Misery and Joy

In group E everyone could go through as we entered the last round, and expectations were yet again that Belgium, ranked one of the best teams in the world, would defeat Ukraine and win the group. The match ended 0-0 and Belgium went through on second spot anyway as Slovakia and Romania tied 1-1, putting the Romanians as surprising winners of Group E, and Ukraine as the unlucky last despite getting 4 points. Belgium was awful though; the pampered millionaire superstars appeared offended that Ukraine played better and ended the match defending and going for 0-0 against a side that they should defeat. And they appeared more offended when their own fans howled and whistled at them because of a performance that was frankly disrespectful to everyone.

You are millionaire entertainers. When you do not entertain, admit it.

Contrast the Belgian misery to Georgia, who went through in group F as best third placed team with 4 points after defeating the Portuguese superstars 2-0. The Georgian star Kvisha Kvaratskhelia scored a splendid first goal, while Georges Mikautadze made it 2-0 on a penalty (it was indeed penalty, but my concern is about the fact that it took VAR very long to call it). Portugal are nevertheless through on first spot in the group, but may not be as big favourites as they have been considered.

Georgia pulled the surprise and have progressed for the first time ever in a major tournament, The Georgians celebrated as if they had won the tournament, understandably, and it is clear that they play with the heart and commitment that the Belgians completely lack.

Both Belgium and Georgia are facing difficult matches: Georgia will face the undefeated Spanish side, while Belgium will face the mighty French side, and will have to show their fans that there is still something worth to cheer in Belgium.

The darlings

After the first round of Euro 2024 (although there are still today's matches to go), there are two teams that have come forward as the "darlings"; that is, underrated teams that may cotninue to charm us with their fight, commitment, and great fans.

The first candidate is Romania. They had last participated in 2016, and the last time they won a match at the Euros was in 2000. Yesterday they were not favourites against Ukraine, but with massive support from their fans (and we do not count their horrible black-clad Ultras whom we could live without) they took apart the poor Ukranians with 3-0. Notably Nicolae Stanciu's first goal may be the best goal of the tournament so far.

The other sides in the group are Belgium and Slovakia, and by many Belgium has been considered huge favourite to win the group. But not withstanding that they are yet to face a splendid Romania, the Belgians disappointed in their opening match by losing to a hard-fighting and well-organised Slovakia, who were an example of how a small teams can defeat a favourite with tenacity and organization. After seven minutes Ivan Schranz bought the Slovakians ahead and they held on to the score until the end despite heavy pressure from the Belgians (and two VAR goals by Lukaku annulled, with specially the second goal is an example of how VAR should NOT be used). 

In the end it may be Slovakia and Romania that will surprise and become the fan favourites of the tournament.

FIFA Break

Last week I was on a break and went traveling. A good time, as there was FIFA break, and I did apparently not miss much: I watched two matches in the respective countries. 

El Salvador played Argentina's World Champions. There was a lot of criticism in Argentina that they could not find a better opponent, and it is indeed hard to see that the match was useful for the World Champions. Playing on first gear they won 3-0 on goals by Cristian Romero, Enzo Fernandez and Giovani lo Celso. El Salvador had nothing to offer and besides a complete lack of interest for the match in El Salvador, it is also hard to see that this match was useful.

The other match I watched in Guatemala, where the locals faced Venezuela. A few days earlier Venezuela had given Italy a good fight only losing 1-2, and were favourites, but to my surprise Guatemala were well organized and created dangers for the South Americans. In the end the match ended 0-0.

Although there were interesting friendlies, like Brazil winning 0-1 in England and Colombia winning 0-1 in Spain, the most interesting part of the FIFA break were the play-offs for the last three spots at Euro 2024. Route A was won by Poland, who defeated a disappointing Welsh side on penalty kicks after 0-0. 

Route B was won by Ukraine, who will be a great welcome at the Euros, after they defeated Iceland 2-1.

The biggest surprise came in Route C were Georgia qualified for their first mayor tournament by defeating Greece in penalty kicks, after a 0-0 match.

I am now back after my vacation!

Suspend Russia

Football is not important, but football can take a stand, and that is what Poland's football players have taken in terms of deciding to boycott their World Cup qualifier against Russia in March. In case Russia is awarded the match, they will face Sweden or the Czech Republic, and Sweden have already also announced that they would not face Russia either.

Potentially, this could qualify Russia directly to the World Cup. And why is that? It is because FIFA has taken no stand as to what to do, and knowing FIFA's lack of courage in these situations, one has to assume that Russia is on its way to Qatar until a clear stand is taken.

Some would argue that football and politics should not be mixed and that the Russian players and fans should not be punished for what is happening. 

Russian players and fans are great; I can say it from experience, from the fantastic time and people I met in Russia in 2018 during the World Cup. But football and politics are intrinsically linked, because football is part of wider society, and cannot be separated from its problems. Russia's government must be isolated for its blatant and aggressive invasion of Ukraine, and although football is just a small thing, Russia must be suspended.

What I think and what I wish for

So we now have the four quarterfinals after some really exciting last-16 eliminations, and after these I feel more confident to make some predictions, although in these knock-out matches anything can happen, and it has been reaffirmed that there are no bad teams in this tournament. 

On a good day everyone can beat anyone.

