CERRITOS, CA (smt) -- I do not get much feedback on our pools but virtually all of it is positive, which is the opposite of how reviews usually go (you only hear when things are bad).  But the one comment I usually get with our World Cup pools is that people want to pick ties during the Round Robin phase.  So, we are introducing the choice to choose "TIE" for the 24 Round Robin matches.  It'll be interesting if more or less points are earned during this phase (as about 33% of World Cup Round Robin games in the past have ended in ties).  Based on feedback, I decided to create our sister pool to our HWCI World Cup pool as this is the second greatest soccer tournament in the world, of if you're partial to Europe, the best tournament.  So hopefully this pool will do well (no, I won't be doing the CONCACAF Gold Cup so don't ask).

Spain is the favorite having won EURO 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.  My sentimental favorite is the Dutch, having loved the Oranje style of play for years, but that 2010 World Cup final was just so ugly (basically "foul Spain"), it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Will a team like Greece come out of nowhere and win the championship, as they did in 2004?  Or will it be powerhouses Spain, Holland, Germany, and England/France/Italy in the semifinals?  Will the co-hosts, Poland and Ukraine make it out of their groups?  Should we choose teams based on financial stability considering what is going on in Europe these days? Well, that's why you pay the big bucks (okay, $10) to answer these questions.  And with no African, USA/Mexico, or lower-level South American teams to mess you up, you really don't have any excuses for doing well in the pool.  But there will be.

As a special treat, Eric Foster (who was one of the ones who asked for a Euro version of the pool) has volunteered to lend his snarkiness to the pool with his regular column "Foster's Football Brew", of which the first issue has already been published.  This follows in the tradition of Fernando Bustamante's "Not-So-Deep-Thoughts" and Sam Nishi's "Clap! or Crap?" and "Pando! or Gordo?" columns.  So enjoy them and please +1/Like/Share/Tweet anything and everything on our blog or Facebook page.  You can join in discussions by commenting on any post on the blog or Facebook page.  Fire away!

We probably won't top the 67 entries we got for the 2010 HWCI World Cup pool but hopefully we'll have more than our first pool (1998) when 21 entries were received.  Hard to tell how "niche" EURO 2012 is and how the long, continuing dour economy will affect people plunking down $10 for a chance at glory.  Hopefully some of our NCAA pool veterans will join as well.  And by participating in the pool, you'll follow EURO 2012 and enjoy more games than just as a casual viewer since you have a stake in the outcomes.

Here are the basics:

WHAT:        	1st HWCI EURO Pool (5th HWCI Soccer Office Pool, 23rd HWCI Office Pool)
FEE:         	$10.00 per entry
DEADLINE:    	9:00 a.m. PDT on Friday, June 8th (if by mail, then postmarked by Thursday night)
WHO:        	Anyone with ten bucks!  Invite friends!  No more than three entries per person
REFERRAL:	For those who participated in 2010, refer 5 new people to enter and get a free entry with one paid
SOC STAT:	Spain is the defending EURO champion
PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1998- LE BIX (Fernando B) $115
		2002- PUNA (Tina M) $110
		2006- ELASTIGIRL (Cynthia S) $220
		2010- FORZA PAZZA (Joseph D) $310

For more info, see the "Rules", "How to Enter", and "FAQ" sections. Then please enter using our fillable pdf or Word Entry Form document (online Web Entry hopefully coming soon!).

    SIDES 'N KICKS:  14 of the top 18 teams in the world (FIFA Ranking) are from UEFA in the May 9th report (there will be one June 6th, two days before the start of EURO 2012)... Switzerland (#14, #18 overall) and Norway (#15, #24 overall) are the highest ranked UEFA teams not in the tourney while the Czech Republic (#16, #26 overall) is the lowest ranked team that qualified (excluding the co-hosts, Ukraine (#28, #50 overall) and Poland (#32, #65 overall))... there are 53 UEFA teams and in 2016, 24 will be in the tournament... if I had the foresight to know that ESPN covered all the games in 2008 (whereas before it was Pay Per View or Fox Soccer, both of which I didn't have), I may have tried to start the Euro Pool then, but alas, better late than never... two of the four World Cup pool winners have been women, so watch out... I had toyed with the idea of awarding varying points during the Round Robin so that if you picked Team A to win, you'd get 3 points if they did and 1 point if they tied (no points obviously, if they lost) while if you picked a "tie", you'd get just two points for a tie and one point otherwise (guaranteed one point, and 4 points for each scenario), but that was just me over-thinking this... this is the first pool where the total possible points isn't 196, as with fewer matches, only 148 points are possible... According to the EuroOdds site, Spain is a 3.75:1 favorite with Germany close behind at 4:1; Holland is 8:1 and everyone else is 12:1 or worse... we have retired our Discussion Board as Blogs/Facebook/Twitter are the discussion points these days (if you don't do social media, comment on our Blog!)...