Earning the (re) cap: A Dutch treat

Photo: Dutch players celebrate a goal against France. (Photo from Unprofessional Foul).

Highlights and lowlights from Day Seven of the European Championships...

Match XIII: Italy 1, Romania 1

Not a particularly inspiring performance from the Italians. I thought they'd bounce back harder after getting thumped by the Netherlands, but they didn't look fired up at all, even after the massive lineup changes manager Roberto Donadoni brought in at the start of the match. Full credit to Romania again: they played excellent defence, and could have taken all three points if Gianluigi Buffon hadn't made a brilliant save off of Adrian Mutu's penalty. Still, the tie was probably a fair result, as Italian striker Luca Toni had a goal called back due to an offside.

Romania is now in prime position to qualify from the Group of Death, a result few (including myself) envisioned at the start. If they win their final match against the Netherlands (who will probably be resting their stars), they're automatically through. If they draw or lose, they still have a good shot at advancing depending on what happens between France and Italy.

Related: Stephen Brunt's column on the match [The Globe and Mail].

Match XIV: The Netherlands 4, France 1

A very impressive showing from the Dutch. They continued their brilliant offensive play and handily clobbered the French in a game that was beautiful to watch. As John Doyle points out in his column [The Globe and Mail], this Dutch team has taken the old "Total Football" style where players fluidly shift between positions and adapted it for the skills of their own players, never an easy thing to do. Remember that "Total Football" isn't foolproof, though, and it's never won a World Cup or European Championship: the 1974 and 1978 Dutch teams that used it came up short in the final, and the only Dutch victory to date came in the 1988 European Championships, where they played great attacking football, but not really the "Total Football" style.

Take nothing away from the Netherlands, though. As Mike Cardillo writes over at That's On Point, their performance to date has been nothing short of spectacular.

"Brilliant Oranje? Clockwork Oranje? Total Voetbal? Say whatever hyperbole you want, the Dutch have just chumpatized the last two World Cup finalists by an aggregate 7-1. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better back-to-back performances in an international tournament group play in a long time."

Indeed, but it remains to be seen how those group play performances translate into the knockout stage.

Coming up next:

Match XV: Sweden vs. Spain (Kick-off: 12:00 ET)

This should be an interesting fight for control of Group D. Spain destroyed a good Russian side in their opener, while Sweden just edged out the underwhelming Greeks. Spain's attacking flourishes should be enough to see them triumph, but Sweden can hit the net too with the likes of Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front. Expect plenty of goals.

Prediction: Spain 3, Sweden 1

Match XVI: Greece vs. Russia (Kick-off: 2:45 ET)
And here we have the polar opposite, two defensive teams clashing. Both are coming off a loss, though, which might give them more motivation to go for the win than normal. I thought Greece would be better than they've shown so far, but they didn't give me anything to get excited about in their first match, so I'm taking the Russians here.

Prediction: Russia 1, Greece 0.

Related tournament pieces:
- Fox Soccer Channel analyst Bobby McMahon has the usual greatness on his blog.
- The usual quality stuff from the Globe cast [On Soccer].
- Duane's recap [Out of Left Field].

Earning the (re) cap: Spanish style

Photo: David Villa celebrates with fellow Spain striker Fernando Torres after notching one of his three goals Tuesday in a 4-1 win over Russia. (Photo by Paul White, The Associated Press, via Slam! Sports)

Breaking down Day Four of the European Championships...

Match VII: Spain 4, Russia 1

Well, the Spanish won in glorious style as usual, and their striking pair of David Villa (who recorded a hat trick) and Fernando Torres looks to be one of the best in the tournament. The Russians were a bit unlucky that the score wasn't closer, as they created several good chances and rang a few off the woodwork, but Spain certainly deserved the win. Don't read too much into this for the long-term, though: Spain has a long history of excellent play in the group stages and then sudden collapses in the elimination rounds. As Stephen Brunt writes, they've broken plenty of hearts before.

"We have all been there, tempted by a car or a watch or another, sucked in by the magnificent aesthetics, the subtle, poetic touches, the aspects so beautiful it almost hurts to look.
Then it breaks down on the side of the road or stops running on your wrist or runs off with a sleazy musician or a jock or your best friend, and a vital lesson is learned.
Spain has long been the great tease of international soccer. Player for player, nobody is better, nobody is more creative and nobody can find more beautiful ways to stroke a ball down the field and slash it into the goal. Their play has little curlicues to it that no one else can manage. When they're right, all that's left is to shout bravo.
When they're wrong, as happens eventually in every World Cup and every European championship other than the one in which they emerged victorious way back when, they break down, they stop running and, even if they don't actually hit the road, they leave their supporters feeling betrayed."

Very true. You couldn't have asked for a better start from the Spanish, but I want to see more from them before I firmly join the bandwagon. They do look like a solid bet to win Group D, but I'm not sure they can continue to play at this level.

Related:
- Brunt's column [The Globe and Mail]
- Cathal Kelly has a good take on the match in his column [The Toronto Star]
- More from Kelly on his blog [Star Sports Blog]

Match VIII: Sweden 2, Greece 0

As many had expected, Greece again came out with their team-first defensive style, but it failed to work this time around. Greece actually played pretty well, I thought: it was only a supremely crafty 25-yard strike from Zlatan Ibrahimovic (his first tally for his country in three years) that broke the game open, and Sweden then added another when the Greeks got caught trying to get back in the game. I wouldn't write them off entirely yet, though: they're still very capable of getting a result against Russia, and if any defence can stop Spain, it will be this one. The going has gotten a lot tougher for Greece, but it's not impossible yet.

