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Well done to Spain, I called the Germans completely wrong – they were dreadful.
It does show how weak other nations are however if Germany were made favourites to win the tournament on the back of getting a favourable draw – and then going on to almost justify favouritism.
With hindsight, I was probably trying to big them up too much to bolster my own confidence, but the reality is Germany weren’t great. They did what they had to against Poland, lost to Croatia, scraped a win against Austria, played well against Portugal but hung on in the end and then played awful against Turkey and Spain – yet they are adjudged to have been the second best team in the tournament. It doesn’t say much for the other nations does it?
France – absolutely awful
Italy – completely negative and looked undeserving of the World Champions tag
Portugal – looked good at times but lacked a cutting edge
Holland – looked good at times but couldn’t defend
Russia – looked more exciting as the tournament went on but where lacklustre against Spain
Turkey – breath of fresh air, tried their little hearts out, hope they go on from here
Croatia – similar to Turkey, won their group with ease – with Eduardo back, who knowsSo all in all Spain were by far the best team in the tournament, Croatia and Turkey performed above expectations imo, Portugal, Russia and Holland’s came out with at least some credit, but the rest were awful….. and England weren’t even good enough to be there
As for the tournament itself, it had a slow start until Spain burst onto the scene ironically. Their 4-1 victory over Russia was a pleasure to watch. Holland were good to watch in their initial group games and Turkey provided some great comebacks against Switzerland and Czech Republic. But other than that I can’t remember any other good group games.
In the knock-out stages Germany v Portugal was arguably the game of the tournament, while Russia’s win over Holland was also a great game to watch. Turkey v Croatia had a great climax but Italy v Spain was instantly forgetable (I’m just glad Italy didn’t win on penalties).
Germany v Turkey and Spain v Russia in the semi-finals were both great games with goals, but the final itself was a bit of an anti-climax with Germany playing so poorly and Spain wasting a lot of chances. Again though, I’m so glad that the best team won.
Not really sure about ‘Goal of the Tournament’ as I was too drunk to remember most of them
. Ballack’s against Austria springs to mind, as does Germans first against Portugal in terms of being a great team goal. I’m probably missing something very obvious however.From a financial point of view I’m gutted Podolski couldn’t add to his three group goals but I’m chuffed for the guys on here who backed Villa to be the top goalscorer – well done to all on a great selection.
As for ‘Player of the Tournament’ it’s another hard one to call as nobody in my mind stood out way above the rest. Arshavin playhed well for Russia but on reflection it was only in two or three games (he missed the first game then went AWOL against Spain). Ballack was the best German player by far but again had a few games where he wasn’t great. The names escape me but some of the Turkish players performed way above expectation and deserve credit. From Spain, Casillas was great and could well be the player of the tournament. Fabregas was also great when he played, especially in the semi-final, while Villa and Torres were always a handful up front.
Sorry for the long post guys. Please add your thoughts.
Mike
Other than remembering some periodically scintillating play from the more football-minded teams, my abiding thought on this tournament will be that by the time 2010 rumbles around, England’s losing streak in major football competitions will have increased to 44 years, the same as Spain’s was before last night (during which time they had at least made the final of the Europeans Championships once more)
Time to pass over the mantle of "perennial underachievers" that the home media has been so desperately fond of over-using with regard to Spain these last few weeks?
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Mike
I thought it was a really good Cup and enjoyed nearly all the games I watched – the exception being France/Roumania.
The performances of the Cup were for me Holland’s defeat of Italy – some brilliant goals, and Spain’s defeat of Russia. Some of the other games had more excitement – take a bow Turkey in this regard – but I thought those two performances were the best. Free-flowing football, with the ball mainly on the deck – that’s the way England have to go to be competitive.
Many individual performances that merited attention, not least Villa’s goals and the excellence of the Spanish, Dutch and Italian keepers. But for me the best single moment of the whole Cup was Torres’s composed finish last night, and the best overall performance in a single game Fabregas’s in the semi-final – and I am not a Liverpool or Arsenal fan.
Also good was the mainly high standard of player conduct, coupled with referees’ performance. In the former area the Germans disappointed most, as I thought there were several very cynical fouls that went largely unpunished last night, and Ballack, though a great player, was one of the culprits. As regards referees, there seemed to be less prima donas than in the Premiership with, generally speaking, a willingness to let games flow and be remembered for the quality of the football and the players, not the referees.
For the future, the Spanish side can only get better – assuming they make a good managerial appointment – and should give Brazil and Argentina a run for their money in the World Cup. Portugal and Holland should also improve, but like Spain will have new managers which may or may not help. By contrast, Italy, Germany and France join England in needing to think about how to move forward. Hard to see any of those four making much impact in 2010 on present evidence, though it looked to me as if France’s problem was their lunatic manager and with a change there the spirit among the team and the performance on the pitch could, I think, improve to a very much greater extent than seems likely with Italy, Germany and England.
Really enjoyed the tournament although I missed some of the matches.
Russia against Holland was the highlight for me. To see underdogs perform like that and outplay the Dutch was brilliant. Reminded me of when France beat the All-Blacks in 1999 in the Rugby World Cup. Just free-flowing attacking football – beautiful to watch. There also seemed to be very little cynicism or diving compared to what was expected.
Italy were a real lowpoint with 3 of their 4 games being dour affairs. Amazing to see a dearth of strikers in Italy. Where are the Paolo Rossi’s, Toto Schillaci’s, & Alessandro Del Piero’s of the future?
On a worrying note, I believe that there is some momentum growing to try to expand the next EUROs to 24 teams. I sincerely hope that this doesn’t happen as it will merely dilute the quality on show, particularly in the Group stages.
On a worrying note, I believe that there is some momentum growing to try to expand the next EUROs to 24 teams. I sincerely hope that this doesn’t happen as it will merely dilute the quality on show, particularly in the Group stages.
Completely agree with that David. Not only will it make the group stages at the actual tournament a lot weaker, it wil mean that actual qualifying will be a lot easier (no doubt the English FA love the idea
)From the top of my head I think there were about 60 nations spread across the qualify groups for Euro 08. It’s not too strong a statement to say that about 30 of those nations had no chance of qualifying. So effectively, if the 24 team tournament gets the go ahead we are going to have a two season long qualifying campaign to knock about six of the best European nations out.
Then when you get to the actual tournament there will no ‘Group of Death’ containting the likes of Spain, Italy, German and Romania etc because they will all be seeded to avoid each other.
And what about getting to the knock-out stages? 24 teams means six groups of four – will they then say the top team in each group qualifies plus the two best runner-up spots (8 teams)? Will they hell! They will make it so that the top two in each group qualify plus the four best third placed teams from the six groups (16 teams), meaning four groups will see only one team eliminated.
It’s mad, I tell ya, it’s mad
Mike
On a worrying note, I believe that there is some momentum growing to try to expand the next EUROs to 24 teams. I sincerely hope that this doesn’t happen as it will merely dilute the quality on show, particularly in the Group stages.
i know what your saying but it could be good for Ireland, Scotland etc….it’s not as if we get to go to many Finals!!!
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