to show your support. (NSFW front sides are way down after the jump.)

Bastian Schweinsteiger Award: Formerly known as “Dumbass of the Day”. Volkan Demirel. What the hell were you thinking, buddy? Ref is looking straight at you, and if a guy the size of Koller goes down, he’s gonna notice. Now you’re out for the quarters at least. Way to go.

And if you’re going to push someone down, at least go down yourself, like in the first clip of this reel:

Idiotic Quote of the Day: “Arguably the world’s best keeper” - Andy Gray on Petr Cech. Arguably a bunch of shit, but one must accept as much given that Cech plays in the Prem. Gianluigi Buffon is still in a class of his own. If he’s keeping today, at best it goes to PKs. At absolute best.

Offside/Nonoffside Goal of the Day: It was a meaningless game and thus goal so it’s going to go under the radar, but this is getting ridiculous. Just one day, how about we get the goal calls right? And it may not be UEFA’s fault, but if you owned a company and in each business meeting your employees fucked up royally, you’d get some of the blame for your hiring qualities at the very least, right? Bet they won’t acknowledge this one either. What a sham.

Today’s winner was Helder Postiga, who was onside before his 1v1 and goal but called off - no video evidence because everyone was occupied elsewhere.

Put Me In Coach Award: Hakan Yakin. HY came in for Frei during the first game, but with 3 goals in the final two games (yeah yeah yeah, exhibition), who knows if he would’ve made a difference in game number one had he played from the start?

What The Hell Is He Still Doing In Portugal Award: Ricardo Quaresma. Watch this perfect rabona in the first 8 minutes. Postiga was offside by a nautical mile (for once), but who really cares? Somebody get this guy into one of the Big 3 leagues.

Fans of the Year: From UEFA.com…

Innsbruck might seem like a long way from Spain or Sweden, but in a telling example of what some supporters will do to watch their side play at UEFA EURO 2008 ™, three fans jumped on a plane on Friday from Santiago in Chile to watch Saturday’s game in Innsbruck – an 18-hour journey – only to take the return trip on Sunday morning.

I bet David Villa has a new trio who would have his babies. Do you think the jet lag put them all into a coma by Monday?

Matchup of the Day: It’s a day early, but who could resist? Germany v Austria.

And the winner is….everyone.