[bookmaker011]

there are three eastern european team this summer to compete on euro 2000.
my assessment about the teams:
romania - extremely tough group. i predict victory against germany and draws with england and portugal. this could be engouh for the quater-finals where they would face to italy, sweden, turkey or host belgium. if they pass to 1-4 finals the draw is good so they can hope to 1-2 finals. but i think that romania IF reaches 1/4 that would be a great result and everything above that is fantastic for them.
the pros and cons
the brialiance of hagi who is simply the best eastern european in the last 20 years who is able to assist, score. his contribution to the team is priceless.
defense is stabile with popescu on the top of it but the weakest part of the squad is midfield. part from hagi i don't see some other players able to produce fluent performance throughout the whole match. attack is very strong with the magician "cobra" ilie, mutu and very dangerous moldovan.
prediction: 1-4 finals

turkey - watching galatasaray few weeks ago i was simply impressed by their performance. they played attacking football with extremely lot of running.
victory against sweden and belgium and loss against italy what would bring them 1/4 finals and there the story would be finished.
solid defense, very good midfield with tayfur havutcu and sergen yalcin and the attack is excellent with hakan sukur and arif.
prediction: 1/4 finals

yugoslavia:
not becasue i am serb but th e strongest eastern european team at the moment considering the players but the overall game is on the lowest level. we can win the euro but also go home after the first stage.
victories against slovenia and norway with draw against spain would provide us the first place in the group. in 1/4 finals we have a tough job against either france(hopefully) or holland but also chezchs have some prospects. if we mannage to pass this obstacle than nobody will stop us but lets be realistic. 1/4 final stage is more than realistic and for everything above that we will need to rise our level of performance which is quite low at the moment(games versus china and south korea). there are only two weeks before the euro and i am afraid that there is little time to change the whole conception of the team.

THE DREAM IS: to watch in semi-finals yugoslavia vs romania/turkey

 

[Argentina]

well, one dream will come true and thats ROMANIA IN THE SEMI FINALS.

HAI ROMAMIA!!!

 

[EclipsE]

Last time I checked Czech Rep is in Eastern Europe. But I don't know enough about them to have a breakdown.

So here's my breakdown for Yugoslavia and Romania:

Romania:

Strenghts: Counterattacks are very dangerous. Hagi, Munteanu and Petrescu create a lot of fast breaks with great passing.
Freekicks has to be considered as another huge stregh with Hagi, Galca and Ilie all being able to strike with deadly precision.
Goaltending/Defense, I am not going to say this is a major strengh but my country has proven from time to time that they could shut down teams if they want to. Goaltending (Stelea mainly) could come up brilliant at the right times.

Weaknessess: Spirit, sometimes we tend to not try very hard if the game doesn't seem to be going our way.
Fouls, our team tends to be very violent sometimes causing red cards or dangerous freekicks and penalties. The 3 goals scored in the 10 qualifier games all were from set pieces. 1 pen, 2 freekicks.

Prediction: At least semi's, if not winners!! Seriously.

Yugoslavia:

Strenghs: Talent. Their talent level is very good. Goals could come off one players magic.
Freekicks, Mihaljovic is one of the best if not the best freekick taker in the world. He could change the outcome of a game with one sweet left foot shot.
Midfield, the Serb midfield is very tough and could easily dominate games if they work togehter, but that's only if they work togehter. Stankovic - Jugovic - Stoikovic - Drulovic have great potential.

Weaknessess:

Defense/Goaltending: Defense, hmm I think Djukic is your best central defender at the moment and he is iffy at times too. I really hope they are not going to have to depend too much on the defense to bail them out. There is a bright spot and he is a young prospect in the Yugo league who is great on the flanks, sorry I forgot his name though. The goaltending is not very stable, Kralj could be a costly choice in the net.

Chemistry, how many times have we heard it? You could have all the talent in the world and if your players don't "mesh" together they will get no where. I think sometimes the Yugo players try to hard to show off for themselves instead of making the simple pass. This could lead to a lot of turnovers and mistakes, which ultimately lead to bad team spirit and temporary hatred.

Prediction: Quarter-finals and beyond but could crash out in the group stage to Norway and Spain.

[This message has been edited by EclipsE (edited 01-06-2000).]

 

[Mijatovic]

There are actualy 5 Eastern European teams(Yugoslavia,Romania,Czechs,Turkey and Slovenia) all with great hopes of pulling of something special.

ROMANIA:
Work well together and have tremendous experiance,have worked together for a long time and they know eachother well,Hagi and Ilie are the men to watch out for.
Problem is there ageing squad and they cannot keep up with a fast team like Portugal so they will have to use all there experiance to counter opposotions speed.


TURKEY:
Have at this moment one of the best teams they have ever had.Suker is a classic striker and one of the best in Europe.They go into the Competition fired up and they could get to the quatrers easily if they are playing well,Suker is definetly the man to watch.
Inexperiance and pressure could be there down fall though.

