Yes I've been watching the Euros! And I'll probably be watching the Copa America final :) The final was good... I kept changing my mind about who I wanted to win, because Spain were much better technically (at least I think so) but I'm very very fond of England. (I mean, Kane is so nice, and Pickford has so much character, to put it *very* mildly) And yes Lamine Yamal is brilliant at playing, and he seems sweet too - I can't believe that when the Euros started he was just sixteen?! I almost feel motherly towards him lol.

I loved the way Spain played, but my absolute favorite was Portugal; I feel like they were much better in this tournament than in the World Cup in 2022, and all the players were so good and they felt so much like a team, and there was Pepe who's past forty but still so amazing and Leao and Silva and-- yeah, I was pretty sad when they lost to France :( On penalties, moreover, and to France, which wasn't at all as good as Portugal (again, this is my opinion, please don't take offence if you thought otherwise). And I more or less always go for England, because as I said I'm just fond of them no matter how badly they play.

Anyone else who's been watching, who are your favorite teams/players/games/anything else?

My parents and I watched the final of the Euros, since my dad is interested in soccer. I was rooting for England, because my dad is English and it seems they rarely do very well (we were also watching the World Cup in 2022). For that reason I was unhappy when it ended, as you can imagine, but there's always "at least they got that far."

Wow the games today were absolutely incredible! I got emotional during the Copa final because I do have quite the soft spot for Messi as I got to see him in person. And Di Maria played his last international game and everyone was crying! T-T Colombia did play amazing and it was a great game. But what does it say about the U.S. that we can't control a crowd coming into a stadium and have to delay the game an hour and 15 minutes...? Also that we didn't make it past the group stage... this does not bode well for the World Cup in a few years here.

The Euro final was amazing too! The quality of play was so fun to watch. Personally I love both of those teams and would have been happy either way. I especially enjoyed watching Lamine Yamal play in this tournament because he and his story is incredible. Just so amazing and so fun to watch all around today.

I’ve been watching some of the Euros out in Lugano Centro, and I was rooting for Switzerland, so I was disappointed when they lost to England, but at least they got to the quarterfinals :). I’m also happy that Spain won, because I didn’t really like England, partly because they beat Switzerland and also they didn’t seem to be playing that well. This marks Spain’s fourth Euros championship, breaking their tie with Germany.

Oh yay, thanks for making this thread, @WiLdSoNg! I've been watching nearly all the Euro games, ever since a few days into the tournament. It's been so much fun! I love Euros because a) there's no Argentina to contend with (sorry, Argentina fans, it's just the Argentinian players are so full of themselves, and besides they're really good so they always win); b) there's no Uruguay to contend with; c) there's no Morocco to contend with (I am soooo mad at Morocco because they knocked out Portugal in the last World Cup); d) all my favorite teams are there! France, Portugal, England....

I was going for Portugal this time. I always want Portugal to win, by default, but usually I have to admit they aren't very good. This time they were amazing - I loved the way they worked together as a team and played really stylishly. Sometimes teams have this annoying habit of being what I call "clunky," meaning they defend a lot and seem to struggle to make goals, while at the same time making it really hard for the other team to score goals. But Portugal was just the opposite - they had so much style and talent, and they attacked all the time and scored beautiful goals, while at the same time defending splendidly. And the players were so nice - Diogo Costa, the goalkeeper, is very nice, and he will forever be very dear to me after he was so brilliant in the game against Slovenia, and Joao Felix is certainly a character, and of course Ronaldo is, well, Ronaldo, and as for Goncalo Ramos, I have always been of the opinion that he is just an adorable teddy bear in disguise. Anyway, they were my favorite team and they deserved to win and it was CRUEL and HORRIBLE that they lost to France on penalties. (sorry for the all caps, but I need all caps to express the depth and intensity of my feelings). France weren't even that good, compared to how they usually play, and every single Portuguese player had given it his all and they played so well but none of that counted anymore in a penalty shootout, and it wasn't fair to ask them to do another penalty shootout after the one against Slovenia. And all the tragedy of their loss was just because Joao Felix's penalty hit the post...!!!!!!!!! They were so close to winning, it was just hearbreaking. I am really miffed at the coach, Roberto Martinez, for putting Felix into the game. Generally I trust Martinez and the decisions he makes are exactly the ones I would make - he's not one of those irritating coaches where you think "what the heck is he doing that for?! It'll never work" and then you're proved right and it doesn't work. He makes good decisions, but putting Felix on was not one of them. He seems like he's a good player, but when you come right down to it, he never quite delivers (a bit like Jude Belliingham in that respect). Martinez should have chosen Goncalo Ramos. Ramos is talented and a good team player, and he really puts forward his best effort - and he scored a hat-trick against Switzerland! Plus, he was fresh, not having played much all tournament long. Ramos could definitely have succeeded in his penalty or maybe even scored a goal before the extra time ran out, especially given that Conceicao was there as well and could have distracted the French defenders.

