Thanks, I try my best. Most of UEFA, sadly, is either shown during working hours or sleeping hours. I have a love for different cultures and nations that stretches back far which is why the '06 World Cup drew me in. The problem with Football here in America is that it's the most popular sport among young children. Unfortunately, most of these children grow out of Football as if it was a phase, and by high school they're either playing American Football or Basketall.

That, and most of the teams in this country suck. I can't even name a single one besides D.C. United, which is actually a decent team at least by American standards. Another reason being that Americans like to see a lot of action in their sports. In Football, you could go the entire first round without either team scoring, and have 100 failed opportunities at scoring along the way.

I actually find myself enjoying watching UEFA quite a lot, even if I don't know all the players or coaches.

Sooooooo, for tonight, who do you expect to win? i got my money on portugal!

Sadly, that's who I would bet on as well.

Portugal. Without the German coach on field, they are even more rudder-less then they where in the group-face.

I expect a land-slide: 3 - 0 to portugal. And at least a 60-40% ball posession.

I cry foul and want the Swedish team back!

Croatia vs Holland will be the FINAL... who agrees with me?

@ Montana Hatchet... don't you even know the american 'soccer' team, LA GALAXY, they have DAvid Beckham you know :-O

My predictions for the quarter finals (until today, I predicted less than 50% correct, oops)

Portugal - Germany 3 - 1

Croatia - Turkey 1 -1 Croatia wins by penalties

Netherlands - Russia 3 - 1

Spain - Italy 1 - 2 Italy scores winning goal in extra time

Alternative prediction is that Germany is disqualified because of drugs use and Austria gets to play against Portugal and winning Euro 2008.

Aww g'damnit :'( - (From ESPN)

err well, this contradicts other statements saying he does stay after all..

Well, the games are played 20:45 CET, so that means for Americans it happens during daytime. I guess that makes watching the matches live almost impossible if you have a job to go to. But the next match from my country against Russia is in the weekend, just as Spain-Italy, so maybe you get to see those matches.

Too bad for the sport all those children decide to play other sports instead. But their preference for more popular sports is understandable. I guess the same thing could happen here if other sports would have a lot more exposure than football. Do you have any idea how many grown ups keep playing the game compared to the amount of children playing?

About Americans wanting a lot of action in their sports, I'm not completely sure about that. I guess it is more about the perception of action. I did see a few Superbowl matches in the past and to me there really isn't that much action. Actually, a big part of the game the ball isn't in play and a whole match takes something like 4 hours to complete? (that number is just a guess, if I'm wrong please correct me) And with baseball you might see long periods with hardly any hits at all, let alone some points being scored. You could say there isn't too much action there either. So if by action you mean more points being scored you're obviously correct, but to me that isn't really the same as action. Maybe a country can only have a few popular sports and in the US football simply isn't one of them.