Michael Ballack's Rocket Against Austria

Wow, what a screamer for Ballack in Germany's 1-0 win over Austria.

The first goal scored directly from a free kick in this tournament was an absolute beauty.

Euro 2008 Recap--Day 2

Was it just me, or did you all also get a sense of déjà vu when watching today's action from Group B? I felt like I was witnessing yesterday's games all over again.

Consider:

• Both yesterday’s first game and today’s first game ended 1-0, and yesterday’s second game and today’s second game both ended 2-0.

• Co-host Switzerland played first yesterday and controlled the balance of play against their opponent, the Czech Republic, but couldn’t manage to equalize despite their best efforts. Co-host Austria played first today and the same conditions applied; they dominated Croatia for large periods of the game and had their chances to score, but just couldn’t put anything on the board. In both cases, the favorites were outplayed but still won.

• Portugal and Germany, trendy picks to go far in this tournament, struggled to put their lesser opposition away in the second games of the day. They both won 2-0, but neither looked particularly convincing in doing so. Portugal didn’t offer much going forward at times, and Germany gave up plenty of possession and several chances (mostly from long range).

Austria came out to play this afternoon against Croatia, starting the game in an aggressive 3-5-2 formation with the outside center backs going forward whenever the opportunity presented itself.

They certainly looked lively and energetic, but René Aufhauser went a bit too far in the 4th minute when he took down the stocky Ivica Olić inside the box. It was clearly a penalty kick, and the ironic thing is that Olić wasn't really in a position to cause much trouble and Aufhauser had no reason to get tangled up in that challenge. New Tottenham signing Luka Modrić slotted home the penalty -- the fastest converted in the history of the European Championships -- and at that point, the only question looked to be how many goals would Croatia score in the game.

Croatia continued to control the game for the next 15 minutes or so but generated very little in their attacking third. Mladen Petrić had Croatia's best chance for the rest of the game midway through the first half when he was wide open on the left side about 15 yards from goal and settled down a cross with his body, but completely wasted it when he blasted the bouncing ball high and well wide.

Austria's players, to their credit, didn't hang their heads or back down whatsoever. After Petrić's miss, it was pretty much all Austria all the time. Martin Harnik was dangerous on the right side up front all game and laid some nice horizontal passes for onrushing Austrian midfielders, but they couldn't get much on goal.

Josef Hickersberger's three second-half substitutions all had an impact on the game for Austria, and the co-hosts continued to try and ram down the Croatian door. The tournament's oldest player, 38-year old Ivica Vastic, was dangerous alongside the creative Andreas Ivanschitz in the center of midfield. Croatia had little answer for the Austrian onslaught except to sit 9 and 10 men behind the ball and send it long down field whenever they could.

Croatia did do a decent job of keeping Austria's attack largely to the outside and made it tough to penetrate into a good position in the center of the field. Most of the Austrian shots were from the perimeter and were handled well by Croatia's goalkeeper, Stipe Pletikosa. His back line won nearly every critical ball served into the area, but numerous failed clearances gave Austria the ball right back on the outside.

Right at the death, Austria came within inches of leveling the game at 1 when Roman Kienast's redirection of a low out-swinging free kick from Ivanschitz went narrowly wide. Croatia stole the victory, but they won't complain. If Austria continues to play like they did today, they'll earn a point somewhere in their last two games. Croatia will need to put it into another gear; they play Germany next and will come away with nothing if they turn in the same kind of performance. Austria outshot Croatia 16-10, including 6-1 in terms of shots on target, and Croatia's only effort on goal was the early spot kick.

Germany will head into that game also with three points after getting by Poland 2-0 today. The oft-criticized and Polish-born Lukas Podolski netted both goals for his team and took home Man of the Match honors.

Podolski struggled to find his place and perform at Bayern Munich this season, but a player who scores better than a goal every two games at the international level and was the Best Young Player at the 2006 World Cup will always earn a call-up. He certainly justified his place in the starting XI today. Mario Gomez, who many believed should start up top instead of Podolski, did just that, but he was no better than average today. I'd expect to see Podolski start up front alongside his teammate at Bayern, Miroslav Klose, who was also born in Poland, instead of wide left in the game against Croatia. Bastian Schweinsteiger should slide back into that position, which is where he usually plays, and it was a shock to not see him on the field from the outset.

