HUMOUR WILL SAVE US ALL

Y’know… out of the 16 teams that are in the finals of the European Championship, only 3 of the nations have won the World Cup. Yes, only 4 European countries have ever won the World Cup, the odd one out here would be England.

So we have Italy, Germany, France. Italy, current world champions, have won it four times, Germany thrice and France once.

But isn’t it weird how those 3 times have been performing below par in this competition. 2 have not won yet and all have lost a match. And 2 of the teams had a pummeling by the same team.

Before the competition started, the papers here said the Netherlands and Romania will have a first round exit, leaving the World Champions and runner-up progress because they were in Group C aka Group of Death (how imaginative are these group names?). The only thing “death-like” about these group is how the Netherlands is “killing” off the teams. And not by 1 or 2 goals, by 3 goal margins! And Romania, kudos to them please. Holding out both previous/current World Cup winners. But the odds are against them now since they have Netherlands and next, and if you see the possible scenarios that would allow a team from Group C to qualify, France have the easiest of them. They just have to beat France and hope that Romania lose to the Netherlands.

I think all this buzz about Portugal, the Netherlands & Spain being perennial underachievers have finally clicked with the teams. These 3 are the only teams that have been showing their prowess. Coincidentally, these 3 teams have the best players if one is talking about class & calibre. Tournament favourites Italy & France are somewhat out of the chase. Previously underdogs, now potential champions. I think you can add Croatia to that pot luck.

Predictions for tonight : Spain wins 3-1, Russian wins 2-1

Predictions for qualifiers : Group A : Portugal (well, duh) & Czech Republic
Group B : Croatia (duh..again) & Germany
Group C : Netherlands & France
Group D : Spain & Russia

Note : I was impressed by Russia against Spain. Russia should at least qualify.

Well, in other news, I’m going down to the National Stadium for the match against Saudi Arabia. Statistically, Singapore have a chance to qualify if they beat the next 2 teams. But…Saudi Arabia have been in the World Cup before (ala Sami Al-Jaber, in my opinion)..let’s just hope.