Euro 2012: analysing the teams (IV)

Here are the comments to the last group of Euro2012.

Fance:
The French team is a veritable powder keg ready to burst with minimal fuse, as seen in the 2010 World Cup: Anelka abandonning the race and other players to striking in training.
The great ethnic and cultural heterogeneity, means that any wrong word, can causes a conflict difficult to control: and the great football reference, Ribéry is one of the most unstable players.
Of course since that time have been great changes in the selection, introduced by new coach Laurent Blanc: cohesion and unanimity among all players. Despite having some players of great international reputation, the French team is far from their heydays.
The big picture is the forward Karim Benzema, due to his youth and ambition, coupled with a large class and potential: units in himself major capabilities that are essential in any game. After an excellent season at Real Madrid, is full of motivation to continue with the good results.
Despite the stability that it causes, the great multiculturalism of the french team, allows them to find the strengths of the difference, while it concentrates a great number of talents.

England:
It's almost impossible not to associate England to football championships, but also all associate the name to England to the no qualifying for Euro 2008.
And the England team still manages to overcome the French team in scandal and confusions to the point of Italian Fabio Capello has given up, forcing the selection to choose a substitute, Roy Hudgson.
Despite the favoritism, this is much smaller than in the past, which takes a lot of pressure from the shoulders of the players.
The coach has the authority to make the England team a strong opponent, achieving at the same time, build consensus both within the team and outside. Unfortunately, their presence as a coach is still very recent, which gave him no time to work and enter his personal touch to the team.
Among the players include some of the biggest stars of world football, and responsible for Chelsea's big hits. Just repeat what they do on this team, to be assured a large performing of the English team.

Sweden:
The Swedish team has some strengths, which unfortunately can quickly turn into weaknesses: I am referring mainly to Zlatan Ibrahimovic who seems to coming constantly between good and bad temper, which caused several problems in the selection.
The Swedish team is a team that stands out as a body, without much individualities. Despite various problems, the most serious are the defense, especially the wings, not to mention the recent injuries that some players have suffered that, despite not having them unable to be present in the league, impaired much their performance.
Despite their lack of favoritism around this team, the truth is that Sweden is becoming a figure very present in these championships. Both figure Ibrahimovic as the coach, Erik Hamren, are large gains that can provide a good path for the Swedish team.

Ukraine:
It is the great debutant this year, which was possible because they are co-organizer.
Although there is nothing that stands in the team, as in other selections, the truth is that Ukraine is at its side the factor-house and public support, that has motivated they more than Poland.
In fact, among the players, just stands the veteran Andrei Shevchenko, who is not a great asset.
The lack of international experience, both the players (only two players have an intrnational career) as the team, brings major drawbacks for this selection. Moreover, all the support as the home team can bring a lot of pressure, and eventually do more harm than benefit.
Of course the fact that players do not participate very much in international competitions, like other teams did not bring them much physical exhaustion: this, coupled with all the motivation they have, can bring very positive surprises.
This is excellent opportunity for the Ukrainian team show that can fly higher than what it believes.
Another strong point is the coach Oleg Blokhin, who knows how to lead wisely the ukrainian team, taking it to the quarter finals of the World 2006 (the only presence of Ukraine in the international championship finals).



Who will win the UEFA European Football Cup 2012? Go HERE and vote.

Euro 2012: analysing the teams (III)

A computer problem prevented me from doing yesterday, my comments to the group C of the Euro2012. If all goes well today, I will make comments to the two remaining groups.

Spain:
The expectations for the Spanish selection, could not be higher: after winning the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2008, is expected that Sapin continues here to show an excellent performance.
But of course not all good news: Puyol's injury, makes the selection lose one of the líders the resort which brings a major dilemma for the coach, who now has Sergio Ramos as the best choice to occupy the central defense, and an unknown to the right of the field.
As for the players available, they include some of the best players in the world, which were already familiar with these wanderings: not to mention that Del Bosque, is the coach who led the Spanish team to the title in 2010, and has the same philosophy and technique, to repeat this feat.
As for the group to which it belongs, despite the qualities of their opponents, the probabilities playing in favor of Spain.
Unfortunately, the league made ​​by most players are signs of wear physical, which can greatly benefit the opponents.
The quality of players and the experience and respect for the coach, are factors which indicate that Spain will be able to get far in this championship.

