Football’s Coming Home. Wait, sorry England, was just reading ESPN’s new promo for the SEC deal, this is the Group C preview. For our third preview, we have England, Denmark, Slovenia, and Serbia. Not quite the flashiest group on paper, but anytime the English media is involved it’s guaranteed to be entertaining. If the English press and SEC message boards ever joined forces we’d solve world hunger. Or more likely create a transatlantic terror organization.
This group is all about the English. The three lions have never won a European Championship and have only won one World Cup all the way back in 1966. Yet, despite having the trophy cabinet of Texas A&M, they are consistently among the favorites at tournaments. Some years it hasn’t been warranted, but this year it is. The English definitely have the best group of attacking talent in Europe at this year’s tournament. With many teams lacking options up front, the English could field three sets of attackers that would start at 90% of other Euros participants. (Side note: Crystal Palace getting 4 players into the best England squad in years warms the heart).
The question is what does manager Gareth Southgate do with all these options and is it too much of a good thing? Does he start Chelsea breakout star and Trae Young celebration thief Cole Palmer or does he stick with Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Manchester City’s Phil Foden on the wings? England’s best team is likely with La Liga player of the year Jude Bellingham playing alongside Declan Rice in midfield with Foden in the number 10 position. This would allow for Southgate to have (still trophy-less) Harry Kane, Saka, and one of Palmer/Eberechi Eze/Anthony Gordon all in the same team. Lastly, despite their endless options in attack, injuries have left England very vulnerable in defense. Despite my soft spot for Crystal Palace, I’m unsure about relying on Marc Guehi to stop Mbappe later in the tournament. Whether football comes home is down to whether Jimbo Southgate can get out of his own way and let the talent play. England lose another heartbreaker in the final, and twitter has an all-time content day.
Slovenia may ring a bell for NBA fans as the home of the world’s whiniest basketball player. It also might ring a bell for US Men’s National Team fans for the classic match they played against the United States in the 2010 World Cup. A refresher:
It’s not the best sign for Slovenia that their most famous player of this generation is a goalkeeper, Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak. Particularly, not a great sign that Oblak is also inching past his prime in a tournament where they’re desperately going to need him. Slovenia have one thing going for them, they can always place a call to the Dallas Mavericks for tips on how to manipulate the refs to get their way. Unfortunately, you can only do so much when you’re down 2-0, which the Mavs and Slovenia are both going to be experienced with this summer.
While the English make themselves at home in the biergartens, and likely with the German police, they would be wise to be wary of their first match against Serbia. Fulham-legend Aleksander Mitrovic has been dominant since moving to the Saudi league with 28 goals in 28 games (maybe Jon Rahm should make a call on how to take oil money and still be good at your sport). Mitrovic won’t be scared in the slightest by the English or the other teams in this group as he played and scored against them for Fulham in the Premier League. Serbia also has depth in attack in Juventus’s Dusan Vlahovic and Mitrovic’s Al-Hilal teammate attacking-midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. Unfortunately, the Serbian squad is a case of a Ferrari parked outside a trailer. They are severely lacking in defense, although Chelsea goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic could impress.
Lastly, the Danes. Unfortunately for them it is no longer the year 1000 and the vikings don’t control England. Unless Manchester United’s Rasmus Hojland does his best Uhtred of Bebbanburg impression (check out Last Kingdom on Netflix), the Danes are in trouble. I would not recommend relying on Brentford’s midfield to try and win a European trophy, but Denmark is going to try with Matihas Jensen and Christian Norgaard. Similar to Mark Richt trying to win the Florida game with Faton Bauta, it sounds as bad on paper as it is in real life. Lastly, big respect to Christian Eriksen for making it back to the tournament he literally died in last go around. Sports.
Prediction: 1) England 2) Serbia 3) Denmark 4) Slovenia
Best Bet: England first in group C, Serbia second (+275)
Georgia-ish 