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3. Let's put Spain's win in context, shall we? They won five of six games and never looked in danger in any of them. The one time they played poorly - against Italy - they were still better than their opponents despite having to go to penalties to win. Yes, they were lucky in the sense that, David Villa apart, they were not hit by injuries or suspensions. But there is little question that they were head and shoulders above the field. What's more, they won playing attractive, attacking football. Let's be thankful for that.
2. Nice touch from Sergio Ramos during the post-match celebrations: the Real Madrid defender wore a T-shirt commemorating Antonio Puerta, his former teammate at Seville, who tragically died last August.
1. What I found most disappointing in the final on the German end wasn't the effort or quality of the players. It was the messy, tactical chaos that reigned for much of the second half. Putting on two big men like Kevin Kuranyi and Mario Gomez is an acceptable strategy, provided you figure out how to get them the ball (you can either hoof it up the pitch long ball style or you can try to run at opponents and win free kicks).
But, at one point, Kuranyi, Gomez, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker (who had somehow wandered up the pitch) were standing at the edge of the Spanish box doing something close to nothing. Joachim Loew won't be happy with his own tactical performance.
3. It's an obvious, but often overlooked fact: to win a tournament like this you can't just be good, you have to be lucky too. Lucky in terms of injuries and refereeing decisions which lead to suspensions.
Germany have lost just two regulars up to this point - Bastian Schweinsteiger to suspension and Torsten Frings to injury - for a total of two games. Spain haven't lost anyone (though, obviously, David Villa is out for the final).
Guess which two teams made it all the way to the end?
2. Lilian Thuram has some kind of heart malformation which may jeopardise his swansong move to Paris St Germain. I'm thankful it has been caught before another senseless tragedy. But I can't help wonder: the guy has been a professional for nearly 20 years; how on God's green earth is it possible that nobody noticed this before?
1. There's always a certain knee-jerk reaction by a section of the public when the issue of referee manipulation comes up. Some buy into every conspiracy theory under the sun. Others refuse to believe everything and chalk it up to "whingeing" by sore losers. According to Joao Havelange, match officials were manipulated at both the 1966 and 1974 World Cups, when Brazil fell victim to some kind of Anglo-Teutonic conspiracy spearheaded by Sir Stanley Rous (the president of Fifa and an Englishman) with the help of German and English referees.
Havelange made those comments in an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha. On the one hand he's 92 years old and the passing of time can have all sorts of side-effects. On the other hand, Havelange was the president of Fifa for some 20-odd years. If he wouldn't know something was manipulated, who would?
3. Luis Aragones does it again. With Spain leading by a single goal early in the second half, he took off Fernando Torres and Xavi and sent on Daniel Guiza and Xabi Alonso in their place. A bold move? You bet. True, Russia did not look like scoring, but, in football, you never know when someone might nick a goal. And then what? The prospect of playing until the 120th minute without both Torres and David Villa (who had gone off earlier) would have been terrifying.
 Especially since Guiza is not the kind of player you write home about. But hey, it worked! Spain demolished Russia before and after the double substitution and deservedly reached the final for the third time in their history.
2. Speaking of Spain and finals, here's something you can use to impress your (anoraky) friends. Conventional wisdom is that those three finals (1964, 1984 and 2008) are the only three Spain has reached in a major tournament.
Conventional wisdom is wrong. Spain were also World Cup finalists in 1950. Forget what you've heard of the dramatic World Cup "final" between Brazil and Uruguay in front of 200,000 spectators at the Maracana, the one in which the Brazilians took the lead, ponced about and let Uruguay sneak a 2-1 win. In fact, that wasn't really a final. That year, there were four group winners in the 16-team World Cup. Fifa decreed that they would face off in a group, with each side playing each of the final three.
As it turned out, Uruguay and Brazil won their first two "final group" games and so Uruguay v Brazil became the de facto final. But, in fact, all four teams in the finals group ought to be considered finalists because that's what they were.
1. A final point on what has become a very red and yellow blog entry. One of the not-so-nice things that Spanish supporters shout at the opposition is the rather unimaginative "Hijos de puta!" (which means sons of a word I'm probably not allowed to write but which rhymes with twitch).
As I walked to the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, I passed a group of very noisy Spain fans who were singing their own sanitized (and far more original version): "Hijos de Putin!"
 3. Turkey v Germany will be remembered more as an entertaining match than a quality match. But you can only look with awe at the performance of Fatih Terim's men in such improbable circumstances.
Given the troops at his disposal, it does rather make you wonder just how great the gap is (or isn't) between great players and merely above average players. And why highly paid superstars can come so close to losing against guys who earn a fraction as much.
2. The loss of TV pictures for the match last night (apparently caused by electrical storms) was something of a throwback. For the first time in years, you actually need to read the match reports to find out how the game went. Quite a change.
 1. After the game, I exchanged a few words with Torsten Frings, the Germany midfielder. He said his team were undisciplined, but nevertheless persevered and won thanks to "individual excellence", people popping up at the right time. Wait, I thought Germany were supposed to be the paragons of discipline, wearing opponents down through their collective skills? The sooner we get rid of these idiotic stereotypes, the better. It's 2008, folks.
