We are after the whole first round, so I thought let’s do fun experiment and confront stereotypes we all know about the teams with the reality and how they played in the first round. Shall we?

DISCLAIMER: By using stereotypes I don’t mean to offend any nation. I know that stereotypes in many cases are unfair.

***

Stereotype:
Turkey is always underestimated in big tournaments. Can play great offensive football. Hakan Sukur was a great player.

Italy is always defending its 1:0 lead. Plays boring football called catenaccio.

The Match:
Turkey 0
Italy 3
Turkey played blandly. Italy plays offensive football. Both stereotypes proved wrong.

***

Stereotype:
Wales has one good player. His name is Gareth Bale. He can win a match alone.

Switzerland has one good player. His name is Xherdan Shaqiri. He cannot win a match alone.

The Match:
Wales 1
Switzerland 1
I have no clue why Bale is still playing football if he clearly doesn’t enjoy it anymore. Shaqiri haven’t won the match for Swiss, though. 50% of stereotype accuracy!

***

Stereotypes:
Denmark means energy and always does a good performance.
Finland. No clue.

The Match:
Denmark 0
Finland 1
Till the moment Eriksen fell on the field, the stereotypes were on point. The rest is history.

***

Stereotypes:
Belgium is called Red Devils. Is playing offensive football, always are considered pretenders to win tournament. Rarely do, though.

Russia is unknown. You never know how they play. They have potential due to the size of the country and the amount of talent, but did they win anything in history?

The Match:
Belgium 3
Russia 0
Belgium confirmed the pretender position. Russian confirmed being an unknown. Both stereotypes on point!

***

Stereotypes:
England (and the football) are always going home… far before the final. Generation after generation, all those Scholes, Beckhams, Gerrards, always great players, always going home.

Croatia has heart. Never gives up. Team that leaves heart on the pitch. The team that wins your heart on the pitch.

The Match:
England 1
Croatia 0
Where is my Croatia? What happened? What the hell happened?!

***

Stereotypes:
Austria wishes they play like Germany.
Northern Macedonia… sorry your data transfer is suspended. No stereotype found.

The Match:
Austria 3
Northern Macedonia 1
In the end, I think Germany wishes they play like Austria.

***

Stereotypes:
The Netherlands is like Belgium but actually with some spectacular successes. They play beautifully for the eye. Always had players we loved, Berkamp, Overmars, Van Basten. Everybody loves The Netherlands.

Ukraine is Shevchenko. Yes, I know he doesn’t play anymore. He is a coach now. As I said, Ukraine is Shevchenko.

The Match:
The Netherlands 3
Ukraine 2
We still love The Netherlands. And we always will love Shevchenko.

***

Stereotypes:
Scotland! Place to live, place to love! Kilts, red hair, castles, rain, bagpipe, and… what? Ah, football. Sorry, no data.

Czech is the team to respect. Always good, always solid team. Not as strong as France, England, Germany, but among the medium strength teams Czech excels.

The Match:
Scotland 0
Czech 2
Love to Scotland confirmed. Czech class confirmed. Stereotypes have never been more accurate!

***

Stereotypes:
Poland means boring, chaotic football and Lewandowski. Noone in Europe believes Lewandowski really is Polish. Neither do I.
Slovakia means no data. No stereotypes. Sorry Slovakia.

The Match:
Poland 1
Slovakia 2
It’s your fault. You should know better before you turned TV. Wasted 90 minutes of your life. Stereotypes fully confirmed.

***

Stereotypes:
Spain plays tiki taka and we all hate it.
Sweden has Ibrahimović. They don’t? Oh, so I don’t watch.

The Match:
Spain 0
Sweden 0
Spain had 85% possession. Scored 0 goals. We all hate tiki taka.

***

Stereotypes:
Hungary used to play a great football. Like 100 years ago or so.
Portugal has Ronaldo. Portugal can do anything with this card in hand.

