Starting Eleven Football Blog Roundup

Sad part is, Euro 2008 is almost over. Euro is in many ways much better than the World Cup (I best South Americans say the same thing when it comes to Copa America). With that, our weekly tour of the football blogosphere tracks down some talk on the semifinals. Imagine, this time next week, we'll have a champion.

mCalcio kicks us off with every gory detail of Italy's loss to Spain, including video and stats. Read between the lines, and you too will feel his pain.

Blogcritics points out that Spain is the only team remaining to have followed its expected path to the semis. Remember Spain hammered Russia 4-1 to open their group play; this is not the same Russian team, however.

CityTilIDie writes about the surprises of the tournament, Russia and Turkey, and leaves no doubt as to which nation he's not happy about seeing in the semis. He even has a shout-out for Colin Kazim-Richards, the lone Englishman in the semifinals.

What If? What if Scotland and England had made Euro? Well, look no further. The Onion Bag has the answer. Yes he plays it out quite well, What If Style, and he's a clever boy at the Onion Bag. Click through to see how this one turns out.

Real Madrid Talk has much love for Casillas, and says he's sick of all the Ronaldo talk. BTW, anyone seen Ronaldo? I haven't since a rainy night in Moscow in May.

The Reuters Soccer Blog points out something that should be obvious. Portugal, Holland and Croatia have plenty in common, mostly that they are all group winners here, all rested players in the third game of the group stage--and all are watching the rest of the tournament from home. Continuity my friends. There's something to be said for it.

MySoccerBlog has some insight into the U.S. getting past Barbados in World Cup qualifying, and Pele getting robbed in Brazil.

OhYouBeauty reviews an interview with Hicks and Gillett on Canadian radio. The upshot: Liverpool fans may be stuck with these guys for a while.

101GreatGoals links to an interview with Cesc Fabregas, who says he doesn't mind playing 30 minutes a night.

Finally, a plug for Michael at EnglishSoccerTalk who appears on Kartik's American Soccer Show.