Famous last words; "...hard to see the greeks going all the way"
LONG before I even knew what a blog was, I still had opinions about our beloved game, and especially during a major championships, when you'd usually find my glued to the screen, day and night, notepad and pen in hand, the kettle and alarm never far away, just watching and analysing, getting a bit of sleep in between games, and doing it all over again.
As all my mates would confirm, I was forever keen to share those thoughts and learnings with whoever was in ear-shot, and the mode of delivery throughout Euro 2004 was a series of email spams to a long list of fellow football addicts.
The other day, thinking about the upcoming championships, I was digging through those posts, and thought a few of you might be interested in re-living some of those memories, so here's a collation of my six lengthy posts throughout the tourni, including a classic line in my fourth post, just before the quarter finals, that I could mount a title-winning-case for seven of the eight team left....it was one of my best!!
It's rough, but I hope you enjoy...
POST 1 - Tuesday, 15 June 2004
game 1; expected greece to be well organised, resolute and tough to break down (tipped a 1-1 draw) but didnt expect them to be so hot in attack.....scolari made some terrible selections.....ronaldo should have started for simao, deco for rui costa, nuno valente for rui jorge and ricardo carvalho for couto.....greece were magnificent and will take some beating.....they could be the dark horses.......otto rehhagel is a genius.....dellas and seitardis were outstanding at the back while the midfield hassled unbelievably......they were so swift on the counter, it was great to watch......portugal attack in numbers, but do leave you plenty of space to exploit and the greeks did this perfectly......there also seems to be some tension within and cant go on unless this is sorted out......how narrow-minded of figo to not want deco, although i guess he's protecting his old mate rui costa......he's been warming the bench all season, deco has been winning a champs league, who should start? unless scolari gives the new guard a chance, portugal are gone.....
game 2; spain were very good, although the russians struggled without their regular central defence......thought vicente was awesome in the first half, while exterberria lit up the 2nd......spain could/should have won by more, but didnt have that killer instinct, which could harm them when it matters.....russia need to find a way to get more men forward in support of bulykin cause their defence aint solid enough to hold out for 90mins.......smertin did very well after the first 20mins, but the wide defenders (evseev and sennikov) need to get closer to their men.....some of yartsev's changes were puzzling......alenichev was a real threat down the middle in the first half, only to be shifted to the right for the 2nd when gusev came off.......mostovi was a passenger and should have been replaced, while more is needed from izmailov......i thought aldonin did well, but he was strangely replaced.....spain's defence wasnt really tested here, so hard to gauge how they'll go against better opposition......
game 3; yet to watch it, but from all reports the croats dominated but couldnt find the net......it's one they really wanted/needed to win, especially against ten men.....given they couldnt score, im surprised klasnic didnt get a run......i still think it will come down to the last game between them and england to decide who goes through with france......switz and croatian can now play with no pressure, which makes the group interesting.....
game 4; not a great performance from france, but i thought they did enough to at least earn a draw, but barthez gave them a lifeline and england gave them a present......england under eriksson are more defencive then i've ever seen them, which isnt a bad thing alltogether cause in all likelihood if they open up they'll probably get carved up, like england teams in the past.....they basically played smash and grab and it almost worked......expect all teams to play this compact against france (it worked in the world cup, but here they have zidane, who could make the difference and unlock the tight defences) cause any team that opens up to them is likely to get carved up.....
game 5; both teams struggled with the heat, but denmark had the better of the first half.....they stretched italy with their 2 wide men (jorgensen and rommedahl) and their wingbacks (helveg and nicolas jensen) kept panucci and zambrotta pegged back.....in the 2nd half when italy reverted to 4-4-2 by moving delpiero further up they looked a better side tactically as it allowed zambrotta to get forward....del piero is struggling at this level, while totti was hardly given any room by poulsen and daniel jensen.....in midfield i think trapatoni is still struggling to find his best combo, as zanetti and cameronesi didnt do a great deal......perhaps we may see more of fiore, gattuso and pirlo........both keepers (buffon and sorensen) are top quality......the danes looked good, especially early, and will trouble sweden and bulgaria's defences....
game 6; only saw the first half (1-0 at ht), and sweden were on top for most of it......again, bulgaria (like russia) were guilty of isolating berbatov up front, while sweden had more to aim for in larsson and ibrahimovich, and more drive out of midfield in the likes of ljungberg......also, bulgaria were guilty of defening too high up the pitch and playing the offside trap....big no-no against this speedy front 2........i imagine bulgarian heads dropped in the 2nd half.....
tonite, the czechs should be too strong for latvia, but im interested to see the latvian's tactics (how defencive they are?)......also, the dutch will do most of the attacking and should be too slick for germany with the three van's up front (nistolrooy, der vart and der meyde), but the dutch defence will give germany a chance and i'm looking forward to seeing how kuranyi goes at this level....
most impressive and surprising team to date has to be the greeks, who proved you can be defencive but have real potency in attack....but i still say the french are the team to beat, but they have to keep finding ways of breaking down the blanket defences they'll encounter along the way, especially if it's italy.....zidane is the key.....
