This article has been submitted by Mostafa El Beheiry.

So it’s been a long road to the final match of Euro 2008, but here we are. This has been one of the most exciting tournaments in recent memory with boring, negative, defensively oriented teams bowing out, for the most part, in the group stages. In Germany we have a team that carried the odds to win the tournament but that disappointed in their group, finishing second to an up and coming Croatian team that should be feared come the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Germans regained their form against Portugal but were less than impressive in their win against the surprise of the tournament, Turkey, to put them into the finals.

Spain’s tournament couldn’t have gone better; they topped their group displaying some beautiful football and a degree of mental toughness that Spanish teams of the past have lacked. This strength got them through a penalty shootout against a team that thrives on them in Italy, putting to bed a 24 year curse that has kept them out of the semi-finals in all international tournaments. In fact, 24 years ago was the last time Spain has been in a major final and they broke that hex with their decisive semi-final win against Russia, putting them in a great position to win their first international title since 1964.

This year’s finals pit a country looking for its record 4th European title against a country looking to drop a 44 year reputation of being the biggest underachievers in international football. If you’ve been following my Euro 08 coverage, you know that I’ve been backing Spain to take the Henri Delaunay Trophy since the start of the tournament and on that note, this preview will be more to feed my ego than maintain any journalistic integrity that I may have. Sorry Germany.
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This article has been submitted by Mostafa El Beheiry.

The quarter-finals followed up the group stage with some heartbreaking results with three of the four results considered upsets in addition to going to extra-time. The Germans “upset” Portugal 3-2 – they were underdogs based only on their runner-up status after the group stage, I don’t think anyone with a brain would have been able to pick an outright favorite for that tie. The same couldn’t be said about Croatia and Turkey, where everyone and their mother (except the Turks) expected Croatia to advance handedly. With the Croatian go-ahead and Turkish equalizing goals coming at 119 and 120 minutes of extra-time respectively, the Turks, with their never say die philosophy, advanced on penalties. The high flying Dutch from the group stage were nowhere to be seen against Guus Hiddink’s Russia, who advance to the semis to face a Spanish side that finally expelled their international tournament demons by beating Italy on penalties. I went 2-2 on the quarters with no success in picking scorelines, so here’s hoping my luck improves for the semis.
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This article has been submitted by Mostafa El Beheiry.

I’ll kick off the second part of the quarter-finals breakdown by introducing everyone to Trix and Flix, mascots for this year’s competition. Probably the gayest mascots ever conceived in the history of the illustrious profession. Anyways, the second half of the quarters will prove to be just as, if not more, exciting as the ties in the first half which have by this posting gotten underway. With the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Russia in the first knockout round we should see some beautiful football. Here’s how the teams match up.
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This article has been submitted by Mostafa El Beheiry.

With the start of the Euros, the ODC has seen more footy articles in the last 2 weeks than it has in the last year, and this little number will just add to that total. An incredibly exciting group stage that saw goals, upsets, red cards, and controversy has come to an end and now the surviving teams are left with little time to lick their wounds with the knockout rounds getting underway immediately. The format is pretty simple, group A and B will face each other in the quarters and then semis with the eventual winner facing the team to get out of groups C and D. With that being said, the quarter-finals promise some quality football with some dream match ups that even non-fans might find remotely entertaining.
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This article has been submitted by Mostafa El Beheiry.

With the early end of the Raptors post season dreams, an up and down Jays squad in an impossible division and a Leafs franchise in the process of rebuilding after its third straight absence from the playoffs, Toronto sports fans haven’t been seeing much fruit ripen off the trees that their money and support have helped to grow. It’s been a depressing new millennium for the T.O. but let me tell you that there is still hope for Toronto and it comes in the form of the World’s Game and the 11th most popular league in North America.

Toronto FC played out their inaugural season in Major League Soccer last year amid a torrent (not the kind you download) of passionate fan support at BMO Field, ending their freshman year in last place with a less than respectable 6 wins, 17 losses and 7 draws with the worst goals for (25) and goals against (49) in the MLS. Not much to cheer about, but still the crowds came, selling out each match at the 20,522 capacity BMO Field.

The 2008 season of the MLS is now 6 weeks in and in their sophomore year, TFC sits tied for 3rd in the Eastern Conference and in the League (14 teams in the MLS, 7 per conference) with a 3-2-1 record and with a draw against the New York Red Bulls (that’s right, they’re named after an energy drink) last week are currently undefeated in a franchise record 4 games. Though it’s still really early in the season (24 games left to play), they’re looking fantastic and are a shadow of the team they were last year due to some smart pickups during the offseason by manager Mo Johnston.
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This articled has been submitted by the debuting Mostafa “Mo Cash” El Beheiry.

It’s been awhile since the ODC was graced with an update on Europe’s premier club competition, the UEFA Champions League, which is now in its semi-final stages. Four teams have emerged from the last two knockout rounds, some gracefully and some with a bit of luck as they try to prove their claim as Europe’s best soccer club. In the quarter-finals, the English Premier League’s Liverpool FC dispatched league rival Arsenal FC (with a little help from the officials) and meet fellow English club Chelsea FC in the semis, who shakily eliminated Turkish underdogs Fenerbaçhe SK. England has one more semi-final representative in Manchester United who breezed past Italy’s injury plagued AS Roma and go on to face the Catalan giants of FC Barcelona, who were shown too much respect from zee Germans, FC Schalke 04 (founded in 1904 by German school boyz). The first legs of these semi-final matches were played out earlier this week, and here’s what happened.
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