Kicking Off Euro 2008

This summer's soccer spectacular, Euro 2008, takes place in Austria and Switzerland beginning this Saturday and concluding with the June 29 final in Vienna. Held every four years like the World Cup, the UEFA European Championships is the most prestigious soccer tournament for European nations and will capture the attention of soccer fans around the world.

Sixteen nations went through just over a year-long qualification tournament to reach the Euro 2008 finals. The teams have been drawn into four groups of four.

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Switzerland	Austria	Netherlands	Greece
Portugal	Croatia	Italy	Spain
Czech Republic	Germany	Romania	Sweden
Turkey	Poland	France	Russia

Each team plays a round robin against the other three teams in its group. The top two teams advance from each group into the knockout quarterfinal stage.

Group A

There are no easy games in this group. While Portugal, on paper, might appear stronger than others, let's not forget they drew six out of 14 games in the qualifying tournament and had trouble putting teams away. Still, with the world's best soccer player, Cristiano Ronaldo, at his peak, Portugal has to be favored to make it through. Portugal hosted Euro 2004 and made it to the final only to lose to Greece in a shocking upset.

The Swiss are certainly capable of finishing in the top two with the home field advantage, while the Czechs will be at less than full strength given the absence of captain Tomas Rosicky due to injury. Turkey finished third at the 2002 World Cup but has been inconsistent since then, barely qualifying for Euro 2008.

Group B

Great things are expected from Germany this summer. The World Cup was theirs to win on home soil two years ago but now everybody's expectations are much higher. Michael Ballack had a good finish to his season with Chelsea, featuring prominently in the midfield. Goalkeeper Jens Lehmann will be playing in his last major tournament.

Croatia is missing their Brazilian-born striker Eduardo, who was instrumental in ensuring their qualification group win. Poland topped Portugal in the qualification tournament but is never thought of as a serious threat in major tournaments. Austria, as co-host, qualified automatically and will probably go three and out.

Group C

There always has to be one group to fear in every major tournament, and Group C is it for Euro 2008. Due to some odd rankings at the time of the drawing, the two teams that battled in the World Cup final in Germany two years ago—Italy and France—face each other again. Throw in 1988 European champion Netherlands and the impressive Romanians and you have a mouth-watering group.

My pick to win it all is Italy, so I expect their team with Luca Toni, a rejuvenated Alex Del Piero, and the world's best goalkeeper Gigi Buffon to do just enough to win the group. No captain Fabio Cannavaro though, as an ankle injury in training relegated him to the sidelines.

France, without Zidane, will rely heavily on Franck Ribery and Thierry Henry to make the quarterfinals. The Dutch have attacking threats with Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, and potentially Robin van Persie, along with a stingy defense. Romania would be good enough to make the quarters in any other group except this one.

Group D

Defending champion Greece had the best record (10–1–1) in the qualification tournament—albeit from the weakest group. The Greeks won't catch anybody by surprise this time with their air-tight defense and aerial threats from set plays. So do they have any new tricks up their sleeves?

Spain is once again laden with talent and will try to shake the tag of chokers in big occasions. Spain should make the quarters if their players play to their potential. The overachieving Swedes typically do well in the group stage, and can be very difficult to break down. Russia qualified ahead of England under Dutch coach Guus Hiddink's guidance, and simply reaching Euro 2008 may have been good enough for them. Group D is a wide-open group with Greece and Spain favored to progress.

The 31-match soccer tournament's 1.05 million tickets have already sold out. For soccer fans in North America, plenty of television coverage awaits as ESPN will carry the games. Just sit back and enjoy!