CERRITOS/EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt) -- Defending European Champion Spain got its full roster for the first time and played a home game against China and needed a last-minute goal to win 1-0 over the weekend.  Germany is possibly the favorite now with Spain struggling and without David Villa but they just won their first game of the year, albeit the first with their full complement of players.  France hasn't lost in 20 games.  Robbie Keene continued his goal-scoring drought brought over from the LA Galaxy as Ireland tied Hungary 0-0.  Italy is once again mired in a match-fixing scandal, but the last time that happened, Italy won the 2006 World Cup.  But Italy was crushed 3-0 by Russia, a very interesting and rare tune-up between two teams in the tournament.  Lots of drama heading into Friday's kickoff.

We had our best Monday ever (T-4 days until deadline) for our soccer pools with 8 entering and tied for a Tuesday (T-3) with 4 and we are right between the 21 entries in 1998 and 23 in 2002.  I'm glad this is working out!  We should fall way short of 44 in 2006.  But who knows.  Get your friends to enter!

We now have a second guest columnist as Albert Perez has allowed our pool to use his Euro-specific blog entries with a column "A to the Z SPORTS!".  He joins our first guest columnist, Eric Foster with his "Foster's Football Brew".  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. 

Here are the basics (reminder):

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. You can now enter online which is the easiest method.  You can also use our fillable pdf (if you don't have a pdf writer, you may need to print screen or print to PDF (e.g., CutePDF)) or Word Entry Form document.

    SIDES 'N KICKS:  Racism gets a prime spot in this year's Euro with the UEFA President promising to have its refs stop matches if fans are abusive... FIFA's June 6th rankings came out and Germany fell a spot to #3 while England rose a spot to #6; Portugal took a fall going from #5 to #10; Denmark is up one to #9; Russia fell two to#13 and Greece one to #15; Czech Republic down a spot to #27; host Ukraine fell two to #52 while co-host Poland rose three to #62; BTW, USA rose a spot to #28... it took the French 24 years to get back into the European Championships and won it in 1984; Greece was absent for 24 years (5 tourneys) and when they qualified in 2004, they won it; now the Irish are the team who is making their first appearance in 24 years -- is a title in the works?... when choosing a nickname, avoid the usual bad characters such as "/", "?", etc. but "!" is okay... remember, when filling your Quarterfinal bracket, it doesn't matter how you picked the Round Robin matches, so if you're Polish, you can pick Poland in all 3 matches (so you're not rooting against them) but hedge your bet by not putting them into the Quarterfinals (or by putting this as the runner-up)... there is an opening ceremony a half-hour before the first match... Blogs/Facebook/Twitter are the discussion points these days (if you don't do social media, comment on our Blog!)...