Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Hellas, Hellas, Hellas...
Greece, Greece, Greece…
No one would have believed that the first and the last matches of the just concluded edition of Euro Championships would feature the same teams. Portugal was still struggling to find form and the Greeks were not even considered the underdogs of the tournament: they were always considered the outsiders. The first match was considered one of the shock upsets that keep occurring from time to time in every sport. But the Greeks showed immense spirit as they scripted a true football fairy tale!
The Portuguese also showed some true grit in bouncing back from a rather unflattering start to what finally turned out to be a glorious campaign. It is indeed no small feat they achieved when they ousted three of the better teams in the tournament one after another – Spain, England and Netherlands. It is sad to see the last of the so-called “Golden Generation” of Portuguese football – Luis Figo, Rui Costa, and Fernando Couta – go out in defeat; they deserved to win what is their last campaign before they handed the baton to the younger crop. But all in all, it must be said that they did give us some excellent football during the past three weeks.
The Greeks stood no chance of making it past the league stages – or so thought everyone at the start, as I said already; no wonder since the Greeks never even had a single victory in a major tournament before now! They didn’t have any big names to boast of, unlike, say, France or England, or any of the other teams in the Final Eight! Coach Otto Rehhagel did a really fine job with this team and they did play well some times. But I think the main reason they won the championship is because they could convert the few chances they got. Look at the final match itself. The Portuguese almost never gave up their attacking game, always forcing the Greeks to fall back. Yet, the Greeks converted the one real opportunity they had and they managed to hold on to that lead. They never let off, they were unfazed by the big names and they stuck to their game plan. And, one more thing that favored them I think was the fact that they did not depend on any one man – “The” Man – to get their victories, there were no heroes among them, and they all became heroes together!
I guess that’s the lesson we should take out of this extremely enjoyable series – most of which I missed because of stupid games played by the cable networks, but let’s not get into that now. Back to the lesson – I think it is that when in a team, one should realize that everyone is as important as anyone else. That alone would lead to true teamwork. One might succeed on one day and another might on another day.
PS: Sorry if I seemed too serious today… just wanted to put this down online…
Signing off with a toast: To Teamwork and the Underdog!!!
No one would have believed that the first and the last matches of the just concluded edition of Euro Championships would feature the same teams. Portugal was still struggling to find form and the Greeks were not even considered the underdogs of the tournament: they were always considered the outsiders. The first match was considered one of the shock upsets that keep occurring from time to time in every sport. But the Greeks showed immense spirit as they scripted a true football fairy tale!
The Portuguese also showed some true grit in bouncing back from a rather unflattering start to what finally turned out to be a glorious campaign. It is indeed no small feat they achieved when they ousted three of the better teams in the tournament one after another – Spain, England and Netherlands. It is sad to see the last of the so-called “Golden Generation” of Portuguese football – Luis Figo, Rui Costa, and Fernando Couta – go out in defeat; they deserved to win what is their last campaign before they handed the baton to the younger crop. But all in all, it must be said that they did give us some excellent football during the past three weeks.
The Greeks stood no chance of making it past the league stages – or so thought everyone at the start, as I said already; no wonder since the Greeks never even had a single victory in a major tournament before now! They didn’t have any big names to boast of, unlike, say, France or England, or any of the other teams in the Final Eight! Coach Otto Rehhagel did a really fine job with this team and they did play well some times. But I think the main reason they won the championship is because they could convert the few chances they got. Look at the final match itself. The Portuguese almost never gave up their attacking game, always forcing the Greeks to fall back. Yet, the Greeks converted the one real opportunity they had and they managed to hold on to that lead. They never let off, they were unfazed by the big names and they stuck to their game plan. And, one more thing that favored them I think was the fact that they did not depend on any one man – “The” Man – to get their victories, there were no heroes among them, and they all became heroes together!
I guess that’s the lesson we should take out of this extremely enjoyable series – most of which I missed because of stupid games played by the cable networks, but let’s not get into that now. Back to the lesson – I think it is that when in a team, one should realize that everyone is as important as anyone else. That alone would lead to true teamwork. One might succeed on one day and another might on another day.
PS: Sorry if I seemed too serious today… just wanted to put this down online…
Signing off with a toast: To Teamwork and the Underdog!!!
