The best
Player: Gareth Bale
If going 58 years without playing in an international tournament is any indication, Wales is not a football power, which makes their unexpected rise to the top of group B ever so inspiring. At the heart of this is Gareth Bale. Not only has Bale had a great individual tournament (3 goals in 3 group games) he has raised his teammates level of play to the point where the fighting Welshmen are a dangerous side going forward. Players like Joe Allen and Aaron Ramsey are also in fantastic form, but the captain deserves the lion's share of the credit for this feel good story.
The Worst
Underperformer: Christiano Ronaldo
As overwhelming as Wales have been this summer, that's how underwhelming Portugal has been. Much like Gareth Bale deserves the most credit for Wales's performance, Christiano Ronald deserves the blame for Portugal's. Sure, Ronaldo has had a respectable performance by an ordinary man's standards, and his two goals against Hungary saved his country from elimination. But Ronaldo is not a regular player. He regards himself as the best in the world, and many share his opinion, which is why his inability to lead his country to a single win in the group stages is terribly frustrating. A quiet game against Iceland, followed by a missed penalty from Ronaldo against Austria put the overwhelming favorites in Group F on the brink of elimination. Luckily, Portugal was able to salvage a 3-3 draw against Hungary in the final group game. Nonetheless, when you think of how talented the Portuguese are compared to the other Group F nations and combine that with the fact that, if not for the expanded tournament field from 16 to 24 teams, Ronaldo's troops would be out of the tournament entirely, there is no question who the biggest flops in France have been so far.
At 29, Ronaldo is not a young athlete anymore, and it's time to wonder if he will ever have a signature summer on the international stage. If things keep going at this rate, CR7 will have to wait another two years.
The Best
Team: Nobody
One thing that has made the first two weeks of tournament competition fun is that we still have no idea who is going to win the competition. Plenty of teams have played well, but none has marked their territory as the top dog. France, Belgium, Germany, and Spain were all looked at as possible favorites coming in, but of those four, only France and Germany managed to top their group, neither of which looked particularly impressive doing it. There have been pleasant surprises (Wales, Italy, Iceland), and there have been disappointments (Portugal, England, Belgium), but no dominant team has emerged for Euro 2016.
The Worst
Most Underwhelming: Portugal
As much as we here in America will hear about the underachieving of the English national team, no country was more underwhelming in the group stages than Portugal. At least England won a game. All the Portuguese could manage were three draws against sides that they were considerably better then. Portugal should have shown themselves to be men among boys in Group F. Instead they finished 3rd. Yes, they managed to qualify for the round of 16, but that does little to excuse the mediocrity. Hopefully, CR7 can lead his troops to a decent run in the knockout stages. If not, this will just be another summer of underachieving, which Portugal's fans have become accustomed to over the past decade.
The Best
Most surprising side: Italy
There were a lot of teams that have a case for being the tournament's biggest surprise, and I was quite tempted to give this honor to an underdog like Wales or Iceland. But neither one of those countries had as much pressure on them coming into the Euros as the Italian side. One of world football's most historic and successful teams, Italy is not what they used to be. In fact, coming in, some Italian fans and journalists had blessed this club as the worst in Italy's long and storied history. But so far, Italy is putting the doubters to shame. It was apparent from their 2-0 victory over Belgium in the Group E opener that the Italians had come to play, and the beat went on in their next outing, a 1-0 triumph over Sweden. Sure, Italy experienced a bit of a let down in the group finale, losing 1-0 to Ireland, but that was largely a product of head man Victor Conte resting most of his starters for the next round, as his men had already secured the top spot in their group.
It's one thing for a ''rah-rah, let's show em who we are'' country with nothing to lose making a run, but it does my heart good to see a nation that has a lot to live up to come through under scrutiny. Take notes, England.
The Worst
Fans: Hooligans
It's what a lot of misguided Americans think about when they think of football. Russia, England, and Croatia fans all behaved outrageously at some point during this tournament. As a result, Russia and England were both threatened expulsion from the tournament should this behavior keep up. It's a shame. Just a shame.
The best
Fans: Iceland
I have to talk about Iceland in this post. Just couldn't leave them out. They play football with such energy and have somehow made their way to the knockout stage in their first ever tournament. As for the Iceland fans? 8% of the country is in France. Nuff said. With all due respect to the great fans of Ireland and Northern Ireland; Iceland takes the cake.
The Best
Game: Hungary 3, Portugal 3
As good as the games in France have been this summer, there hasn't been a whole lot of scoring, which made Wednesday's group D finale so refreshing to the casual fan. Football can be beautiful regardless of the scoreline, but as fans, we like goals. Goals are fun. Goals are cool. The more goals, the better. Add all the goals to the drama of group favorites Portugal almost being knocked out of the tournament, and you had one hell of a game.
The Worst
Game: Anything involving Russia
They sucked.
Euro 2016 has been great, and here's hoping the best is yet to come.
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