Podolski and Klose combined for Germany's first tally, as the former tapped the latter's square ball into a wide open net after 20 minutes as the two came in alone on the Polish goalkeeper, Celtic's Artur Boruc. Where that goal was all about finesse, Podolski's second was all power -- a screaming volley from 12 yards past Boruc and into the top netting in the 72nd minute to put the game away.

Germany was in control all game long and there's no doubt about that, but they didn't administer the knockout blow until that 72nd minute goal. Before then, Poland was still in the match and had their chances. Leo Beenhakker's team was able to consistently pick up the ball in midfield and work their way forward; they had 52% of possession. They just didn't have that cutting edge when they did have numbers forward and, like Austria, wound up with mostly long range efforts that didn't trouble Jens Lehmann. Brazilian-born Roger Guerreiro came off the bench for Poland, was an immediate sparkplug and played very well, but even his pace and ability wasn't enough to create a goal or score himself to put his team back on equal footing.

Group B Standings (after one game):
1. Germany (3 points, +2 goal differential)
2. Croatia (3 pts, +1)
3. Austria (0 pts, -1)
4. Poland (0 pts, -2)

Play in Group C, the "Group of Death", begins tomorrow, with Romania-France to be followed by the tastiest match of the tournament thus far, Holland-Italy. It's a must-win game for France; they can't afford to not take three points against the weakest team in the group and possibly fall behind right out of the gate.

Euro 2008 Final Rosters--Group B

Austria:

GK (3): Alex Manninger (Siena), Jürgen Macho (AEK Athens), Ramazan Özcan (Salzburg)

DEF (8): Martin Stranzl (Spartak Moscow), Emanuel Pogatetz (Middlesbrough), Ronald Gërçaliu (Salzburg), Markus Katzer, Martin Hiden, and Jürgen Patocka (Rapid Wien), György Garics (Napoli), Sebastian Prödl (Sturm Graz)

MID (8): Joachim Standfest (Austria Wien), Christian Fuchs (Mattersburg), René Aufhauser and Christoph Leitgeb (Salzburg), Ivica Vastić (LASK Linz), Andreas Ivanschitz* (Panathinaikos), Ümit Korkmaz (Rapid Wien), Jürgen Säumel (Sturm Graz)

FWD (4): Roland Linz (Sporting Braga), Roman Kienast (HamKam), Martin Harnik (Werder Bremen), Erwin Hoffer (Rapid Wien)

*Captain

Germany:

GK (3): Jens Lehmann (Arsenal), Robert Enke (Hannover 96), René Adler (Bayer Leverkusen)

DEF (7): Marcell Jansen and Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Arne Friedrich (Hertha BSC), Clemens Fritz and Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Heiko Westermann (Schalke 04), Christoph Metzelder (Real Madrid)

MID (8): Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Torsten Frings and Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen), Michael Ballack* (Chelsea), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburg), Thomas Hitzlsperger (Stuttgart), David Odonkor (Real Betis)

FWD (5): Mario Gómez (Stuttgart), Oliver Neuville (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski (Bayern Munich), Kevin Kurányi (Schalke 04)

*Captain

Poland:

GK (3): Artur Boruc (Celtic), Tomasz Kuszczak (Manchester United), Łukasz Fabiański (Arsenal)

DEF (7): Mariusz Jop (FC Moscow), Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw), Paweł Golański (Steaua Bucharest), Jacek Bąk (Austria Wien), Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht), Michał Żewłakow (Olympiacos), Adam Kokoszka (Wisła Kraków)

MID (9): Dariusz Dudka (Wisła Kraków), Jacek Krzynówek (VfL Wolfsburg), Łukasz Garguła (Bełchatów), Michał Pazdan (Górnik Zabrze), Jakub Błaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund), Wojciech Łobodziński (Wisła Kraków), Mariusz Lewandowski (Shakhtar Donetsk), Rafał Murawski (Lech Poznań), Roger Guerreiro (Legia Warsaw)

FWD (4): Euzebiusz Smolarek (Racing Santander), Maciej Żurawski* (Larissa), Marek Saganowski (Southampton), Tomasz Zahorski (Górnik Zabrze)

*Captain

Note: Croatia's final roster was already named.

Euro 2008 Preview--Group B

I'll get right to it -- here's a look at Group B, comprised of co-hosts Austria, Croatia, Germany, and Poland. If you're a history buff and know anything about war in Europe over the past few centuries, you'll understand why this group could provide some of the tensest, most passionate games in the tournament.

