Euro 2008 Austria-Switzerland

Official Euro 2008 ball

2008-05-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

Adidas have released the match ball for the Euro 2008 tournament and have called it the "EUROPASS" ball.

The name “Europass” refers to the common “Euro” pass between the two host countries of Austria and Switzerland. It also represents every pass the players will make on the pitch during UEFA Euro 2008. Last but not least, it signifies the co-operation among all the fans who will make their way to Austria and Switzerland for the final competition.

The ‘Europass’ combines tradition with modernity. Its classic colouring - a white base colour with black dots – calls to mind the balls of bygone decades, yet its bonding with round dynamic elements in silver and red results in an innovative and very modern design. The national flags of both countries have also been integrated into the ball design, with eight circles in a subtle silver effect. The 12 black dots contain individual graphic elements developed by UEFA to accompany the Euro logo. These elements stand for passion, friendship, action, training, fans and the winning goal, which appear as watermarks in the black dots of the Adidas ‘Europass’.

Technical Details

The ball’s new surface structure, utilising existing Teamgeist technology, is constructed out of 14 panels using revolutionary thermal bonding technology, allowing players to control and direct it perfectly in all weather conditions. The revolutionary PSC- Texture consists of a sophisticated and extremely fine structure on the ball’s outer skin that guarantees optimum grip between football and football boot. The new ‘pimple’ effect helps enable truer flight, working on the same aerodynamic principles used in golf ball design. Players can benefit from improved power transmission, greater swerve and increased accuracy on the pitch. And for the goalkeeper too, providing a much better grip between glove and ball, substantially improves his catching of the ball.

In testing the ‘Europass’ football, the Adidas Innovation Team, has found that the new 14-panel configuration, featuring fewer seams, makes the ball perform significantly more uniformly, no matter where the ball is hit. Scientific tests also confirmed that ball is more round, precise and consistent than any top competitor match ball.

But don't you love marketing speak:

The adidas "EUROPASS" combines tradition with modernity. Its classic colouring - a white base colour with black dots - calls to mind the balls of bygone decades, yet its bonding with round dynamic elements in silver and red results in an innovative and very modern design which perfectly suits the host countries.

Group standing

2008-05-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

Sixteen teams enter the competition, divided into four groups of four teams. With group round of three games, two best in each group will enter the knockout phase. 29.6. two remaining teams will fight for the title in Vienna with whole Europe watching.

Here are the groups of the tournament:

Group A

Czech Republic
Portugal
Switzerland
Turkey

The hosts Switzerland are proven footballing nation with recent World Cup 2006 tournament under their belt. Czech might be aging a bit but field a proven squad. Loved and hated Portugal will be contender, yet again. Turkey will be at least interesting to watch - in WC 2002 they reached semifinals and when tempers were not flowing over, they played passionate and beautiful football.

Group B

Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Second hosts Austria lack the merits of their co-hosts and probably won't see the knockout rounds. Besides that the group is open - Croatia played part in seeing England fail in their qualifying group and field a young side, while Poland got their qualifying campaign together under coach Beenhakker after early stumbles and come to the competition strong. And we never can discount Germany. After all, this is a game that is played for 90 minutes and in which Germany wins in the end.

Group C

France
Italy
Netherlands
Romania

Every final tournament must have the much maligned Group of Death, C is very much it. It boasts footballing nations of high merit - France, Netherlands and WC holder Italy, together with young Romanian team returning to big tournaments after eight years of absence. Despite the hype, Romania might be one of the surprises of the tournament. They finished their qualifying campaign with group win over Netherlands, that has recently struggled to find coherent national side, even missing one big finals tournament this decade. France under Domenech is far from reliable performer, and Italy just might be the strongest favourite of this group.

Group D

Greece
Sweden
Spain
Russia

European champions Greece come to the competition yet again as underdogs, having missed the 2006 World Cup. Perennial underachievers Spain will boast big names, but will they stumble again when faced with surging Russia led by miracle coach Guus Hiddink? I know I'll hope all the best for our Swedish neighbours in this group, but this might be a year of just three games for them.

Motivasi pagi

2008-04-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Pagi ini merupakan pagi yang paling bermakna dalam diri aku. Awal-awal pagi lagi aku sudah bangun dan entah macam mana aku terasa hendak menonton koleksi video-video mengenai jasa dan perjuangan Tun Mahathir.
Betapa meningkatnya motivasi aku untuk terus berusaha untuk menjadikan bangsa ku merupakan bangsa yang berjaya.
Tun, we will never forget all your good offices.
May Allh bless you..

Brief Intro about the author

2008-04-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my blog, first of all i would like to thank you for your time to visit this blog. I,m actually still green in this cyber world.

Any lack of experience, language efficiency and the most vital one is about the blog content. I'm really sorry about this inconvinence, however i will try my utmost to make this blog is somewhat gave you invaluable experience.

Thanks again