The Netherlands, but only because I'm Dutch. Sure, we got in the finals in the world cup, but we're not exactly the best team around. Big change it'll be Germany or Spain, I don't know too much about England.

I voted for us here in Denmark.

ToTaL LoLiGe:
See, Smash your taunting is the reason I always want Netherlands to destroy Germany wherever possible. Badstuber's average at best he's a poor mans Gary Cahill. Who needs Klose when we've got Defoe, Klose he's past it. Schwenstiger who? Lampard and Scott Parker are better than Schwenstiger and Ozil combined. Ferdinaned will have Ozil in his back pocket. Chelsea 'beat' Barca which is half of the spanish national team.

You must be joking.

I can agree with you on Badstuber not being a world-class player. As for Miro Klose, he may not even start because of injuries, but seriously, Mario Gomez is a pretty damned good striker, and in his prime, to boot. Lampard and Parker better than Schweinsteiger and Özil? Yeah. Absolutely. In the same parallel dimension in which England can hit penalties, maybe.

Let's face it, neither Germany nor England's teams have changed all that much since two years ago, and last I remember, nobody had Özil in his "back pocket" - on the contrary, he carved England's defence up like a Christmas roast. This kind of confidence may be warranted had England beaten Germany in 2010 - or even put up a fight - but after that drubbing, I would exercise some major humility.

Also, none of England's keepers are worth a crap. Never have been, never will be.

Spain and Germany are the two best teams in the world right now. That is a fact. I still give Spain the edge based on experience, but some of their best players are getting long in the tooth while even Germany's most experienced guys - Lahm, Schweinsteiger etc. - are under 30. Spain are still the favourites now, but Germany should be nigh on unstoppable come Brazil 2014; seriously, look at the Bundesliga and its players who are under 25. Götze. Reus. Schürrle. ter Stegen. Großkreutz. Kirchhoff. Gündogan. Germany's future looks incredibly bright.

I'll support any team who manages to knock England out in the first stage because I hate them and my neighbours who are unbearable while England are still in "with a chance"....

Yeah I'm English and i hate my own team... Deal with it.

SPARTANXIII:
I will do as every Englishman has done before me:

Praise them wholeheartedly and endlessly until their Penalty defeat against Poland in the second round Knock-outs, and then boo them and throw faecal matter at them when they return!

I will do as I've always done:
Watch the first half and assume the second half will be just as good.

SmashLovesTitanQuest:
lol... Cant wait for Ronaldo to CHOKE THE FUCK OUT against Neuer in the group stages. I dont think he cried after the Bayern match, its not done yet. Germany needs to make him cry one way or another.

Hurr hurr!! 145million euros of football player (Kaka's so crap in his dotage and Ronaldo's so whiny, they collectively make one player to me right now) can't score a penalty!! TROLOLOLOLOL!!

Archangel357:
Spain and Germany are the two best teams in the world right now. That is a fact. I still give Spain the edge based on experience, but some of their best players are getting long in the tooth while even Germany's most experienced guys - Lahm, Schweinsteiger etc. - are under 30. Spain are still the favourites now, but Germany should be nigh on unstoppable come Brazil 2014; seriously, look at the Bundesliga and its players who are under 25. Götze. Reus. Schürrle. ter Stegen. Großkreutz. Kirchhoff. Gündogan. Germany's future looks incredibly bright.

... I agree with everything you've said. Though I'm surprised you didn't mention Podolski... which kind of reinforces your point. Still, I don't think Spain are the force they used to be. OK, they're basically Barcelona FC, so the way to beat them is to stand-off them, crunch in when they attack and hit them on the counter. And yeah, Ozil is fucking awesome (regardless that he's playing for Real Madrid) and seeing as how he basically carved up the German backline in the CL semi, I dread to think (no, actually I'm rather entertained by the prospect) of him haring it at the English defence.

OT:

Raven's Nest:
Yeah I'm English and i hate my own team... Deal with it.

Yep, right with you there. I'm British but, good lord, I hate the England team. Hell I reckon the Scotland team has more character.

Anyway, I've supported Germany since... forever, pretty much. And the latest team is probably the first one in twenty years that actually looks good on paper, never mind on the field. Even their 2010 WC team was considered mediocre (again, on paper) at best, and they thrashed England and Argentina (go Thomas!). The 3rd place playoff match wasn't as good, and I remember assholes here saying 'how is 3rd place any good?!'... yeah, fuck you, you would've taken 3rd place for England if it was handed to you.

Holy crap we've actually made the list. I guess I have to pick Croatia now. I'm a bit skeptical about our chances, but then again I don't follow football regulary.

I'm from Sweden, so I'll be supporting them. Don't know how much faith I have in them though, their group is kinda tricky.

