Man -- the World Cup basically just ended and already we've had 3 to 4 games in the qualifying round for Euro 2008. Well I guess they had to start sometime (like they say, If you're gonna drink all day ya hafta start early ...)

Here's a fun link to get this topic off to a good start very odd own goal on the part of England. -- they would go on to lose to Croatia 2-0.

Being a fan of the Danish team, I'm keeping an eye on their group -- they're in with archrivals Sweden, former subjects Iceland, Northern Ireland, Spain, Latvia and Liechtenstein. So far Sweden is off to a great start -- 12 points in 4 games. Denmark and N. Ireland in 2nd. Spain is a surprisingly bad 3 points in 3 matches.

Link to the official website

Yesterday marked the 3rd or 4th games for the teams -- meaning the qualifying round is now a quarter to a third of the way done.

The surprises:

Portugal and Beligum sit in 4th and 5th place in their division.

Ireland way behind Germany and the Czechs with only 4 points from 4 games. Their win yesterday over tiny San Marino helped -- and they get San Marino again in their next match.

And Spain (3 points from 3 games) way behind the Swedes.

Other than the San Marino - Ireland match on 2/7/07, the rest of the matches resume at the end of March.

Oh, and in other news, the U.S. just announced it will host a friendly against Denmark in mid January in Carson, CA. maybe a trip to California for Bucky is in the works ....