Euro2008: The SemiFinals
June 23, 2008 by SML
Okay, we’ll start the day off with a quick update on the Euro2008 soccer tournament, as it reaches its final four. Later on I’ll have a look at draft combine results of some of the NBA draft’s biggest names.
The quarterfinals went according to script; none of the previously undefeated group winners won their games. Two of them lost outright; two ended in draws, and only one advanced to the semi-finals via penalty kick shootout. If you bet on any of the four first round group winners (Portugal, Croatia, The Netherlands, Spain), previously 12-0 in the tournament to win, you lost all four times. The gambling syndicates must have made a killing.
Let’s quickly review the exciting action of the past week before previewing the final three games:
Portugal 2 – Germany 3. The taller and larger Germany team used it’s size advantage over Portugal to win this mild upset. Portugal were emerging as the favorites to win the title (behind Player of the Year favorite Christiano Ronaldo), but Germany struck first behind a beautiful goal by Schweinsteiger. Actually, the lead pass was beautiful – check the 20 second mark of this video to see the goal.
In the second half, after Portugal cut the lead to 2-1, Germany put the game away with a nice header goal during a free kick from their captain Michael Ballack, who got away with a bit of a push in the back on the Porto defender. The Portugese needed a bit of help from the referees if they were going to beat the larger, taller, more physical German squad, or a big game from Ronaldo. They did not get either.
Croatia 1 – Turkey 1. After already giving the Euro2008 tournament the most memorable game of the first round, Turkey on Friday gave us another one for the ages. Regardless of who actually wins, this tournament will be remember most for Turkey’s incredible comebacks.
After playing to 0-0 draw for over 119 minutes (soccer rules: 90 minutes of play; if tied, one 15 minute OT, followed by a second 15 minute OT), the ancient Turkish goalkeeper Ruster Recber (a sub, since the GK for the Turks in the first round, Volkan Demirel, was suspended from two games due to a late red card at the end of the last quarterfinal game) made a mistake, and that should have been the end of Turkey’s run. But Recber made up for it with a beautiful free kick in stoppage time (the 122th minute), which set up an amazing goal from Semih Senturk, tying the game. No goals in 119 minutes, followed by two goals in two and half minutes?
The shootout went Turkey’s way, as Croatia missed penalty shot after shot.
The Croatian team dominated the action through most of the game, with a very strong passing attack, but they lacked the finisher, the striker, to actually put the ball into the goal. If ever Brazilian-born Croatian striker Eduardo Da Silva was needed, it was this game. Unfortunately he was out recovering from a brutal broken leg suffered during a match for the Arsenal.
The Turkish team advances yet again, despite more than a few injuries of their own, and despite Volkan’s suspension. Recber gets one more game in goal, in the semis against the German team. I’ll be rooting for the Turkish team to pull off one more miracle against the big bullies.
Holland 1 – Russia 3: I would cite this game, Tim Donaghy-style, as the prime example of how international soccer must fixed, but the refereeing in the game seemed fine. Besides, the Dutch always choke in the quarterfinals, don’t they (actually not true: they have lost in the semi-finals the past two Euros, and three of the previous four overall)?
Russia had no business winning this game, against a Netherlands team that destroyed the World Cup winner and runnerup teams, Italy and France, in the first round.
Spain 0 – Italy 0: The Italians did what they do best – played tough defense, and held the Spaniards to no goals. The Spaniard team, arguably the deepest in the tournament – their bench looks like an All-Star team – won on penalty kicks, though. In doing so, they upped their undefeated streak in international competitions to 20 games in a row, with the weak Russia team the only thing in the way of an appearance in the Euro2008 Finals.
I’m gonna go ahead and pencil Spain into the Finals.
Germany-Turkey (a must-see) is Wednesday the 25th, at 2:45 EST. Spain-Russia is the next day, also at 2:45 EST. The final game is scheduled for Sunday the 29th at 2:45 EST.
Russia had every right to win that game, SML. Hiddink didn’t play defensive against the Dutch; he knows their tendencies, being a native of the Netherlands himself and the Dutch MNT’s former coach. He had his squad come out and attack, attack, attack with guys like Roman Pavlyuchenko and Andrei Arshavin. That team is completely different with Arshavin in a midfield spot. The Dutch came out weak and were not able to turn it on after most of its starters sat for the final group game against Romania.