Ukraine would probably be considered the weakest team, but they're hosting and will play their hearts out in every game. Could very well advance to the quarter-finals. France and England are always considered strong teams and should be the favorites to advance. Sweden can beat most teams when they are at their best (their brilliant 3-2 victory over the Netherlands a few months back almost brought tears to my eyes) but unfortunately that doesn't happen that often. Especially when Ibrahimovic is playing, for some reason they always play like shit when he's on the field and I don't think that Hamren will have the guts to bench him.

I only found out Ireland were actually in it about 2 weeks ago when we got a Euro 2012 calender from the chipper. Then I found out we were in a group with Spain and Italy. So I immediately stopped caring.

England out of national pride.

We will lose. Badly. We always do.

Archangel357:

ToTaL LoLiGe:
See, Smash your taunting is the reason I always want Netherlands to destroy Germany wherever possible. Badstuber's average at best he's a poor mans Gary Cahill. Who needs Klose when we've got Defoe, Klose he's past it. Schwenstiger who? Lampard and Scott Parker are better than Schwenstiger and Ozil combined. Ferdinaned will have Ozil in his back pocket. Chelsea 'beat' Barca which is half of the spanish national team.

You must be joking.

I can agree with you on Badstuber not being a world-class player. As for Miro Klose, he may not even start because of injuries, but seriously, Mario Gomez is a pretty damned good striker, and in his prime, to boot. Lampard and Parker better than Schweinsteiger and Özil? Yeah. Absolutely. In the same parallel dimension in which England can hit penalties, maybe.

Let's face it, neither Germany nor England's teams have changed all that much since two years ago, and last I remember, nobody had Özil in his "back pocket" - on the contrary, he carved England's defence up like a Christmas roast. This kind of confidence may be warranted had England beaten Germany in 2010 - or even put up a fight - but after that drubbing, I would exercise some major humility.

Also, none of England's keepers are worth a crap. Never have been, never will be.

Spain and Germany are the two best teams in the world right now. That is a fact. I still give Spain the edge based on experience, but some of their best players are getting long in the tooth while even Germany's most experienced guys - Lahm, Schweinsteiger etc. - are under 30. Spain are still the favourites now, but Germany should be nigh on unstoppable come Brazil 2014; seriously, look at the Bundesliga and its players who are under 25. Götze. Reus. Schürrle. ter Stegen. Großkreutz. Kirchhoff. Gündogan. Germany's future looks incredibly bright.

I was joking I'd have to be delusional to think that Parker is better than Schwenstiger and Ozil. But Lampard he's still got it.

Archangel357:
I can agree with you on Badstuber not being a world-class player.

This is really starting to rustle my jimmies.

BADstuber is world class. Hes better than most. He is one of the best center backs in Europe this season. His performance throughout the year has been more convincing than that of high profile defenders like Terry, Pique or Pepe.

The problem is casual watchers do not recognize this. Players like Terry make loads of spectacular tackles. Why? Because their positioning is atrocious at least 3 times in every match, so they have to sprint after another player to stop him with a risky slide tackle. On the other hand, you watch a Bayern game, and see how many times Badstuber is caught out of position. Its happened maybe 5 times in this entire season.

Then look at the cards so called world class defenders have accumulated over the season, and stack it up against Badstubers disciplinary record. And if you have any more doubts, look where Bayern is in Europe. They are in the final. Madrid, Barcelona, the Manchester clubs are not, even though their center backs are supposed to be superior.

ToTaL LoLiGe:
But Lampard he's still got it.

Maybe. His touch in the semi final against Barca leading up to Chelsea's goal was world class. If he does stuff like that in the final in Munich... Worry! Haha.

I´m weirdly scizophrenic about the whole thing.
On the one hand, I´m backing Germany, for obvious reasons (they are holding my familiy hosta... I mean, that´s where I live atm), on the other hand, I would be kind of happy to see England do well again.
Not only because of all my brit friends, but also because I DO remember all the good games we used to have, before England started sucking.

So... go England, I guess ?

I don't like the Euro's because I can't support my back-up team (Mexico) when England inevitably go out dissapointingly in the early stages.

Though maybe with Woy Hodgson we can weally give it a good go.

I guess this is a football tournament or something?
I'll cheer for Sweden then.

SmashLovesTitanQuest:
This is really starting to rustle my jimmies.

BADstuber is world class. Hes better than most. He is one of the best center backs in Europe this season. His performance throughout the year has been more convincing than that of high profile defenders like Terry, Pique or Pepe.

The problem is casual watchers do not recognize this. Players like Terry make loads of spectacular tackles. Why? Because their positioning is atrocious at least 3 times in every match, so they have to sprint after another player to stop him with a risky slide tackle. On the other hand, you watch a Bayern game, and see how many times Badstuber is caught out of position. Its happened maybe 5 times in this entire season.

