Top 14 Rugby Final: ASM Clermont Auvergne vs Stade Toulousain

One of the greatest rivalries in French sports might well be the one between ASM Clermont Auvergne and Stade Toulousian. Clermont-Ferrand, a small town in the Auvergne region has never won one national championship in the club history and to make matters worse they have lost a lot of finals against their arch rivals from Toulouse. They have reached the finals eight times and I was lucky enough to be in Clermont in 2001 when they played their semifinal match. At that time my sister was studying in the town and me and my mother were visiting her. While we were walking through in inner city in the evening after dinner we were wondering why all the streets were deserted. My sister explained then, that everybody was watching the semifinal. When the match ended the whole town erupted into one huge party and people were running around in yellow and blue, the club's colours.
Now, while they haven't won a national championship ASM Clermont Auvergne have made a name for themselves in European club competition, winning the European Challenge Cup twice (1999, 2007). Stade Toulousain meanwhile represent the top class of French rugby. Along with Stade Français they dominated the French Top 14 League.
So tonight's final saw Clermont and Toulouse face each other once again and with the ongoing professionalism in rugby that match featured a lot of top class players. Clermont had French international winger Aurelian Rougerie, Napolioni Vonowale Nalaga from Fiji or World Cup John Smit from South Africa, although the latter sat on the bench at the start of the game. Toulouse featured Cédric Heymans, Yannick Jauzion, Jean-Baptiste Élissalde from the French national squad, Tongan No.8 Finau Maka or All Black Byron Kelleher. All that class put on some brilliant passing performances on the pitch as well as some tight defending. The first half ended in a draw (10-10) and after the restart both teams had huge chances, but it was Toulouse who broke open the tie with a penalty and a try after almost one hour (10-20). Clermont desperately tried to claw their way back into the game and after a penalty they were in stricking distance once again (13-20), but some poor defending led to yet another Toulouse penalty (10-23) and this buried Clermont's dreams of the title once and for all again. Their quest will continue and so will Toulouse remain their nemesis for another year. The final score was 20-26 after another penalty converted by Toulouse in the final minute and a try by Clermont with the final whistle. It was those two penalties that cost them.

It has to be noted that All Black Daniel Carter, who probably is the world's best fly-half at the moment, will transfer to France for the next season where he will play for USA Perpignan. This alone will make the club a contender for the title.

Deny Everything @ Bauwagenplatz, Cologne

It has been quite some time since I have been to two shows in one week and it has been even longer since I have seen two very good shows in just a few days. First there was the wonderful evening with our Greek friends from Düsseldorf at the "Sonic Ballroom" and then on Friday Troisdorf's best dancers Deny Everything were celebrating the release of their new 7" EP "Speaking Treason" (YoYo Rec.) with a concert at the "Bauwagenplatz".
It's always quite a gamble with shows at this location, you just never know what will happen. I'v seen some very boring stuff there, I've seen shows which were stopped because somebody felt discriminated, I've seen legendary performances by bands like Yage or Hanns Martin Slayer. And Deny Everything's performance will live on with the better ones'. The evening was perfect to hang around at the area which is covered by the "Bauwagenplatz" with all its caravans. The Sunshine Bar Building seems to have been renovated since the bar area now is a lot bigger (which led to the service being much quicker than before, at least that's how it felt for me). First up was some band whose name escapes me, but they didn't sound that good anyway. Typical punkrock with German lyrics, nothing special really. Just ordinary and so not worth mentioning at all.
The complete opposite can be said of Deny Everything. Although one can argue that it might be a little retarded to name a band after a song by the Circle Jerks, but they just know how to create a wonderful atmosphere for a hardcore show. This was what it is supposed to be. People were having fun without kicking each other's heads in. There was a mosh pit, there was a circle pit, but everybody was looking out for each other. Truly positive atmosphere there. The audience was having fun, the band was having a lot of fun, the music was brilliant and when it all ended shortly before midnight everybody left with a smile on their faces, something I hadn't experienced in a long time. In fact the last time I witnessed a positive hardcore show like this one was alomost 14 years ago when Black Train Jack played at the "BüZe" in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. Which reminds me that I should write something about the fabulous Black Train Jack records some time soon.
But coming back to Deny Everything, this is really proof for hardcore coming back to Cologne. With bands like them, Cobretti (who will release their album soon), Kingdom and so on, with concert groups like Hit & Run, there is a lively scene that slowly brings back what was going on around here 15 years ago. What's even more fun is to recognize that this "scene" is highly entertaining on the one hand but also aware of politics and actions. So it's not like the divisions which took place during the late 90s anymore and that's very nice to see.