I don’t think the Russians will beat the Spanish — but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do. Guus Hiddink is the Larry Brown of soccer: he moves all over the place and produces teams to rise beyond stations. He last did it with Australia in the 2006 World Cup.
If you want proof of what poor refereeing can do to a soccer match, please see Spain and Italy. The Italians were diving so much they should have been part of the Olympic trials on NBC. They dove and stayed down, exaggerating particularly when Spain had numbers and breakaway chances, because soccer has the unwritten rule of kicking the ball out if someone is hurt.
There were three penalty area fouls that the Italians committed that the ref ate his whistle on, only to call those same fouls outside the box when the Spaniards committed them. The worst part is that after all the acting, Spain’s David Villa was the one who got a yellow for diving.
Thankfully, their strategy of getting to PKs did not pay off this time.
S2N: In terms of the game played, yes, Russia deserved to win. They were surprisingly aggressive, attacking and going for broke. They certainly were much better than the Netherlands.
I meant that Russia had no business betting a much better Netherlands team. The Dutch simply let Russia take control of the tempo of the game, and couldn’t do anything to stop them. I doubt Spain will make the same mistake.
The Dutch always find a way to get beaten in these tournaments.
As for Spain-Italy… I think Spain got caught up in playing Italy’s game, which is to play choking defense and to flop, with the goal of getting a call, or at least slowing down the game (a secondary advantage of flopping, one which helps the defense). You explain this quite clearly in your comment.
For those who aren’t as familiar with soccer: Italy’s reputation for flopping is well known in the world. They are like the Spurs in a lot of ways. Except I think that Italy does deserve their reputation, whereas the Spurs reputation is a bit exaggerated.
Spain got caught up in playing that game, and I think it frustrated them a bit. The Italians got what they wanted – a PK shootout. They still lost, though. Spain maintained their composure (something Croatia couldn’t do against Turkey in their shootout), and hit their PKs. More importantly, Spain’s goalkeeper, the underrated Iker Casillas, was great (two blocks). Casillas has been a huge factor in the Spaniard team’s run during this tournament, and in the run-up to this tournament. Now Spain is solidly posed to take the #3 overall in the world ranking….
SML – Ah, OK. That makes more sense. Sorry for the misinterpretation. In their first three matches, the Dutch didn’t face anyone who took the ball right to them.
France doesn’t have a good enough coach to do it (Domenech will not be coaching them much longer, or shouldn’t be), Italy plays its defensive-flop style (second only to the current Greek style for mind-numbing defense-only boredom), and Romania does not have the personnel to play that kind of style. Consequently, they were never put on the defensive in a major way and were able to open leads in the first two games, which sealed up their group win.
The same thing happened to the Portuguese. The Swiss were no threat (Portugal had already won the group), the Czechs are a different team without Tomas Rosicky, and the Turks hadn’t built up that head of steam when they played the first game. Germany was the first opponent they had that actually exploited weaknesses.
Spain survived its first real test with Italy, although you could say they got a preview of what they were going to see with the Azzurri’s defensive style when they had to come back against the Greeks with their subs in the last group game. The Spanish are better defensively than the Dutch, but Puyol, Sergio Ramos, and their back four are prone to dumb mistakes at times that Casillas can bail them out of.
S2N: I absolutely agree with your take. I would say that Portugal’s defeat was a bit more about the German size advantage than style; German’s offensive attack, while a bit aggressive, is nothing that Portugal hadn’t seen already. It was the sheer size and strength that allowed the German attackers to keep the ball high, above the shorter Portuguese team. That especially paid off on the free kicks, though you could see it even on regular plays, where the Porto defenders had a rough time clearing the ball.
Great point about Spain, and Greece. Looking forward, I think Spain might be in danger if Russia can attack (like they did against the Dutch), because the Spaniard defenders have been a bit sloppy. But I think Casillas will bail them out, and the Spaniard offense should be able to control the ball, keeping the Russians from attacking too much. But we will see.
Great comments.
I really liked the Netherlands-Russia game–it was fun watching Arshavin make himself millions more from just one game, ha. I played soccer in high school, but haven’t followed it much since, except for the World Cup.