Italy:
Italy is another team that are always expected to get far in these championships.
Unfortunately, the Italian national team has players with little experience in international competitions (two players on the list of pre-guests were from Division II), in addition to the lack of one-goal man      - literally, always check a lot of goals - and highlighting only Di Natale 10 goals, and Cassano with 9.
It also remains in memory of all the disaster in the 2010 World Cup, which may overshadow the performance of players.
As for the physical problems of the players, there is nothing to worry about to pointing. In relation to Cesare Prandelli, the coach, despite never having won a title of relief, did a reasonably good job at Fiorentina, and after being chosen as the Italian coach, passed a strict code of conduct that allowed the selection to qualify without major problems.
Other positive aspects to highlight are the capacity that the Italian national team has to manage different situations (whether favorable or adverse) and defensive solidity - the main asset of the Italian national team - with just two goals suffered in ten meetings.

Croatia:
Croatia is another team that has surprised at the European Championships.
As for the players, the injuries of Dejan Lovren (the great figure of the defense) and Niko Kranjcar (a great asset in midfield), prevented them from being in top physical condition.
In the attack, after the departure of the great figure of Davor Suker, the team still needs a replacement for that position.
Despite the great experience of many of their players, which is allied to the ambition and enthusiasm of the younger players, the truth is that the croatian selection not have any player who is able to highlight and allow the public to believe that in a successful performance on the croatian team.
The great point in favor of the Croatian selection, is their team spirit, which can maintain the level and concentration even when things start going badly for the team.

Republic of Ireland:
According to the historical background of the team of Ireland, this is the selection with less chance of success of this group.
The great Irish selection problem is even the poor quality of the midfield, led by Giovanni Trapattoni, who can not keep up the quality of defense and attack.
This is the second time that Ireland is present in the European championships: in 1988, narrowly failing to qualify from the group stage.
Despite having made ​​a good qualifying round because of the strong team spirit, willpower will not be enough, so that Ireland continues to have success. The great problem of selection is the lack of flexibility of the team, to play successfully with other tactical models that which is familiar for them.
Poor adaptation to new game situations, it may be a weakness that players can enjoy fine.
The coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, has a history of good results, worthy of note. As for the route with fewer goals suffered, shows that score against Ireland will certainly not be easy





Who will win the UEFA European Football Cup 2012? Go HERE and vote.

Euro 2012: analysing the teams (II)

Here are my comments on the group considered the strongest of all, where are some of the teams considered favorites to win.

Germany:
Starting with on of the strongest teams of this championship, it's difficult to know the weakness of the geramn team: its srtucture is based on the titular team of Bayern - so this will mean that the team will acknowledge wearing, because they anly finished their season in May, 19th with the champions league.
And, if they passed from the groups phase, would they inverse the bad results on the latest championships (loosing in the semi-finals of the last two world cups, and the final of Euro 2008)?
But, if some of the main players are from Bayern, that made a great season, this can mean that the players are able to show all their qualities, and close with key-of-gold, this season.
The german team has everything to face this competition with optimism: a perfect combination between a great physic condition and great competence at technical level. There aren't big weak points, except maube the youth of some players, little used for this kind of competitions.
Obviously, the aspiration of the german team is to win this competiton. The results sepak by theirself: they had a good qualifying phase, with only victories: the coach (in the place since 2008), Joanchin low, follows the same philosophy of his predecessor.
One of the biggest reference in the players, is the medium of Real Madrid, Mesut Ozil, that was an extraordinary assintance, pointing 5 goals.

Denmark:
The statistics are against it. In this group of "fire", the Danish selection is what has more chance of be less successful, though they finished the qualifying better than Portugal.
And in this championship does not have the stars of the past as Michael Landrup, Sarem Lerby or Allan Simonsen.
For the team is worth the stability: have the same coach since 2000, which succeeded in giving to his team a very unique style.
There is great respect between the coach and players, who have adapted well to the 4x3x3 system, that Morten Olsen brought from his days in Ajax.
If stability is the strong point of Denmark, the same can not be said of the options for the team: if Bendtner, Daniel Agger or Eriksen are injured, the whole team will do very impaired.
With only 15 goals, Denmark had the second worst attack of the teams selected for the European, just ahead of Greece (with 14 goals).
One of its positive points is the strength of the team as a collective. On the other hand, being the least favorite of the group, has nothing to lose and not much pressure on themselves, so it was that they won the title in 1992.

The Netherlands:
Let us now the second country in this group with more appearances in Europe, after Germany, and a big favorite. The main problem of the Dutch team is defense, except the goal, which is well defended by Stekelenburg.
The problem in the defense is mainly in the left wing, the post of young Jethro Willems, a newcomer to the selection - so no experience in this league. However, both the center and right, are not much better served.
But the fact that they have reached the final of the last World Cup, increases the desire for a victory in this European.
On the side of the strengths of the Dutch national team, there is the experience together of the most players, who together represent the selection for a long time.
Most players play abroad, in teams where have achieved great prestige: it shows the high quality of the Dutch squad, but otherwise presents a team  tired, with a lot and very stressful, games in this season.
The team has many players of high quality, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie, who achieved a high level of maturity and professionalism.