Related:
- John Doyle has an excellent column on this match, brilliantly titled "Greek philosophy as tedious as ever."

What's on tap today:

Match IX: Portugal vs. the Czech Republic (Kickoff at 12:00 ET)

This should be an excellent clash of titans. It's the age-old battle of offence versus defence, individual stars against teams, Cristiano Ronaldo (and a strong supporting cast) against a cohesive unit. Yesterday, Spain showed that brilliant offence can beat strong defence: I'm expecting the same to happen here.

Prediction: Portugal 2, Czech Republic 0.

Match X: Switzerland vs. Turkey

This will be interesting as well: the two lesser powers of Group A going at it. There's some dark history between the two sides: the last time they met was three years ago in Istanbul to see who advanced to the 2006 World Cup at the end of a home-and-home series. The teams tied the series 4-4 on aggregate, but the Swiss advanced on away goals, and a brawl broke out [International Herald-Tribune] in the tunnel between opposing players and coaches. It's been a while since then, but those kinds of actions often aren't soon forgotten. I like the Swiss to win again here: they played well in their opening match against the Czechs, and they'll be eager to get a win in front of the home crowd.

Prediction: Switzerland 1, Turkey 0.

Update, 12:24 P.M. Some other tournament-related pieces:

- Duane's coverage of the Day Four matches [Out of Left Field].
- William Houston goes off at Craig Forrest and Dick Howard for not dumbing down their analysis enough for soccer neophytes [The Globe and Mail]
- Ben Knight has a good post about why Forrest and Howard are doing well, and why Houston's somewhat off base for asking the networks to cater to the lowest common denominator. [On Soccer: Globe-fight!] I especially agree on the Euro front: it's mostly a sophisticated soccer audience watching, and they'll probably prefer detailed analysis to catering to the neophytes. Knight also makes the good point that it's pretty easy for those who don't get a certain comment or term to look into it themselves, and that can even have an enticing effect.
- Duane points out that Houston's rating numbers have the preliminary round of the Euro tournament outdrawing the NBA finals substantially (284,000 average to 258,000) [Out of Left Field]. You can bet there will still be plenty of people (a certain Mr. McCown, perhaps?) referring to soccer as a fringe sport, though.
- My Journal colleague Amrit Ahluwalia weighs in on the matches thus far over at his new blog [There Is No Original Name For This Sports Blog].
- Another Journal colleague, Mike Woods, also believes Spain's play thus far is too good to last [The view from the Woods].

Earning the (re) cap: A big win for the Dutch

Photo: Dutch striker Robin van Persie comes on for Ruud Van Nistlerooy (photo from The Malta Times).



Breaking down Day 3 of the Euro 2008 championships...

Match V: France 0, Romania 0

I was expecting much better from this one. Instead of going for a win, both teams played not to lose and generated remarkably little in the way of offense. That's perhaps understandable from the Romanian side, as they were the underdogs, but it was disappointing to see from the French. There were some strong individual performances from the likes of Franck Ribery, Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Karin Benzema, but on the whole, it wasn't a good day for the Tricolour (yes, there are more teams with that nickname than just Queen's). Consider these quotes from Makelele on the Euro website:

"Claude Makelele conceded that France 'should have taken the three points' as he took the Carlsberg Man of the Match award following Monday's 0-0 draw with Romania in Zurich.
The 35-year-old defensive midfielder shone on a day notable for fine defending in the Group C opener at the Letzigrund Stadion, but he could not hide his disappointment after Raymond Domenech's side drew a blank. 'They are very compact and defensive,' he said of Romania. 'They defend together as a block and it is hard to find the space between their defenders. We worked all week long on this. It is a pity because we should have taken the three points but it is not over. We need to get the points against the Netherlands and Italy now. It will be very hard but we need to beat them and score goals against those two teams.'"

Indeed. France will have to improve dramatically if they want to get out of the group: the Netherlands squad is in fine form, and the Italians will be fired up after their loss today. Romania can never be ruled out as well, as the French now know.

Related:


Match VI: The Netherlands 3, Italy 0

This was a very impressive performance from the Dutch, who played attacking football all day long and generated tons of scoring chances. Yes, the first goal (when Ruud Van Nistlerooy snuck in behind the defence and fired home) was controversial due to a potential offside, but it appears the officials made the correct decision in the end due to the presence of an Italian player who pulled himself off the pitch behind the goal line with an injury. Austrian referees' commission chairman Gerhard Kapl backed the call, and Duane has the relevant FIFA rule posted, which seems to indicate that the refs got it right. In any case, it didn't particuarly matter: the Dutch were the superior side throughout the match, and they scored two more beautiful goals to seal the deal. They're looking very good to advance out of the Group of Death. The same can't be said for Italy, who didn't look anything like the side that triumphed at the last World Cup. Perhaps they miss Fabio Cannavaro more than everyone expected.

Related: Stephen Brunt's column on the match [The Globe and Mail].

Today's matches:

Match VII: Spain vs. Russia (Kick-off: 12:00 ET)

This should be a pretty good one. In Spain, you have the incredibly talented but perennially underachieving side. Russia's cast is less impressive individually, but they have technical wizard Guus Hiddink as a manager and they have a strong team cohesion. I think Spain will take this, but not without a fight.

Prediction: Spain 2, Russia 1

Related: John Doyle's column on why the Russians might be due for an upset [The Globe and Mail].


Match VIII: Sweden vs. Greece

Another good clash. Despite being defending champions, the Greeks have been almost written off. Sure, people are ready for them now, but they still have a great defence and a punishing counterattack. Sweden is also a good side and will give the Greeks a run for their money, but I'm sticking with the champs here.

Prediction: Sweden 0, Greece 1