The Lions' Pride

Sent out an email to all friends and associates that we will be glued to TV for Euro, except for Church on Sunday, and we may move Church times for this. Fifa website had new rankings, the Germany group is toughest, the Poland group is easiest based on Rankings. Some believe there is conspiracy in eufa because of the seeding in groups. How do you put 4 of the top 5 teams in Europe in one group and have one group with no one in top 25?

Poland v. Greece to kick things off today, gotta figure as one of the host nations Poland's spirits are lifted, I think they get the three points to start off behind a Lewandowski tally. Love Szczesny in net as well for Poland. If Greece play their normal 9/10 men behind the ball and hope for a goal off set pieces, this could get tough to watch.

1-0 Poland
2-0 Russia

Hard to believe, but the world doesn't revolve around AFC. Kerzhakov is their main forward, and he's been in good form. Their defense is solid, and they have one of the best keepers in Europe. Russia is unbeaten in their last 14 matches. They're a real threat in this tournament.

You could probably provide more insight, but why have they fallen off so drastically from a decade ago? They were a powerhouse. Believe me, I'll be rooting for the Cech's.

i cannot wait. group B is gonna have consistently great games. and I am a Germany fan. It's almost unfair how many young midfielders they have. I hope that Germany and I guess the Dutch go through. I got my entry in yesterday night

Szcz had a rough day...not characteristic of him whatsoever. Tough blow for him to miss the next match as well.

Not sure how many saw the games, but watched live. Poland played well in first 30 minutes and had multiple chances, after the first goal, they played less aggressively and gave up too much space to Greece to who took advantage. The Spanish ref was not to be denied the spot light and called several fouls that were clearly fouls, but not yellow and bang Greece is down a man going into the second half. Poland did not respond well to being up a man, already having lost their tempo with the goal, they continued to give up space. The second half was not much better and Greece evened the score as Poland did not mark well in box. Greece continued to pressure the Pols and almost went up a goal, but the Pol keeper took out the breakaway, 11 meter, red card. The substitute goal keeper for Poland had no problem stopping a Arjen Robben shot to the right, slow and not powerful enough. Both teams had chances but nothing substantial and the scored ended 1-1. Will be interesting to see which team of these two comes out of this group.

Russia v Czech. Had high hopes for the Czech scoring upset, but their defense was so porous it was sad. Russia had chance after chance penetrating the Czech defense. Czech also had scoring chances and brought it back to 2-1 in second half, but the Russian attack was too much and they easily won 4-1. Russia is clearly the favorite coming out of this group, but who takes the second spot? I like the Pols, but am not so sure after the game last night.

I may be alone in this, but I'm more excited for todays first game. Denmark isn't a bad squad and Bendtner can make something happen against the Dutch back line, but I can't wait to watch the Netherlands. I picked them to win it all at the last world cup and they came up one win short, but they have a ton of talent. To have players like Elia coming off the bench is impressive.

We are only 16 mins in and Denmark has about 5% of the possession ... Not going to work. They better hope lightening strikes.

Netherlands looks really good. Just a matter of time.

I think Denmark doesn't want to push up and attack the midfielder so they will play back for awhile.

I totally forgot Denmark was in the top 10 Fifa rankings.

What a pass from Sneijder! Too bad they couldn't convert.