First, the match schedule (all times Eastern):

June 8:
Austria vs. Croatia (Noon; Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna)
Germany vs. Poland (2:45; Wörthersee Stadion, Klagenfurt)

June 12:
Croatia vs. Germany (Noon; Wörthersee Stadion, Klagenfurt)
Austria vs. Poland (2:45; Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna)

June 16:
Austria vs. Germany (2:45; Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna)
Poland vs. Croatia (2:45; Wörthersee Stadion, Klagenfurt)

Austria:

Coached by Josef Hickersberger, Austria will make their first appearance in the European Championships. They gained automatic entry, of course, as a co-host, but this is a country on the rise in soccer as evidenced by their run to the semifinals in last year's FIFA U-20 World Cup.

The captain of that team, Sebastian Prödl, is a tall, commanding center back that has been included in Hickersberger's provisional squad after scoring twice in a senior friendly against Holland on March 26 and is a very good bet to make the final cut. As you can go back and read in my preview and recap of the US-Austria quarterfinal from the U-20 World Cup, won 2-1 by Austria, I came away very impressed with Prödl (who was named to the all-tournament team by Gazzetta dello Sport) and his teammate, striker Erwin "Jimmy" Hoffer, who was deadly off the bench all tournament and scored the game-winning goal against the US. Hoffer is also part of this provisional squad, which is at 31 right now and will be trimmed down to the required 23 after tonight's friendly against Nigeria.

Much of the team remains a mystery to the casual observer; the vast majority of players on the 31-man squad play their domestic soccer in the Austrian Bundesliga, though fans of the Premiership likely will recognize the name of Emanuel Pogatetz, who plies his trade for Middlesbrough and is the starting left-back for country and club. Several other players, Prödl included, have already finalized moves that will take them to clubs outside of Austria after this tournament finishes.

Coupled with the relative anonymity I just mentioned is the fact that Austria, like Switzerland, didn't have to go through qualifying. Hickersberger hasn't had to give anything away or use his full-strength lineup; his team played a whopping 12 friendlies last year and will end up playing four before they start their Euro campaign against Croatia, but you can't take too much from those.

It would be foolish of me to speculate on a possible lineup because I simply don't know enough about the team, but I would assume that Pogatetz, two midfielders, the captain, Andreas Ivanschitz, who also boasts a very nice left foot, and René Aufhauser, a defensive-minded player, and striker Roland Linz all will be in the starting XI. Other than that, I'd like to see Prödl right in the center of the back line and there seems to be a good possibility of that happening.

Avoiding Germany until the third and final group match could be extremely beneficial, as the Austrians aren't likely to get anything out of that game and would have a better chance to get the points they need to advance in their first two games. The critical match is against Poland, in which one would think both teams would absolutely need a victory. In front of their home crowd, it'll be Austria's best opportunity for three points, and they can't afford to let it slip by.

Croatia:

England fans know all about Croatia, the team that ended the Three Lions' hopes of making it to Euro 2008 with a 3-2 victory at Wembley on the last day of qualifying in their group. Croatia had already booked their trip to this summer's tournament as group winners and had nothing to play for, but their no-nonsense, never-quit attitude was enough to spoil England's dreams.

Croatia is coached by Slaven Bilić, who is a hot commodity in the coaching world and already spurned advances from West Ham and several other clubs. This is a guy who speaks three different languages and has a law degree. For those who don't know, trust me, he means business and with him at the helm, Croatia has to be taken extremely seriously.

It all starts at the top with Bilić, but he also has a lot of talent to pick from on his already-finalized roster. After his team's uninspiring 1-0 victory over Moldova earlier this week, Bilić is considering changing from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1 for the Euros. He has the players to do this; the Croatian midfield is absolutely loaded with quality, with Niko Kovač, Ivan Rakitić, Niko Kranjčar, Darijo Srna, and Luka Modrić all in the mix. Up top, Ivica Olić, Mladen Petrić, and Nikola Kalinić will fight it out for what now looks like one spot. In the back, an experienced group led by Dario Šimić and Robert Kovač, as well as Manchester City's impressive young right back, Vedran Ćorluka, are all capable of shutting down the opponent's front line. Stipe Pletikosa will be between the posts, reprising his role from World Cup 2006, which ended in a disappointing early exit for his nation.