...Is it my calling in life to be a soccer analyst? I'm beginning to suspect that yes :)

While we're on the topic of Portugal, how stressful was the Portugal-Slovenia game?! I couldn't even watch the last part, I was so nervous. And then when Ronaldo failed his penalty!! It was like they were fated to stay goalless. I was soooo happy when the game ended and Portugal had won, though. I felt emotionally drained but very very happy :) 

Anyway, aside from Portugal, I liked Spain and England (I will never feel the same way about France after that awful game. Never.). Before the game, they showed a video of a collection of messages to the English team from the players' families and friends, and it made me want England to win... Besides, it seemed sad not to have them win when they were obviously trying so hard, especially given that they lost the last Euros final too. But I have to say that Spain was certainly the better team, they played beautifully and they deserved to win. It's funny, the adults in my family (my parents and grandparents) wanted Spain; my sister, my cousin, and I wanted England. Generation gaps, maybe :) 

Did any of you see that moment when the players were in the tunnel and Pickford looked into the camera and put on this face?! Kind of like "Oooh, fancy meeting you here." I have to say it was terribly rude, but it was hilarious - especially because my mother had just been saying "Good heavens, he's chewing gum again as usual" and after she said that, he looked into the camera - as if he'd heard our remarks on him. Pickford is frankly terrible, but he does provide a lot of amusement.

My least favorite team was Germany, though I didn't really like Italy either, but they didn't pose much a of a threat so I didn't get riled up by them. Germany's very orderly and efficient, yes, but they have no sparkle (or that's what I think).

@WiLdSoNg, I agree that Lamine Yamal was amazing! He was actually only 16 for part of the tournament, which made me feel really old. I'm used to soccer players being adults, for goodness sake, and now suddenly I'm the same age as one of them. I hope all the fame and pressure doesn't  ruin him as a person. Have you seen the photos of him with Messi?

And yes, the problems with the Copa America final were awful. I really hope nothing goes wrong with the World Cup, especially as it's going to be a massively difficult event to manage. People will be coming from all over, and the mix of cultures, as well as the amount of tourists/spectators who may not be accustomed to following the rules (especially the rules of a different country), could lead to a lot of chaos. And whose brilliant idea was it to have the event spread out over three countries, for goodness' sake? It would complicate the logistics enormously. I'm still looking forward to the World Cup, though :)

It's so sad that Di Maria played his last international game! We seem to be losing so many players - Kroos, Di Maria, Shaquiri... I wish all the players could just stay and never get any older :/

This tournament also made me want to be a soccer journalist - I'd contemplated sports journalism before, but not seriously. But I do think, if my other career plans don't work out, I'd be very happy as a journalist. I love writing about soccer and soccer players (just look at all the stuff I've written already)! And this time, I was keeping up with all the Euro 2024 news in the Guardian (one of my family's favorite newspapers, though we do Not like everything about it) and finding it fascinating. I love the way the Guardian journalists write, too. Usually, it's really hard to find a news article that's well-written (or even readable, sometimes), but Scott Murray and Barry Glendenning and Nick Ames certainly have great skill with words. And they write very amusingly. I sometimes looked at the minute-by-minute reports of the games, or the live blogs where they had news updates, and they were always funny - not laugh-out-loud hilarious, but definitely humorous, in that clever British style. I'd like to be doing that sort of thing.

Of course, sometimes they were just Over the Top. Somebody wrote up the Portugal-France game, and the headline was so dramatic. It said the game was "an epic battle". But alas. The epic battle was lost, lost forever - lost in what, you ask?  In a black hole. Oh, alas again! And not just any black hole, oh no. In the black hole of... "one man's ego." And by that one man, the journalist didn't mean Kylian Mbappe or Joao Felix. Certainly not. He meant Cristiano Ronaldo. HUMPH. It just so happens that Cristiano Ronaldo was a splendid team player throughout the tournament, completely effacing himself and not making a single goal, instead providing assists and letting everyone else do their part. Against Turkey, he had the most beautiful chance to make a goal, but instead, he passed the ball to Bruno Fernandes, so that Fernandes would have the thrill of doing the goal himself. How generous can you get? Then against Slovenia, he took two free kicks (or was it just one? I can't remember) and a penalty, all of which failed, but he was the best player in the world a few years ago; as such, it's especially logical to take chances to help the team. Having seen, however, that he was no longer the player he used to be, he let Fernandes take a free kick against France. The commmentators were saying "well, we think we know who's going to take this free kick, don't we *hint hint, wink wink*", but I looked at Ronaldo's expression, and thought nope, he's not going to want to take it, he knows he can't do it. And I was right. Fernandes took it (and, incidentally, failed...) Yes, he does have a dramatic personality and he expresses his feelings as they come, and he is confident, but there's a difference between natural, optimistic confidence and snooty arrogance. And he has the instinct to help other people - after Portugal lost, for instance, he did not go around getting weepy the way so many players do, but instead just stood there and comforted Pepe, who was crying on his shoulder. And he is certainly not vain and arrogant and an egotistical player. You can see it perfectly, if you only look - even I could tell he didn't want to take the free kick, for instance, and I don't even know him. Yet journalists, commentators, and fans insist on seeing him as this arrogant and selfish player. I don't know what he has to do to make people see him differently, I really don't. Worst of all, people like Jude Bellingham get away with making primitive and insulting gestures in full view of everyone, and all that happens is that Guardian reporter Barney Ronay writes about his "arrogance" admiringly!

Anyway, my apologies for this long defense of Cristiano Ronaldo, but it really needed to be said, even if just on a kids' website where Barney Ronay will never see it... :P (and sorry @admin that this post is so long).

This was a really nice Euro tournament... lovely/exciting soccer, fun commentators and news articles (I quite enjoyed Gary Neville and Roy Keane), the best team won in the end... I'm sad it's over but glad it happened :)