Euro 2008 Day 18 (Seminfinal 2): Royal performance by Spain

The most important thing about last night's game is that it seems that everything stayed quiet all through the night. Although there some scuffles here and there it looks like the Turkish and the German fans celebrated together. In Cologne a group of stupid hoolings wanted to start a riot at some bar in the inner city but that was surpressed by the police quickly and so everything stayed calm. After all the rave and hype that preceeded the match it is relieving to see that nothing happened. Turkey was the better team after all and Germany did what they are known for: never give up. This is what most of the European newspapers lined out that germany are the team to beat. Although I hate to look back at times when a German team played horribly but still won this team looks a little different. At least they have to potential to put up something outrageous. When coach Jogi Löw points out that the team who will take the field on Sunday will definetely look different everybody will believe him. The problem is that no one knows what the team will look like. Will the put up a stellar performance as they did against Portugal. Or will they play like in the match against Croatia. No one knows and so it is anybody's guess how they will perform in the final on Sunday.

Russia vs Spain 0-3 (Semifinal 2)
Brilliant stuff by Spain. With tonight's performance they simply outclassed Russia. The first half didn't look like it was able to hold up to the promised fanfare everybody was waiting for. This might have been due to the weather with the heavy rain pouring down on the players and somehow Russia looked a little more convincing than Spain then. But after the break the tables had turned and when Xavi broke it open with his goal the floodgates were open for good. Spain was playing like a true champion and I always find it amazing how this young team can dominate an opponent. Everybody was expecting Russia to look way different from what they had shown in the group match, but it turned out to be a copy of what we had seen a few weeks ago. Russia tried to hold up with what Spain was playing and in the end they failed to deliver. Even when top scorer David Villa had to leave the pitch with and injury they were still combining in midfield and looking for a way to put the ball to their lone striker Fernando Torres.
This will be a tough task for Germany on Sunday. Spain looked hungry, Germany looked tired and worn out. If they pull themselves together Germany might come through but I have my doubts about the German defense trying to stop the Spanish short-pass game in front of the penalty box.

Euro 2008 Day 17(Semifinal 1): Blackouts, Comebacks and the effect of the "22 men play football and Germany always win" rule

This game is so big, it even made the headlines in the USA (New York Times article). I failed to grasp any excitement on the street today although there were quite a few people dressed in jerseys of either Germany or Turkey. The radio was reporting about the game the whole day, all of Germany's newspapers were writing about it, I guess the TV was all over it as well. This will be huge. I wonder if there is a single person out on the street tonight. I would really like to see this, but I won't be leaving my place in front of my television set.

Germany vs Turkey 3-2 (Semifinal 1)
Hilarious, ridiculous, absolutely not from this world. What a game, what a chaos. Let's wrap things up a little bit.
Germany started poorly, absolutely no self-confidence, this was a huge step back from the boost they had against Portugal. Turkey was in complete control and it was only fitting they went ahead 1-0 after some chaos in the German defense. Philipp Lahm, who played a poor game most of the time, was outplayed on the Turkish wing, the header or shot hit the crossbar and then Ugur made a complete fool out of Arne Friederich and Jens Lehmann, the latter looking like a clown trying to catch a hot kettle. But Germany responded quickly. Bastian Schweinsteiger seems to have found his groove and he was responsible for the equalizer only 4 minutes later. With this - and a bloody fight head on between Sabri and Simon Rolfes as well as a highly disputed tackle against Lahm in the Turkish penalty box - the game went into the half time break.
And while the action on the pitch was mostly not worth mentioning for most of the second half the off pitch action was hilarious. Numerous blackouts, both on TV and radio caused by a thunderstorm over Vienna where the media centre is located, turned this into a guessing game. When the picture came back the second time it was just right in time for Germany's second goal, a header by Klose and some really poor goalkeeping by Rüstü. But the Turkish team hadn't earned their reputation as Europe's comeback kids for nothing. They equalized only 8 minutes later with a goal by Semih after a wonderful cross by Sabri, who made Lahm look like a schoolboy on the right side. Speaking about Philipp Lahm, he had his moment in the last minute of offical play when he scored the winning goal after a brilliant one-two pass on the right side. This will send this country into a huge party and I hope that both of the supporters will join into one huge festival of football. Turkey has every reasion to hold their heads up high as they have been the better team over most of the match. Had they won this no one in the German team would have had the right to complain.

