It’s a festival of football this Summer with games taking place across 3 major continental tournaments involving 4 confederations. In fact, following the Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations earlier in the year, every confederation in FIFA will have seen teams partake in a continental tournament (unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be any plans to bring in a Football Union for Antarctica. Euro 2024 is likely the one that most regular readers of this blog will be most interest in. Most of our readership comes from Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. But the OFC Men’s Nations Cup is also going ahead and the Copa America will be starting soon.

Euro 2024

This is the 3rd edition of the Euros with the expanded format of 24 teams. If you’re a long time blog reader/podcast listener of Post to Post Sport you know I like a nice rant about formats so we’ll talk a bit about that at some point. I suppose on the one hand in a confederation with over 50 members it makes sense to have a tournament that includes almost half of them (the same way Africa and Asia do). The 90’s saw the tournament expanded from 8 to 16 teams with new member states appearing in Eastern Europe. So the rise to 24 may have been inevitable as the newer members began to improve.

As an Irish person I know how much the excitement of taking part in a major tournament takes over when you are from a country for whom that is a rare occasion, so it’s hard to begrudge Georgia making their debut at a major tournament, and Slovenia and Albania appearing for the 2nd time. Equally it would have been hard to begrudge Finland, North Macedonia, Wales, Iceland, and Northern Ireland who only made their debut since the expansion to 24.

At the same time there is the issue of diluting the group stage. 3 rounds of games to eliminate just 8 teams out of 24 with 16 progressing can render some of the early stage a bit meaningless. Teams know 1 win and an okay goal difference will be enough to see them through. It’s almost like a warm-up campaign before the tournament begins proper in the last 16. Nonetheless the excitement of a major tournament makes up for that. 32 teams would get rid of the 3rd place dilemma but would be too many. So the only goo alternative would be to go the route of club football and have multiple tiers of competition, a bit like a more festive Nations League.

OFC Men’s Nations Cup

From a European point of view, the most obscure continental tournament of all is that of the smallest confederation. It seems strange that the OFC Nations Cup doesn’t go the Copa America route and simple have all 12 members participate.

The qualifying campaign took place over a week in March. Tonga hosted what the look of a Rugby competition more so than a football one. The hosts found themselves bottom of a 3 team group losing both games, with Samoa qualifying over Cook Islands. But the drama didn’t end there.

8 teams were originally going to partake with Group A consisting of hosts Vanuatu, favourites New Zealand, and high ranked Solomon Islands, as well as New Caledonia. Group B consists of Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, and Papua New Guinea. In May it was decided that Fiji would host Group B as Vanuatu were having trouble with their airline. But that wouldn’t be all!

In early June in the build up to the tournament, New Caledonia had to pull out due to political unrest in the country. New Caledonia is an overseas territory of France (you may see some of their teams involved in the French domestic cup on occasion). Protests and riots broke out in recent months due to issues over voting rights of indigenous people and their descendants vs voting rights of citizens who are residing in the country for a shorter period or haven’t been continuous residents. It”s an issue I know nothing about so I’m not going to comment on it and would encourage further reading if interested. But basically there were riots and violence with some deaths, and one of the many impacts of the unrest saw New Caledonia pull out of the OFC Nations Cup.

So back to the tournament itself. Basically New Caledonia only pulled out on June 5th with the tournament set to start 10 days later. So it was too late to get a replacement involved (which would have probably been Cook Islands as they finished runner-up in qualifying). The Oceania region offers complications with travel, as it’s made up of a lot of islands and none of the association has a whole lot of money. In fact the OFC Champions League qualifying saw the 5th place team from American Samoa take part in qualifying because those that finished above them couldn’t afford to travel. So group A consists of just 3 teams for this tournament.

The OFC often has issues with membership and organizing games. There are 11 full members with 2 associate members. Kiribati and Tuvalu were unable to take part in qualifying because they are not full members, and American Samoa didn’t register despite being a full member. There were previously other associate members who ended affiliation. Unfortunately for Oceania they suffer in football due to other sports (like rugby) being more popular and issues with travel.

Despite all the issues the OFC Nations Cup is underway with 7 teams, the top 2 teams in each group progress to the semi-finals, with a 5th place play-off taking place among teams that finish 3rd in their group.

Copa America

For a long time the Copa America has seen the 10 CONMEBOL sides and two invited guests play in the tournament. But with a deal signed between CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, the 2024 edition will see 6 teams from North & Central America and the Caribbean take part. It makes sense to have a bit of crossover, there are 8 countries that are geographically in South America who are members of CONCACAF, and it removes the random element of invited teams. It would probably make sense if the CONCACAF Nations League incorporated CONMEBOL teams.

The tournament kicks off on Friday, with 4 groups of 4 leading into the quarter-finals.

Continental Tournament Fever

By the time you’re reading this the second round of group games in the Euros may be on the way, and the second round of group B games in the OFC Nations Cup will have probably been played (as they take place in the early hours Irish time). But I wanted to get journal entry number 1 up as soon as we’d seen every team.

Euros Results

Group A
Germany 5-1 Scotland
Hungary 1-3 Switzerland
Group B
Spain 3-0 Croatia
Italy 2-1 Albania
Group C
Slovenia 1-1 Denmark
Serbia 0-1 England
Group D
Poland 1-2 Netherlands
Austria 0-1 France
Group E
Romania 3-0 Ukraine
Belgium 0-1 Slovakia
Group F
Turkey 3-1 Georgia
Portugal 2-1 Czech Republic

OFC Nations Cup Results

Group A (Round 1)
Solomon Islands 0-1 Vanuatu
Group B
Papua New Guinea 1-5 Fiji
Tahiti 2-0 Samoa
Group A (Round 2)
New Zealand 3-0 Solomon Islands

Thoughts on the Euros so Far

Before the tournament I tried to do out the bracket (made complicated by the fact the tournament tree depends on where the 3rd place teams come from). I got the semi-final pairings of Spain vs Portugal and France vs England. From there I predict France beat Spain in the final.