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POST 2 - Monday, 21 June 2004
Subject: what a feast.....
an unbelievable four days of football, where the action and the drama just seemed to get better by the game......
it's a good thing that the afternoon games (2am our time) are over cause the heat really seemed to take the sting out of these games and they didnt live up to the evening (4.45 our time) clashes where it's been cooler, producing hotter football.......
it all started friday morning with the croats waking up from their half-time slumber to put on a show for their fans in the 2nd half......in the end they were unlucky not to get all three pts after mornar skied his injury time opportunity......after not conceeded a goal for about 12mths prior to the england game, france suddenly conceeded 2 in about 5 mins and there are signs of fragilty at the back......silvestre has made two howlers to give away penalties (against rooney and rosso) and looks to be struggling......while much of the blame for the prso's goal went deservedly to desailly for his air-swing, silvestre was also culpable in allowing prso to get to the ball first and turn back inside......and then mornar turned desailly so easily for that chance......both are uncharacteristically panicking and could be a liability in the knockouts....judging by the squad he's selected (many veterans at he expense of promising youngsters such as mendy, mexes and evra) sanitini will probably be loyal to his skipper and silvestre, but their form is a concern, as is that of lizarazu and sagnol.......a more solid back four might be; boumsong (who did well in the friendly against brazil last month), thuram, gallas, lizarazu......another concern is that they still havent scored from open play (unless you count the trezeguet charge-down)..........but wat about THAT flick from zizou??????
the croats were awesome in the 2nd half with rapaic and prso dominant and the back four compact.......they could give the poms a run for their money tommorrow but will need to defend well from beckham's set-pieces.....despite the english camp feeling they outplayed france (i disagree) and are among the favourites for the title, i havent been totally impressed with england, except that they're absorbing pressure better than in the past......wat they do have is proven match-winners, blokes who can pop up and win you a game (basically any of the front 6), so they're always a threat of snatching a win....
the italy-sweden game on sat was a gem, the italians on fire in the first half (the best all round display so far) and then customarily retreating the last 20mins to be sunk by a wonderful bit of zlatan magic.......del piero and cassano roaming behind vieri worked a treat in the first 45 and but for vieri's missed opportunities the italian should have sealed the game early.....the midfield looked much better with pirlo pulling the strings and gattuso and perotta doing the dirty work.......the width provided by panucci and zambrotta was awesome.....but once again trappatoni decided that 1-0 was enough, and as against korea (wc2002) and france (euro200), it wasnt....the swedes, sensing the inititative had been handed to them, pressed on and got their reward......when will the italians learn that 1-0, these days, is barely enough???????
now they have to hope the scandinavians dont draw 2-2........it's going to be sad to see one of these 3 teams go as all have played great football at some stage of the tournament, but i suspect the swedes may have enough potency up front to get over denmark......
then the game of the tournament, if not defensively, then certainly in attack.....just how good are these czechs at going forward and how much belief in themselves (team spirit) do they have to twice come back from being down for late wins......and wat about the tactics of karol bruckner to take off a defender and throw on an attacking midfielder 25mins in, just after they got one back, when conventional wisdom would have said stick to it for a little while.....just how good is pavel nedved, inspiring his mates to a great victory........they will need to defend much much better to challenge for honours......as for the dutch, they also made some changes that surrendered the initiative to the czechs (robben esp), but the truth of their loss is that they missed some glorious chances, esp. van nistolrooy's header and van der meyde's volley.....if the dressing room doesnt crumble between now and the latvia game they should have enough creativity to breakdown the resolute lativian (something the germans didnt have) and hope the czechs do them a favour....will be interesting to see how many bruckner rests or wether they want revenge for the euro96 final by knocking out the germans....
and then this morning, another gripping encounter......it took scolari 2 games, but finally he got his best team on the park and didnt they deliver......many have been clamouring for ronaldo to be included from the start and here he showed why, tormenting poor raul bravo (although he could have got more help from juanito, vicente and albelda)......deco pulls all the strings, while ricardo carvalho and nuno valente have provided the stability at the back......there's a very porto feel about this team now (deco, costinha, maniche, carvalho and valente), so there's a winning mentality throughout.......all five were awesome this morning.......nuno gomes will start the quarter final (pauleta is suspended) and seems to relish the big ocassion......spain looked hesitant throughout the tournament and you sensed saez never knew his best 11, chopping between raul, morientes, torres and valeron up front and between baraja and xabi alonso in midfield, while raul's confidence has obviously been sapped by that horrific finish by real.....