3. Those of us who are trained print journalists sometimes snobbishly believe that people working in television are dim, superficial and, generally ignorant. Such stereotyping is wrong, of course. Except when it's right. As was the case with the people working for the German network ARD-Das Erste who ran a segment previewing the semi-final between Turkey and Germany. Both countries' flags were supposed to be displayed in the background (very imaginative, I know).
They got Turkey right (well done!) but, somehow contrived to get the order of the colors in the German one incorrect (the black stripe was in the middle). Imagine BBC One displaying an England flag featuring a white cross on a red background and you get the picture. Heads will roll and rightly so.
2. OK, so Turkey have four players suspended and another three definitely out for tonight's semi-final. Another two are highly doubtful. Fatih Terim has twelve fit outfield players and two goalkeepers to choose from. Guess he won't be making all three subsitutions.
 1. How about a little reality check? Over the past forty-eight hours I've heard Guus Hiddink's Russia compared with everything from Brazil 1970 to Tiger Woods to the 1992 "Dream Team". Steady on, people.
Russia were soundly beaten by Spain (yes, they hit the crossbar twice, but they also conceded four goals). They limped to a 1-0 win over Greece, arguably the worst team in the tournament. They beat Sweden, a team who are also not particularly good and whose best player - Zlatan Ibrahimovic - had a knee the size of a watermelon.
Oh, you say, but they didn't pummel a brilliant Holland side? Well, yes, Russia looked impressive. But it did finish 1-1 after 90 minutes. And Holland were actually far more pedestrian than the crew on the Oranje bandwagon would have us believe. Marco Van Basten's crew were basically a counterattacking unit who were outshot by a poor Italy side (16-13) and an even poorer France side (18-13). In fact, had the referee given a penalty for Andre Ooijer's fairly blatant handball against Les Bleus, the whole tournament could have taken a decidedly different spin. So let's wait until tomorrow night to anoint Russia as the second coming, shall we?
3. On Monday I wrote about the alternative Euros, those played by referees. And we have a winner: Italy's Roberto Rosetti. He benefitted from the fact that Spain and Germany advanced to the semi-finals, knocking Manuel Mejuto Gonzales and Herbert Fandel out of contention.
As I understand it, UEFA's referee committee were split between Slovakia's Lubos Michel, Rosetti and Switzerland's Massimo Busacca.
But Michel already officiated the Champions' League in Moscow last May and the committee wanted to avoid giving both seasonal referee prizes to the same man. And so Rosetti edged it over Busacca, partly on the strength of a strong showing in the Croatia v Turkey quarter-final. Now you know.
2. Speaking of Turkey, goalkeeper Volkan Demirel has seen his appeal against the two match ban he received for his red card against the Czech Republic turned down. That means he'll sit out the semi-final against Germany and it's a cruel fate.
Surely it's time to review this "automatic two-match ban" policy. UEFA have the discretion to inflict longer bans, why not simply make it an automatic one match ban and then increase it if necessary?
What's silly here is that Volkan's "crime" - pushing Jan Koller, the big Czech forward - came at the end of the match, which meant that his ejection did not really impact the Czechs (Volkan's "victims").
All it did was benefit Croatia in the quarterfinals, just as it will benefit Germany in the semifinals. As if the Germans needed any more help.
1. The usual mischief-makers have snidely pointed out that Guus Hiddink employs the same fitness guru who helped him with South Korea in 2002. And, as you may recall, the Koreans' pace, stamina and general levels of fitness were all unusually high six years ago. I love a good conspiracy and I am by nature suspicious, but, unless anyone has any concrete evidence or any Russian players fail a drugs test, you're innocent until proven guilty.
Besides, isn't there a more logical explanation for why Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko looked fresh and sharp?
They pair have played 43 and 41 games respectively since August. Contrast that with Cristiano Ronaldo, who has played nearly fifty percent more football, sixty-one games at all, in that time frame. Think the winter break is irrelevant? Think again.
3. Kudos to Spain for advancing to the semi-finals. It was a deserved victory after a game which I found enthrallling (though perhaps the neutral did not). Spain deserved it not because they were the better team on the night or because they did more to win (the former is debatable, the latter is irrelevant) but because they are the better side in absolute terms and because they exorcised their demons once and for all. Football matches may be played with the feet and the body, but they are won with the mind.
2. That said, Luis Aragones' substitutions were the kind which were always going to leave him - to paraphrase Billy Joel - "walking away a fool or a king." Replacing Xavi, the side's leader and most experienced midfielder with a 21-year-old (even one as accomplished as Cesc Fabregas) took a whole lot of guts. Substituting Fernando Torres for - ahem - Daniel Guiza took even more. But Spain went through and now he looks a genius.
1. I wasn't in Vienna so I watched the game on TV. British TV that is. Now I know that foreign pronunciations can be difficult. But is it really so hard to say Capdevila (Kap-de-veelah) instead of Kap-de-Veelyah? It's not as if the guy is Brazilian.
3. If you come a culture of attacking football, creative players, passing and movement, it's very difficult to go against it. Even as some morons who really should know better were singing Holland's praises throughout this tournament, anybody who actually saw them in the flesh could clearly tell that this, simply put, was a very mediocre team.
