Euro 2008 is now in its 'endspiel' as they say here. It is hard to believe 24 games have already taken place, with only seven to go, but I for one always get a bit of a sinking feeling as a tournament enters its knockout phase. The first round is always the best part of any tournament to experience because the fans of all the countries are around. I find nothing more lonesome than the free days before the final as the tournament winds down and the partying concludes. Unless of course England were involved but no hypotheticals for now. So far, Euro 2008 has lost some huge fan groups - the Swedes, Czechs, Poles and the largest two of all - those of host nations Austria and Switzerland. The silver lining is of course that games from now on are winner-takes-all, 'there must be a result tonight' knock-out. This means more passion, incident and recrimination and no repeats of France v Romania. * * * Here in Vienna the tournament is anything but dead. While we may not get 200,000+ in the fan zone again like we did when Austria played Germany, there will be standing room only when Croatia tackle Turkey here on Saturday night. This is almost a local derby. Both nations have huge immigrant populations in the Austrian capital, Croatia's an old legacy of being part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Turkey's from being part of the neighbouring Ottoman one. While most Turks in Vienna are 20th century arrivals, they have always had a presence here in one way or another; in 1683 Turkish forces surrounded Vienna and almost took the city. Official statistics claim 16,500 Croats live in Vienna out of a national total of 56,000 but their flags are everywhere, especially around the Balkan enclave of the 16th district, the Ottakringerstrasse, a neighbourhood shared with who else but their opponents at the Pratar on Saturday. The Turks are even more prevalent if anything, with their cuisine the most commonly found in the city. Turkey's last-gasp win against the Czechs was celebrated by thousants of noisy red-clad fans jammed into the fanzone and across the city long into the night. Surely no set of supporters cheers their team with such fiery, nationalistic fervour as the Turks. Expect Saturday to be one big, noisy, high-pressure night in Vienna. I was there the last time the two met in the European Championship, in Nottingham in Euro 1996. Both had qualified for a finals for the first time and after relentless pressure, Croatia ran out winners thanks to an 86th minute winner from Goran Vlaiovic at the City Ground. * * * The host nations have been the subject of gripes from a number of English journalists these past few days, complaining Austria and Switzerland are too genteel and more interested in Alpine sports than hosting a football tournament. I wonder how badly travelled these men are if they have only just discovered Alpine Europe and its clean and pleasant ambience. Comparing joyful and spotless Salzburg to the grotty and scary Marseille at France '98, I know which I prefer to be a fan in. Austria and Switzerland have excellent public transport networks, free of charge to ticket holders, and there are no sirens, heavy-handed policing, sounds of breaking glass, fans with blood pouring from wounds and local toughs waiting on street corners to assault you, all of which I have experienced in other European countries with football. But leaving that aside, are they implying every European Championship ever after should be held in one of England, Spain, Germany or Italy? The same condescending argument was trotted out when the World Cup went to the helmetball-loving USA in 1994 and baseball-loving Japan in 2002. I disagree. I don't think football should be a closed shop and the staging of those two World Cups sparked a surge in interest in the countries involved and in the case of the USA, the birth of a professional league which 12 years later could attract the England captain across the ocean. For the same reasons, Poland & Ukraine deserved Euro 2012 more than Italy and I look forward to the FIFA World Cup coming to China and Australia before long. * * * Who on earth would want to be a referee with all the abuse they get? Howard Webb is the latest to get police protection for his family after Polish fans posted his address & the usual death threats on the internet after he awarded Austria a last-minute penalty (quite rightly according to the rules). Other refs this tournament who have placed their head on the guillotine include Sweden's Peter Frojdfeldt, who awarded Ruud Van Nistelrooy's goal against Italy despite Christian Panucci lying in a heap over the goalline and clearly not being active, and who sent off both coaches at the Austria v Germany game for no obvious reason. The Sun in England has printed referees' contact details before in a shameful baying to the crowd. Swiss referee Urs Meier was one of their victims in 2004, receiving 16,000 abusive emails before being placed under police protection. Then a year later, Anders Frisk, one of Europe's top refs, retired after death threats to his family from Chelsea fans after Jose Mourinho had stoked the fire by falsely claiming he and Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard had conversed at half time in their Champions League clash. Sooner or later a referee will get seriously hurt, or worse. Anyone who has ever reffed a game at any level can confirm just how tough a job it is, which makes the comments from Polish coach Leo Beenhakker and the even more stupid Polish sports minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki, who called Webb a "disgrace" and a "fraud", quite despicable. Until robots and cameras take over the officiating, we have to accept the human eye will make mistakes. You have to expect the odd decision to go against you, even if it involves a goal in the last minute. That is the way football has always been. Everyone knows that. In any case, keyboard ultras should beware: Howard Webb is a police sergeant by trade and looks the sort of guy I would not want to meet on a dark night. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