Portugal:
Portugal is a team that always gets great favoritism, but at the time to do great things, is always short of expectations.
It is impossible not to talk about Cristiano Ronaldo, which can also mean that the team is very focused on individuals and missing you very much team spirit. The team has good players apart from Cristiano Ronaldo as Hélder Postiga, Hugo Almeida and Nelson Oliveira, but the low for disciplinary reasons for Bosingwa and Ricardo Carvalho, very hurt the chances of the Portuguese team.
On the positive side, Portugal is going to the european very stable, achieved with great effort of the coach, Paulo Bento, who found a very suffered group. Every effort of Paul Bento, who was succeeded in imposing his ideas and his style in time to qualify for selection for the league, is worthy of admiration.
Being in the group more complicated, can bring many problems to Portugal, but the team long ago that was not as motivated as now.




Who will win the UEFA European Football Cup 2012? Go HERE and vote.

Euro 2012: analyzing the teams (I)

Here I begin a series of messages, in this week of the beginning of European football championship, making some comments about each of these selections.

Poland:
Being one of the host countries, was automatically qualified for the European. Unfortunately there was only another presence of Poland in Europeans, more precisely in the last European (in 2008 in Austria-Switzerland), staying only in the group stage, with a single goal scored by Roger Guerreiro.
As for the own selection, there are few players of international renown: only 6 players surpassed the barrier of 25 internationalizations.
Despite the immediate clearance, the limitations were visible at all levels of team, in the weak results during the particular games that, being friendly, never constituted a pressure test to the selection.
On the positive side, the great figure is undoubtedly the goalscorer Lewandowski, one of the best at its position in German league. As for goal, has been one of the greatest strengths of Poland and in this European wouldn't be the exception, with Wojciech Szczesny, Arsenal goalkeeper, ensuring a good protection to the Polish goal.
And over here we are: the strength of Poland based on collective, rather than in individuals of renown. On its side Poland will also have the advantage to be playing at home, which has enabled it to raise always wins in these games, and the fact that playing debut with Greece, which despite the victory in 2004, is not the greatest opposition they could find.


Czech Republic:
Let's now talk of a country that had its golden period in the end of the twentieth century (not too long ago, so), but that has been overshadowed in recent years. The coach, Bilek, unfortunately no longer can count on most of these stars at the time of choosing this selection for the European: still managed to gather a reasonable set with experience.
Milan Barros, the top scorer in the Czech team, is on the descending phase since, was not even the Czech top scorer in qualifying phase: the place was occupied by the left lateral Kadloc. Barros is part of a majority group of players already reaching the age limit to participate in these championships: which brings with it the disadvantage of being very tired at this stage already.
Also the defensive area is another weaknesses of the Czech team. On the other hand, if the high number of veterans presents the problem of physical limitations, on the other carries the advantage of considerable experience with the sole exception of young strikers Necid and Kadlec. Although, since it became independent, have never missed a presence in Europe, the Czech team is quite realistic and is aware that is not favorite to win: for them to pass the group stage, will have something to can be proud.


Russia:
The Russian team, also have big problems with the physical condition of its players, starting with the biggest star of the team, Arshavin.
Far also are the more golden times of Russia, especcially the victory in 1996, while URSS.
Akinfeev, goalkeeper, also failed part of the season, due a lesion which has not completely recovered. But the big problem for Russia was in the axis of defense, due to the slowness and lack of technical resources of the players.
On the other side, we have the experience as a team, of the players, because most of them are playing in the russian team for four or five years: they already know each other - the strong points to hardness and the weak points to overcome.
But, after loosing the 2010 World Cup, the russian team is back, more strong tahn before.
The dutch coach, Dick Advocaat (that still can not speak russian) joined fo the Eastern "physical" footbal, criative and dinamism, based on Arshavin and Dzagoev, palyers with more talent.


Greece:
It is inevitable to speak the Greek victory in the 2004 European. In fact, a important milestone that was reversed less good performance that Greece has in this championship: of three times that they was earlier in the European Championship, only in 2004 they passed the group phase, precisely to win.
Although the current selection is tactically accurate and consistent in all areas, the truth is that there is great lack of talent and creativity, especially because the "brain" of the team, Sotoris Ninis, was injured during seven months and only in March managed to return to lawns.
As for the attack, there is still no strong option: Samaras, the best known, only scored four goals in 2012, and Mitroglou, with 15 goals for Atromis, never scored when he was selected to represent Greece, being heavily criticized for its excessive individualism.
In fact, the high value of the Greek team is on defense and in midfield. Despite the team maintain the same philosophy group that 2004, the truth is that the Greeks did not believe they can repeat the same feat this year.
The current coach, the portuguese Fernando Santos, is highly respected among players and has led his team very well.
Another problem that greeks must solve, is the disorientation when they suffer a goal, especially for smaller teams.
But the Greeks can have the advantage of being in the group considered less strong, in which all teams have the same chance of advancing to the next phase.
In addition, in the team still remaining the heroes of 2004: Katsouranis and Karagounis.