And, furthermore, a team that played rather dull, unimaginative football, except on the counterattack. Hindsight is always 20/20, but come on. They score three against Italy - one thanks to a rule nobody knew or understood, two on the counterattack - and four against France (who could have been 3-1 up). And, suddenly, everyone gets carried away.
The fact is that Holland were one of the most defensive sides at the Euros, a position to which they are not accustomed. And, as the tournament wore on, it became clear just how unfamiliar and uncomfortable it all felt.
2. You probably wouldn't have seen it, but Croatian fans exhibited a big banner during their country's quarterfinal against Turkey: "No To Modern Football." It's part of a loose network of supporters ranging from hardcore Ultras to community groups to fanzine editor-types.
They're battle is against the overcommercialization of the game, the dominance of television, high ticket prices... all that good stuff.
Nice to see them get their message across.
1. Like just about everyone else in Basel's St. Jakob Park, I was left open-mouthed by Andrei Arshavin's master class. But I can't help but wonder: the guy is 27 years old and has just thirty-six caps.
Which naturally begs the question: is he the latest of late bloomers? Or did Russian football fail miserably in spotting his talent and giving him his chance when he was younger?
3. Croatia were, clearly, desperately unlucky against Turkey. And one can only praise Slaven Bilic for the exceptional job he's done. But - and here, perhaps, I'm being rather nit-picky - his choice of penalty-takers was, at once, curious and courageous. Sending up Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic, twenty-two and twenty respectively, showed immense faith in their ability given their youth. One would have thought that with veterans such as the Kovac brothers, Ivan Klasnic and Josip Simunic still on the pitch, he might have gone with experience. Or that, perhaps, he might have used his spare substitution to send on another penalty-taker.
2. Our obsession with dissecting football folk and their personal taste and opinions knows no bounds. Throughout the tournament, the one thing which stopped Bilic from becoming a universal media darling was his professed appreciation for Croat rocker Marko Perkovic, whose band, Thompson, is overtly nationalistic (and, some say, Fascist).
Now, Rino Gattuso, the Italy midfielder, is coming under fire for saying that, as a Catholic, he was "scandalized" by the idea of gay marriage. I haven't seen the papers today, but I'm sure that, just as Bilic was taken to task for his musical tate, so too will Gattuso be crucified for holding supposedly "homophobic" views. And I'm sure they'll conveniently omit the context of his statement, which was that same-sex couples shouldn't be married in the church (he said nothing of civil unions or civil weddings or anything like that). Which, as views go, is no more "homophobic" than that held by hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics and members of other Christian denominations and religions around the world. But, hey, let's not let the facts stand in the way of a good witch-hunt, shall we?
1. I'm running out of words for The Emperor. Fatih Terim is not only the coolest-looking manager in the competition, he has also achieved the unthinkable. It was one thing to project Turkey as a potential outsider to advance to the quarterfinals or even, if you were brave, the semifinals. Quite another that they have done it in this fashion, with so many injuries and suspensions. Go back and look at his CV, which includes spells at Fiorentina and AC Milan, four Turkish titles and a UEFA Cup with Galatasaray. Doesn't he deserve another crack at the big time?
Zurich, June 20, 2008
Dear Guillem (and all fans of Spain):
Welcome to the eve of your nightmare. Because whatever happens tomorrow night in Vienna, you will spend the next twenty-four hours battling your deepest, darkest demons. The very same fears and insecurities which you attempt to cloak beneath the kind of bombast and jingoism which would make certain red-tops in this country proud.
But, in fact, you're terrified. You can't help yourself. You are scared of us. And you're not sure why.
Let me help you. Rationally, you have no real reason to be scared.
Yes, we may be the world champions, but this is a far different side. We are under no illusions that we are not as good as we were two years ago. Marcello Lippi has been replaced by Roberto Donadoni, a good man and a good coach, but one whose CV looks distinctly Glenn Roederesque by comparison. Our best player, Francesco Totti, is gone.
Continue reading "Open letter from Marcotti to Balague: Not so fast, Guillem" »
Dear Gab,
It sounds like you have not been in Spain lately (the Canary Islands don’t count). You talk about old fears but I can only feel confidence from most people I talk to. Wouldn’t it be that your intimidating words hide new found apprehensions? It was not in our papers where this opinion poll was published a couple of days ago, but in Il corriere della sera: 90.8 per cent of Italians think that you are going home after Sunday’s game. I wonder if, parallel to the envy you seem to have for everything Spanish, there is the general tacit recognition that in football we are now also a step ahead of you. Even La Repubblica correspondent in Madrid coincides with your perception that we have improved as a nation at all levels: “Spain was for a long time the poor relation.
But there is no doubt they have bypassed us in all areas. Anything they do they do it better”, was quoted yesterday. Statistics show that we produce better chefs, better opera singers, the more popular holiday destinations, that we manage with less public debt, that economically we are growing faster than you, that we read more books. Wouldn’t it be that you also secretly admire what we can do with the ball and our new confident attitude?
It is true that we have not got Italy’s winning mentality, essential to create continuous generations of champions. We have discussed it many times -David Silva, great with the ball but probably lacking in ambition, would have not progressed to the Italian national team. You have to be mentally strong, overcome the hurdles and compete hard to be favourably compared with the previous successful generation. I would even argue that this has more to do with our underachieving than the supposed lack of national feeling. It is not the fact that Catalans play with Basques and Castilians that makes the side weaker, but the lack of winning culture. After all, yourselves are also a nation of nations -a young country of only 147 years which can be described as a collection of city states in which it survives, in the north, the separatist notion that from Rome down, it is not longer Italy, it’s Africa.
