Ah hem. At any rate, I once again took a chance to update the Euro rankings. Granted, it's a short tournament, so maybe things should swing more, but the formula I've come up with essentially tracks momentum gradually, which I feel is as important as game to game results. So despite some teams booking a ticket to the next round and some teams booking tickets home, there weren't any crazy swings this week. Russia is still top dog with Spain and Germany close behind, and, a big surprise to me, at least, the French sitting in 4th. Ukraine probably got dealt the biggest blow. Anything but advancing would be horrific for them, in my opinion. And while I'd be surprised if Poland holds on and advances, their showing against Russia was a good one, and they may just have enough to get into the knockouts, where anything can happen.
Actually, now that we're on the topic, the Dutch showing has been the worst performance so far. And I'd like to point out that my formula had sort of predicted that since the pre-Euro rankings. Math wins again!
Here's the table.
Team
|
Ranking
|
Change
|
Rating
|
Russia
|
1
|
NC
|
2.00
|
Spain
|
2
|
+1
|
2.67
|
Germany
|
3
|
+1
|
4.33
|
France
|
4
|
+3
|
6.00
|
Ukraine
|
5
|
-3
|
6.33
|
Portugal
|
6
|
+2
|
7.67
|
Denmark
|
7
|
-2
|
8.00
|
Sweden
|
8
|
-3
|
9.00
|
Italy
|
9
|
NC
|
9.33
|
England
|
9
|
+2
|
9.33
|
Croatia
|
11
|
-1
|
9.67
|
Czech Republic
|
11
|
NC
|
9.67
|
Greece
|
13
|
NC
|
12.33
|
Poland
|
14
|
+2
|
12.67
|
Ireland
|
15
|
-1
|
13.33
|
Netherlands
|
16
|
-1
|
13.67
|
Does this mean we can make some predictions? Yes. Yes it does.
The Czech Republic over Poland in a close game, ending Poland's (and my own) hope's for European glory.
Russia over Greece(should be another LeBron style slam dunk)
Portugal over the Netherlands (I'm really excited for Ronaldo vs Robben)
Germany over Denmark (sorry Puma)
Spain over Croatia (is Torres back!?!)
Italy over Ireland (will Balotelli show up? I think some day he's just going to play a game while wearing sunglasses, because fuck you, that's why)
Ukraine over England (again, probably an unpopular pick against an English team with nothing to lose and gaining Rooney)
France over Sweeden (nothing witty to add)
And, finally, props to the Ireland traveling fans. Man I would have loved to have been in the stadium for this.
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