France were hardly dominant against a well-organized efficient Austria side, but still have the best squad depth in the tournament. If Mbappe is forced to miss games through injury that is obviously a big loss, but they still have enough quality to top the group. Spain were ruthless in their win against Croatia. My predicted bracket had them face Germany in the quarter-finals, who they would likely overrun in midfield. England looked electrifying for 40 minutes of their win against Serbia before becoming a bit sluggish. They still have the quality to progress and nobody wins the tournament in the group stage. A similar thing could be said about Portugal who, despite a talented squad suffer from having a manager in Roberto Martinez who won’t make big tactical decisions when needed. We saw how poorly Martinez managed a golden generation of Belgian talents, who now look as if the moment has passed them buy.

My Euro 2024 Dark Horses

For darkhorses my criteria is they have to be teams who are not fancied to make the quarter-finals and are not considered the typically stronger sides in the tournament. For too long people got away with calling a great Belgium side or an underperforming Italy dark horses when really their squad said they should be doing better. So here are the teams I think could be unlikely success stories:

• Romania: To think I nearly put this up before they beat Ukraine, I would have looked like a genius! They had a great qualifying campaign and 2nd place in their group goes up against another group runner-up, so there’s a chance they could sneak in to the last 8.
• Slovenia: Wasn’t expecting them to get a point from Denmark, I was more thinking they’d catch out Serbia. All about Jan Oblak in goal playing in his first major tournament (he made his international debut shortly after Slovenia’s last major tournament appearance in 2010). He has the ability to drag a point out of a game unsuspectingly and with big Benjamin Sesko up front there’s an opportunity for them to grab some goals.
• Austria: Very well-organized, somewhat unassuming but enough quality to make it out of the group. Funnily enough if they and Romania finish 2nd in their groups they could face off, meaning I’m guaranteed one of these picks to make the last 8. Probably the lightest of my darkhorses.
• Georgia: Purely putting them here as an Irish football fan who has had his head wrecked by the men’s side playing Georgia on multiple occasions in qualifying campaigns.

I’m not including Croatia because they have had a lot of recent success and while it’s unlikely that they will go too deep I would say knockout rounds are realistic for them. You can let me know your dark horses (and what you consider to be a qualifying factor in making a team a dark horse).

If you missed it I put together a 26-man squad of players from countries that didn’t qualify for Euro 2024, so you can have a look at the wild card team and think what could have been.

Thoughts on the OFC Nations Cup so Far

I’m not going to claim to be an expert on Oceania football, but from my research it looks like we could see an end to the New Zealand dominance with a victory for a new team. Tahiti are the only side outside of New Zealand and former members Australia to have won the tournament so far, but Fiji are in good shape, as are main hosts Vanuatu. New Zealand by all accounts are focusing primarily on the Olympics later this Summer and have picked a fairly young team, so could be caught out.

Interestingly in Group A, due to their only being 3 teams, it’s already all decided. Vanuatu beat Solomon Islands in the opening game of the tournament, the former are ranked 6 places below the latter in the world rankings. Solomon Islands then lost to New Zealand (the highest ranked side in Oceania). This means after only playing one game each New Zealand and Vanuatu are guaranteed a place in the play-offs, with Solomon Islands having a bit of a rest before the 5th place play-off. In terms of rankings this, Group A, was the group that earns the title Group of Death over Group B with 3 of the 4 highest ranked teams in the confederation.

In Group B Fiji were dominant against Papua New Guinea and will likely be too strong for lowly Samoa, in a match-up that will probably offer more excitement when the two play in the Pacific Nations Cup in rugby later in the Summer. It’s hard to see Samoa picking up many points so the game between Papua New Guinea and Tahiti is probably the shootout for 2nd place. Papua New Guinea were one of the 4 original members alongside Fiji, and Tahiti are former champions.

The final round of group A fixtures (or fixture to be precise) will be interesting in terms of how New Zealand and Vanuatu manage their squads. It’s a short intense tournament from here with the final group games taking place on the 21st & 22nd, the semi-finals on the 26th, and the final on the 30th. With New Zealand opting to focus more on the Olympics then they may res a few big names. Vanuatu have had a good bit of time off between games and would likely need to put more priority on winning their group as hosts. And both sides have to consider the fact they’ve only had one game so far, so perhaps they need to play their big guns to prepare them for the semi. Topping the group means an easier path to the final, but we may see some rotation.

Copa America

I have to say the bracket annoys me. It’s the Euro 2008 layout which could see teams that met in the group stage meet again before the final. This may have been done to avoid Argentina vs Brazil and USA vs Mexico in the quarter-finals or semi-finals. A final clash between Argentina and Brazil in a repeat of the 2020/1 edition is on the cards.

For upsets Jamaica are the pot 4 team who could pull off a surprise, finding themselves in what s on paper the easiest group alongside Mexico, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Peru are bottom of the CONMEBOL qualifying standings but typically tend to fair well in the Copa America. Outside of the 4 seeded teams Uruguay are most likely to make the final and will put it up to the USA in the group.

Festival of Football

I want to hear from you throughout the next month of football. Whether you have an opinion on what you’ve seen in the tournament so far or a question you’d like me to try find out the answer too. Get in touch on social media or through the contact page with anything on your mind related to Euro 2024, the Copa America, or the OFC Men’s Nation’s Cup. I would love to hear suggestions for tournament winners, darkhorses, best players, or underperformers. And needless to say I welcome a fun fact about any of the tournaments!