Euro 2024 Initial Thoughts

I'm writing this paragraph before the England game.  I have barely watched any of the Euros so far because, much as feared, the Fox coverage is absolutely terrible.  It's making the tournament unwatchable.  It starts with the studio, which has a really poor anchor and way too many former players who provide zero character, zero insight and, in some cases, can barely speak English.  And the commentary is not much better - Fox are using their own commentators and they suck.  The problem is that the American networks do not share their commentary teams - so the far superior and established partnerships that they use on NBC for their Premier League coverage (featuring former players such as Lee Dixon and Graeme Le Saux) are sorely missed, and we're stuck with much inferior commentary teams (featuring former players such as Robert Green, Warren Barton, Owen Hargreaves and Landon Donovan).  Other aspects of the Fox coverage I dislike: too many adverts, minimal game highlights (they're not even airing a show featuring highlights of all the games that have been played that day - instead just airing select full game replays in the evening), they're not airing all the games on broadcast TV and as soon as the Copa America starts in a few days time (which happens to feature the US and which Fox ALSO have the rights to), then I think that is going to take priority over the Euros.  Fox have advertised the Euros by saying that they are airing every single match, but what they didn't say is that some of the games would only air on Fubo - which is a subscription only streaming service that I'm not going to shell out more for (and, hilariously, apparently the Hungary vs Switzerland that was exclusively on Fubo didn't include graphics for a score or time anywhere on the screen throughout the game!).  Depressingly, Fox also have the rights to the next World Cup and the next Euros.

I'm writing this paragraph after the England game.  A typically unconvincing, nervy, uncomfortable performance by England.  I don't mind that in the first game of the tournament, but only if England's performances improve as the tournament goes on (and I think we are capable of raising our game against better opponents).  But the defense looks worryingly shaky, and it feels like the individual creativity of a number of our best players is stymied by the manager and his conservative methods.  The second half in particular made for some pretty dreadful viewing.  But a win is a win, and that is the most important thing of all.