Congratulations to Spain, who defeated Germany 1-0 to win the UEFA 2008 European Championship. I probably watched half of the games and gained a lot of knowledge on players and some new clubs to follow come August and September. Though I’m tagged as a novice, I would like to point out that I did predict the champion in my preview (I have to boast a little bit). Even so, there is a still a ton for me to learn, and starting with a major tournament like this was definitely beneficial. I look forward to finally writing about something other than Euro ’08 next week, but before I do, I figured I better reflect on what I’ve learned…
The coaching carousel in soccer is just as bad as American sports, amateur or professional. The coaches from Turkey, Portugal, Italy, Austria, France, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and even the eventual champion, Spain, were all out before the championship game. While some coaches resigned, like Portugal’s Scolari, who will coach Chelsea in England, others, like Italy’s Donadoni, were forced out. The longest tenured coach is Greece’s Otto Rehhagel, who started in 2001 and has recently extended his contract through the 2010 World Cup.
Even though goals make the game fun and entertaining, great goal keeping often creates the best suspense.
The best goal scorers are not always on the field at the end of games. Many coaches opted for fresh legs and looked like geniuses when their subs came through and scored key goals, which was often the case with Netherlands and Spain.
It is not frowned upon when a player sits due to an injury that he or the club feels will hamper the team. David Villa sitting out of the championship seemed cowardice to me at first, until I read that he felt his selfishness to play through a hamstring injury would not benefit the team. Where we Americans see athletes battle through injury and call them gutsy, the soccer world views it a bit differently. Hmm…that might explain our major problem with David Beckham’s arrival last year – cultural differences with injured athletes.
Foul calls are much, MUCH different when a player is in the box versus when a player is outside of the box.
Cristiano Ronaldo is great, but he needs to be more impressive in international play before the rest of the non-soccer world (America) cares about him. Pele, Maradona, Brazilian Ronaldo were propelled into the American lexicon by World Cup wins. Roberto Baggio may have never won a cup with Italy, but his prolific play made him popular amongst Americans.
National pride is a beautiful, poignant, and powerful thing – especially when thousands of fans join in one place for their country and sing their national anthem in unison.
Fernando Torres picked the right time to break out of a minor slump. So much was expected of him from his spectacular year with Liverpool. David Villa might have stolen his thunder to start with, but Torres carried the Spaniards to European glory.
Soccer does not need the England National Team to gain popularity in America.
While it’s hard for some national club teams to part ways with their more seasoned heroes, like Czech Republic’s Jan Koller, 35, who was shuffled quite a bit in his three games, other clubs favor a more youthful squad and seem to find more success. Spain elected to part ways with their international goal scorer Raúl González, 31, for the likes of much younger players like David Villa, David Silva, and Fernando Torres. Result: first championship in forty-four years for the Spanish. Russia, the youngest team in the tournament, made it to the semifinals.
Croatia is NOT a defensive team.
Soccer is not a perfect sport. However, to me there is currently no comparison to American sports when it comes to sportsmanship and passion. Sure the game itself is like any other sport in the world – a battle of cheap shots, flops, and plenty of words that got George Carlin arrested. But the respect displayed before and after the game is simply inspiring. Plus, elimination caused tears from fans, players, and coaches EVERY time; the dejection and joy on the pitch after a game is something missing from professional sports here. It’s not completely missing, but we also don’t see it enough.
On a similar note, playing for one’s country is still valued amongst these athletes who pull in millions with their respective clubs. Remember years ago when certain NBA players did not feel obligated to play for the U.S. National Team?
The Dutch have the sweetest looking uniforms.
Many Brazilian born players are playing with adopted European countries. Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, and Spain are all experiencing success with some of Brazil’s best talent. This is even more peculiar after seeing Brazil recently lose to some traditionally much weaker South American teams like Venezuela and Paraguay.
Lastly, the 2010 World Cup looks like it will be as competitive as ever.
Quick quips on the final:
Spain was the deserving winner…when the Germans needed to attack in the last 30 minutes of the match they could barely get the ball over the midfield line…the Spanish goal, though deserved based upon the overall play, was a poor play on the part of the German keeper- slow to react and poor positional technique when he did arrive (chest to the ball with arms extended would have been better than getting legs in front of ball)…
sorry, more to follow when time allows…