Euro 2008 Day 8: Defending champions out, Spain advances

After all the football craze it was nice to get a small break this morning while watching some NPB action. The Nippon Ham Fighters from Sapporo played the Yakult Swallows at home and it turned out to be a fascinating pitcher's duel. Sweeney (Fighters) was throwing a no-hitter until the 6th while Kawashima (Swallows) carried a perfect game into the 5th inning. This was an interleague match up just as the MLB resumed its interleague play yesterday. I was watching a little bit of Red Sox vs Reds and Yankees vs Astros as well. Red Sox starting rookie pitcher Justin Masterson was very sharp again, but his opponent was just a little better. Those series will continue tonight so if it turns out that some of the Euro games are boring I have the chance to change the channel.
Getting back to what happened last night The Netherlands are now clear front runners for taking home the cup after the final. Their performance was outstanding and was praised almost everywhere. Meanwhile in their quest for answers for the loss against Croatia German tabloid "Bild" dug up a potential transfer of striker Mario Gomez which they think is disrupting team harmony. The interesting thing is that this transfer is only reported by "Bild" and its affiliates. I never found anything about this anywhere else. Which might mean that this is a fluke. Still this might point to a very important matter: the role "Bild" is playing all around the national team. Before the 2006 World Cup reporters of said newspaper were banned from the team hotel, but this seems to have changed now. There have been countless stories about players and "Bild" journalists trying to benefit from one another. The player gives out some information, the journalist writes in favour of the player. Dirty business. I do hope this is not the case this time. Cologne based tabloid "Express" meanwhile senses tension between the coach and the captain. This doesn't look too promising.

Sweden vs Spain 1-2 (Group D)
Spain winning ugly is an unusual sight but with this win they are through to the next round which should give this young side some confidence for the things ahead. Fernando Torres scored early, but Sweden equalized after some poor Spanish defending with a goal by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Spain should have been rewarded a penalty shortly before the break, but the referee had a different opinion. When everything seemed to settle for a draw David Villa struck again. He is now on top of the goal scorers list with 4.
I wonder what impact the loss of Carlos Puyol will have on the defense which didn't look very stable in the first two games. Seems he had some problems with his footing.
Sweden was a big disappointment to me as they didn't really have an answer when Ibrahimovic was substituted after the break. They still have a big chance to go to the next round but this would put them most likely in a tie with The Netherlands and I am sure they won't survive this clash.
This was one of the more mediocre games, but it was still far better the then some of the group matches we've seen during the World Cup 2006.

Greece vs Russia 0-1 (Group D)
I presonally find it always very disappointing when two teams who have or are supposed to have a huge technical skill deliver such a horrible performance. This was average at best. Both Russia and Greece weren't very convincing. For Russia it was a step back from their match against Spain although this time they came through for the win. Greece meanwhile looked better than their stone age play with a three man defence against Sweden, but they just didn't create any chances. There was an article in German left wing newspaper "taz" today remarking that you need the right mixture of young and old players to win such a tournament and that the Greek team just failed to make a clear cut after their sensational victory in 2004. What made them strong back then today was their biggest weakness. The defense is just not there anymore. Players like Traianos Dellas and Georgios Nikopolidis overperformed at the last Euro and today they are just normal players. So the defending champions are out of the competition and this means we won't have a repeat again. No team was able to defend their title.

So after the second day of matchplay I have to say that the overall performance of the teams in the matches looks a lot better than what we have seen in the 2006 World Cup. It is not as static and boring but instead most of the teams were looking for a goal right from the start. Although the defense looked strong in most matches, there were plenty of offensive highlights. At this moment The Netherlands look like the hot ticket to win it all, but don't count out teams like Germany, Portugal or Spain. Even Italy and France still have a chance to come though to the next round. Huge disappointment for teams like Switzerland who invested a lot of years in this tournament and now have to leave empty handed.
I really hope I won't have to listen to this "Cordoba" stuff tomorrow that much. It's been everywhere, on the radio, on TV, in the newspapers. I'm sick of it.