Who will win the UEFA European Football Cup 2012? Go HERE and vote.

EURO 2012: "Creating History Together"

Precisely six days from now will start the 2012 European Football Championship, co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

The offical logo of EURO 2012

And before I talk a bit about the history of each selection, I will give some insight that probably will be known by many people.

Between June 8th and July 1st will be made the 16th European Football Championship, being hosted first time by both Poland and Ukraine. The decision was taken on April 18th 2007.

There are 14 countries that, together with the hosts after the qualification round with 51 countries, came out winners and will fight for victory. Theses countries were divided on four groups in 2 December 2011 at the Ukraine Palace of Arts in Kiev, Ukraine, after the 16 finalists were divided by 4 pots.

From each finalist was chosen a referee, 3 assistant referees and two aditional assistant refrees.

And now, let me talk about some symbols of this championship.

LOGO and SLOGAN
The logo (seen in the begining of this message), and the slogan "Creating History Together", were announced together. The slogan refers to the common past of both countries, when they were a single country, and the desire of both countries provide one of the best championships ever. 
As for the logo, was reveled in December of 2009, in an event at Mykhailivska Square, Kiev. Was based on  Wycinanki or Vytynanky, a traditional way of cutting paper, practised in some rural areas of Poland and Ukarine: so, this form of art, represents the rural areas of both countries.

MASCOTS
The official mascots of this championship are the twins, Slavek and Slavko, designed by Warner Bros: one of them represent the polish footballers, and the other the ukranian, with the respective natinal colours. These mascots were offically announced in December 2010, after a public web voting.
The name Slavko isn't polish, because the polish alphabet hasn't the "v" letter. But UEFA decided to not use english names on the mascots.

TROPHY
Inspired on Henri Delaunay (1883 - 1955), a french football administrator that, afetr being football player and referee, was later the president of Étoile des Deux Lacs, then secretary-general of the Comité français interfédéral (CFI), the ancestor of the French Football Federatio (when the CFI became the French Football Federation in 1919, he remained as secretary-general), and considered the responsible for the creation of the European Football Championship, the trophy started a journey through the host cities seven weeks before the start of the tournament. A hundred days before the first match a 35.5-metre-high (116 ft) hot air balloon in the shape of the trophy was flown in Nyon, Switzerland and will visit 14 cities throughout the host countries, reminding spectators of the impending tournament.


Due to the affluence of a large crowd during the days of the championship in both countries there were huge changes in terms of infrastructure, transport and communications network.
And of course, from the beginning there were problems and tensions associated with racism, antisemitism, hooliganism, animal cruelty and terrorist threats.

MUSIC
And now I leave you with the official song of the EURO2012, "Endeless Sumeer", sung by the German Singer, Oceana.
The official Polish song is "Koko Euro Spoko", sung by the folk band Jarzębina.
In Ireland was also produced a song named "The Rocky Road to Poland" recorded by a collaboration of Irish performers, thar was already reached number 1 in Ireland.                                

               
  


In the next posts, I will analyze each selection in this championship.




Who will win the UEFA European Football Cup 2012? Go HERE and vote.

Eurovision in Baku 2012! (IX)

Continue in this post my comments to the performances of the finalists. Then I will analyze the votes.



Despite all the surprises - many unexpected - at least the victory was well assigned.

Romania 12th place - 71 points: the big summer hit in the Eurovision this year, managed to stay in the first half of the ratings table. When I hear this song, I associate it with the music that Jessy Matador led in 2010 to represent France, of course that both the music and the performance of Jessy were better (although they have been precisely the same place).
It was a moment full of energy. Moreover, the energy was so much that all was not passed out by the vocalist Mandiga.
There were some parts of the song that Elena Ionescu seemed tired, and went too static for this song. But in fact, when it moved the pitch slipping. Between the pitch and the dance, the choice was complicated: perhaps this explains the discomfort of Elena during the performance.

Denmark 23 th place - 21 points: For me it was one more major negative surprises of the night. Soluna Samay was one of the great worthy of the final, despite being in 9th place in the semifinals, was a passage almost to the letter. The unique and different style very pleased me. The funny thing, and that may have affected the whole performance was the disposition of the different band members: with the drummer was craziness, but with the young of the cello was the despair! All right that with the battery was easier to express joy in this music, but the young man could well be less tragic.
And I felt sorry that during the music, Soluna had not removed his hat as he did before.
In short, a performance considered one of the candidates for a place at the TOP (away from the successes of 2010 and 2011), and I can not explain such a bad result, despite the vocal problems that persisted until the end of the song. While all the claims of Soluna to say that she believed would bring victory to Denmark, gave an image of convinced and arrogance did not sit well who must have heard it.

