Quickly adapted to west coast time here in Eugene. I think it suits my internal clock.
Some of the early heats at the Olympic Trials are "interesting" in that they often have 7-8 athletes and the first six advance to the next round. Yes, preliminary races that eliminate one or two athletes. I raise that because the Euro Champs have a similar feel. With the expanded format there are 24 teams in the group stage and 16 advance to the knockout rounds. The first two in each group make it plus four out of the six third place sides. So, 36 matches to eliminate eight teams.
Those four third place spots make the scenario analysis incredibly byzantine. ESPN offers a comprehensive summary, including all the tiebreaking procedures, here. We will not offer a thorough review but rather will simply suggest which of the Matchday 3 contests look the most interesting to us, remembering that the final group stage matches within each group are played concurrently.
Group A - Scotland vs Hungary
Either must win to have a chance to advance and even that might not be enough for Hungary. Germany are already in.
Group B - Croatia vs Italy
Croatia must win to have a chance to advance. Spain are already in.
Group C - Denmark vs Serbia
Denmark are in with a win but even have a slight chance with a draw, if Slovenia lose to England.
Group D - Netherlands vs Austria
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| The caped crusader for France (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) |
Group E - Belgium vs Ukraine on TV while watching Romania vs Slovakia on your computer
All four teams have three points with Romania and Belgium tied with a goal differential of +1, Slovakia in 3rd with 0 and Ukraine at -1. It is possible both could be blowouts by the higher ranked Belgium and Romania but this group has seen much chaos so hard to say. We will likely go with Belgium-Ukraine, mostly to see if Lukaku has any more goals ruled out.
Group F - Czechia vs Turkiye
Czechia have to win to advance whereas a draw is probably enough for Turkiye. Portugal are in.
Offside Again
We've missed enough matches but it seems like the most controversial play so far was the Netherlands potential game winner being ruled out for offside. You can see the play here. No doubt Dumfries is in an offside position. Does he prevent keeper Maignan from making a play on the goal? Maybe. Did Maignan have a prayer of getting to the ball? No. But the Offside Law only references preventing an opponent from playing the ball, not whether he could actually get to it. Since the on-field call was offside, this really shouldn't have taken long to resolve. What would have been really interesting is what would have happened if the call on the field had been a good goal.
Ogee Leading Goal Scorer (or How Do You Say F*** in Turkish?)
With six already, Ogee is in the lead for the Golden Boot. The most egregious of the own goals so far can be seen here. The Turkish defender sends the ball back to where he thought his keeper was positioned only to realize he wasn't there. Probably didn't affect the result but it was a howler.
I Don't Know Who U Are Anymore
Two more losses for the Union, which I guess gratefully I did not see. In Wednesday's 4-3 loss at Cincinnati they got the equalizer at 90+1 minutes only to surrender the game loser at 90+10. On Saturday at home to Charlotte, they fell 0-2. Lots of shots on goal although at 1.0, xG suggests maybe they weren't all that dangerous. The results drop the Union to 11th place, which would not be good enough to make the playoffs, even though the format generously allows nine teams to make it. Yeah, kind of like preliminary heats where six of the seven finishers advance.
Hopefully set up here to see the third matchday group stage contests, either live or by DVR.
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