Then look at the cards so called world class defenders have accumulated over the season, and stack it up against Badstubers disciplinary record. And if you have any more doubts, look where Bayern is in Europe. They are in the final. Madrid, Barcelona, the Manchester clubs are not, even though their center backs are supposed to be superior.

Oh, I'm not saying that Holger isn't any good. He's a very good team player indeed, and he fits very well into Bayern's lineup - also, crucially, he and Manuel Neuer play very well together, which is of supreme importance to both Bayern and Germany's chances of success.

There is a huge gap between saying that somebody is "world class" and saying that he's less than good - hell, I think that the centre back position these days is fairly weak all around, as a matter of fact, and Germany's no exception in that regard. Badstuber is a solid "B", perhaps even a "B+" - but he's no, say, Fabio Cannavaro in his prime.

I'll be supporting my home nation Ireland although given that we're in the same group as Spain,Italy and Croatia I'm not overly optimistic.We'll be doing well to even win a game frankly

Once Ireland inevitably crash and burn then I'm not too pushed who wins it although I'd prefer anyone but England;)

Sweden because Swedish, though we're probably gonna get kicked out if we make it out of the group.

After that, Germany or the Netherlands, because they actually play fun football, aside from, well, *cough*Spain*cough*.

I think England may even have troubles getting out of the group stage this year.

Anyway, my vote goes to Ze Germans. Only team I can see possibly beating them is Spain, but I think that their run will come to an end at the Euros.

Anyone that disagrees, see below.

I think it England want to have any chance of winning in future tournaments, they must get rid of the "old guard" now, to give the younger players some tournament experience. Let's face it, England aren't going to win and I doubt Terry, Gerrard, Lampard etc will be available for the next tournament so get rid of them now.

I'd like the Netherlands to go far, but I think Germany'll take it.

Archangel357:

SmashLovesTitanQuest:
This is really starting to rustle my jimmies.

BADstuber is world class. Hes better than most. He is one of the best center backs in Europe this season. His performance throughout the year has been more convincing than that of high profile defenders like Terry, Pique or Pepe.

The problem is casual watchers do not recognize this. Players like Terry make loads of spectacular tackles. Why? Because their positioning is atrocious at least 3 times in every match, so they have to sprint after another player to stop him with a risky slide tackle. On the other hand, you watch a Bayern game, and see how many times Badstuber is caught out of position. Its happened maybe 5 times in this entire season.

Then look at the cards so called world class defenders have accumulated over the season, and stack it up against Badstubers disciplinary record. And if you have any more doubts, look where Bayern is in Europe. They are in the final. Madrid, Barcelona, the Manchester clubs are not, even though their center backs are supposed to be superior.

Oh, I'm not saying that Holger isn't any good. He's a very good team player indeed, and he fits very well into Bayern's lineup - also, crucially, he and Manuel Neuer play very well together, which is of supreme importance to both Bayern and Germany's chances of success.

There is a huge gap between saying that somebody is "world class" and saying that he's less than good - hell, I think that the centre back position these days is fairly weak all around, as a matter of fact, and Germany's no exception in that regard. Badstuber is a solid "B", perhaps even a "B+" - but he's no, say, Fabio Cannavaro in his prime.

Cannavaro had the benefit of 3 defensive mids shielding him wherever he played. Thats Italian football and pre-Mou Madrid for you. Now the game has evolved and we have started moving away from ultra defensive line ups again, so obviously CBs are going to be more exposed and make more mistakes.

If Cannavaro joined one of the 4 CL finalists right now and returned to old form, he would fuck up a lot more.

I'm sticking to it - Badstuber is world class already, and hes going to get even better.

Colour-Scientist:
Ireland, by default, I suppose.

I never really follow football unless we miraculously start doing well.

So you're like 90% of the people in the country.

"I couldn't give a shite really, but HOLY SHIT WE JUST GOT CHEATED OUT OF THE WORLD CUP FINAL BY THAT BASTARD THIERRY HENRY I WANT TO KILL HIM!"

edit: I'll be supporting Ireland.

BENZOOKA:

Netherlands

_{Take a wild guess who's my favorite player}

Sneijder :D. Robben is better in my opinion though, just because he plays for my favourites Bayern.

OT:Germany, we shall prevail.

Ireland and I'll be laughing my ass off at the dutch getting close and failing miserably again like always ;)

I never watch these things because I honestly don't care, but I support Canada since I am Canadian. Yes.

I'll be supporting Ukraine, and then whoever knocks us out.

Matthew94:
Germany

Because I feel like it. I don't like football that much.

This. If someone asks me, I'll say go Germany (I live in Canada) but I'm not going to actually watch any of the games.

Nobody. :D

Mainly 'cause it annoys the shit out of me when imbeciles start making a fucking racket just because their precious little team won a game of kickball. :(

I'll be pessimistically supporting England.
Once we lose i'll probably support Sweden or the Netherlands.
Although i expect Spain to win.