the greeks deserved to go through courtesy of their earlier results but much prefer teams like portugal and spain that come out at them (so they can counter) rather than having to make the running themselves and being picked off on the counter.......france - if they qualify top - could suit greece's style of play in the quarters........
the beauty is, nobody knows wat comes next........
it's been a brilliant tournament so far, and despite being early days, here's a formation that's impressed;
------------------------sorensen----------------------
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seitarideas (helveg)--dellas-----simunic--------zambrotta
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-------------------------zagorakis------------------------
---------ljungberg----------------------nedved-----------
-------------------------zidane-----------------------------
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---------------baros-------------ibrahimovich------------
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POST 3 - Wednesday, June 23 2004
Subject: conspiracy?????
conspiracy this, conspiracy that, what is it with italians and conspiracy theories?????......first korea, know the nordic conspiracy......
while the 2-2 looks sus to the naked eye, anyone who watched the nordic derby will know that both teams were hell-bent on winning......had it not been for a couple of brilliant Isaksson stops with about 10mins left, denmark would have taken a 3-1 lead and it would have been near impossible for sweden to recover from that........
while it's tough for them to bow out of another tournament without losing a game in normal time, the italians again have no-one to blame but themselves (kalstrom sumed it up beautifully with his post-match comments)......as was the case against korea, they missed crucial opportunities against sweden and were punished......they dominated that game for 70mins and should have won quite comfortably, but they retreated, tried to protect a 1-0 and copped a goal too late to recover from......
so by the time the sweden-denmark game, italy weren't in control of their own destiny and can have no cause for complaint........time they took a good hard look at their own tactics rather than finding anyone but themselves to blame.....
italy's only valid cause for complaint came after about 75mins when cassano was upended in the box for what looked a penalty....had this been given and converted, the 2-1 scoreline may have affected the way the other two teams approached the remainder of their game....
as it is, both would have been unlucky to bow out, but denmark shaded this game for large periods and were more of a challenge to italy than sweden, so they look the stronger side.......as branko said on the coverage, they pass the ball better than sweden and it should be a gem of a game between them and the czechs as both sides like to attack....sweden always have the potency of their front three, but seemed a little weak in midfield in this game.....linderoth will probably come back in for the qf, as may wilhelmsson and svensson, while lucic - if he's recovered - will probably replace the suspended edman....
as for y-day's action, up till then i'd refused to believe all the hype about rooney, but here he turned on a wonderful display, dropping off the front line into the croatian hole between defence and midfield and pulling england's strings.....with just about every touch he was spot on, inevitably using the right option......he had able support from scholes who also kept drifting into the space in front of the croat defence, allowing cole to push forward down the left.......the croats played into englands hands by dropping back after the opener, playing zivkovic in central midfield and just giving up too much space in midfield.......rapaic and sokota were off their games, so prso had little support, but this was by far england's best display in some time, at least from an attacking perspective......work is needed defencively.....the portugal qf is a tantilising one as the host will try to stretch the england back four with its 2 wide men, figo and ronaldo......they will also throw deco into the hole between england defence and midfield, so england have to decide who drops deeper to pick him up, lampard or gerrard......conversely, costinha and maniche will have their hands full controlling england's narrow midfield play, which sees scholes and beckham tuck in and rooney drop back, so at times they play five through the middle.....it'll almost be of case portugal's width v england's narrowness......should be a cracker....
as for france, again they were sloppy defencively, silvestre giving the ball away in the build-up to volanthen's goal......that's 3 or 4 mistakes from him so far that have led to goals.....wonder if les bleus are just conserving engery for the knockouts, as again they seemed to be going through the motions at times.....we will find out against greece, who will defend deep, look to deny france's creative players any space in midfield and try to spring forward quickly to test the composure of the french back four, who's confidence can't be high......zagorakis has been great so far, but how will he handle zizou???
tomorrow is another mouth-watering morning, with so many questions.....will the czechs take their foot off the pedal and make changes? (likely) or will they want revenge from euro96 by knocking out the germans? will the germans be more of a threat against a shaky looking czech defence than they were against the tight latvians? will the latvians frustrate the dutch and pinch one through verpakovskis, who will be running at only 1 or 2 defenders on the counter? can they keep the fairytale going? how will the dutch respond mentally to the the shattering defeat by the czechs? how will advocaat tinker with the side? should be another great day in a great tournament.......
