Glory for Captain Casillas and the Spanish team as he lifts the Euro 2008 trophy Lol, my university had the Euro 2008 broadcasted at the dining hall so I need not go all the way to the mamak stall. Me and my pals also ordered some McDonalds delivery to go along with the match and we were pleasantly surprised when we get two free cups of green tea from our a la carte items.
Looking at the lineup of the two finalists, I have to say that's the best team they could ever possibly put out. Both had solo strikers at the end in the form of Klose and Torres respectively, with quality from the latter far outnumbering the previous. Deutschland started well with a few penetrating runs but afterthat, the attacks started fizzling out and the majority of the shots later came from Espana. German defences were at sea once again (how many times have i said that?..haha). Deutschland was fortunate to escape when Torres' header bounced out against the pole. Torres had been a constant pain for the Deutsche defence and he timed his runs really well. His pace and acceleration is excellent and it was coupled with his strength in fending off defenders. Torres' skills paid off in the 33rd minute when he outmuscled Lahm before lifting the ball off a charging Lehmann to put the Spanish 1-0 up. Lahm was taken off in the second half and replaced by Jansen probably because of his role in letting Torres through.
A couple of small controversies did come in the match but they were really insignificant given the way the Spanish were playing. Deutschland tried their best to get the equalising goal but as the minutes grew closer to the final whistle, they were running out of ideas. I would say there is no one in the substitute bench that is capable of turning the game around. Casillas was alert too for the whole match around and his confident punching away of the ball at one of the corners showed his sharpness. Perhaps the closest that Deutschland came to equalising was a Ballack shot. Other than that, they looked no where near getting a goal except at the starting of the match. Spain held out until the 90th minutes and then they were now the new champions of Euro 2008!
Jose Mourinho got his prediction right...haha and so does many of the media at the start of the tournament. Looking back at my predictions, I got 4 group stages guess correct, 1 quarter-finalist correct, 0 remainder semi-finalist correct and my finalists were correct but the champions wrong..haha.
Espana truly deserves to be the champions Euro 2008 for all the aesthetic and wonderful football that they play. Even the German press is full of praise for the Spanish team. As a Deutschland fan, I'm just glad that the Mannschaft is not slaughtered 0-3 or 0-4. For Michael Ballack, it's a tragic year for him as he lost 3 "finals" to his opponents and he had to settle for 3 "second-places". He bled and fought but it was not enough. Fate just didn't want him to be a winner. It' something like Alan Shearer, for all the respect and skill that he got, he won nothing at Newcastle except for the adoration of the fans. On the other hand, you have funny peeps like Silvestre getting Champions League medals and Richardson getting Premier League Champions medals. Sigh, looks like Deutschland really needs to scout for new blood as their squad members are ageing fast. For Lehmann, if he wanna remain in the national squad, he has to play regular goalkeeping games at his new club. It would certainly be interesting to see if Espana can retain their good form for the 2010 World Cup. The future certainly looks bright for them with so many outstanding young talents such as Sergio Ramos, Fabregas, David Silva and Iniesta.
No comments:
Post a Comment