Continue reading "Open letter from Balague to Marcotti: Why my Spain will beat your Italy" »
3. No doubt back in England you're being inundated by wise and original statements like "You can never count the Germans out" and so on. After such an exhausting and thrilling match, I'm still letting it all sink in. But I do want to celebrate a guy who has been in the Premier League for two years and still gets treated more like a run-of-the-mill Anton Auslander than the superstar that he is.
Michael Ballack had a monster second half of the Premiership season and, against Portugal, was instrumental in Bastian Schweinsteiger's goal, before adding another of his own. (Yes, there was a cheeky shove on Paulo Ferreira, but you have to wonder why Ferreira was on Ballack in the first place). Granted, you would expect someone making £6.5m a year to carry his team through time. But, the fact is, many highly-paid stars either go missing or simply come up short when it matters. Not Ballack. Not last night.
2. You've probably heard by now that Khalid Boulahrouz, the Holland defender, lost his baby daughter who was born pre-maturely. He's back in the squad and every indication is that he will start against Russia tonight. Whatever the case may be, my thoughts go to the Boulahrouz family. Football seems rather irrelevant at times like these. But perhaps it can help him to somehow come to terms with his pain.
1. So David Taylor, Uefa's General Secretary, has announced that the 2016 Euros may be comprised of 24 teams (up from the current 16). The proposal will be examined between now and Christmas. It's actually not a bad idea. Consider the sides who finished third in their respective qualifying groups: Serbia, Scotland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, England, Northern Ireland and Bulgaria. Plus the next best side in qualifying, say, Denmark or Ukraine. Would they drastically lower the level of the competition? Probably not. And, even then, the benefits of seeing more and diverse stars would greatly enhance the interest in the Euros. Plus, of course, the sponsors would be happy too. More games, more TV revenue, a virtual guarantee that the biggest TV markets (read: United Kingdom) will be involved... what's not to like?
3. The Spain bandwagon rolls on. And on. And - with the second-string - on. Last night's game told us very little, of course, beyond the fact that, unlike Portugal, Luis Aragones' troops kept the momentum going. Psychologically, that's important, nobody wants to go into the quarter-finals on a low. The single biggest thing Spain has shown me in this competition is that they've learned that occasionally hitting the ball into space (rather than constructing the most elaborate and intricate midfield passing patterns known to mankind) can actually be quite effective when you have arguably the quickest front pair in the competition (David Villa and Fernando Torres). That sprinkling of directness is one of the things this already vastly talented side needed. Now if they only could get some of the smurfs in midfield and attack (Torres excepted of course) to grow a few inches...
2. Hats off to Guus Hiddink. He's a very good manager, though not the tactical Messiah some depict him as. What he does exceptionally well is get teams to buy into what he wants them to do (and that's half the battle). Russia in 2008 may well be a greater feat than Australia in 2006 (when they won one game out of four and failed to create any decent chances against ten men for 43 odd minutes in the second round) and South Korea in 2002 (please don't get me started on the officiating). If he beats Holland (and, tactically, Russia seem ideally suited to creating problems for the Dutch) this will unquestionably be his greatest achievement with a national side.
1. Speaking of Holland, the next time you see a pundit or a journalist or a manager (in general, someone paid to talk about football) describing their style of play as "Total Football" either (a) punch them in the mouth or (b) patiently invite them to brush up on their history. Marco Van Basten is doing a fantastic job and Holland execute brilliantly, but Rinus Michels' Total Football was something entirely different. Not necessarily better (though I think it was), just different. This Holland does not press for ninety minutes, its midfielders do not storm forward switching positions with its strikers, its right back only seems to cross the half-way line at half-time and it does not defend high up the pitch. It's not Total Football. In fact, Holland hasn't played that way since the late 1970s. Even Michels' own 1988 Holland side, the one that became European champions with Van Basten and Ruud Gullit, did not play Total Football. Total Football does not simply mean a bunch of guys in orange shirts scoring lots of goals. It has a specific tactical definition. And this Holland is entirely different.
3. Kudos to Holland for doing the right thing. Some of us never doubted you, Oranje. Others did. They were wrong. And football is the richer for it.
2. So you think the English press can be petty, sensationalist and mean-spirited? Hah! They are mere babes compared to some people. Like the Romanian journalist who, in the aftermath of France v Italy, asked Roberto Donadoni: "Mr. Donadoni... Adrian Mutu missed a penalty against Italy which would have put Romania in the quarterfinals and Italy out. Would you say that this means his career is a failure?" Excuse me?
1. Raymond Domenech... no, I can't. I just can't. Sorry.
3. So the director general of SRG, Swizterland's state broadcaster is apparently angry with Uefa for not showing images of Croatian fans lighting smuggled flares during their country's 1-0 win over Austria.