The Match:
Hungary 0
Portugal 3
Apparently every 100 years Hungary has a new injection of talent. They played pretty awesome. Portugal had Ronaldo, but decided not to play this card. Stereotypes missed this time.

***

Stereotypes:
When Zidane ended career, France won’t win anything for the next 20 years.
Germany always wins at the last minute of the match.

The Match:
France 1
Germany 0
Sometimes, my friends, stereotypes are wrong.

WHAT STEREOTYPES I GOT WRONG? WHICH ONES I MISSED? 

Thomas Jansen is the designer of Eleven: the football manager game. Ignacy Trzewiczek is the developer of the game. They both will share their thoughts about EuroCup 2021 and also talk about the design or development of Eleven. Be with them every day during Euro! If you like football and board games, please, share the news about Eleven!

You can learn more about Eleven HERE!

Ignacy:
We discuss tactics. We argue if 4-4-2 is better than 4-5-1, we debate about choices managers make, we spend countless hours talking about who should play on that position and that position and if this player is better from that player. We discuss football all day long, and there are as many opinions as there are fans.

Poland lost against Slovakia yesterday, and as you can imagine, the whole country is debating. We debate manager personal choices. We debate tactics. We debate if our goalkeeper made a mistake. We argue why Lewandowski didn’t score a goal. The Internet – as expected – literally exploded after the match.

That’s all bullocks. Tactics, personal choices, individual player mistakes are all bullocks if there is no heart left on the pitch. There is no tactics that win the game if you don’t run. There is no winning personal choice, if the team plays no pressing. There is no football without giving everything you got on the pitch.

The heart makes a difference.

That’s why Ukraine, which lost against the Netherlands, gained thousands of new supporters last week.

That’s why no one could care less for Poland after their bland, boring, uninspired performance.

We should not discuss tactics. We should not discuss personal choices. We should discuss if that’s the performance of a person whose lifetime dream was to play in the National team during the EuroCup. Did we see that? Did we see the fire, the passion, the manifest of the moment of their life.

In Eleven we have Team Spirit stat. It breaks the rules. Unlike all other stats, it has no fundamental function, no general description. It’s freaking magic. It allows you to do everything. It allows you to break almost any rule in the game. If your team has high Team Spirit, you can do crazy things.

Watching my National team having Team Spirit on level 1, the lowest possible, was a dreadful experience. I am sorry if you also had to watch it.

Thomas:
19-year-old defender Jurriën Timber was in the Dutch starting line-up in the game against Ukraine. At the start of this season, he only played in the second division of the Dutch league. What is it that makes a player grow?

In Eleven we have young players as well. They are eager to learn from the other players on the pitch or from a good coach. Make sure you put them in the line-up, train them, and they probably will become better.

At the beginning of the game, your veteran players form the trusted core of your team. They are essential for the team. They have great abilities, but will get older once you use them. Soon there will be other players developing themselves to take over their roles.

(of course, we are still in the middle of the development of Eleven, so keep in mind things may change!)

This Euro2020 day I watched 2 matches. I missed the one between Sweden and Spain.

The first match of the day was Scotland – Czech Republic. It was played at beautiful Hampden Park. It is home to Queens Park, the oldest football club in Scotland that still exists. After Rangers and Celtic, it has won the most Scottish cups (10), all won during the 19th century. The stadium is also home to the Scottish national team.

It all started well. The national anthem of Scotland was played, and all 15 000 Scots in the stadium sang loud and proud. Beautiful.
The absolute star of the Scottish team was Robbertson. He led his mates in battle. They were the better team in the first half, but it didn’t bring them any goals. And just before halftime, Bayer Leverkusen’s striker Patrik Schick scored at the opposite end of the pitch.

It was a great start to the second half, with chances on both sides. But then Schick struck again. He saw the Scottish goalkeeper was outside the penalty box and took a shot from a great distance. It resulted in the best goal of the tournament so far.

