Euro 2008 Preview--Group D (Part 2)

Spain:

On paper, this team is stacked. There's no other, more profound way to put it. Player for player, Spain is loaded and may have the most individual talent in this tournament.

The key for coach Luis Aragonés is to mold that talent into a TEAM that can really make a deep run. That will be no easy feat; despite the quality of players Spain has produced over the years, they've won only one senior international tournament -- the 1964 European Championship, which they hosted. It's been one disappointing exit after another since then. In Euro 2004, La Furia Roja didn't even make it out of the group stage and at the World Cup two years later, they lost in the Round of 16 with largely the same core of players that will be on the field this June. Like England, Spain is a perennial underachiever, but unlike the Three Lions, Spain has a chance to at least partially wipe out that stigma in this competition.

Spain qualified with relative ease, as their only stiff competition was fellow Group D contender Sweden. Aragonés' men split their two meetings with Sweden, with both teams winning on their respective home fields, but were able to gain two more points against the rest of the teams in the group.

Depending on who you listen to, Spain has the world's best goalkeeper between the sticks in Real Madrid's Iker Casillas, who has been his country's first choice in net since World Cup 2002. His only Madrid teammate on the Spanish roster, Sergio Ramos, will be at right back and is another guy who is one of the best players in the world at his position. Carles Puyol, though without much technical skill and ability, is an inspirational leader in the center of defense and works as hard as anyone. Joining Puyol in the center will be Valencia's Carlos Marchena. At left back, Joan Capdevila had a terrific season for Villarreal and will likely get the nod over Fernando Navarro. All in all, the back line (aside from Ramos) is the weak link of the Spanish team, and can be exploited in the middle and on Capdevila's side by quick, pacey teams who play through balls for that speed to run on to.

Xabi Alonso is a very good bet to start ahead of Marcos Senna and sit right above the back four, where the former's wonderful long-range passing ability is perfectly suited. Ahead of him will be the more attack-minded Cesc Fàbregas and Xavi, no slouches at passing themselves. A lack of quality wingers (and depth in those positions) in the Spanish game right now has forced Aragonés' hand; he has to play three central midfielders and rely on his full-backs to give the team width, but that limits their ability to help cover ground that Spain's slow-footed center backs can't get to.

Up top, Liverpool's Fernando Torres will lead a deadly, three-pronged front line, flanked on the right by David Silva and on the left by Andrés Iniesta, who is used to playing in that role for Barcelona.

One thing is for certain, Spain has the capability and the players to score goals, but I'm not sure how reliable their back line is. They have a top-notch goalkeeper in Casillas, but even he can't stop everything if his defense puts him in too many tough spots. That offensive ability alone should be enough to get them out of the group stage, but once the big boys come around, Spain's weaknesses in the back can be taken advantage of.

Sweden:

Wrapping up the Group D preview we have Sweden, a nation, like its Scandinavian neighbors, for whom soccer is by far the secondary sport. As a result of that, Sweden has never really earned a place at the "big kids table" with the likes of traditional soccer-crazed countries, despite the fact that they've reached a World Cup final and finished third in 1994, a Euro semifinal, and have made consistent, significant strides forward in recent years.

Sweden's coach, Lars Lagerbäck, has been at the helm since 2000 (as "joint-coach" from 2000 until after Euro 2004) and is the longest-tenured of his peers at this tournament. Under his tenure, Sweden has qualified for five straight major international tournaments, something that had never been done before in the history of Swedish soccer.

He has an experienced team, one that is probably at the very peak of its livelihood. Most of the players on the roster are at the point in their careers where regression, rather than development, will be expected in the future and if Sweden doesn't put a nice run together in this tournament or in World Cup 2010, which is less likely because it's two more years of age on this current crop of players, a period of growing pains could result.

In goal will be Andreas Isaksson, who was out of favor at Manchester City this year under fellow Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson. Fredrik Stoor will be at right back, with Olof Mellberg moving to the center after playing on the right for Aston Villa this season. Alongside Mellberg, Daniel Majstorović should see off the challenge of Andreas Granqvist and get the starting nod, and the versatile Mikael Nilsson will be on the left.

Tobias Linderoth was a major concern due to injury heading into the final roster cut-down date, but Lars Lagerbäck obviously had his worries eased through encouraging reports because Linderoth was included. He'll sit right above the back four in a holding role, with Christian Wilhelmsson ahead of him on the right wing, Freddie Ljungberg, the captain, on the left, and either Anders Svensson (more experienced, better on dead balls) or Kim Källström (younger, more of a playmaker with his passing ability, and can whip balls in from open play) in the middle.

