Management for Olympique Lyonnais has mentioned that they are splendid about their pick-up of Piquionne. They mentioned that he has given them grief in the past and now their glad he’ll be on their side of the field this time. The twenty nine year old was born in New Caledonia and has made a nice name for himself throughout Ligue 1 action and UEFA Champions League action.

Lyonnais has won the past seven Ligue 1 championships and many believe they will be competing for the UEFA Champions League this year. Piquionne had managed to score 12 goals in only 46 matches when he was with Monaco, so if he can put those numbers up again I’m sure Lyonnais will be happy.

I feel that Olympique Lyonnais have really done a great job in balancing out their roster throughout the off season. I definitely see them as a team to be reckoned with this year, and it should be interesting to see how well the newcomers perform for Lyonnais.

The other newcomers that have arrived in the off season are Jean II Makoun, Miralem Pjanic and Hugo Lloris. There is nice power in these newcomers and Hugo will be called upon to play excellent goal.

Now that the Euro2008 Cup is over the committee is already planning their first visit to the two countries co-hosting the next Euros in 2012. The two countries that will be hosting the Euro2012 Cup will be Poland and Ukraine. This was decided back in 2007 though so anyone who stays up to date with their knowledge will already know about the two countries hosting the next Euros.

Both Spain and Germany have already arrived home and both received very nice and welcoming fans. The streets were filled in both countries and although the Germans didn’t bring home gold they still held there heads high for the fans in Berlin.

I must say that I feel the Euros always goes by so quickly and there is never enough of it, but looks like for me and the rest of us we’ll need to wait another four years before the next Euros. At least on the bright side the Beijing Olympics will be beginning next month and that should be very entertaining and I can’t wait for that to get underway.

The final score was 1-0. Fernando Torres scored the lone goal late in the first half after outrunning Lahm and beating Lehmann in the 33rd minute. Germany never looked capable of being a major threat for Casillas who only had to react a couple of times during a few minutes of German pressure around the 60th minute of the game. Spain had several chances to widen the score but after the final whistle was hear made little difference since the one goal signified that after 44 years, Spain were once more the European Champions.

For the record, below is the video of the deciding goal by Torres.

Congratulations to both teams bust especially Spain for the beautiful soccer they played making the tournament fun for all of us to watch. Teams will now have to focus on qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa; games for this should start in September and we will be here to provide you with the best coverage we can. We are also going to continue bring you the most important news and commentary from the major European leagues and competitions such as Champions League. Thank you for reading our articles the last 3 weeks and we hope to see you back again.

First, let me point out that Germany have won the Euro 3 times in the past 1972, 1980, and 1996; Germany also played in the final games in 1976 and 1992 but didn’t win. Interestingly, in 1992 Germany lost to underdogs Denmark who were called back from their vacation to replace Yugoslavia barred from playing in the Euro due to the ongoing war taking place in the region. Spain have won it once in 1964 and also made an appearance at the 1984 final game losing to France in Paris.

The story so far this year paints Spain the favorite to win the final match. The Spaniards have cruised to the final not just undefeated so far in the tournament but only counting victories on their behalf. They managed to beat Russia twice with an aggregate 7-1 score while they also crashed defending champions Greece while using their reserves! Germany, on the other hand, have made it to the final in a less convincing manner. They barely defeated co-hosts Austria with the poor 1-0 score from a Ballack free kick and also had to score in injury time to beat Turkey in the semi-final game a few days ago. Germany allowed 2 goals in their game against Turkey who could barely field a competitive team due to player injuries and suspensions. The German team will have to raise their game considerably if they want to have a chance against the speedy and talented Spanish squad.

So, who do I think will win the 2008 Euro? It is hard to make a prediction and so I will simply quote Ken Bates who once said,

“I never make forecasts, but whoever wins that game will win the final.”

That said, I placed a $10 bet on Spain.

Adidas created the Europass soccer balls specifically for this tournament and are supposed to be the latest in ball technology. It has 14 aerodynamic panels and several “pimples” providing for better stability mid-flight. Many goalkeepers who had a chance to use the ball before the tournament’s start complained that the balls were hard to handle and many weird goals would be scored during the Euro just because of this.

