Yuko

for the fun of it, let's add that to the whole thing and see who got the most Fantasy points

Did you expect this to be a Fantasy League thing?

Ok cool, just need to fill that to vote for the other two. @Crispypaul vote for yourself ton cancel mine out

@Gizzy what's the policy on our own matchups?

Since we're going with the Group format, here's what we have based on those "Power Rankings" Group A #1 #5 #22 #23 Group B #4 #13 #16 #20 Group C #2 #3 #15 #21 Group D #7 #17 #18 #19 Group E #8 #10 #12 #14 Group F #6 #9 #11 #24 Average seed per group: A: 12.75 B: 13.25 C: 10.25 D: 15.25 E: 11.00 F: 12.50 Range (top seed to bottom seed) A: 22 B: 16 C: 19 D: 12 E: 6 F: 18

What on earth is Verbic doing there? I know he's out every night drinking a bottle of whatever's available, but he can't be drunk enough to play so out of position

https://www.buildlineup.com/shared/6667303a820fad3f18c3dc60

at what stage do we start worrying about Kawee?

Let me know @Gizzy

Scalvini just got injured, he's probably out

I'd say excitement for a large group of people from nations that participate is always a given, no matter how watered down the tournament appears from the outside. And then there's a bunch of kids that may be excited because it's their first big tournament or because in general it's easier to follow these games rather than league games due to it being every day, there's no school and the weather - in most places - is much better than the rest of the months, so it's just a plus that there's something to talk about whilst outside for those who are working all day long.

Yeah was thinking about expanding to that, but not sure what weighting to be used. For example, you can find [world] class players with Georgia's and Slovenia's first couple of picks but after that it slims down rapidly. Then you have Albania where even the first couple of picks hold little value. That's why I just added the "top half" column, just to give an indication.

Since Greece got knocked out and I won't attend, I don't think I care that much. Will try to watch as much as possible without interfering with whatever I have on schedule in the first stages. Which means I'll miss almost all early fixtures at group level and during the weekends I might miss most games anyway since it's summer time and I won't be sitting in front of a tv. Plus it's wedding season over here so almost all Saturdays are booked. I'll probably watch almost all knockout games though since the timing is good enough. Might miss some weekend ones if there are any

This is based on the draws. As a reminder, Kawee and Muttley took over teams that didn't complete the first round, so an updated table follows with them having 23rd and 24th pick of 1st round. And here's the effective draw. And we all know Kawee didn't really respect his positioning so he's closer to a 20th place average per round and an updated list with a # of Top 6 picks and Bottom 6 picks, as well as number of top half picks (1-12) 6 because there are basically 5.5 nations that are deep enough (France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, England and then you have Italy and Belgium where you can still find some decent options after the 8th player)

Lukas Haraslin (Slovakia) it is. Left winger to be used as left back a la Zhirkov

I can only pick Slovak? @Gizzy What if I'm pro Czechoslovakia reunification?

I'm dead last this round and I see scrubs started from halfway through

I'd say is the opposite. We see less and less surprises, but we see more happy accidents. There was Iceland in 2016. The 2020(1) didn't really have one. Maybe England reaching the final was the surprise Last 2 editions plus this one are more diluted due to the from 24 to 16 format, whereas with the 16 team start we went to QF directly and 3rd places were filtered out. Now you get Denmark in the semis because they have to beat the Dutch and the Czechs, who are typically strong top 10 sides or better, but not teams that you'd expect to see in the semis every year. Yet all three had the chance when Denmark only won 1 game and got through on a triple tie and Czechia qualified as 3rd place and reached the QF. Portugal in 2016 won by finishing 3rd and not winning a single group game. 2012 was the most straight forward one, which was still using the old system, but at least it gave us 2 great groups out of 4, whereas now we hardly get 1 out of 6. 2008: Turkey and Russia in SFs 2004: Greece wins, all favorites are eliminated by QFs (Germany, Italy, Spain out in the group, France in QF) 2000: England and Germany out of the group, 1996: Newly founded Czech Republic, after splitting from the shared entity with Slovakia, reached the final within just a few years of existence. Holders Denmark and WC finalists Italy out in the group stage. So in the past you'd see major nations get knocked out before it even mattered. Now that's hard with 2/3 of the teams advancing to the next round. We might see Croatia, Italy or Spain out this time if they fail to draw a game between them or don't beat Albania. I don't see any other chance a strong nation can lose out from the group. And since we have no idea of how these teams will be crossing their paths due to the 4/6 third place situation apart from 4 ties, it's very likely that a nation will squeeze past the group stage as a runner up, beat another runner up, and then face a team that finished 3rd because they ended up beating a winner of a weak group. I wouldn't call that a surprise performance, just happenstance. You'd be surprised if Slovakia beats France, but not if Romania beats Austria and then faces Scotland who beat Turkey to get there for example. They'd still be happy about reaching the QF, but it kind of loses its value. You can argue that they play less games now and there's more chances a team has to beat better competition to reach the QF, and that's valid. But I still feel we're seeing a lesser experience here due to how poor the Group Stage is compared to older times. At least there's incentive for all games since every point counts, so it's a good attempt for balancing less quality with more intensity.

Răzvan Marin of Romania, please (sorry, had a work call and then realized how thin my options were just realized that a Scottish player I had eyed got seriously injured and misses the entire 2024) @BigV next

Didn't realize my turn was up after Rebs. Just got home, will get the pick within 10 minutes. Cheers

I'm talking in general not just this thread. Should have made that more clear

Why is everyone sleeping on Spain and expect Italy to top the group?

2012 has the wrong finalist

did everyone give up?

Vieri should have had over 50 if he had 90+ caps but he got injured during the Euro 2000 and the 2002 qualifiers when he was in his absolute prime. And they had too many forwards to pick from after European NT football got diluted (late 90s) and then had a striker drought for like 15 years since that generation retired. Most records got broken in the last 15 years across Europe so it's normal that Italy doesn't have a 50+ all time scorer. They can hardly field a striker and had to hand out passports to Osvaldo, Retegui and Eder to field a forward...