Henrik Larsson, stive alive and kicking (or scoring, in this case) at the age of 36, will provide that ounce of subtlety, creativity, and quality in the area than his more straightforward, powerful strike partner, Zlatan Ibrahimović, who has an attitude nearly as bad as that of Antonio Cassano, but that same ability to score goals at will when his mind is right and has come up with a few peaches in his day. Together, the two are a lethal duo up front and will put a few goals in the back of the net for Sweden.

Sweden will look at their games against Greece and Russia as necessary victories, because while Greece has the discipline and Russia has the coaching and work rate to take points from Spain, Sweden is above-average in all categories and doesn't do one particular thing well enough to overcome superior talent. Taking six points from those two teams would be enough to go through, so that will be their main focus.

Group D Final Prediction (teams in bold advance):

1. Spain -- 7 points
2. Russia -- 5 points
3. Sweden -- 4 points
4. Greece -- 0 points

Euro 2008 Preview--Group D (Part 1)

Apologies for the delay in getting this out, but here we go, it's the final group preview for Euro 2008. Next week, I'll make my predictions for the knockout rounds, with the quarterfinals on Monday, semifinals on Wednesday, and the final on Friday. That will lead us nicely into the weekend, when the second-largest international tournament in the world finally kicks off.

To start, here's the fixture schedule for Group D (all times Eastern):

June 10:
Spain vs. Russia (Noon; Tivoli-Neu Stadion, Innsbruck)
Greece vs. Sweden (2:45; Wals Siezenheim Stadium, Salzburg)

June 14:
Sweden vs. Spain (Noon; Tivoli-Neu Stadion, Innsbruck)
Greece vs. Russia (2:45; Wals Siezenheim Stadium, Salzburg)

June 18:
Greece vs. Spain (2:45; Wals Siezenheim Stadium, Salzburg)
Russia vs. Sweden (2:45; Tivoli-Neu Stadion, Innsbruck)

Greece:

2004 marked the first time that Greece had qualified for the European Championships in 24 years, so expectations were understandably tempered. Under the helm of a German, Otto Rehhagel, however, the Greeks pulled off the shock of all shocks by winning the whole thing, defying odds that had them as 150-1 underdogs to do just that.

Let’s be clear. Greece isn’t a traditional soccer nation and will never have the same prestige and talent that some other European countries do. They have a hard time qualifying for international tournaments, much less doing well in them, and we all know that what Rehhagel’s team was able to accomplish four years ago was a fluke. They didn’t even make it to the World Cup in 2006.

Under Rehhagel, though, Greece will never be blown out in a game and they’ll always have a fighting chance to take a positive result. He is a defensive-minded, disciplined coach whose teams are well-organized and have good camaraderie on and off the field. None of his players stand out that much more so than the others, so there’s never a problem with that “star complex” that we’ve seen with high-profile players like Didier Drogba or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who, as the leader of Sweden’s front line, will be up against the stalwart Greek defense.

Greece breezed through qualifying for this tournament, but there were no other countries that posed any significant threat. The key players on this team are all in their late-20’s or early-30’s, so while they were in their prime in 2004 and in qualifying, I’m not sure how much they have left in the tank for this tournament.

With that said, this team’s strength has never been their pace and athleticism. They’ll slow the tempo down to a stand-still at times. They tackle hard and furiously, and they really try to lock down the middle of the field and make their opponents beat them from the wings.

Antonios Nikopolidis will be in goal and at 36 years of age, probably will be making his last significant international appearances for Greece, so you know he’ll want to go out in style. Much like David James, he can be impenetrable when on the top of his game, but he also is very susceptible to the odd calamity every now and then. He has two impressive, attack-minded full-backs ahead of him — Giourkas Seitaridis on the right, and right-footed Vasilis Torosidis on the left. In the middle, 6′5″ Traianos Dellas and Sotirios Kyrgiakos, only one inch shorter, should win most every aerial battle in the area.

In the midfield, I think we’ll see a compact, three-man group. Benfica’s Kostas Katsouranis is very versatile and has become a good all-around player from his roots as a true defensive midfielder, the captain, Angelos Basinas, is a field general that is also hard-nosed and can tackle, and little Giorgos Karagounis has the most creativity on the team and is great from the set piece.

Up front, Theofanis Gekas, who led the German Bundesliga in the ‘06-’07 in goal scoring with 20 and scored 11 this season in 26 league games at Bayer Leverkusen, will play in the middle, Ioannis Amanatidis will be on Gekas’ right and drop deep, and Angelos Charisteas, who scored the winning goal in the Euro 2004 final against Portugal, will drift to the left.

Greece absolutely must get to their third and final group game against Spain with four points already in the bag, because they have absolutely no chance of coming out of that match with anything and four points will be the minimum to progress.

