Another thought, in response to what appears to be a general sentiment of "it's sour grapes to denigrate the Greece victory" in Euro 2004. One of the reasons for fearing a descent into very defensive football, as became prevalent from the late 1970s to the mid 90s, is that conceding the first goal becomes increasingly important. This reinforces even more defensive caution and tends to build teams that find it hard to score at all.It seems to me that a true champion should be able to recover from falling behind. Greece did come back from a goal down to Spain and got one back after falling down two to Russia. So, a mixed verdict but I'm sceptical that Greece would have recovered had any of the early chances gone in for either Czech or Portugal. For my money, the team that impressed me the most was Czech. They would have made champions you could feel good about. My picks for a best-of team: Nikopolidis (Greece), Seitaridis(Greece),Campbell(Eng),Ujfalusi(Cz), Cole (Eng), Nedved(Cz), Maniche(Por),Davids(Neth),Zidane(Fr)(not what he was but still all-round one of the best),Baros(Cz),van Nistelrooy(Neth).