Greece 17th place - 64 points: For me the result of Greece was neither good nor bad - it was a shock to the extent that Greece brokes its remarkable record of being the only one taking part since there are semifinals, was until this year always in TOP10. The only record holder that remains is Azerbaijan, but it denuted much later - in 2008.
It was a performance that can be described with one word: sensuality. And in fact the name of the song invited to it.
In the semifinal I found it worse than Cyprus, but in the final was the opposite. I thought the choreography too exaggerated and a good part of it was pathetic. And Eleftheria was much helped by the lady who did voice choir.
I believe that without juries, Greece would have a better result, but do not know if it would keep the record.

Turkey 7th place - 112 points: Turkey was again in the Eurovision TOP, getting a much better place than most of the bets predicted. A performance well-prepared and relaxed. Again Can Bonomo showed his charisma and originality. The voice was acceptable.
This year's strong diaspora was not sufficient to assign 12 points to Turkey, which were only given by its neighbor, Azerbaijan (for a change!). The traditional countries that tend to give many points to Turkey (Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and France - the first time since 2004 that Turkey, being in the end not received 12 points from France), gave much less than usual, which proves that the juries in those countries were not in line with the wishes of the public, as often happens.

Spain 10th place - 97 points: nice voice and reasonable performance, perhaps overly tragic at times

Germany 8th place - 110 points: Another pleasant surprise of the night. Germany was one of my BIG5 favorite, and liked very much that he had stayed in TOP10. The simple performance worked well, able to focus attention on Roman Lob. It was a performance worthy of a pop concert that provided a pleasant time. And this time I did not think so unbearable he repeated so often "Sanding Still", as in the official videoclip.
But after so many favorites have been classified so badly, I am amazed about the good classification of Germany. Well, if it is true that the gay public vote massively in Eurovision, associated to young women who must also make a contribution at the time of voting, is explained some of the success of "Still Standing" (without removing quality from the performance Roman Lob).

Malta 21th place - 41 points: I say as many times as begin nedded: all the effort to turn a banal song with nothing special, in a serious candidate has brought good results. In general Kurt and his band were well. Unfortunately, as much as effort being made​​, the average quality of the music hardly  provide a top position to Malta.

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 13th place - 71 points: although I feel the music an interesting proposal, and recognize the vocal qualities of Kaliopi, not left to be surprised by the classification of Macedonia. The absence of much competition in the Balkans (with Slovenia out the final and the poor performance of Bosnia), the chances of a good place to Macedonia rose sharply.
As I said, music was very original and always showed a consistent Kaliopi, owner of a good vocal apparatus, although in times of agitation have left she very afflicted.
The mixture of rhythms could have been better achieved, but the whole was acceptable.

Ireland 19th place - 46 points: the exotic twins were there, but they left at home almost all the good things that led to Dusseldorf last year.
The "big crazzies" of the night, followed the line of last year, its right, but with a less original and charismatic music. This song more "serious" brought out of water (not the subject of the music was Waterline) the vocal problems of Jedward. The chorus was better than last year, but still left much to be desired.
Overall, the performance did not disappoint, but left much to be desired.

Serbia 3rd place - 214 points: Another of the big winners of the night, earned the bronze medal, which was not surprising because almost everyone put Željko Joksimović in TOP3 in the the final.
More Balkan than that was impossible. A good voice and an interesting ballad. I'm sorry to the huge legion of fans of Željko, but I can not see why so much excitement around this gentleman and this song.

Ukraine 15 place - 65 points: After the huge success of last year, Ukraine fell to mid-table. Gaitana again showed her charisma and strong and well-disposed personality.
However, the fact that represent Ukraine helped ther o achieve a classification reasonable in view of the weakness of the music.
It was a very pleasant moment that transmitted energy. All the background work, was one of the best in Eurovision this year.

Moldova 11th place - 81 points: the night of performances ended with a song well-disposed but, unlike the general opinion, the choreography for me ruined a song with a unique style and well-disposed.
Again, Moldova can thank the diaspora and the neighborhood so good classification.