Uefa feeds pictures from its own camers to rights-holding broadcasters, but according to the SRG's Armin Walpen, they intentionally didn't show the unruly Croatians. Uefa deny this of course. Either way, is it worth getting upset over this? Uefa's job is to show the football. It's not a news-gathering organization (assuming ten Croats holding flares is a news-worthy image). Does anyone even care about this?
2. I always find it funny when managers get themselves sent off. So I thought it was doubly hilarious when Spanish referee Manuel Mejuto Gonzales sent off both Josef Hickersberger, the Austria boss and his German counterpart, Joachim Loew, in one feel swoop. But I do wonder this: what's the point of sending a manager off if he's just going to go and sit in the stands unchaperoned (and within access of a mobile phone)? Especially if he then waltzes into the dressing room at half-time to give the team talk (as Loew and Hickersberger apparently did)? Would it not make more sense to frog-march him into an empty room deep in the bowels of the stadium and strip him of all earthly possessions (so he doesn't get any McGyveresque ideas) until the final whistle? Oh, and then ban him from the next game too. If players get banned for red cards, so should managers.
 1. Earlier this year, I wrote about Ivan Klasnic's return to action with his mum's kidney transplanted in his body. And now he has scored a goal at the European Championships. It's not just a heart-warming story, it's a story that ought to make us reflect on how medicine has advanced. Not that long ago, Klasnic would have been lucky to get away with spending three hours a day hooked up to a dialysis machine. Today he's scoring at the Euros.
3. Fatih Terim is known as "The Emperor" and you can see why. The Turkey boss has "the look", the charisma which suggests power and authority. He may also be the most underrated manager at Euro 2008. In fact, he's been underappreciated throughout his career. His brand of football is aggressive and direct, he's the classic motivator who can get ordinary players to do extraordinary things (hands up anyone who could name more than two Turkish players not named Emre or Tuncay before this tournament) ilke the stunning 3-2 comeback win against the Czech Republic. At fifty-four, he's ready for a move back into big-time league football (he won the Coppa Italia and gained universal acclaim in his one season at Fiorentina and then had a turbulent five-month spell at Milan before leaving the club in a huff). In fact, he has said he will consider his future after the tournament. The question is, will anyone in La Liga or the Premier League have the courage to put their faith in a Turkish manager? If the answer is no, they don't know what they're missing. He's the real deal.
2. I first saw Petr Cech back in 2001, when he was playing for Sparta Prague. Still just a teenager, he moved like he was made of rubber and dominated play like Tiger Woods. From there, we watched him rise to the top of the world, joining Gigi Buffon and Iker Casillas among the game's elite goalkeepers. But let's not kid ourselves. Cech hasn't been Cech for the past two seasons. Some blame the collision with Steven Hunt, but, in fact, he was hardly impressive at the 2006 World Cup either. And, against Turkey, it was his mistake which cost the Czechs a place in the quarter-finals. That said, it's worth remembering that he is still just twenty-six years old. And that he has already achieved more in his brief career than most of his colleagues will achieve in a lifetime. Cech has the athletic ability, technical skills and intelligence to go back to being one of the world's greatest. He just needs a little time. So, for now, let's lay off this "world's best" business. And just let him get on with football.
1. After each game at Euro 2008, selected members of the media have the opportunity to speak to players in something called the 'Mixed Zone'. The press waits on one side of a fence as the players leave the dressing room and make their way to the team bus. If they want to stop and chat, they can. If they don't, they can walk by pretending not to see you or hear you (usually while having imaginary mobile phone conversations). Last night, I was in the 'Mixed Zone' myself, listening to Gokhan Inler calmly chatting away in German, when I heard a massive commotion: Cristiano Ronaldo was walking through. Of course, he hadn't played in the match so he didn't really feel like talking (and answering - for the umpteenth time - questions about whether he's staying put or moving to Madrid). As he wandered through, he waved, shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he wasn't going to stop. Nevertheless, a herd of my colleagues followed his every move. Right until the very end of the 'Mixed Zone' when he stopped to talk to, of all people, a Times colleague, generating the kind of media scrum which would have made Paris Hilton proud. He didn't say much - what's he supposed to say anyway? - but, just by stopping to talk he created more excitement than Hakan Yakin would have if he'd levitated to the ceiling and Aramaic-speaking doves had flown out of his mouth. I don't know if the scene said more about him or more about us in the media.
3. The format for this competition, with the two sides of the draw being kept apart, is simply demented. In previous Euros (and in the World Cup) you could only face another team in your group in the final. Now, however, you can meet them in the semis. Which makes all the difference in the world and sets up some potentially screwy situations. Case in point: Holland have already qualified as group-winners from Group C with six points, Romania have two points and France and Italy one point each. France and Italy play each other in the final game and the winner can move up to four points. However, that will only be worth qualification if Romania fail to beat Holland.
But here's the thing: Holland have absolutely nothing to play for.
