Thursday, June 17, 2004
Euro 2004 et al...
Well, the boredom and frustrations of the past few weeks have taken a brief time-off with the beginning of Euro 2004 - the biggest tournament in football (soccer for some) after the World Cup. This time around, it has been a very interesting affair till now. There have been some really great matches and some surprising outcomes. The defeat of Portugal at the hands of Greece was one such. The spirited fight put up by the minnows Latvia in their opening game against Czech Republic is admirable to say the least.
The classic sports rivalry between four of the greatest nations in football has provided for two very exciting matches already. The France-England match was really something that HAD to be watched Live. There are some who say that there should have been more goals in such a game, but just seeing the way these two teams played was worth it, never mind the goals. "The Midfield Magician", Zidane showed his class once again with the two goals, albiet off deadballs. Though Michael Owen was not what he usually is, the English side did show excellent spirit and well, in the end, I guess all the spectators got what they expected out of the game - high quality football.
The Germany-Holland match was also a great one, with both teams coming into the match in not so good form. The much-panned German defence showed that they are not so weak a wall to be breached as easily as was assumed. This can be seen by the fact that Oliver Kahn wasn't much bothered during the play - he only had to make about a couple of serious saves and he let another one pass through him. The Dutch team also showed good playing skills and they did get some real good chances, of which they could convert only one. Van Nistelrooy put in one really exquisite goal while in mid-air and not facing the goal completely. A quick piece of trivia picked up during the match: Whenever these two teams faced each other in a big competitive series, the winner of the match went on to win the championship. Though this trend is too difficult to live up to now, I guess all we can say is, "one never knows..."
The other matches - Czech Republic-Latvia, Italy-Denmark, Sweden-Bulgaria, Portugal-Greece all had their great moments but the two matches above really take the cake in terms of the kind of game the teams played.
I know that these reviews wouldn't matter much to anyone. Those who don't follow football wouldn't care and those who do wouldn't find anything new nor special about any of my rantings here. Just my views... The games did take my mind off the worries I have been saddled with nowadays. So, worth posting here...
The classic sports rivalry between four of the greatest nations in football has provided for two very exciting matches already. The France-England match was really something that HAD to be watched Live. There are some who say that there should have been more goals in such a game, but just seeing the way these two teams played was worth it, never mind the goals. "The Midfield Magician", Zidane showed his class once again with the two goals, albiet off deadballs. Though Michael Owen was not what he usually is, the English side did show excellent spirit and well, in the end, I guess all the spectators got what they expected out of the game - high quality football.
The Germany-Holland match was also a great one, with both teams coming into the match in not so good form. The much-panned German defence showed that they are not so weak a wall to be breached as easily as was assumed. This can be seen by the fact that Oliver Kahn wasn't much bothered during the play - he only had to make about a couple of serious saves and he let another one pass through him. The Dutch team also showed good playing skills and they did get some real good chances, of which they could convert only one. Van Nistelrooy put in one really exquisite goal while in mid-air and not facing the goal completely. A quick piece of trivia picked up during the match: Whenever these two teams faced each other in a big competitive series, the winner of the match went on to win the championship. Though this trend is too difficult to live up to now, I guess all we can say is, "one never knows..."
The other matches - Czech Republic-Latvia, Italy-Denmark, Sweden-Bulgaria, Portugal-Greece all had their great moments but the two matches above really take the cake in terms of the kind of game the teams played.
I know that these reviews wouldn't matter much to anyone. Those who don't follow football wouldn't care and those who do wouldn't find anything new nor special about any of my rantings here. Just my views... The games did take my mind off the worries I have been saddled with nowadays. So, worth posting here...