As for the voting after the results coming out, the surprises continue. In addition to the bad results that I mentioned in the case of Scandinavian countries (Iceland, Norway and Denmark), to the surprise of many, the songs taken as the worst of this edition - Montenegro, San Marino and Georgia - were not in last place of the semifinals: far from it! San Marino got the amazing 14th place, Montenegro the no less amazing 15th place (in the latter case the music was pretty funny, but destroyed everything bad performance). Even Israel, which featured a song that was definitely not the kind who eurofans liked, finished in 13th place. These three countries have managed to stay ahead of Belgium which, despite the feeble music, was represented by the beautiful voice of Iris. I agree with who have said that Belgium continues to participate for sportsmanship.
And despite the vocal quality of Rona, the 2nd place to Albania in the semifinal for me it was unexpected.
As for Georgia, managed the prodigious 14th place, just three points from Portugal, and well ahead of Slovenia that was ... in 17th place! At least in Switzerland, managed to stay in 11th place on 7 points for the 10th ranked, Hungary.
These polls were even madness.

As for the final, the best moment for me was, of course, the succession of 12 points awarded to Sweden. Until the voting of Italy I kept the hope that Sweden obtained the record of all countries to vote on it. Still, it was great to see that all over Europe, from Russia to Spain, Iceland and Ireland surrendered to Loreen and her "Euphoria". And this time, despite not having broken the record for Alexander Rybak in 2009, the votes were much more concentrated in Sweden, who received 12 point more countries, including all its neighbors (which did not happen with Norway in 2009 ) and from other countries in 2009 have not allocated 12 points to Norway, like France, Belgium, Ireland, UK, Slovakia and Finland.

As for the runners, the nice ladies from Russia, I knew they would be the delirious in the televoting, but never thought it was also so voted by the jury as to the point of being in 2nd place. Despite the joy that music brought  and the whole message forwarded to the public, that we must never stop fighting regardless of our age, the truth is that this is primarily a music contest and good voices was penalized by the sympathy these ladies have caused. Obviously I'm not blaming them: they were not guilty of the votes the people gave to them.

As for the third place, all the sympathy that the singer and the country have in Europe, together with the existence of little good competition from Balkan neighboring, allowed that both from the Balkans and the countries where there a lot of serbian diaspora (such as Switzerland and Austria) Serbian was highly scored.

But I thought the voting too fast and without any emotions. There was the usual thriller or interaction between spokespersons and presenters. Still, the best spokesperson for me was Sarah Dawn Finer, who announced the swedish votes and that gave one of the most hilarious and well-disposed moments of the night, much better than in 2009.
Of course Mr. Lordi from Finland was not anything behind her, with all the characteristics he gave to the most voted by Finland.
And I have to make even a reference to the votes of Germany, announced by Anke Engelke, one of the co-presenters of last year's edition. Her assertion that we can have a good choice and good wishes for the journey of Azerbaijan, Europe is watching them, was a clear reference to all the political problems that were associated with this issue.

Beginning with the "forced" withdrawal of Armenia who did not feel that his company would be safe to move to the country who has great animosity, passing to the threats against the winner, Loreen, by her attitude that they did not please to the government, without forget the news come from journalists, members of delegations or simply foreign supporters were assaulted and abused, and of course, what I HERE said about the threats against the gay community who often watch live the Eurovision, which ended up destroying two sites on the contest.

Congratulations to Loreen for the performance, and also for having presented us with sentences like this "Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan Every Day. One Should not be silent about such things." Which was the answer she gave against the attacks made by members of azeri government after Loreen having met with human rights activists who by coincidence were opponents of the current government, which led to the request for the removal Sweden from final by violating a nonsensical and unfounded  rule (perhaps Azerbaijan was eliminating competition for achieve the 2nd consecutive win ...).

And now its finished this marathon of five months in which I was commenting the choices of each country and bringing other news that might arise.
For those who have asked me where I get so much information, my sources were WIKIPEDIA and the EUROVISION OFFICIAL SITE, and of course my personal opinion and everything I have seen in previous editions.
And it seems that readers adhere well to my work. Last Saturday (19th) on the eves of Eurovision starts, the total views of my blog urpassed a bit the 8000 views. Today at dawn surpassed 10,700 views!
At this time among the 10 most viewed posts ever, only two do not relate to the Eurovision. Of course, the most viewed of all is the message with I comment the choices of Sweden and Russia, which already exceeds the 300 views, but beware - here are only counted people who will go straight to the message by search engines, not who also saw the message after being on the blog.

For nearly two months the most popular words in the search engines and giving access to this blog was "Tooji". Has now been largely superseded by "Loreen euphoria". The second expression is "Loreen euphoria cover". Also the expression "eurovision 2012 Loreen" is among the 10 words that have more access to my blog for search engines.

Before starting the marathon comments on European football, I pause the introduction of so many posts on my blog (yes, I have life beyond this!!!) and for a while I talk about what is right in fashion: the sovereign debt crisis! As for Eurovision, if not anything extraordinary happens, I will be back in December when they start editing the choices for 2013. Until then, I leave the news that there are already 14 countries confirmed for the ESC2013: Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden (host) and Switzerland.

