Euro 2008 Day 10: Enough of "Cordoba" ... finally

I got a phone call from a friend from Canada on Sunday and I was rather surprised to hear that the Euro games are also shown in a country which usually is known for its ice hockey players. My friend told me they show all the games live and as a recording in the evening. Seems like the use a British feed, which is rather funny since England isn't playing in the competition. She told me that a colleague of hers who is of Chinese origin really likes the german team and that that colleague is especially fond of Michael Ballack. Strange things really do happan.
On the German supporters front things just get worse. Across my backyard several German flags are hanging out of the windows and right before the start of the game there were people chanting slogans on the balcony. I simply hate those guys in their stupid white shirts.

Austria vs Germany 0-1 (Group B)
Oh my, what a desaster. This isn't a team anymore. Although Germany won - as expected - there was absolutely no life in this team. Somehow every single player seems to have lost his talent after the first match. No movement, no inspiration, no ideas, no life.
The only one performing at his usual self was Philipp Lahm, but the rest of Germany was simply horrible. Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings were not present at all. Once they had the ball it was already gone. And both of them are considered to be leaders in the German midfield. The offense was not on the pitch. Mario Gomez, a brilliant striker and Germany's footballer of the year for the past season is completely out of it. Miro Klose is out of form since the beginning of the year, Lukas Podolski scored three goals in the previous two matches but wasn't effective at all. And you can't say anything about the defense because they weren't really tested by the Austrian strikers. There were scenes when the player with the ball had no options at all, the whole team was standing. STANDING! Absolutely no effort to run into positions in which you could recieve a pass. So what's the ball handling player supposed to do?! This was a huge step back and remended me every bit of what Germany was playing under the regime of Erick Ribbeck (1998-2000), an era mostly remembered for assistant coach Uli Stielike's horrible plaid jacket. Everything Germany so brilliantly did during the past two years seems to be gone. One wonders what will happen when Germany crash out of the tournament against Portugal in the quarterfinal. And that will surely happen with a performance like this. Will coach Jogi Löw resign? And if he does, who will succeed him? All the things, the revolution started by Jürgen Klinsmann in 2004, all those things will be gone for good and Germany will be back to their mediocre self. I have to say, I am a little bit afraid of the future...

Croatia vs Poland 1-0 (Group B)
Croatia put up a B team against Poland and although they changed nine players compared to the match against Germany they still seem to have dominated the game. This will be a tough task for Turkey in the quarterfinal but if you have seen the games against the Czech Republic and Switzerland you know that anyhing can happen when that crazy team is on the pitch.