This reminds me of the fuss players and goalkeepers created with regards to Teamgeist, I.e., the Adidas ball created for the 2006 German World Cup. In the end all the complaining amounted to nothing both back in 2006 and this year. The truth is that it would be hard for Adidas to create a ball that significantly effects the outcome of a soccer game. In fact, I think most of the advertised capabilities of these balls is nothing more than hype created by the company to justify selling them at a higher price.

At any rate, the special edition Europass Gloria balls will be used in the final game and as such will eventually sell as collectors items, as they should. I’m just really looking forward to watching the final game regardless of the soccer ball used.

A recent report speculates that the upcoming Euro 2008 finals will generate somewhere in the ballpark of 300 million euros. An estimated 90 million euros are expected to end up in the victor’s hands due to the viral effect caused by a championship. Sales and sponsorship deals will make the bulk of the money for the teams and the prize money (around 23 million for both teams) will seem like very little compared to that.

It is not all bad for the losers either, who are expected to make about 40 million off of the game. That is in addition to the prize money for coming in second, which is around 20 million for both teams.

So where does the rest of the 300 million go? Mostly to businesses around Vienna, where the finals match is being played. It will be a very pleasant economic boost for Austria, and Switzerland will also make some money as well, since they are co-host for the tournament. All-in-all it will be a tremendous day for the businesses, economies, and teams participating. For us, it is all just about the fun.

Jimmy Jump has a habit of interrupting sporting events to communicate his message whatever that happens to be at the time. If you remember, he also made an appearance at the 2004 European Championships final running passed Luis Figo throwing a Barcelona flag at him and then getting caught in Nikopolidis’ net. Video of the event is below.

He also made an appearance last year during the Champions League final in Athens, Greece, and he also jumped in the middle of the England versus South Africa Rugby Mundial Cup which requires balls of steel considering that the rugby players can really hurt him!

Keep it up Jimmy!

Spain manager Luis Aragones is remaining optimistic at this point, saying that the team will continue celebrating tonight and will deal with the issue later. He added that he has faith in his younger players, many who have good experience, despite their age. 21 year-old Cesc Fabregas, is one of these youngsters, and is also the player who will most probably taking Villa’s spot. The manager seems to believe in him and thus far in the tournament Fabregas and most of the Spanish team has played well, so perhaps Villa’s injury really isn’t too big of a deal.

Villa will surely be saddened if he can’t play in the finals after all of this, but it is all a part of the game. In the end he will still be given the credit he deserves and the team certainly considers him an integral part of them, but it will probably still hurt.

Spain dominated the second half with total procession and control in the midfield and some excellent passing upfront creating numerous chances and scoring 3 of them. The score could have easily been much higher if Spain had a bit more luck and better aim. Xavi opened the score in the 55th minute with a nice finish from a low cross while Guiza made it 2-0 less than 20 minutes later. In the meantime, Torres had missed numerous chances to widen the score. Silva was them man who made it 3-0 for Spain after receiving a great pass inside the Russian 18-yard box, bringing it down with his chest and them putting it over a Russia goalkeeper who came out sliding in a desperate attempt to prevent the inevitable. Casillas who was the hero for Spain in the quarter-finals spent most of this game a spectator although he did have to make a couple of nice saves very late in the game to keep a clean sheet for himself and his team.

Let us not forget that Spain have beat Russia twice in this tournament with an aggregate of 7-1 goals (they were both in Group D with Spain winning the first meeting between the two team 4-1.) They had done the same in Portugal’s 2004 Euro when the two teams met in the groups stage as well with both Spain and Russia failing to move on to the quarter-finals.

I can’t stress enough how beautifully Spain played in the second half. So far, I have really enjoyed watching this team play and they deserve more than anyone to be in the final game. Russia are a speedy squad but they looked slow in this game. I think Germany will have to really up their game on Sunday if they hope for a positive result against this amazing Spanish team.

To summarize, the 2008 European Championships game final will be this coming Sunday and feature Spain versus Germany in Vienna (Austria.) I can’t wait!