Eurovision in Baku 2012 (VIII): WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

EUROPE: WE HAVE A WINNER! LOREEN WITH HER EUPHORIA WAS THE QUEEN OF THE SATURDAY NIGHT!!

Loreen was the queen of the night and razed all the competition - the public was nearly unanimous in giving the victory, more than just, to "Euphoria"

And is not that my predictions were right? The major threats to the victory of Loreen were Russia and Serbia!! But attention: I do not want to say that they deserved to be those threats.

I always tried to be impartial, but as I said HERE, 2nd place was very little for this true masterpiece. The Loreen had yesterday what she deserved: a landslide victory for a performance, that I only arrangement one way to describe it - perfect from beginning to end. Unfortunately, Sweden does not have many reasons to thank to Portugal, San Marino and specially Italy.

Being completely in love with this music and performance, I suffered a lot with the huge problems that Loreen suffered in the rehearsals, including the dress rehearsal where she choked on a snowflake in one of the most important moments in the music, and all the negative criticism that Loreen fell over, and even what shocked me most, the reaction to the fact that Loreen did not follow the official protocol proposed by the EBU to do a tour with members of the Azerbaijani government, opting instead to visit a shelter for women in need of various kinds of support. According to what she said if she had stayed in Morocco would be like her cousin 13 years, who is married to a man of 40. This did not fall very well in many stomachs, to the point of reaching emerging rumors of the possible elimination of Sweden from grand final. I only have one thing to say who was angry with this "rebel" attitude of Loreen: envy can not kill, but is bad for your health!

But back to the performance of Loreen: for me it was only in the final that Loreen of Melodifestivalen was back. The problem of hoarseness which for me was very visible in the semifinal (do not know how she got the 1st place in the semifinal), was practically solved, only noting the great effort that Loreen did at the end of the performance to get hit the hardest parts of music but that made ​​it very well.

The cameras were much better, and got along with the play of light managed to create more immersive environment that we wanted for this kind of music.

As for the voting, I am sorry that Loreen has not broken the record of Alexander Rybak in 2009 by Norway, in number of points (but it wasn't by a very significant margin - 15 points), since this time Loreen earned more 12 points for each country that Alexander Rybak (18 versus 16). Unfortunately, if there wasn't the voting from Italy, who was the only country that did not yield a single point to Sweden, Loreen would have joined the (small) list of countries that have points of all countries.

And as this post is becoming too big, I'll just leave my comments here to the first half of the finalists last night.

Opening ceremony: let's start for the beginning. The opening ceremony had its grace but it wasn't anything special. I liked the traditional dancers and dancers in black: they really showed the Azerbaijani culture. As for the small performance of the winners of last year, it left me with the idea that something else was missing: the performance was very poor.

And since I'm talking about the winners of last year, one being a presenter, I will talk about these three characters. Was notorious the lack of experience and professionalism of the presenters. I've never seen an announcement of the finalists so uninteresting, and his lack of at ease was evident, although they have improved from the semifinals to the finals.

United Kingdom 25th place - 12 points: the United Kigdom has given us a unique theme, a very classic style that transports viewers to the Eurovision from other times, but could have much more energy and liveliness. All the music was a very monotonous rhythm and melody.

As I said in the message where I commented the choice of the UK, i could not even predict the fate of Engelbert Humperdinck in the contest. Certainly not the public would like much, but in the case of juries could be another story. However, the English song almost did not please anyone, placing the UK second to last. Since 2008, the participation of the United Kingdom is a real roller coaster. Last (25th) in 2008, a creditable 5th place in 2009, again a last (25th) in 2010, a 11th place last year and again this year a bad result (second from bottom). It is no longer news to anyone that the BBC is doing all efforts to ensure that the UK can receive again the Eurovision. To me it seems to me that like to take a break between each good bet.

Hungary 24th place - 19 points: After the disappointment of last year with much favoritism around Kati Wolf, the participation of Compact Disc did not bring so many expectations for this country from east. It is a band with an interesting style that brought a song with one of the richest messages this year. Were enormous the progress of the singer since the national final and even from the rehearsals. However, it not surprise me: they were competent but nothing more.

I disagree with those who defend that Switzerland should have passed instead of Hungary, should have passed both.

Albania 5th place - 146 countries: the big surprise of the evening was really Albania. When it was announced that Rona Nishliu would represent Albania, almost all the fans put her music in the last places. However, after the official release of the video, opinions began to change dramatically. It is obvious that juries liked a lot of this music, and for the 5th place certainly that the public also voted a lot on this song.

Indeed some parts of the song could be too hysterical, but Rona managed to hang on and went right on pitch.

Being alone on stage, all her charisma was broadcast to the public, and overall performance was very successful.

