Friendly Day for Four Euro Teams … Make That Three

May 24th, 2008 | By: Ian Rose | 8 Comments »

Today, four of the sixteen teams going for Euro glory had warmup friendlies against sides that didn’t manage to qualify for the big show in SwissAustria. Three came away with pretty decent wins. The fourth ran into a wall, and that wall goes by the name of Erwin Koeman.

Dirk Kuyt (pictured) opened the scoring for Holland in what ended up a 3-0 romp over Ukraine. Switzerland had a nice win as well, preparing for their Euro home stand with a 2-0 result over Slovakia. Croatia only managed a single first-half goal, but it was enough to take care of Moldova, 1-0. Three matches, three wins, and three clean sheets … not a bad way to prepare for Euro 2008. And then there was Greece.

The defending European champions had, like the others, a relatively soft opponent lined up for their pre-tournament friendly. Unlike the others, though, Greece’s opposition, Hungary, has themselves a new coach. This was Erwin Koeman’s first match in charge of The Magical Magyars of Hungary, after a disappointing end to his stint at Feyenoord, where he steered the Dutch giants to a 7th place finish in this year’s Eredivisie. But he started off his international career with a bang today, beating Greece 3-2, on the strength of goals from Balazs Dzsudzak, Roland Juhasz and Krisztian Vadocz. After Greece opened the scoring, the match was all Hungary, and the scoreline actually makes it seem closer than it was, with Greece’s second goal coming as a late consolation, the match already out of reach.

No kind of good news this for the defending champions. After watching the video of how Hungary opened up the Greek defense, Russia, Spain and Sweden will be hungry for their own goalfests when play in Group D starts up on June 10.



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Comments
Username By Natasha | May 24th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
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Can’t wait for the Euro Cup to start in June! Go Italy Go …..

Natasha

Posted from Canada Canada

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Username By TIM | May 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
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BOOOOOO ITALIA

Posted from Canada Canada

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Username By Infectioner | May 25th, 2008 at 4:25 am
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Balazs Dzsudzak. Ahhhh~ the greatest young player in FM08 lol

Posted from Malaysia Malaysia

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Username By -nickt.- | May 25th, 2008 at 5:39 am
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BOOOOOO TIM

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Username By Nikki | May 25th, 2008 at 6:22 am
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“And then there was Greece”??? They won ALL but ONE qualifying game and now lost this ONE game mostly due to absent players because of previous commitments to other teams. ELLAS Euro Champs AGAIN!

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Username By Adrian | May 25th, 2008 at 7:50 am
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Nikki: Most teams will be full strength by now. But I agree, test wins/losses should not be overly valued. The important thing with tests is to get automatisms going. Also, many teams will train hard at the moment, so they’d be a bit worn out for test matches. All that counts is 7th July and thereafter.

Posted from Australia Australia

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Username By Ian Rose | May 25th, 2008 at 8:57 am
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I didn’t mean to say that the sky was necessarily falling for Greece, just that wins at this stage are good for morale, which is why teams tend to line up relatively weak opponents. It’s rare that two really high quality teams will face off before a big tournament, because neither wants to get beat up before the big show. Greece was always going to have a very tough time this year defending their title. A loss to Hungary isn’t the end of the world – it’s just not a good sign.

Posted from United States United States

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Username By Nikki | May 26th, 2008 at 5:43 am
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No…not a good sign but probably a good wake up call. They were still riding high from beating Portgual again late March in that friendly. I agree they will have a tough time defending their title mostly because all the other teams are taking them a little more seriously now and they are no longer the underdogs.

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