It was interesting to watch this at home again as the reactions in the apartments all around my flat could be heard very clearly. In the first half the cheers were a little surpressed and with every blackout the moaning and cursing got louder. When the 3-2 was scored a huge roar erupted which almost sounded like a stadium cheering for their home team. This wasn't the high class football displayed by teams like Russia, Spain or The Netherlands, this was the meeting of two teams who had shown enormous willpower in the tournament. Not a beautiful sight, but exciting nonetheless.

Great comment on the BBC's live blogging site (found on allesaussersport.de):
"If there’s one team that knows more about winning a match in the last minute than Turkey, it’s Germany. Master v apprentice."
That sums it up brilliantly.

Free Yourself @ Sonic Ballroom, Cologne

This one almost slipped away under my radar as I only took notice of it when I was reading a newspaper supplement at my parents' house over the weekend. Free Yourself have always been a band who I hold very dear. I can't quite remember how we met but the boys have been so kind to me to let me accompany them all across Germany when they played shows over the weekend at the end of the 1990s. They were always featured in Düsseldorf's Blurr Magazine and that's where I heard about their 7" first. I got a hold of a copy at a show in Cologne. I believe Snuff and Kick Joneses were playing at the Rhenania and Milto had set up his small table with a few copies of Blurr magazines and some records, one of them being Free Yourself's debut single. I think I bought all three Blurr Rec. products that evening and I also remember I had to leave early because I was still going to school in 1995. But the 7" completely blasted me away. Four great tracks with music I never heard before. I was so happy to ctach a glimpse of a live set at the first annual Fanzine meeting in Neuss where they played a few songs after they won the football tournament there. Good memories.
Over time we became friends and I started to join some of their weekend tours. The best one would be the trip to Minden and Bremen where they played with Winnipeg's finest Painted Thin in 1997. The three day trip with Greece's Stateless In The Universe (1999) was also a memorable one. The highlight came when A Modest Proposal were asked to join a four day tour which would take us through the south of Germany. Oh my, that was fun. We even managed to cover a song by Free Yourself for our show at Freiburg's KTS. I was also extremely grateful when Spiro asked me to become the new bass-player for Free Yourself when Kay left the band, an offer which I had to decline since I wanted to play with my own guys a little more.
So after some time Free Yourself just faded away. They never really called it quits and somehow there was always the chance for another show in my neighbourhood. That chance came yesterday and, oh yes, it was a blast. First up it was very nice to see so many familiar faces at a show again. This was almost like someone had stopped the clock and we were all taken back 10 years. So many old friends showed up to make this a memorable experience. The band looked slightly older - of course - but they still had it. I was even able to remember a few lines from the songs and so I was singing along some of the Greek lyrics. This was great. I didn't go inside to watch Oiro who I had seen quite a few times in the past few years, so instead I took the chance to catch up with what happened to the guys in Free Yourself over the past years. I hadn't seen Kay in a long time so it was a great pleasure to talk to him again. And I even managed to obtain a copy of their new three track CD which includes the wonderful song "Kuss", a song they already played in 2000 when we played with them.
It has been quite a while since I felt so good at a show.

Euro 2008 Day 16 (Quarterfinal 4): Spain finally comes through

What a contrast it has been weather-wise to the happy days two years ago. I can remember that it was a horrible May in 2006 and my boss at the internship I was doing back than was never tired of announcing his weather forecast for the upcoming World Cup. "I say this, when the tournament starts we will have sunshine all the way". And he was right. It's been completely this year and today it seemed like the end of the world when the rain came down. The humidity is aweful and I#m sweating like I played two hours in the sun.
Everybody seems to have fallen in love with Russia yesterday, the reactions have been jubilous. Whoever will win tonight's game will face a very tough task.
Meanwhile in Germany everybody's focused on Torsten Frings' rib. He suffered an injury in the game against Austria and was out for the quarterfinal tie with Portugal. Now everybody's wondering whether he will miss yet another semifinal clash. Although I don't see any problems if he can't join the action on Wednesday. His replacements Simon Rolfes and Thomas Hitzlsperger did just fine. Still, all this is the top headline on the news all day. Sometimes this country feels like a looney bin.

