| 14.06.2008 |
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| Ahhh...England's green and bitter land. The equation back in my homeland currently looks like this: "Euro 2008 - England + crappy weather = not bovvered". I might as well be in the United States for all the interest the European Championships are generating. I bet some guy on a farm in Idaho is more excited about Euro 2008 than the English right now. The first indication that things are far from okay here in my homeland is the dearth of proper media coverage, especially in the newspapers. I picked up a copy of the Times at Schipol Airport before flying off the continent, hoping to get my fill of insightful soccer comment. What I got was a page about Scolari's plans for Chelsea and a cursory report of the Germany - Croatia game. Binning the sad excuse for a paper after digesting this minimal reportage, I plumped for the tabloids. Soccer as the game of the people would at least be covered in more detail by the red tops, or so I thought. While the majority savored Germany's defeat to Croatia with headlines like "See? Not So Easy Are They?" and "SOUR-KRAUTS", few of the pages behind the back spreads provided much in the way of analysis. On arrival, the indifference became even more clear. No-one in arrivals was talking about the tournament; there were very few signs outside the bars advertising televised games and when I asked for the score of the Holland-France match, not one person I approached knew or even seemed to care. One even asked me if I was sure if they were in the same group. Today, while searching my home city for signs of soccer life, I was amazed to find the population in a state of lethargy. Sheltering between showers, I found no evidence that the rest of Europe was embroiled in an increasingly dramatic and quality soccer competition. Finally, after searching for a venue to watch the Spain-Sweden game and failing miserably, I headed back to my ersatz home for the weekend. After missing the entire game through the public transport system's indifference to my urgency, I finally made it back in time to catch Russia vs. Greece. At least, I thought, the TV at my accomodation would provide me with the injection of Euro 2008 I had been missing since leaving the continent the previous evening. True - there was the game, in glorious technicolor. But whereas in previous years the commentators would be delivering their tired attempts at witicism with the excitement of being involved in such a showpiece, the pundits sounded more like they were reading a eulogy at a wake. In some ways, they were. Greece lost to Russia, ending their defense of the European title in the process. The champions had been dethroned. Forgetting that their own team had not even made it to Austria and Switzerland and that their own players were feeling up their bikini-clad wives on beaches in Dubai rather than gracing the fields of play at the continent's premier tournament, the so-called experts set about ripping Greece apart. They were glad they were going home and that the Greeks would soon be taking their anti-football with them. Euro 2008 would be better without them. How these apparently well-paid and allegedly knowledgable men could sit there and comment in such a way when the majority of the country was obviously in grief is beyond me. The nation would have given everything to see England in Greece's position. If the 'experts' had looked around them, as I had for most of the day, they would have realized that England were not there - and that the reason they weren't there was because they had failed. Maybe then they would have offered those who had qualified - only to be knocked out early - a little more respect.  |
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| 14.06.2008 |
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| Phew, just got back from some unexpected work at the radio station, and was set a little back from sitting down to write what I wanted to earlier. Holland is punishing people, and there’s a good reason why. They are playing like a team. No I’m not talking some unselfishness blather, or even about a sea change from their well-publicized past problems with team togetherness (black vs. white, Ajax vs. PSV vs. Feyenoord kids, etc.), I mean their team is functioning on the pitch like a real team. Like a club team.  It’s an old saw that international tournaments are often showcases for individual talents more so than teams because national sides just plain don’t spend enough time together to develop that sixth-sense spatial awareness of each other’s presence on the pitch. Now, when presented with a side that’s showing us the alternative we see it’s true. Holland is the only team who’s been able to make fast, sophisticated plays with their heads down. They play balls into space rather than at men, as good teams do, and do it without checking first who’s going to be there because they already know who’s going to be there. The simple discipline shown by the Dutch thus far of knowing their running lanes on the break, keeping to them, and hitting those spots with precision has already torn two teams full of talent asunder, and will likely do the same to several more, should it continue. A handy point of comparison is Spain, whom I’ve just watched dither their way to a win over a very game Sweden. I couldn’t help cheering for the Spaniards when David Villa put in his late, late winner, but had also spent the last half hour cursing them as they probed and probed and probed -- pointlessly.  Never willing to touch the ball once when two, three, or even four times would do, the most expensive team in the tournament by some reckonings were pathetically static in attack, nearly lounging around the area while in possession, waiting for a tiny opening to appear. As they learned a minute from time, sometimes the best way to open a heavy, bearded, oaken door is to run at it before it can close up tight. For their sake, and that of the frustrated fan, I hope they learned that lesson well. |
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