The aftermath of the German defeat against Croatia was just as predicted. Everybody's talking about the game against Austria now. And what's extremely funny as well is that in Germany the whole population thinks of themselves as rather calm and rational people but when it comes to football they go completely nuts. Normally television stations and newspapers always have funny features about how football is percieved in other countries and then they make fun of how e.g. the English fell about their football or how religious the Italians are about their calcio. But, frankly speaking, it's no different around here. They public was overjoyed after the game against Poland and it was only a question of rather how many goals Germany would score against Croatia instead of whether they will be able to win or not. Now, after the 1-2 loss everything has gone to black again and everybody is depressed, frustrated and down.
Now although I consider myself to be a Germany supporter I find this situation rather funny. It is always a good thing to just hang back a little bit and contemplate what's going on around you with a clear mind. I feel that's something not a lot of people in this country are capable of doing.
Italy vs Romania 1-1 (Group C)
Ever since the World Cup semifinal at Dortmund in '06 it has become a favourite pasttime of German citizens to wish Italian football teams all the worst there ist in the world. Germans are especially picky when it comes to dirty tactics like dives and hidden fouls which they think are the things Italy uses to win. Still in this match one has to admit that there should have been some decisions in favour of the Italian side and that they should have won this.
It was a thriller right from the start. Both teams needed a win, they had to settle for a draw. In the first half Italy missed a handful of big chances, one of which scored but was denied because the referee saw an offside position of Luca Toni. After the break Romania suddenly scored first and then Italy responded within a minute. Then Romania get a rather strange penalty decision which is saved by Gianluigi Buffon in a ridiculous way. My personal man of the match was Fabio Grosso who in Germany will forever be publich enemy number one because of his late heroics (a.k.a. the winning goal against Germany in 2006). He was all over the place. He was bringing the balls into the Romanian penalty box and he was great at defending in his own half. There was one scene where a Romanian player had a clear chance for a goal when Grosso came flying in to block the shot. Great stuff.
This was not the hard defending Italy who were only looking for one goal and then they would pull all men back to their own box. No, this was all out football at its best. And with a team playing along as the Romanians did today such a match becomes great entertainment. It would be a pity, just as German TV colour analyst Mehmet Scholl said, to see an Italian side like this crash out of the competition after the group stage.
France vs The Netherlands 1-4 (Group C)
The Netherlands are tearing everything apart at the moment. I have to admit that I didn't see them as strong as they are performing right now. Usually Oranje has a record of falling apart during an international competition and they didn't look very convincing in the run up to the Euro. But what they have shown in their first two matches is simply astonishing. They took Italy apart with clinical precision and tonight they crushed France, a team who just doesn't seem to find their rhythm at the moment. Once The Netherlands get rolling there is no way stopping them and with those two games they are now the hottest bet to win the whole thing. Just think of it: they had Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie coming from the bench. Now know this is the Euro, but still those are resources not every team can rely on. Give credit to the French though, they never let go and tried to stay in the game. But it seems their golden generation (how many golden generations are there anyway?!) is heavily missed. There simply is no one to replace the great Zizou. Franck Ribéry might be a great player, but he's just not the magical playmaker Zidane was. Now it's a final against Italy and there we are again. Remember Berlin?
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