"There are not many candidates because it looks a bit like a crocodile that opens the mouth and says: 'Jump into that.' Once he's in there, he's eaten. And once you have eaten four, five says: 'No, maybe I don't jump in there.'" So went the words of Arsene Wenger, the best coach working in England at present. In the old days, before the savaging of Bobby Robson and Graham Taylor by the tabloids and the realization that the real money and chances of success were to be found in the Premier League and not the international game, the nation’s best coach would have leapt at the chance of managing England.

Down a goal with less than a half hour remaining in their 2007 campaign, the Houston Dynamo rallied behind the relentless play of Dwayne De Rosario to defeat the New England Revolution, 2-1, at RFK Stadium in Washington DC on Saturday (11/18) and capture the team's fourth MLS Cup title in seven years. De Rosario, 29, set up teammate Joseph Ngwenya, just in front of the opposition goal in the 62d minute. Ngwenya took two point blank shots on keeper Matt Reis, the second slipping past for the equalizer. Moments later, the Canadian born De Rosario scored the winning goal himself, heading home a cross from about 12 yards out in the 74th minute. "I would normally volley it," De Rosario said, commenting on the goal after the match, "but I decided to head it in and luckily it went in."

Just as AEG and the LA Galaxy's Beckham gambit seemed to have pulled a fast fade--5 matches, 1 goal, no playoffs, no cup--the MLS club got even "sexier" by announcing Ruud Gullit as new head coach. Gullit will be introduced tomorrow (Fri., Nov. 9) as the replacement for Frank Yallop, who left at the end of this season to take the reins of the expansion San Jose franchise which begins league play next year. Gullit, 45, had been rumored as one of two finalists last week, along with former German national coach, Jürgen Klinsmann. Klinsmann is a resident of Newport Beach, California, not far from Los Angeles. His name seems to be added to the list every time a high-profile coaching job comes up lately; earlier this year he was reportedly on the short list to coach the US Men's National Team through the next World Cup, but such a deal did not materialize.

In October, as so often happens in the USA, the world of women's soccer easily out-shone that of the men. In that month, the US women's team made it all the way to the semi-finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup in China, but having got there were summarily dismissed by Brazil and their emergent national team. Indeed, the USA bowed out to Marta and company, 0-4, the budding superstar punctuating the victory with what had to be the classiest World Cup goal scored since Denis Bergkamp's YouTube classic against Argentina at France 1998. The "early" exit for the US women seems very much to have disappointed the national federation and--though the Olympic tournament is less than a year away--a coaching change has already been announced.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has signalled that the policy of World Cup rotation is about to be ditched. Speaking to the BBC, Blatter admitted he would welcome England bidding for 2018, a tournament which under the present model, should be held in North or Central America. "I am advocating we open the market," said Blatter. Back in May, he described rotation as "a milestone", speaking to FIFA delegates in Zurich, while only a month ago, announced that a final decision on rotation with regard to 2018 would come at the end of October. With 2010 going to (South) Africa and 2014 to South America (Brazil), Europe's next turn would not have been in 2018 (CONCACAF) but in 2022, a ridiculously long wait for that continent's front runner, England.