Lithuania 14th place - 70 points: Another of the big surprises of this edition. Far from being the most favorite for eurofans, turned out to qualify in third place and finish mid-table. It was a curious song, but nothing that aroused much interest to me.

However, I recognize the effort that the singer has done to enrich this music. As much as I see from different perspectives, the singer's performance after having removed the blindfold, it seemed more of a comedian than a singer in a musical competition. But that, of course, brought a certain charisma to the music.

Bosnia and Herzegovina 18th place - 55 points: do not know if Maya Sar is religious, but may well thank all the saints and some more to be representing Bosnia, because if she were representing another country without the weight of votes that Bosnia exercises, it was race just to the last in the semifinal. It was one of my favorite songs of the Balkans (with Slovenia), but its performance disappointed me a lot. It is true that wasn't not very deep ballad, but the stage and the performance of Maya Sar were too simple and boring.

Russia 2nd place - 259 points: say what you want,  they were the Divas of the night! Although this is a music contest and despite vocal problems they had, especially in the final (we noted the fatigue of the group) was the more animated moment of the night! Since I couldn't also count with the animation of Austria, I contented myself with this group of women who fell into the good graces of the public and juries, to have been in 1st place in the semifinal and have achieved 2nd place in the final. I believe that if we had no Loreen, or if the only voting was based on the public vote, they could perfectly well have won the Eurovision.

Despite all the love that these ladies could convey, the truth is that this should be more than anything a music competition, and there were better voices that were much penalized because of this group. And face it: if they were to represent another country with less power to influence the vote, probably never would come out of the semifinal.

Iceland 20th place - 46 points: For me it was one of the negative surprise of the night. Iceland was named one of the strong candidates to victory and was among my favorites. The performance was superb and worthy of a soundtrack for a movie.

I thought that the criticism about the lack of charisma of Greta Salome and the low quality of their performance exaggerated. Perhaps a lack of emotion of Jón Josep must have hurt the chances of Iceland.

Deserved more than 20th place.

Cyprus 16th place - 65 points: another country considered one of the favorites to win, and in the top 10 of the OGAE associations, finished mid-table.

I found Ivi more comfortable and her voice was more in keeping with the tone of the music than in the semifinal. It was more pleasant to hear, but vocal problems remained. So, certainly received more public support than the jury.

France 22 place - 21 points: another negative surprise of the night, given that France was also highly scored by OGAEs. Congratulations Anggun to the beautiful voice and charisma that remained throughout the song. Unfortunately, it was noted that she was nervous and shaky voice was in very important parts of music.

And a really negative note to the voices of the chorus: for almost all the music seemed robotic voices. And I ended up not liking the participation of the gymnasts.

Italy 9th place - 101 points: Another disappointment, though not as big as the previous ones, although for me that Italy deserved a place worse than what it got. It was the 2nd most voted by OGAEs and had everything to please the judges and to please more to pubic than the music that brought Italy last year. Nina Zilli and the choir were much better than in the rehearsals. They managed to convey the message of the song. But everything else was awful: they could have used the background image and the rest of the stage to enrich with various elements as the song allowed it.

Estonia 6th place - 120 points: Another surprise of the night, in this case by positive. Estonia could thus the revenge for the injustice suffered last year. Otto had a near-perfect pitch. A example of Albania was a involving song. One downside to the lady who did voice choir.

Nothing special to add.

Norway 26th place - 7 points: the biggest negative surprise of the night. Tooji was very punctuated by OGAEs and highly regarded as a strong contender for the TOP5 by most bookmakers. I can not understand the last place in the final and also the 10th place in the semifinal. Indeed, in the semifinal he had the same points as Bulgaria (two performances that can never match), and Tooji only qualified thanks to tiebreakers.

I think that the constant comparison with Eric Saade who represented Sweden last year (compared this exaggerated), must have taken both the juries and the public to penalize what they deemed to be an imitation of Eric. Still does not justify the low result obtained by Norway: is that not the neighbors of Scandinavia helped him - only Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands have given points to Norway.

I confess that before the results of voting occurred to me that could happen to Tooji the same happened to Alexey Vorobyov, the Russian representative last year: 7th place in the televoting, but last place in the courts. But I see that the Norwegian case was much worse.

The low result is due almost certainly to juries, but I'm eager to see what place was in the televoting.

Azerbaijan 4th place - 150 points: for me one of the big positive surprises of the night. Since the official music video you could see that Sabina owns a great voice and great beauty. And last night did not disappoint anyone. All other elements were also on stage as well.

Performance very charismatic and engaging, with a final apotheotic but, unlike others, was not exaggerated.

Deserved 4th place (even deserved more), and do not believe that was favored to be the host country: there have been enough cases of host countries whose songs are forgotten (almost) at the bottom of the table.

The rest of the following comments are in the other message ...