Yugoslavia:
Extrodianry individual talent and we do posses an awesome strike force and midfield and could go all the way,we must learn to play together if we want to have any chance of beating Holland or France though,
Dejan Stankovic is the man to watch and look out for Kezman also.
Problem is our shaky defence and our inability to play like a team if we get over the team problem we have a great chance to go all the way but if we dont then a team like Slovenia will have a chance of beating us.

Slovenia:
Mixture of old and young players will work well and they will like Turkey go in pumped up and make the most of a great opportunity
Zahovic and Acimovic are the men to watch.
Problem could be inexperiance and pressure but if they get over that they will be a force to rekon with.

Czech Republic:
Mixture of Euro 96 experiance and youth could be the perfect blend to win Euro.
They play well as a team and have tremendous skill.Nedved is definetly the man to watch but the 200+cm Koeller is also a man to watch.
Shaky defence could be there downfall as shown agaisnt Australia where guys like Viduka were causing many problems for the Czech defence.

 

[labas]

Ok, I'll have a shot at it Everyones arguments were spot on, so I will not keep saying the same thing over and ver - only predictions:

Romania - together with group B, they play in the worst group of EURO 2000. Still I have doubts if they'll get out. You never know what you can expect from the likes of Ger and Eng. Anyway I predict a 1st round exit or at most a QF.

Slovenia - they're doomed aren't they? They have one of the tuffer groups, with such powerhouses as Spain, Norway and Yugoslavia. Still they may get a draw somehwere along the road. Keep an eye out for the great ZZ. (Zlatko Zahovic, not Zidane !!)

Yugoslavia - despite a complete inability to play team football, I predict they will be champions. Yugo will somehow get it together and use the mass talent they have. Watch out for: Predrag Mijatovic and Darko Kovacevic. If the latter plays I'm sure the championship is in their reach.

Czech Republic - all I can say is bad luck. Sucha great side, but how unlucky can you be really? I guess it repayed itself after getting the sh|ttiest qualification group I'll ever see. I'm sad, because had they been in group A, they would've EASILY won it, now they'll probably take a 1st round exit. The reason will be Denmark I think

Turkey - more of Asia right? I expect nothing from them. They have the theoretically easiset group, but we have there the hugely underrated and underestimated Belgium, who IMO will top the group, with Italy just losing out to Sweden. Yes! IMO Italy will take a 1st round exit like 4 years ago! But about Turkey - botton of their group, I'm afraid.

------------------
Patryk L. AKA labas

 

[Driver X]

Germany and England seem to peak at just the right moment, just before Euro 2000.
So, Romania may have it very tough in the group, and with Portugal in the same group IMO highly overated, I can't really see Romania qualifying from this group.

Yugoslavia have a very talented team, but those 2 disappointing friendlies in the far east may not speak for themseleves. They could be in great form in the matches when it really matters. Spain will definitely win the group, but never discount Norway, they hardly ever lose.

Slovenia, nice first time appearance, but they won't get any far. Hopefully they won't get thrashed by the other 3 teams.

Turkey, tough group, Sweden are very physically fit and strong, and determined, but a pretty average team. Italy first, Belgium second, Turkey will just miss out. There's a l ot of talk about Gala's success carrying onto the national team, but I hardly believe it.

Czech Rep, easiest possibly way to get to Euro 2000, not that convincing in friendlies after that, anotehr words, it's been a long long time since theyv'e really been teste. Possibly too long, they wouldn't know what hit them during Euro 2000. They'll probably lose to both Netherlands and France, maybe they'll get a point out of Denmark.

An East European team winning?, I highly doubt it, Yugoslavia and Czech have got the most talent, but both will most likely fall to the Netherlands. Czech in the group stages, and then Yugoslavia in the quater-finals.

 

[bookmaker011]

as i said i think that with current form our peak is 1-4 finals. but taking into account that we are unpredictable i hope that we will make a great result. we have everything apart from the team play which will find on the euro, at least i hope. we have great players, talent and stability and all these is required to win euro 2000.
if romania is in a little bit easier group i would bet that they would play at least in semi-finals.
about checzh. they were really, really unlucky. their group is so difficult and even denmark has the propensity to surprise(remember world cup in france).

 

[labas]

Yeah, the Czechs are really unlucky, but I see things developing different in group D. I think the Czechs will actually beat either Hollandor France and miss out, because they will then lose to Denmark. I dunno, but I see such a shock on the crads in this HELL group

 

[Mijatovic]

A couple of months ago I saw Holland clear favourites to win Euro but now im not so sure.I think they will go far but I dont believe they will win it.
In my books the favourite at the moment would have to be France.
They have a much better strike force now then in the world cup and I would have to say that they will win that group.