Euro 2008 is now behind us, a real pity for soccer fans like me cos watta tournament it was. The Spanish armada vanquished the reliable Germans thus getting rid of the tag of perennial underachievers. The quality on display was quite stunning, no team portrayed it better than the Dutch who virtually painted the tournament orange until they ran into the Russians.
The biggest disappointment were the Czechs especially considering the way they played in the qualifiers. France were not far behind, but with their talisman Zinedine Zidane gone the creative talent seemed to be missing in midfield. The seemingly impregnable Italian fortress was conquered, though it needed a penalty shoot out to seal the deal.
Without a doubt Spain were a class apart as they played attacking one touch football. The tournament saw the rise of new stars, Spain's David Villa and Fernando Torres taking the cake while German Bastian Schweinstiger enhanced his reputation a great deal. Inevitably, Spain head FIFA's world ranking which were issued post Euro 2008, the Germans and the Dutch too made signifcant gains in terms of places.
Too bad the tourney ended so quickly, but for us football fans there's always some action on offer. The qualifiers for the World Cup 2010 and the commencement of the national leagues in Europe should provide some real thrilling moments ahead.
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1 comment:
Congrats on the blog. Nice post. Haven't been following soccer over the years, so your blog did a good job of summing up the Euro 2008.
Cheers,
Swapnil
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