Continue reading "Gabriele Marcotti's daily diary: Dutch can do as they please" »
3. Kobi Kuhn is not a managerial genius. He doesn't have a loud personality, doesn't hob-nob with billionaires, doesn't call himself special, doesn't appear in television adverts, doesn't live in a huge house with an indoor pool, doesn't glorify himself in a tabloid newspaper column, doesn't suck up to reporters by inviting them to his bar (in fact, he doesn't own a bar), doesn't own race-horses, doesn't plant his team's flag in the center-circle of his biggest rivals' stadium, doesn't have people talking about how passionate he is, doesn't urge players to kick opponents, doesn't give monosyllabic answers in press conferences, doesn't wear the same grey jumper and white button-down every day, doesn't send emails disrespecting fans of other clubs, doesn't walk out on his team in mid-season and doesn't whinge to the media when other teams want his player. He was a very good footballer who played sixty-three times for his country. And he is a manager who punched above his weight, getting Switzerland to Euro 2004 and Germany 2006. But, most of all, he is a true gentleman.
With Switzerland now out of the competition, next week's clash with Portugal will be his last game ever. Those who had the pleasure of knowing him, will miss him. Those who didn't, could have learned something from him.
2.Croatia's win over Germany had far reaching implications (and not just because maybe - just maybe - some Steve McClaren bashers realise that Slaven Bilic's men are actually pretty good). The best Germany can now do is finish second, which would set-up a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash with Portugal. Which, in turn, means that one out of the pre-tournament favourites and the most exciting side in the competition will be crashing out early. Aaaah, the magic of knockout competitions.
1. If Howard Webb is the very best referee England can offer, it may be time to divert a few more funds from the Premier League's enormous TV contract to training match officials. The decision to allow Poland's goal against Austria to stand was simply absurd. And no, it's not enough to blame the linesman. The offside was so blatant you would expect a referee at this level to overrule his assistant.
 3. Johan Cruyff, the paladin of a certain brand of attacking 4-3-3 football had a right pop at Marco Van Basten's tactics before Holland's 3-0 win over Italy. Now, of course, he's left with egg on his face. But maybe he has a point. Van Basten's Holland featured four defenders (with fullbacks who rarely ventured forward) plus two central midfielders - Orlando Engelaar and Nigel De Jong - who played so deep they were almost additional central defenders. Holland's first goal came in bizarre circumstances, their second and third came on the counter-attack. It was brilliantly executed and accomplished, but it had nothing to do with Dutch footballing stereotypes of old. Indeed, Holland played the way Italy used to play in the 1980s. And maybe that's what annoyed Cruyff so much.
2. (OK, this is my last post about footballers and citizenship ... I promise) .After Lukas Podolski against Poland, Hakan Yakin became the second player not to celebrate a goal against his country of origin when he gave Switzerland the lead against Turkey. It's legitimate, no player is obligated to celebrate a goal, that's not what they're there for. ut it really doesn't feel right. And it's not something I like to see.
1. Three-man central defences went out of fashion in the 1990s along with grunge, slackers and concerns about acid rain. Which is why watching Austria play is like stepping into a tactical time machine. Greece, of course, are also quite a relic: they employ a sweeper behind a four man defence, something which has a distinct 1980s feel to it. It's quite refreshing really, at a time when so many clubs seem to employ variations on the same theme. There's a reason why Austria and Greece choose to play this way and the bigger nations (and bigger clubs) don't: these systems allow them to cram as many of their top players as possible into the starting XI. And, for countries who have little depth, it's the only way to put out a decent side.
 3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of those guys most people either love or hate. (In England, it's mostly the latter ... after Inter were knocked out by Liverpool in the Champions' League, I got a text from a Times reporter who had been at the game telling me just how rubbish he was). It's inevitable. From a young age he was bigger, stronger and more talented than all his peers and, as such, was expected to do the extraordinary week in, week out. He' still like that today. His size and gifts make him stand out like few others and, if he doesn't win games single-handedly, the critics come out, guns blazing: he's slow, he's lazy, he's selfish, he doesn't score enough, he tries to do too much. We've heard it all. Personally, I don't think Ibrahimovic is one of the top five players in the world. Not yet anyway, and he may never be. But I fail to understand how the neutral can't appreciate some of the moments of his skill that he offers: the subtle passes, the delicate touches, the vicious shots ... aren't players like him the reason many of us fell in love with this game?
2. When Spain win, they tend to look good, really good. At times, their 4-1 demolition of Russia was simply breathtaking. But, on at least three occasions, the back four made the kinds of mistakes you really shouldn't be seeing at this level. I'm talking about individual errors here, not simply the normal price you pay for playing with a single holding midfielder. Luis Aragones can sit back and savour his victory tonight, but if he sits on his laurels too long, Spain's defensive disorganization could well come back to bite him in the rear end.
1. A German colleague of mine came up with this and I thought it was worth discussing. "The Champions' League has spoiled us. We're used to seeing that level of football and, by comparison, the Euros, especially the early rounds, have looked disappointing. The fact is, that most of these teams would lose against the top club sides. And I have little doubt that if, say, Manchester United or Real Madrid were in the Euros they would win the tournament hands-down." What do you think? Provided that Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani could somehow magically play for both sides, would Manchester United beat Portugal? Would Chelsea defeat Spain? Would Real pummel France? Discuss.