Russia:

Guus Hiddink is one of the most underrated, under-appreciated coaches in the world and with him at the helm, Russia has a realistic chance to advance out of this group. Hiddink has taken his native Holland to the World Cup semifinals, South Korea to the same stage in 2002, and Australia to the Round of 16 in 2006, where the Socceroos were eliminated by Italy after a terrible refereeing decision, which resulted in a penalty kick, went against them late and allowed Italy to escape in a game in which they were easily the inferior team.

Hiddink is inventive (three different formations with those three nations in the World Cups), charismatic, and popular; he is already in demand as his contract with Russia will expire after this tournament. He led Russia to this tournament from a group that included England, Israel, and Ukraine, so he’s already playing with house money in the sense that Russia was no lock to reach this point, especially having not even gotten to the last World Cup.

Like him, this Russian squad is very underrated and is capable of causing a “surprise”, although calling it that would be a disservice to the Russians and their abilities. Igor Akinfeev is one of the best young goalkeepers in Europe; he plays for CSKA Moscow and had a clean sheet streak of 362 minutes in only his second campaign in the Champions League. At just 22 years of age, he is his nation’s present and future at that position.

Ahead of him is a solid back line, which is laden with competition for three of the four spots. There are the veterans — the Berezutskiy twins and Sergei Ignashevich, each of whom, like Akinfeev, play for CSKA Moscow – who may all start, but a capable, less experienced group made up in part by Denis Kolodin and Roman Shirokov, who plays for current UEFA Cup holders Zenit St. Petersburg, are challenging for starting positions as well. Alexander Anyukov, who also plays for Zenit, is the only sure bet in the back four and will be on the right, and if I had to guess, I would go with experience and familiarity and say that Ignashevich and Alexei Beruzutskiy will be in the center, with Vasili Berezutskiy at left back.

In the midfield, Hiddink has been using two holding midfielders — Konstantin Zyrianov, who scored the second goal in Zenit’s 2-0 victory over Rangers in the UEFA Cup final and the reigning Russian Footballer of the Year, and Igor Semshov. Ahead of those two is a group of three, normally led by an absolutely fantastic attacking midfielder, Andrei Arshavin, another Zenit player, but Arshavin is suspended for the first two group games and his absence will be a huge blow. On the right, the blindingly quick Vladimir Bystrov will give opposing defenses fits all game long, and the creative but more defensive-minded Yuri Zhirkov will play wide left.

On his own up front will be Roman Pavlyuchenko, who has carved out a very successful career in the Russian Premier League and has been either the top goal-scorer or the joint top goal-scorer in the division in the last two years for Spartak Moscow.

Arshavin’s presence will definitely be welcomed back in the third game but until then, Russia will need to find a way to make due. Coming up with four points against Spain and Greece would put them in a terrific position with Arshavin coming back, but three points is more likely. Russia’s last game is against Sweden, and it could be a winner-take-all 90 minutes.

The second half of this preview, covering Sweden and Spain and my final prediction for Group D’s standings, will be up by some point this evening, so make sure to check back later.

I Want You..To Join English Soccer Talk's Fantasy League for Euro 2008

As you all know, both from my previews here (Group D's will be out later today, with my knockout round predictions early next week) and from coverage elsewhere, Euro 2008 is right around the corner.

I get comments on my posts and E-mails all the time from readers saying that I know nothing about the beautiful game, I'm too young to know what I'm talking about, blah blah blah, all that good stuff. That's fine, I can deal with that, and you're entitled to your own opinions.

With that in mind, I'm sure you'd all like a chance to prove me wrong and show that you can beat me in something. Here's your opportunity.

Sign up for the official fantasy game of Euro 2008 and prove just how superior you are by getting more points than me. I'll be in two leagues, the EPLTalk.com league, run by our friends over at EPL Talk, and my own league here at English Soccer Talk.

It's free and easy to register, so just follow a few easy steps:

1. Visit http://en.fantasy.euro2008.uefa.com

2. If you’ve registered in the past for the Champions League fantasy game, just login. But if you haven’t registered before, click the “Register” link underneath the McDonald’s logo.

3. After you’ve logged in and/or registered, pick your team (one goalie, 10 field players, one substitute)

4. After selecting all 12 players on your team, click on the “Leagues” link on the top navigation bar underneath the word “Rules”

5. Finally, in the “Join a Private League” section, enter the following code to join the English Soccer Talk private league: 26373-5432

The game rules and point scoring methods are all there for you to keep in mind when selecting your team, and it'll be a fun time. Again, here's your chance to make me look dumb, something I know you all are interested in doing.