Spain vs Italy 4-2 pens (Quarterfinal 4)
Everybody was talking about this one to be the most promising match-up of all quarterfinals, but honestly I didn't see it that way. One always had to remember although Italy has all the skill it needs to put up a brilliant performance, their first and foremost aim is to destroy. Their defending is superb and they know what their strengths are. Also when you look at Spain in this tournament they were showing great stuff but still they were always very calm and controlling. The German commentator was complaining about the quality of the game but I was thrilled about the passing of the Spanish team. There were times when there was only Spain and no Italian player had a chance to get close to the ball for minutes. It is highly entertaining to watch this young squad put up their game. David Villa and Fernando Torres worked great up front, the midfield with David Silva always looked like they knew what they were doing and what luxury it is when you can replace Xavi and Andres Inesta with the likes of Cesc Fabregas.
On the downside Italy fell back into their acting abilities with the players falling down like they had been struck by lightning. I hate to see this, especially when they do this to stop a counterattack. And when you have a crappy referee like Germany's Herbert Fandel who always wants to be the centre of attention a game can become rather disgraceful.
Italy just looked old, very old. It just isn't enough to have a top striker like Luca Toni up front, you need to feed him the ball. That just didn't happen.
Spain will now face the formidable Russian side who were less destructive than the Italians today. This might be a killer game. I'm really looking forward to this.

Euro 2008 Day 15 (Quarterfinal 3): Slow start and great finish

I went out of my habit of watching the games in the safety of my apartment and met up with some friends at a bar. Usually I don't really like to watch games in public, mainly because I am really annoyed by the other people who are present at the place. Ever since the World Cup two years ago everybody seems to think of themselves to be an expert on the field of football. Which is fine, I think so, too. But the problem for me is that when you watch games at bars or restaurants, you always have the majority of people acting like they know everything when they have no clue at all about what is happening on the pitch. It's those people who don't care about football when it comes to club teams, they only come out of their homes when the national team is playing. So basically you sit there and try to concentrate on the game at hand and there are numerous conversations around which are just getting on your nerves. Now I now I sound rather arrogant when I say this, but that's the way I feel.
So me and my friends started the evening with a nice dinner and a bottle of wine which was a nice way to get going. We then met up with some other friends at a bar right around the corner, which set up a screen outside on the street. A cozy place, still a little uncomfortable seating, my back was really hurting after the game. During the match me and a friend where really annoyed by one red-haired girl sitting in front of us who was talking about anything except football. When everything was finished we went to a small plaza to finish off the evening there. Nice day.

The Netherlands vs Russia 1-3 a.e.t. (Quarterfinal 3)
Absolutely brilliant, wonderful, great! Russia simply outclassed The Netherlands in the 2nd half and in extra time. This was seen by many as the tie between the two best teams of the group stages. Still the game didn't live up to the expectations in the first half. Somehow both teams just didn't seem to find their groove, although Russia looked a little bit more lively than the Dutch. The Netherlands always tried to pass the ball right through the middle of the tight Russian defense, completely neglecting their wings. Russia capitalized on this mistake, and after every turnover they passed the ball quickly up front to their fast strikers Andrey Arshawin and Roman Pavlyuchenko. They had another threat in Denis Kolodin who missed only by inches with shots from 30 m twice in just a few minutes. The Netherlands were completely out of it. Ruud van Nistelrooy was a lone striker up front with no assistance from the midfield, both offensive midfielders Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart didn't have it tonight.
And so the game went into the second half and the Russians seemed to tune up a few more gears. High speed combinations on the wings and the Dutch defense was in huge trouble. The 1-0 scored by Pavlyuchenko was a wonderful expample for one-touch football and they had quite a few chances to score more goals. In the end, when you fail to score your opponent will get back at you and so The Netherlands equalized 5 minutes from time after a freekick and a header by van Nistelrooy. This gave them hope for extra time but they were completely taken apart by Russia there. Just as much as the Dutch players looked to be getting more tired the Russians looked healthier, faster, quicker, more awake. When Dimitry Torbinsky scored the 2-1 four Dutch defenders were standing around him and with van der Vaart sleeping it was a very easy goal to score. The 3-1 was yet another error in the defense when they missed out on a throw in which was picked up by Arshawin who scored through the legs of Edwin van der Saar.
Russia deserved this and it's not like this came out of nowhere. They always showed flashes of what they are able to do and I think they can go all the way. I had them on my list of dark horses for th championship title before the start of the tournament, but I didn't expect them to perform this well. And they are even missing another great striker in Pavel Progrebnyak.
This Euro 2008 is really getting interesting. No group winner went through to the semifinal and it's up to Spain to prove this streak wrong against Italy. Yet compared to the World Cup 2006 which was dominated by defensive play this Euro 2008 is great offensive all out attack all the way.