3. Like most observers, I was thoroughly mifffed as to why referee Peter Frojdfeldt allowed Ruud Van Nistelrooy's opening goal against Italy to stand. Yes, Christian Panucci, lying on his back several feet behind the goalline was playing him onside, but come on ... he had been clearly shaken up a few seconds earlier, when Gigi Buffon's full bodyweight collided with him. But, from what I can tell, thanks to a call to a former international referee, it seems that Frojdfeldt got it right. If a player leaves the pitch without the permission of the referee - which the injured Panucci had clearly done - it's as if he never left and, for purposes of off-sides, it's as if he were standing on the goalline. Uefa issued just such a directive two years ago. The rule seems a bit unfair to me - if a player is injured, surely he's not in play (especially when he's lying down motionless outside the field of play) - but that's what the rules (or, rather, the directives, say). In normal circumstances, the referee would probably have stopped play to allow Panucci to get treatment, but this whole play unfolded so quickly it simply wasn't an option. Oh well. None of this changes the fact that Italy had a real stinker, especially in the first half.
2. Speaking of stinkers, France showed very little of anything against Romania. Tempting as it may be, you can't put all the blame on Raymond Domenech. Just most of it. When you play Jeremy Toulalan and Claude Makelele together in the middle of the park, you get plenty of defensive graft, but little creativity and even less ability to unlock opposing defenses. This is less of a problem when you have a fit Thierry Henry, who can create chances out of nothing, but with Karim Benzema and Nicolas Anelka up front, you have to provide service to the strikers. And the only way that was going to happen was via the wide men, Florent Malouda (whose iffy Chelsea form seems to have carried over into the Euros) and Franck Ribery. The Bayern wide man did his best, but against the well-organized Romanian
catenaccio, even he couldn't conjure up the necessary heroics. Raymond, it's time for a re-think.
1. OK, so we've all taken the mickey out of the not-so-German strikers. But, to be fair, Poland are no better. In fact, at least Germany's Poles moved there as children (presumably for non-footballing reasons). You may have noticed Roger Guerreiro turning out for the Poles. He's a naturalized Brazilian who lived in Poland for all of eighteen months before he was naturalized. According to the Brazilian FA, as many as twenty per cent of the players at the next World Cup are going to be Brazilian (23 in the Selecao and a whole bunch turning out for other nations). This insanity has got to end. Otherwise, let's just cut to the chase, allow each country to naturalize as many Brazilians as they like and sit back and enjoy the show.
3. Imagine an alternative universe where people actually played for the country in which they were born. Sound nutty, huh? We've grown immune to the rent-a-star mentality which allows Italy to win a World Cup with Mauro Camoranesi (who, at least, has the decency not to sing the national anthem), Spain to underachieve with Marcos Senna and England to not qualify for the Euros with Owen Hargreaves. But consider, if you will, Germany's strikers.
Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose were both born in Poland of Polish parents (so too was midfielder Piotr Trochowski). Oliver Neuville was born in Switzerland of an Italian mother and half-German, half-Belgian father. Kevin Kuranyi was born in Rio de Janeiro of a Panamanian mother and a half-German, half-Hungarian father.
David Odonkor and Mario Gomez were, in fact, both born in Germany and are half-Ghanaian and half-Spanish respectively. Add it all up and Germany's six strikers have one and a half-German parents between them.
Not that there is anything wrong with that. But, if you happen to be Polish, you can't help but wonder what would have happened on Sunday night if Klose and Podolski (who scored both goals and neglected to celebrate) had lined up for the country of their birth and their ancestry, rather than their adopted one.
2. Croatia is the trendy choice among some for the role of dark horse in this tournament. Some go so far as to draw a parallel with the side that advanced all the way to the 1998 World Cup semifinal. Steady on there, folks.
The 1998 side featured a centre-forward who played for Real Madrid (Davor Suker), a midfielder who starred for AC Milan (Zvonimir Boban), a winger who wowed them at Parma, back when Parma mattered (Mario Stanic) and an absolute genius who could turn it on almost at will (Robert Prosinecki).
Plus a scary central defender who gobbled up opposing strikers like Pac-Man (Slaven Bilic). Of the current crop, the only ones who would get into the 1998 side are Luka Modric, maybe Niko Kranjcar and, at a stretch one or two others. It's not a knock on Croatia, if anything it underscores what a good job Bilic is doing and how well his players execute his game plan.
1. Jean Ziegler is a world-renowned sociologist and intellectual. He also happens to be Swiss, and is brutally honest in his assessment of his nation's football. "The fundamental value at the heart of football is solidarity, together with collective intelligence, creativity, critical thinking, courage and fair play. These are qualities which have nothing to do with Switzerland and the Swiss."
Way to get behind your team, Jean. But then, being Swiss himself (and having been an MP for 20 plus years), I guess he can get away with it.
3. ORF, the Austrian state television broadcaster, ran a documentary reflecting back on Austria's stunning win at ... Euro 2008. Yes, obviously it was a spoof, though they managed to get a good number of players, manager and journalists to play ball, reflecting back in interviews on matches which never took place. An exercise in national self-delusion? Some kind of post-modern multimedia art? Or maybe just a bit of fun? Whatever the case, it's good karma. And a way to lessen the tension.
2. Fifteen teams at Euro 2008 have either their own nutritionist or their own chef (and, usually, both). One team has neither: Russia.
