31 Games in 31 Ways

This seemed like a good idea at the time.  Now, with just over 48 hours to go until Euro 2012 commences, I realise I've set myself a very difficult and time consuming task.  However, it's one I'm committed to completing so I'll be throwing myself head first into it over the next 3 weeks.

Of course, the first problem with writing about "31 Games in 31 Ways" is thinking of 31 different styles/viewpoints to cover.  There are some brilliant football journalists out there, so I don't want to just churn out match report after match report for 3 weeks.  I decided to break it down into a few categories - sensible reporting styles, the games from different viewpoints and just plain bizarre methods.

The "sensible" methods I want to employ are based on the types of reports you read daily.  Minute by minute reports, player ratings, as well as pieces that focus on individual players, one team or even peripheral elements of the match such as the crowd and the TV coverage.
Then I decided to go for a more personal approach for some games.  I'll be in different locations for some games so I wanted to give reports based on watching certain games in a bar or even one game that I'll not be able to watch and have to follow on twitter.  This section will make more sense when I get to the match days.
Finally, I wanted to do something more leftfield. So, I've come up with a few unusual ideas for match analysis.  Some of them are lyrical (a limerick and a haiku), some are in different styles (biased, optimistic etc) and some are just stupid (One word per minute, Teletext report).  In fact, a few of them might make no sense even after you've read the below table!  But all will be come clear as the competition progresses.

Fri 8th June	Warsaw	Poland v Greece	Before, During, After
Fri 8th June	Wroclaw	Russia v Czech Republic	A look at ITVs coverage
Sat 9th June	Kharkiv	Netherlands v Denmark	Haiku!
Sat 9th June	Lviv	Germany v Portugal	"Down the pub" report
Sun 10th June	Gdansk	Spain v Italy	"Minute by Minute" style
Sun 10th June	Poznan	Rep of Ireland v Croatia	Completely biased (Eire)
Mon 11th June	Donetsk	France v England	Focus on England
Mon 11th June	Kiev	Ukraine v Sweden	MBM with no sound
Tue 12th June	Wroclaw	Greece v Czech Republic	A look at Live Betting MBM
Tue 12th June	Warsaw	Poland v Russia	1 word per minute!
Wed 13th June	Lviv	Denmark v Portugal	Tweets
Wed 13th June	Kharkiv	Netherlands v Germany	A look at BBCs Coverage
Thu 14th June	Poznan	Italy v Croatia	Completely biased (losing team)
Thu 14th June	Gdansk	Spain v Rep of Ireland	Eire "Down the Pub"
Fri 15th June	Kiev	Ukraine v France	Teletext style
Fri 15th June	Donetsk	England v Sweden	England "Down the Pub"
Sat 16th June	Wroclaw	Czech Republic v Poland	Limerick
Sat 16th June	Warsaw	Greece v Russia	"Blind" report based on reading other reports!
Sun 17th June	Kharkiv	Portugal v Netherlands	2 Games at once MBM
Sun 17th June	Lviv	Denmark v Germany	2 Games at once MBM
Mon 18th June	Gdansk	Croatia v Spain	MBM watching the extended highlights
Mon 18th June	Poznan	Italy v Rep of Ireland	Mindless Optimism
Tue 19th June	Donetsk	England v Ukraine	Mindless Pessimism
Tue 19th June	Kiev	Sweden v France	Vague

Thu 21st June	A - Warsaw	1st Group A v 2nd Group B	Focus on an individual player
Fri 22nd June	B - Gdansk	1st Group B v 2nd Group A	Focus on the crowd!
Sat 23rd June	C - Donetsk	1st Group C v 2nd Group D	A look at reactions to the game on twitter
Sun 24th June	D - Kiev	1st Group D v 2nd Group C	Ref Watch!

Wed 27th June	Donetsk	Winner A v Winner C	Player Ratings and comments
Thu 28th June	Warsaw	Winner B v Winner D	Striker v Striker - Head to Head analysis

Sun 1st July

Kiev

Final

A normal match report and tournament review

So I'll be kicking off the competition with a "Before, During and After" analysis of the Poland - Greece.
What does that mean?

At last, ITV have got some decent pundits

Simply that, I'll be writing  3 articles on this match.  A preview beforehand, A half time report and a final verdict.  I'll try and keep it light and throw in some predictions and observations.  All being this will posted on Friday evening, followed by my verdict on ITVs coverage of the Russia v Czech Rep encounter.