Posts Tagged ‘euro 2012’

Newer Entries »

Roy Hodgson’s Rise To The Top

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Roy Hodgson has confounded the odds by guiding Fulham to the 2010 Europa League final. Italian giants Juventus and holders Shaktar Donetsk were just two of the teams Fulham beat during a memorable campaign.

 

As a player, Hodgson was on the books at Crystal Palace but never made a first team appearance. Hodgson started to make a name for himself when he moved into management. His early career in Sweden saw him win the Swedish title twice with Halmstads in 1976 and 1979.

 

From there, Hodgson moved to Switzerland with Neuchatel Xamax before taking over the Swiss national team who he guided to the 1994 World Cup Finals and the 1996 Euro Finals. For the next 2 season, Hodgson was the manager of the Italian giants Internazionale. Inter reached the UEFA Cup Final in 1997 which was Hodgson’s final season as he headed to England with Blackburn Rovers. The move wasn’t a success and he was sacked after 18 months.

 

For the next few years, Hodgson held a number of managerial positions but never really settled anywhere for long and in 2005, he took over the Finnish national team and took them tantalisingly close to the Euro 2008 finals.

 

At the end of 2007, Fulham offer Hodgson the managers job as at the time, they were struggling in the Premier League and needed a change of direction. Despite some poor initial results, Fulham stayed up and the following season Hodgson had worked his magic as they finished 7th, qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.

 

Fulham’s first season in Europe has been nothing short of spectacular. They have not had an easy route playing the holders, Juventus and the German champions on the way. Now all that stands in their way of glory is Athletico Madrid.

 

But what next for Roy Hodgson? Hodgsons influence on Fulham will have attracted the attentions of bigger clubs. Although Hodgson has been linked with the England job, Fabio Capello is doing a fine job and isn’t going anywhere. Perhaps it is a bit more realistic to think that Hodgson could well take over the English national team after the Euro 2012 finals.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Tips | No Comments »

Thinking About The Euro 2012 Tournament

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

The UEFA Euro 2012 Championships  will be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The competition is the last one to be 16 teams as the following one in 2016 will increase to 24 teams. Poland and Ukraine overcome Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to have the event.

 

The games will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish venues to put on games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian cities will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

 

The final will be held in Kiev which will also hold a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after development will be one of the top stadiums and sporting complexes on earth. The new arena in Warsaw is also being built and guarantees to be a state of the art stadium.

 

The draw for the competition has already been held and qualifying games will start just after the 2010 FIFA World Cup. All of the nine group winners and the best runner-up will have direct entry into the championships. Following that the other eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

 

From Group A you would guess Germany and Turkey would be too resilient with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a 3 way race between Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

 

In Group C it looks like it will be effortless for Italy and Serbia. France is the most likely from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take runner-up.

 

There is a northern European feel to Group E where it should be Netherlands and Sweden.

 

Croatia and Greece are the favorites by way of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

 

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and finally from Group I it would seem to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

 

Qualifying finishes in October 2011 by which time excitement and expectation for the Euro 2012 Championships will be well and truly underway.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Tips | No Comments »

Who Will Qualify From Group G For Euro 2012?

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Qualifying will be hard fought as every team will be desperate to qualify for the UEFA Euro 2012 Finals. In total there are nine groups. The best runner-up will join the nine group winners in the tournament. The remaining 8 runners-up will be drawn into two-legged play-offs. 

One of the main groups of interest in Group G which contains England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales and Montenegro. As the seeded team, England will be favourites to finish top of the group. But having said that, they did miss qualification for the last tournament. 

The main competition will come from Switzerland and Bulgaria. Switzerland have qualified for three of the last four European Championships but not once have they made it past the opening round. They were co-hosts of the last tournament along with Austria. There is nothing special about them but they are a solid team.  

Bulgaria have only qualified for the tournament twice, the last of which was in 2004. They have never progressed to the knock out rounds. They used to be a regular at the World Cup attending every one from 1962 to 1974 and then in 1986 and 1994 where it finished fourth. That last time is was back was 1988. 

Its big name players are Stiliyan Petrov who plays for Aston Villa and Dimitar Berbatov who plays for Manchester United.  

Wales only previous experience with this tournament was in 1976 and that was when it using a completely different format. The eight group winners of which Wales were one were drawn into two-legged playoffs and the winners qualified for the finals in Yugoslavia. That was the team who Wales lost to in the playoffs. This was the last time Wales appeared in the finals of a major tournament. 

Montenegro is only three years old. It used to be part of Yugoslavia and then Serbia and Montenegro. They will struggle to do well in the Euro 2012 Group G.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Tips | No Comments »

Euro 2012 Qualifying Fixtures Decided By UEFA

Friday, April 16th, 2010

The Euro 2012 championships draw for the qualifying groups caused great excitement amongst the fans. Supporters started to think of the new destinations they will travel to during their teams qualifying path to the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Supporters couldn’t make their travel plans until the dates of the qualifying matches were confirmed. Initially, the teams in the 9 qualifying groups were to hold a meeting to attempt to agree the fixtures. The countries are free to chose the fixture dates from a list of international dates between September 2010 and October 2011.

Within weeks of the Euro 2012 Qualifying draw being made, meetings were being held all round Europe and in five of the nine groups, fixtures were agreed which meant supporters could start making their travel plans. For the countries of the four remaining groups, the fixtures were decided by UEFA. England and the Ireland both of whom have large travelling support, were amongst the teams who didn’t agree their fixtures. As a result, loyal supporters had to wait a little longer to make their travel plans. Such delays only served to increase the anticipation and the more cynical supporters believed it was also an excuse for the officials of the various football associations to have another all expenses trip to Tel Aviv.

The countries from the four unresolved groups headed to Tel Aviv to await their fate at the hands of UEFA. The procedure was quite simple. UEFA have a standard fixture list with fixtures such as A v B on a specific dates. All that was left to do was to draw the teams from each group into a letter thus giving the set of fixtures for the remaining four Euro 2012 Qualifying groups. Finally, fans could start planning their trips.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Tips | No Comments »

Newer Entries »