PragueBuzz!

Czech has narrowly beaten its toughest rival-cum-neighbor, mighty Germany, to top their group going into the playoff next year in Austria and Switzerland.

Having defeated Germany, theoretically Czech should be able to annihilate Portugal and Turkey and advance to the next round. But in the world of rolling balls, anything is possible. After all, Turkey had upset many strongest teams to place 3rd in 1998 World Cup. Portugal lost only to the champion in 2004 Euro Cup and ranked 4th at the last World Cup.

My heart is forever fixed for my childhood teams, the “Rooster” and the “Orange Tornado” (France and Netherlands respectively) though I doubt they will carry on far in the competition. Netherlands always enters the games with so much fanfare and expectation but years after years they seem to lack that something which can push them to the very end. As for France, Zidane retired last year, didn’t he?

I’ll sip a glass of wine for France, inhale a few rounds of marijuana smoke for the Dutch and of course tuck away in some “hospoda”* slurping down cheap beer and cheer on my “Dumpling”* Boys.

(*) hospoda = a typical Czech pub where a man’s sole business is consuming as much beer as his belly or his woman can tolerate.
(*) dumpling = a typical, traditional Czech meal.

[UEFA]