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Group of Death, etc.

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The real action of Euro2008 kicks off today with Romania, France, The Netherlands and Italy all playing. This weekend most of the best action was off the pitch (see IM's earlier post). Croatia looked decidedly average, Germany played well and put the recent US defeat of Poland in context, and the Swiss' vaunted defense isn't likely to be enough to get them out of the group stages, especially with the loss of Frei.

I'm looking forward to seeing the post-Zidane French and how Ribéry performs. He is a joy to watch. I loved his play in the World Cup and saw several Bayern matches late this season when a German friend was visiting. He was unquestionably their spark plug. His frenzied pace draws a lot of attention and makes you forget sometimes just how balanced and creative he is out there.

Finally, Tim Howard was sensational last night in the US friendly against Argentina and single-handedly kept it from being an embarrassment. If he hadn't Hoovered up everything in sight early, it would have been a deflating 2-0 or 3-0 Argentina out of the gate and could have ended up looking like their dismantling of Serbia in the last World Cup. Those saves let the rest of the squad get its act together and put up a respectable effort. Without that, instead of ending this string of friendlies on a positive note, the question would be what in the hell has to be done with this squad heading into the qualifiers.

All that said, it is a pleasure to watch Argentina. They make it look effortless at times and every time Messi has a touch you know something spectacular can happen.
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