Your “Iceland gets a bye, right?” Monday Morning Open Thread

Before I begin, I just wanted to complain about how hot it is in my apartment. When the sun sets, it’s facing my apartment windows making my apartment from 8PM onwards hot as balls. It’s almost midnight here and it’s 28 Celsius (that’s 82.4 Fahrenheit). The heat just sits in my apartment for hours before it “cools” down. The worst thing is, I don’t have AC because my windows aren’t exactly AC friendly. I definitely need to look into buying an AC where I don’t have to put anything through a window or vent.

Sunday’s games saw two blowouts and one close game with the wrong team winning.

Germany gave a historical re-enactment of 1939, as they were constantly in Slovakia’s territory and won 3-0. Both current and future German stars put on a clinic and looked ready to play whomever wins the game between Italy and Spain.

It was a close game for 75 minutes, but my Hungary lost to Belgium 4-0. Belgium finally played like a team that deserved the dick riding the media has been giving them for two and a half years. Gareth (B)Wales better watch out because Belgium’s counter attack is deadly.

Les Frogs narrowly beat the Irish. As always, f*ck France.

Match 1: Euro 2012 Finals Rematch, 9 am PST

Italy

v

Spain

Thoughts:

Unless Spain absolutely shits the bed, they’re going to win this one. If Spain scores early, this could be a 3-0 game. However, if Italy’s incredibly strong defense holds its own, we’re in for a dull 1-0 win for Spain.

Match 2: An Upset in the Making, 12 PM PST

Iceland

v

A Shit Show named England

Thoughts:

A shit show named England (that’s their official name now) is once again over-rated by the soccer media. They looked really beatable in a fairly weak group B. Yet, many are still picking them to easily beat Iceland.

Iceland is a talented team that could have gone far had they been placed in the weaker bracket. They didn’t, but I still think they are good enough– and match-up well against– A Shit Show named England.

Iceland’s players are giving too much respect to a Shit Show named England during their press conferences. My concern for Iceland is more psychological. They sound too content making it to the round of 16 when they’re good enough to advance to the quarter finals. If they start the game looking intimidated because they’re playing A Shit Show named England–they didn’t exactly have a good start against Austria in their last match– then  Iceland better hope their excellent goalie, Hannes Thór Halldórsson, can keep them in the game until they get their collective shit together.  Halldórsson has made more saves than any other goalkeeper at this year’s tournament.

I think if Iceland wins this game, they’ll win it in penalties.

One last thing about Iceland’s fanbase. I just saw a feature about their ultra fans and I did not like what I saw. The Ultra fans all wear an Iceland jersey with the number 12 on it. Yes, their fans take pride in being the 12th man. Because this is their first international tournament, I’m sure we’ll let it slide. But after Euro 2016, their fans are on watch for sounding like douches. I searched high and low on the interwebs and couldn’t find the feature I watched. Hopefully it’ll reappear as an accessible feature once the game is over. Their main cheer is to the beat of “We Will Rock you.” *Fart noise*

Enjoy the games!