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POST 4 - Thursday, June 24 2004
Subject: qf's
in this tournament of surprises, dont be surprised by any outcome in the knock-outs.....all four qf's could go either way, and while the french are favourites to beat surprise packets greece, even their defence may be under pressure if the greeks counter-attack as well as they have at times.....
this year's champs league has proved that the balance has truely shifted away from the superpowers, if not forever, that at least at the moment, so i guess none of us should be surprised that two of the biggest traditional powerhouses (italy and german) are gone.....it's the nature of modern football, where fitness, tactics and crucially, the mental attitude on the day, play as crucial a role as one's technical ability....
unity and belief are keys.......witness how the czechs have come from behind on three occassions, how the swedes have come back twice for crucial late equalisers, how well king otto has arranged the greeks, how structured the danish formation is......with these teams, it is truely a case of the common good overriding the individual ego.......
and other teams are warming to this mantra......the dutch looked more settled than ever this morning, making only one tactical switch (de boer for bouma) and one forced (reziger for heitinga), not tinkering with the front 6........while they'd lost to the czechs, the temptation was there to make changes, but advocaat realised his charges hadnt played bad (in fact they played well but just didnt finish), so he kept faith........in bringing davids and seedorf - along with van-d-man - into the starting 11, advocaat has drafted in a winning mentally.....all three are crucial for holland to progress.....
same with scolari, who has winners throughout in his porto fab five.....carvalho, valente, costinha, maniche and deco, while paulo ferrerria can make it the super six if he gets called back in tomorrow......they play together at club level, now they are trying to bring the same winning qualities to the national side.....
even at engalnd, sacrifices are being made by the likes of scholes, gerrard and lampard for the common good.....scholes normally plays in the middle, but here he's playing left, while lampard and gerrard, both attacking midfielders are having to take turns in the hold role....even owen, often the scorer, has become more of a provider.....
team spirit invariably overrides everything, and you sense that only the strongest will survive this test......
another factor which is playing a heavy hand is 'pressure'.....seems those teams that don't have as much on their shoulders are free to play, which explains russia beating greece, greece beating portugal, bulgaria pushing the italians, the swiss holding on against france for so long, a 2nd string czech side beating the germans.....
you can make a pretty strong case for 7 of the 8 teams left (hard to see the greeks going all the way) ......
portugal v england; since carvalho replaced couto, valente replaced rui jorge, they've become more solid at the back, while miguel has given them plenty going forward on the right.....costinha and maniche had their best games against spain, while out wide, ronaldo is the man, and figo, if not at his best, is still a handful.......deco pops up all over the midfield and attack and can kill a team with one touch.....against narrow england, dont be surprised if scolari strengthens central midfield by shifting deco left, starting ronaldo on the bench and bringing in a defencive central midfielder alongside costinha (petit?)......that will clog up the space rooney has been playing in.........then ronaldo can be cut loose from the bench....england have a settled line-up and two central midfielders (lampard and gerrard) that run all day......as scolari says, this midfield can pass better than any previous english midfield we've seen, as we saw against croatia.......but the porto midfielders arent afraid to do the dirty work and i'm sure they will get closer to england than croatia did......rooney was great against the croats, but mightnt have so much room here.......
france v greece; many doubts at the back for france, but you know they will dominate possesion.....greece will sit back and look to counter, but if they conceed early will be forced to come out and play, which will create room for zizou and henry to cut loose.....if the greeks can hold out then the pressure shifts to france, who have hardly been impressive defensively......at the moment the doubts at the back seem to be overriding the teams natural attacking instincts, so a clean sheet would do wonders for confidence.....greece, as the saying goes, have nothing to lose, and will press and disrupt until they drop.....
sweden v holland; the holland midfield is hotter, with seedorf and davis giving them real drive and penetration, but the swedes have a potent front three and will ask serious questions of the dutch defence, which can at times get exposed.....the dutch will make most of the running in this game, while sweden will look to get the ball forward early through ljungberg.........at the other end van nistolrooy looks a threat sniffing around for any half-chance, while robben looks a good player......swedens defence isnt as solid as, say denmark, but they will look to get the ball forward quickly and have great team spirit....the dutch will need to match them and fight all the way.....
czechs v denmark; mouth-watering clash, both teams move the ball around beautifully.....czechs are probably the less cautious of the two, prepared to take a gamble and back themselves in any situations, while the danes clog up midfield with 2 defensive central men (gravesen and daniel jensen) and rely on getting the ball out wide to jorgensen and gronkejaer.....the czechs also love to go wide, with poborsky a big threat on the right, while nedved loves driving the team through the middle.......the danes have looked more solid at the back and will probably defend deep so that henriksen's lack of pace isnt exposed.....
all four are fascinating duels and terribly hard to pick.....