This team is loaded, and all of this is without Arsenal’s Eduardo da Silva, who led Croatia with 10 goals in qualifying but as we all remember, suffered a freak injury in January and won’t take any part in the action in June. With a knowledgeable, savvy coach in Slaven Bilic, and talent all across the field, Croatia definitely is capable of making a deep run in this tournament.

Germany:

Perennial tournament favorites Germany enter Euro 2008 in their customary position. As hosts of World Cup 2006, they beat Portugal 3-1 in the third-place game and led all nations in goals scored with 14. They finished second, two points behind the Czech Republic in a ridiculously easy qualifying group for this competition and haven't really been tested in a while on the international level.

The 26-man provisional roster named by coach Joachim Löw is stacked, and just screams 4-4-2. Jens Lehmann, of course, will be in goal, this time without the considerably large shadow of Oliver Kahn lurking behind him. If recent friendlies are any indication, Heiko Westermann and Phillip Lahm will occupy the left and right back positions, respectively, but Arne Friedrich can't be counted out and I'd expect to see him reclaim his right back position from World Cup 2006, which would then shift Lahm over to left back. The twin towers, Per Mertesacker and Christoph Metzelder, will anchor the middle. In the midfield, Michael Ballack and the more rough-and-tumble Torsten Frings will be in the center, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and possibly David Odonkor on the wings. Up front, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski, the Best Young Player of the 2006 WC, will form one of the most lethal strike duos in the tournament.

This is a group Germany should advance from, and although it won't be easy, there is more than enough talent here to do the job. Their first game is against Poland, a rematch of Germany's charged, exciting 1-0 victory in the last World Cup, followed by Croatia and then Austria to close out the group stage. If they come into that game against Austria needing a victory to progress, look out, as that would be one of the must-watch games of the competition.

Poland:

Closing things out on this preview of Group B, let's get to Poland, who will also be making their first appearance in the Europe's continental championship.

Poland won their qualifying group, which was probably the most competitive of its brethren with Portugal, Serbia, Finland, and Belgium all competing. With that said, take a look at their squad and you'll wonder how they did that; Poland has been known in recent years to produce some very good goalkeepers and some above average strikers, but from an outside perspective, there just doesn't appear to be much in the way of talent in the defense and in midfield.

They have a Dutch coach, Leo Beenhakker, who is as experienced as they come and has led many high-profile club teams as well as the Dutch national team. By all accounts, he's blended a solid team together -- winning a qualifying group can't be a fluke, and even though there isn't a lot of name recognition here, Poland will be very competitive.

I know even less about Poland than I do about Austria, so again, but here's my educated guess as to their starting lineup based on the research I did: Artur Boruc will be in goal, although Tomasz Kuszczak and Łukasz Fabiański are also capable at that position. Michał Żewłakow will be ahead of Boruc at left back, with Jacek Bąk and Mariusz Jop in the center and Marcin Wasilewski on the right. In the midfield, veteran Jacek Krzynówek will be on the left in a more advanced role, with both Mariusz Lewandowski and Dariusz Dudka sitting in holding positions and Wojciech Łobodziński, wide right. Up front, the captain, Maciej Żurawski has a guaranteed place, alongside either Southampton's Marek Saganowski or Euzebiusz Smolarek, who led Poland's qualifying group in goal scoring with 9.

Group B Final Prediction (teams in bold advance):

1. Germany -- 7 points
2. Croatia -- 5 points
3. Austria -- 2 points
4. Poland -- 1 point

Tomorrow will be a busy day on the Euro 2008 front, as final rosters have to be submitted. As of right now, five of the 16 nations participating have already trimmed their squads down to the 23-man limit, so simple math tells us that 11 countries will make their final cuts tomorrow.

Here at English Soccer Talk, I'll be previewing Group C, which is this year's "Group of Death" -- Holland, Italy, France, and Romania. I'm planning on handling it like I did on Monday, that is, I'll break it down into two parts, put one up in the early afternoon and the other up by the evening. During that break, I'll be posting the final squads for the countries that haven't already released theirs. To keep the posts short, I'll start by doing the nations in Group A, then a separate entry for what's left of Group B, then Group C, and then Group D. Basically, tomorrow you'll first see my breakdown of France and Holland, then the final rosters, then my previews of Italy and Romania.

So until then, have a good one, everybody.