Vienna - Former World Footballer of the Year George Weah on Tuesday said that he considered the Euro 2008 competition that is being co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland as one of the best-ever. "I have watched all the games in the US and I am impressed with what I have seen. Especially with the underdogs, with the teams that people thought were not good teams, like Austria.
"They did well, they made one or two mistakes and did not make it to the next round, but you could see that they were a great team," the former AC Milan, Chelsea and Monaco striker said.
Weah, who is considered as one of the best players in the world never to have played at the World Cup because his native Liberia failed to make it, said that he has seen a lot of great goals.
"There are a lot of great teams. The one thing that I enjoyed about the games is that there were not too many red cards. The games are very safe and the players are very friendly with each other.
"The fans are really enjoying themselves."
The 41-year-old, who had an unsuccessful bid to become president of Liberia in 2005, said that he did not want to speculate on which team would win the tournament.
"When I watch a game I do it from a player prospective. All I want to do is watch a good game. I look at the game, I do not look at the teams to see which is the best, I look at a match to enjoy the game.
"I look to have memories of yesterday when I was on the pitch and at the end of the day we all know that you can be the best team in the world, but if you make a mistake then the other team will be able to capitalize.
"The Dutch were such an example. A lot of people, including myself, thought that they were going to go to the final with Germany and maybe even take the cup, but at the end of the day, Russia surprised them."
Weah, who won several league championships with different clubs and was the World Footballer of the Year in 1995, said that there had been a lot of players who had impressed him. "There are several great players, I do not want to name any, but there were several ones that were very good."
He said that he sympathized with players ahead of their semi-final matches. "It is very tough. Your nerves are racking, you dont sleep at night and you are just up trying to think about the game.
"You are thinking what are my friends going to think if I fail, you know, there is a lot of things that are going through a players mind.
"Playing a semi-final is very tough. You almost want to put a knife to your neck and give an excuse, but at the end of the day when the ball starts rolling you put all that beside you."