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POST 5 - Friday, 25 June 2004
Subject: Blow it like Beckham
wat a game, wat drama, wat a sport.......how good is this tournament???????????
england can have no complaints about this one, again they were simply outplayed by a better passing team, as was the case at wc2002 (brazil) and euro 2000 (twice, to portugal and romania)......the worse thing england could have done here was score early and try to sit back and protect it, which is pretty much exactly wat they did, but for the odd burst forward by owen.......as we've already seem at this tournament, even the masters of protecting a lead (italy) eventually caved into the wave after wave of attacks.......
how ironic that a tottenham benchy (postiga) was the man to sink them in normal time.....
then campbell thought he'd scored and so did the fox commentators, but a look at the replay shows that urs meir got it absolutely spot on as terry had his arm over the shoulder of ricardo, which of course stopped him from jumping.......defininite foul.....
portugal made all the running and got their reward......it it great to watch teams, like the portugese, czechs, dutch and french, where every player (except silvestre) is so comfortable on the ball.....
england showed great spirit to come back from the rui costa rocket in extra time, but in truth they failed to display the type of football they showed against croatia.......perhaps, by praising rooney so much, they'd thrown all their eggs into the one basket, claiming he was the man to take them all the way.......so what happens when he limps off???????
by scoring so early, england thought is was sufficient to just hack it upfield......fatal......
wat about scolari, gesturing to his players after going 1 down so early to relax, take it easy.....great re-assurance, and then to wip figo off for positga......he obviously reasoned that he needed more bodies in the box to support nuno gomes........there were too many outside the box and not enough inside............bruckner has proved you have to take gambles, and this one paid off handsomely for big phil.......
and wat about the great eusebio, wat on earth did he wisper into ricardo's ear before the shootout????
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POST 6 - Monday, 5 July 2004
Subject: euro wrap
it ended as it started, unpredictable yet so glorious for the greeks.....
while us purists inevitably prefer our teams to play pretty and attack, we have to respect those, like greece, who play to their limitations and sacrifice individual glory for the team good......seeing seitarideas man-mark henry, then baros, and sacrificing his own attacking instincts tells a story in itself.....watching charisteas track back down the right all tournament told of an unbelievable committment......perhaps it was the fear of copping a rehaggel spray???
once again we see how a 'team' can beat a team of stars......that's how this greek team will be remembered, and you have to say good luck to them.....it mightn't always be the prettiest football, but they know that if they open up to teams with greater technical ability they'd likely get carved up......
rehaggel has set out a template that no doubt others will try to emulate......it is one built on stiffling the opposition threat with brilliant organisation and unbelievable committment, and then countering and asking questions of your opposition......most of these greeks weren't known to many at the start, but now they are very famous indeed.....the champions league proved that the tide is shifting, and these days everyone knows some much about everyone else.......
robot rehaggel summed it up perfectly when he said after the game; "the world has become a sitting room and people know what is going on everywhere"......if you do your homework and put in the effort, anything is possible....
it's been a wonderful tournament, which probably faded a little at the end as caution inevitably overrode the more cavalier approach we saw earlier.......
in the end it's best summed up by the fact that no one particular player stood out from the rest, making it a little hard to pick out the team of the tournament, but below is mine, based more on consistency and progress than standing out for one or two games.........others will think maybe rooney, nedved, cech, stam, kapsis, robben or van nistolrooy........
player of the tournament? probably go to any one of the three greeks; seitarideas, dellas or zagorakis.......the captain, just......
----------------------nikopolidis--------------------------
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seitarideas---------dellas------carvalho------------valente
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----------------zagorakis-------maniche-------------------
-----poborsky-------------------------------ronaldo-----
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--------------charisteas--------baros-------------------
as for the goals of the tournament, here's my top 10;
1. maniche (rocket) v holland
2. larsson (diving header) v bulgaria
3. tomassen (volley over isaksson) v sweden
4. baros (volley from koller chest-down) v holland
5. ballack (left foot scorcher) v czechs
6. heniz (free kick) v germany
7. ibrahimovich (back-heel) v italy
8. zidane (free-kick) v england
9. owen (flick) v portugal
10. baros (chip) v denmark
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If you've made it this far, you must be Greek. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the re-collections and could relate to some of the thoughts. What were you re-collections of the tourni?
And do visit again over the next month as I cast an eye over the '08 version.