I liked the Scottish way of playing, but they lack a world-class striker. The Czech Republic has one. He goes by the name of Patrik Schick. I will remember him.

Next up was Poland – Slovakia. All members of the Portal Games team were probably watching this one nervously. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t of the highest quality. The best players on the pitch were Zielińsky (Poland) and Hamsík (Slovakia). They brought movement into the teams and functioned as a connection between midfield and front. Poland had the most of the possession, but Slovakian winger Mak scored the first goal.

Right after halftime, Poland got back into the game by scoring the 1-1. Poland got their hope back. But then Krychowiak got his 2nd yellow card, and a couple of minutes later, Slovakia scored again. Poland tried to fight back. Bednarek missed the biggest chance in the 91st minute to equalize. Full time 1-2. Without having great players, Slovakia managed to defeat better quality players by playing organized and being a better team.

Thomas Jansen is the designer of Eleven: the football manager game. Ignacy Trzewiczek is the developer of the game. They both will share their thoughts about EuroCup 2021 and also talk about the design or development of Eleven. Be with them every day during Euro! If you like football and board games, please, share the news about Eleven!

You can learn more about Eleven HERE!

Thomas:

Let’s get back to football and board games today.

After 2 days of the tournament, I am most impressed by Belgium and Italy. To me, Belgium is getting more and more used to the fact they belong among the big ones. They have an experienced team, with great talented players. Lukaku was great against Russia. He contributed both in attack and defense. Italy made a good impression as well. But it took a while to break through the Turkish wall. For the neutral football fan, these kinds of matches can be intriguing…

When you play Eleven, you can send scouts to watch the opponent’s team. This way you learn if it is a strong team and in which line up they play. If you are about to meet the favorites for the league title, you may choose a defensive lineup with defensive tactics. One of them is called ‘Play for a draw’. It boosts your defense and decreases your attacking power at the same time. lt often saves you, and sometimes you even steal the victory. Imagine the Turkish own goal didn’t happen and Turkey scored in a counterattack.

Have you ever been on that side as a fan? Remember how you exploded in joy? Or burst into tears, if on the other side. That’s football.

I bet Turkey would have chosen these tactics too if they had the card available.

Of course, yesterday I was looking forward to the game in my home country: The Netherlands.

I remember the first moment I got interested in football. It was in 1988. The Dutch team won the Euros that year. I was… Eleven.

I literally remember every single game. For us, the semi-final was the real final. We won against Germany with a superb goal from Marco van Basten. For the Netherlands, it was revenge for the lost World Cup final in 1974 against Germany.

This year our team is OK. We’ve had a better team, but they can definitely grow during the tournament.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch England – Croatia. I took my kids to the playground. We had a great time. Some things are more important than the beautiful game. Nevertheless, England managed to win without me watching. Raheem Sterling scored the only goal. They took their revenge for the loss against the same opponent in the World Cup semi-finals 2 years ago.

I was really interested in North Macedonia. I’m an underdog man. And I hope they will do well. And become… 2nd in the group. Right behind the Netherlands of course.

They played against Austria, a team which is ranked about 40 places higher in Fifa ranking. The first half was full of mistakes but was entertaining. Austria had better players, but North Macedonia fought hard as a team. Austria opened the score with a beautiful goal, but Macedonia scored the equalizer in a way that looked more like pinball than football.

In the second half it could have gone both ways, but substitutes Gregoritsch and Arnautovitz showed why they should have been in the lineup by both scoring one more goal.

Full time: 3-1. I have been entertained, but I don’t expect these teams to reach the quarter-finals.

I put on my orange 2010 World Cup finals jersey. I was ready for the game. In the first half, the Netherlands were off to a good start. 3 chances in about 7 minutes. But the blue wall got thicker each minute. Sometimes it opened in a flash and the Ukrainians came out for a dangerous counterattack. It was clear the Dutch had the better players, but Ukraine used the ‘play for a draw’- tactics card with thought.

