No Proper Report

Hello everyone. Sorry about the lack of a proper match report after the Tricolorii’s opening draw with France. In addition to working on this blog, I also work on the main Euro 2008 blog here, and on the site’s podcast, and things have been ridiculously busy trying to keep up with all aspects of the tournament for you guys. I’ll try to concentrate a little more on Romania. Thanks for all the comments and keep them coming.

Two days until the biggest match of the group stage for Romania. Italy is cornered, and they know it. They could come out shooting with their best on Friday, trying to make up for their horrible performance against Holland, or they could retreat and send up the white flags. We won’t know how they react until the game starts. More important, though, is how Romania treats this match. We stopped the French, and the French and Italians are very evenly matched sides.

Also worth taking a look at is Spain, since if Romania manages to finish second in Group C, we would move on to face Spain (or whoever wins Group D) in the quarterfinals. David Villa was scary today, and even though everyone knows their history of falling apart at the later stages, I have to see Spain as the favorite to take the entire tournament.

One thing at a time, though, and the Tricolorii have two days to adjust and prepare for Italy. Not losing to France should give the team a lot of confidence defensively, but we need Mutu and the Niculaes to do something up top as well. I’d personally like to see a lot more of Dica in this next game. He came on late against France, and didn’t have a chance to show off the form that got him two goals in Romania’s last friendly.

Two more days to wait, and some great games to watch in that time, like Portugal v. Czech Republic and Croatia v. Germany. Good luck to Austria and Switzerland in their groups - they played well and I’d like to see them do well. Enjoy the matches, and I’ll talk to you again before the battle with Italy.