Euro Championships

I hope everyone has caught their breathe because that was one wild ride for the European Championships.
The 2008 edition took place in Austria and Switzerland. Pretty country it seems like there in Central Europe. The host nations didn’t play much pretty football however. Oh well, I don’t think most people could name more than two or three players from each team.
As for the rest of the tournament however, it was exciting. Their was some serious tail-trashing going in the group play. The Netherlands beat the defending World Cup champions from Italy 3-0 then turned around and smoked the French, the runners-up by the way, 4-1. That’s probably the first time anyone has destroyed the #1 and #2 teams back to back since well, ever. The Spanish rolled the Russians 4-1 in their first game before taking down Sweden and Greece. The Croatians and the Portuguese also cruised through their groups with impressive displays.
But when the knock stages came, the group winners seemed to have their magic in short supply. Portugal got pushed around like rag-dolls as they lost to the Germans 3-1. The never-say die Turks rescued their fate late once again by defeating Croatia. The Dutch got “out-Dutched” by the Russians and it took penalties for Spain to separate themselves from the Italians.
In the semifinals, the Turks again seemed to have saved themselves in the dying moments before the Germans stole it from them in the last moment while the Spanish again reminded the Russians that they weren’t quite that good, yet.
So the final came down to Germany and Spain; the perennial over-achievers versus the frustrating under-achievers. Germany has won the World Cup and the Euros three time a piece with grit and determination while Spain has only managed one Euro Championship, 44 years ago, despite all their talent. And the styles matched the history. Germany was again big, strong and tactically sound while Spain was elusive and creative. The Germans looked like giants while the Spanish looked they were about the size of an under-16 year-old team.
The German would be able to win the game if they could control the tempo and physically dominate the Spanish. But you can’t knock around someone you can’t catch. Cesc Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta and David Silva kept popping up in different places and providing each other with quick touch passes. Michael Ballack, Torsten Frings, and Bastin Schweinsteiger never could just keep up, a step slow the whole night. Spain was the more positive side the whole game and was duly rewarded with Fernando Torres’ inch-perfect finish 12 minutes before halftime. Torres had a frustrating time all tournament has his style never really meshed with the rest of the team. But he ran and worked extremely hard all-tournament and that alone should earn him some well-deserved respect. And his goal came on exactly the kind of through-ball that was so common of his terrific first season in Liverpool. His pace, power and finishing on the goal was world class.
Spain had the chance to really run away with it the second half but just couldn’t quite finish at times. But it didn’t matter. They played great possession football making the Germans chase and eventually bled them out in end. They were a tired and beaten side after 90 minutes.
The win helps Spain exorcise the demons of the past half-century. With all the talent they’ve had, they now finally again have something to show for it. And they led the way in a great tournament. The thrilling goals and dramatic late finishes might have made this one of the best major tournaments of the past 20 years. The only thing bad about the whole thing that was that it had to end; it’s hard to say good-bye to the beautiful game when it’s played like that.