Finally, in the second half, the Dutch broke down the wall. Wijnaldum and Weghorst each scored a goal within 5 minutes. Everybody waited for the third Dutch goal, but instead, Ukraine scored. Twice! They tried the ‘play for draw’ card again, but it didn’t work. In the 85th minute, Dumfries scored the final goal of the game for the Netherlands: 3-2. Ukraine worked hard, but the Dutch took the victory in the end.

Satisfied, but a bit worried. I‘ve seen some good attacks, but although they played with 5 defenders, defensively it didn’t look great.

Thomas Jansen is the designer of Eleven: the football manager game. Ignacy Trzewiczek is the developer of the game. They both will share their thoughts about EuroCup 2021 and also talk about the design or development of Eleven. Be with them every day during Euro! If you like football and board games, please, share the news about Eleven!

You can learn more about Eleven HERE!

For the past 30+ years I played football at least once a week. As a kid I played every day, in college I played twice a week, nowadays I play every Monday. I can’t say that about board games – every year there is a few weeks, when I take a break and I play no board games at all. There was no single week of break from football in my life.

I love board games, I am huge board games fan, but let me be honest with you – in my heart I am sport dude. If there is an offer on the table to play my beloved Mall of horror or to play football, I will choose football. Sorry to say that.

I also watch sport. I watch football (Premiere League) and I watch all mayor events in sports that involve team sports. That is why I was so excited and so freaking happy when Rob and his friends invited me this Gen con for a American Football match (Indiana Colts against NJ Giants). I believe they did not realize how huge it was for me and how happy I was that evening.

But let me tell you something. Let me tell you about yesterday evening.

Yesterday Polish volleyball team won World Championship. It is second gold medal in Polish history. We won it only once in 1974, two years before I was born. Yesterday we defeated Brasil, team that won 3 gold medals in a row and was World Champion for the past 12 years.

Watching our team reaching their highest skills, watching their determination and their will to defeat Brasil was something I will remember for years. Pure emotions. I was shouting, I was clapping, I was cursing, swearing, I was acting like a madman. And I was witnessing history – Poland won World Championship.

You sport freaks do understand me, huh? It was some about 20 hours ago. And I am still shaking…

What a feeling. What a night!

I worked on Imperial Settlers for the past 8 months. I worked day and night. Every day, every weekend and every holiday. I was testing on Christmas and I was testing on Easter.  There was no way to get rid of the game, no way to clear my head and stop thinking about Imperial Settlers. You think about new cards when taking shower, you worry about balance when you get to bed. This is obsession. This is changing your whole world around one thing – Imperial Settlers.

The game is scheduled for Gen Con 2014 –  this is my most important release, this is the moment I was preparing for years, this is me debuting at Gen Con, biggest event in North America. This is it. This is the moment when I put on the plate all the best I have and I go to US and say: Here I am. This is my new game. Play and have fun. This is my moment.

But…

The games are not yet in US. They are at manufacturer.

It may happen that manufacturer will screw up, print something bad and we will need to postpone Gen Con release.

It may happen that shipping will have some problems and games won’t make for Gen Con.

It may happen that some documents will be wrong and customs will hold the game for few weeks.

It may happen that nearly year of my obsessive work and biggest event of my life will be ruined by a mistake of one person hardly involved in board games. Manufacturers worker, shipping guy, custom employee… A guy.

You can imagine how much broken, devastated or simply pissed off I would be if it happens.

Yesterday Japanesee referee – hardly involved in playing football – ruined months of preparations of Croatia players. He threw all their hard work into bin. He took their hopes and dreams about World Cup and said: Sorry, you worked hard, but I made mistake and all those hours you spent in training were waste of time. I can’t imagine how broken, devastated or simply pissed off Croatians are now.

Football is a broken game. I love it, but there are these moments I am so close to throw my TV off the window. Yesterday I had this moment. And as I can imagine, many of you had it too.