Guus Hiddink's men eat the food in their local hotel and the coaching staff pay only cursory attention to the players' culinary intake. "They're athletes, they know how to behave, they know what to eat and drink," says one member of the coaching staff. Leaving aside the obvious risks - food-poisoning chief among them - it does rather make you wonder what would happen if every country left the players to their own devices when it comes to foraging for sustenance. Would we be seeing ten pint liquid lunches? Kebabs at four o'clock in the morning? Chips for breakfast? Or would the players actually take their responsiblity seriously and understand that what goes into their bodies affects what they do on the pitch?
1. Cesc Fabregas may be the best foreign midfielder not named Michael in the Premier League, but it holds little stock with Luis Aragones, the Spain manager. His place with Spain is in serious jeopardy which, frankly, seems extraordinary until you look at the midfielders at Aragones' disposal. For whatever reason, Spain excels at producing pint-sized pass-happy pixies: Xavi, David Silva and Andres Iniesta are all in the same mould, creative little fellas who can pass the ball to death. The problem is, you can only fit so many of them in your team.
Already Aragones is having to deploy Iniesta and Silva wide, despite the fact that both are probably more suited to a central role. And while deploying Xavi and Cesc together in the middle is a sexy idea, Spain need at least one holding midfielder, otherwise they'll be steamrollered. And that spot goes to Marcos Senna. Which means that Aragones has two options: he can either go with a 4-5-1 formation (but that would mean leaving out the in-form David Villa) or he can make a difficult choice between Xavi and Cesc. And, in that case, Xavi would be favored by a mile. It's debatable that he's a better player, less debatable is that he's more experienced and plays his football in Spain which means that, if things go horribly wrong, Xavi's exclusion is likely to haunt Aragones for far longer.
3. So Michel Platini is against Uefa's policy of retroactively punishing players who cheat. Currently, if a player "simulates" (Uefaspeak for diving) and, in the process, cons the referre he can be punished after the fact. I don't have a problem with the fact that the head of an organization is against his organization's own policy – in fact, it shows a sense of democracy - but I rather think Platini is missing the point. He argues that punjshing an offender won't compensate the victim. That's true, banning Diego Maradona for the Hand of God goal in 1986 would not have been much of a consolation for England. But the reason we punish miscreants is not tor edress misdeeds but to set deterrents. It's what separates us from "eye for an eye" societies where you can commit a crime, pay "blood money" and get away with it. We believe in punishing people to deter them and others from doing certain things.
2. There is a cast-iron guarantee at every World Cup or Euro. The organizers will introduce a new football and the goalkeepers will complain about it. It had happened again, with first Jens Lehmann, then Gigi Buffon and now Petr Cech saying the new ball is too light and too unpredictable. I'm not a physicist so I have no idea if they're correct. But what I do know is that there has been no steady increase in goals at major tournaments over the past twenty years.
Which would imply that one of two things is true: either the players have gotten so good that we need more unpredictable balls to avoid a goal drought or the goalkeepers are talking out of their rear ends.
1. And you thought the "Achtung! Surrender!" headling from Euro 96 was the nadir of jingoism? Think again. Sunday night's clash between Poland and Germany is turning into a tasty grudge match. Except, like most grudge matches involving the Germans, they could care less about their opponents (as Holland and England found out, it's a rather one-way rivalry).
So as Zbygniew Boniek, Poland's greatest ever player, scientifically points out that his countrymen are "sixteen times" as intelligent as the Germans and one polish newspaper publishes a photomontage of Leo Beenhakker, the Poland coach, holding the severed heads of Michael Ballack and Joachim Loew the teutonic response has been rather muted. "The Poles are our dear friends," says Theo Zwanziger, head of the German FA.
1. Control the wide areas
When United don't have possession, it's essential that whoever is out wide tracks back to help Wes Brown and, especially, Patrice Evra.
The last thing Sir Alex will want is for the pair to be left one-on- one with Joe Cole or Solomon Kalou (or Florent Malouda). That's where United are vulnerable: unless, of course, they do what they did against Roma and deploy Park Ji Sung and and Wayne Rooney as adjunct fullbacks.
2. The Aerial Threat
In Didier Drogba, John Terry and Michael Ballack Chelsea have three of the best headers of the ball in the world. Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand more than hold their own in the air of course, but they'll need help.
3. Discipline
Lubos Michel may well be the best referee in Europe right now. He has no qualms about sending a player off if he deems it's the right decision to make, regardless of what minute the match is in. He knows to referee two English sides differently than he would, say, a Spanish team and an Italian team. And that means tough but fair challenges will be tolerated, histrionics will not. And don't even think about treating him like any old Andy D'Urso.
4. The E-Factor
I'm probably in the minority here, but I think Michael Essien is the best player on the pitch at the Luzhniki (or, at least, the best player whose name does not end in a vowel). Every indication is that Avram Grant will play him at righback. Great players can influence the game even from that unheralded position. United will either hope he does not do so or figure out a way to stop him.
5. Smart substitutions
United have a few more effective options off the bench than Chelsea do, in the sense that throwing on Carlos Tevez or Owen Hargreaves or even Park Ji Sung (assuming none of these guys start) can change United's formation and style. Chelsea's Plan B option largely involves bringing on a rightback and pushing Essien into midfield, sticking Nicolas Anelka up front alongside Drogba and opting for Route One or, possibly, hoping that Andriy Shevchenko, the forgotten man, regains his MoJo on the biggest stage of all.
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