  Euro 2004 Here we are in the cold light of, well, early evening and is it true? Greece really are the champions of Europe. 'King' Otto Rehhagel has just written himself into the Michelin Eye-Spy book of Sporting Upsets (50 points). He will now have the choice of quitting at the top of a footballing mountain in the shadows of Olympus, or a first-class return home to coach Michael Ballack and some other Germans to an almost predictable penalty shoot out victory over England sometime during the knockout stages of the next World Cup (being held, of course, in the land of the bratwurst). Meanwhile, now the fun is over it is review time for lazy sports hacks from Lisbon to Latvia, and who am I to resist? Great stadiums, good organisation, super local fans filling most of the matches, poor TV coverage (punditry is a dying art - and Andy Townsend is only partly to blame), and obligatory tabloid jingoism. The feast of football on offer, however, was somewhat akin to a meal for two from the local Chinese restaurant. A plethora of dishes, looking and smelling differently, but mostly suspiciously tasting the same, there are some nuggets of tasty meat (Czechs versus Holland was a true delicacy), but this time around they were too few and far between.
I think too many of the key ingredients had been over-cooked (Beckham, Trezeguet, Klose, Raul and Vieri all showed about as much life as Marlon Brando at a Michael Barrymore pool party). Stav's Team of the Tournament: GK: Edwin van der Saar (Holland) - Sholid shtuff from lanky shot shtopper. RB: Georgios Seitaridis (Greece) - Outclassed the Premiership stars Ferreira and Gallas. CB: Sol Campbell (England) - Sven's tactics and John Terry's sloth pace meant he was busy, and was immense.
CB: Traianos Dellas (Greece) - The dinner-plate abusers didn't concede a goal in their last three matches, this former Sheff Utd man was one of the reasons why. LB: Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy) - The only Italian worthy of the azzurri shirt this year, like a fine Sangiovese surrounded by Blue Nuns. RM: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - Stepover, stepover, stepover, stepover, stepover, stepover, annoying isn't it? Spain's Raul Bravo thought so too. CM: Maniche (Portugal) - Good tackler and cool finisher, drove many of the midfield like Gerrard, Vieira and Davids were supposed to CM: Theo Zagorakis (Greece) - Platini, Gullit, Laudrup, Klinsmann, Deschamps, Zagorakis.
Captains of Euro champs all, but only one of them once played for Leicester City! LM: Pavel Nedved (Czech Rep.) - Despite looking like one of The Byrds, Pavel was one superstar who did live up to his billing. CF: Wayne Rooney (England) - He may not be the next Pelé, he may be a fat scouser, but this lad lit up the group stages with some fearless displays of power and grace. CF: Milan Baros (Czech Rep.) - This Mersey based young striker warmed the benches of Anfield, and proved just why Houllier is now down the Job Club, the lad's box office and he picks Heskey!
Other Stuff Transfers that the newspapers are trying to convince us will definately happen: Patrick Kluivert to Newcastle, failing that Middlesbrough or maybe Atletico Madrid (basically they dunno) Glasses-wearing angry short man Edgar Davids is showing his leg and doing that thumb thing to the oncoming vehicles of Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool managers. Ricardo the Portuguese penalty-taking keeper is being eyed up by Liverpool gaffer Rafael Benitez (that is 'Raffo' or 'Benno' as I'm sure he's known by Freddy Boswell types).
In cricket England need to win and win well against the West Indies tomorrow at Lord's to guarentee making the final against New Zealand in the Natwest series. Andrew Flintoff will bat but not bowl again following an ankle injury. Ashley Giles may be picked ahead of one of the seamers as his wheely-bin action could be affective on the hallowed pitch.
Also in cricket, the ICC have decided to go ahead with a Test match and 3 one-dayer series between the best team in the World (almost definately those modest Aussies) and the best of the rest. BBC Sport reckon a best of the rest XI would look like this: Herschelle Gibbs (SA), Mark Richardson (NZ), Rahul Dravid (Ind), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Brian Lara (WI, capt. ), Jacques Kallis (SA), Tatenda Taibu (Zim, wkt), Shaun Pollock (SA), Anil Kumble (Ind), Shoaib Akhtar (Pak), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), Steve Harmison (Eng). I pay liscence fee for that? I think that's tosh to be honest. I would only pick Mark Richardson if I was struggling to sleep and had finished counting sheep. This is going to be a sponsor-friendly showcase, so even Rahul Dravid might not get in. A fit Flintoff would be a shoe-in, as would Virender Sehwag. Taibu as wicket-keeper? That'll be Boucher or maybe even Dravid surely. Mine reads: Gibbs, Sehwag, Kallis, Tendulkar, Lara, Flintoff, Boucher(wkt), Pollock, Shoaib, Murali, Harmison (Kumble 12th man). I'll leave you good readers with a picture of Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova. Stav. 