And there is certainly also a difference on what I think will happen and what I wish for. So here come my predictions for the quarterfinals:

• Spain-Switzerland: both teams come from two extraordinary knock-out matches, but I would not expect another epic drama; Spain are enormous favourites and must be delighted that they will not be facing France. At the same time Switzerland are surely hoping for more, and will be playing without pressure, but they will be facing a Spanish side hungering for success and with a lot of talent. I think it is 99% sure that Spain will make a semifinal, although I hope that the little guy can beat the big guy again, and Switzerland pull another surprise.
• England-Ucraine: England defeated a poor German side, but nobody has scored against them, and they are looking more and more like having the cold-blooded confidence to go all the way. Ucraine in the meantime are there through a combination of luck and fight, but not exciting play. They defeated the most boring team of the tournament, Sweden, 2-1 after extra time, in one of the most boring matches of the tournament, and thus deserve to be where they are, but they are almost sure to get no further. On the more personal level it hurts to admit that I would rather see England in the semifinal, because I think it would be good for the tournament.
  
• Denmark-Czech Republic: In my unashamed subjectivity I hope that Denmark will win and make it to the semifinal. But I am concerned at how happy the Danes are not to be facing the Dutch when the Czechs actually showed themselves a much better team that the Dutch. Football teams are more than the sum of their individual players, and both Denmark and the Czechs have shown that, but I think that the Czechs have an upper-hand, because I think that they are more cold-blooded and will enter the match better-prepared than the Danes. I think the Czechs will win, but I hope the Danes will.
• Belgium-Italy: In some ways this is a moral final between two of the best sides of the tournament, but they have also been shaky at times, and certainly don't appear invincible. Belgium struggled to defeat Portugal (and were indeed a bit lucky) and with some injuries appears to be vulnerable to the Italians. The Italians also struggled to defeat Austria, but they prevailed with their heads level and made it to the next round. I therefore think that Italy is slightly more likely to prevail (60-40), but I certainly support Belgium wholeheartedly!

So if we take how I think it will go, these will be the semifinals:

• England-Czech Republic
• Italy-Spain

In this scenario I predict a final between England and Spain.

But in my hopeful scenario these would be the semifinals:

• England-Denmark
• Belgium-Switzerland

And hopefully a final between my two favourite teams in the tournament, Denmark and Belgium (with Denmark taking the title!)

The best and worst of Euro 2012

After the end of the Euro 2012, it is time to reflect on what this tournament actually gave us. Here are my (personal) top ten best and worst things about the tournament, beginning with the bad:

• 10)  Non alcoholic beers in the stadiums: Need I say anything...?
• 9)  Petty nationalism: it seems an integral part of these tournaments to see European's propensity for petty nationalism that has nothing to do with football.
• 8) Spain, until the final: yes, I know that they proved themselves in the final, but until then Spain had played holding back, passing the ball, and not shooting enough. Matches like the one against France were a bore. It would have been respectful to football fans to dispatch of a team like France with a humiliation.
• 7) The pitch in Warsaw: A disgrace that Poland could not come up with a decent pitch in their major stadium.
• 6) BBC Panorama: the way a sensationalist and exaggerated British TV show had slandered Ukraine before the tournament. Ukraine in particular were great hosts!
• 5) Netherlands: they came into the tournament as huge favorites but disappointed greatly with their worst performance ever. I do hope they return to their former total football style.
• 4) France: Many teams were a disgrace in this tournament, but France must take the cake. Full of talented players, it just seemed like none of them wanted to be there.
• 3) The qualitative difference between teams: Europe is dominated by a few world class sides (Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal) and a lot of mediocre sides. It showed in the quarterfinals, and in four year, with 24 teams, the number of mediocre sides and matches is set to make it Euro 2016 of mediocrity.
• 2) Racism: Although greatly exaggerated by some media, it did show its ugly face among fans from Poland, Croatia, Spain and Russia. These countries should be ashamed of their brainless minorities.
• 1) Russian and Polish fans: the biggest disgrace of the tournament was the confrontation of the fans from these two countries. If they cannot get these pseudo-nationalist idiots under control, their teams do not belong in these tournaments.

And the 10 best things about the tournament:

• 10) I had the privilege of watching this Euro 2012 with great friends in four different countries, among them Ukraine, where I went to three great matches!
• 9) Referees: I find it hard to say this, but in general the referees were really good. Except for the appalling mistake of disallowing a Ukrainian goal against England (and TV should be used in these situations!), I don't think there were really major mistakes by the referees, who were largely invisible, just as referees should be.
• 8) The campaign for respect: In the face of football's capacity for dividing as much as uniting, I thought UEFA's Respect campaign was good. That said, they still need to do a lot more and follow up with actions against people from countries that did not live up to these important ideals for the tournament.
• 7) Fans: In spite of the loud minority of idiots, far most fans were great, and I had the privilege to be among a great many fans from Denmark, Portugal, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, England who were all great people and just out there to enjoy.
• 6) Spain showing they can play beautiful efficient football in the final: when they needed to show it, they showed their overwhelming best, leaving no doubt as to them being the best team in the world.
• 5) "Super" Mario Balotelli: A great player with great charisma who grew during the tournament, just to be crushed in the final. Still, his two goals in the semifinal against Germany stand out as some of the best in the tournament. 
• 4) Andres Iniesta: One of the greatest players of the tournament, and the one that shone the most in the best side of the tournament.
• 3) Italy: Until this tournament I had never supported Italy. But this was a great Italian team, offensive harmonious, with splendid players. One even felt sorry for them when they lost the final!
• 2) Andrea Pirlo: In my view the best player of the tournament, and the ageing captain of a great Italian side, that probably played his last tournament for the national team.
• 1) Ukraine: I had the privilege to visit the country for three matches, and met a well-prepared and friendly country, that more than lived up to being hosts. Thank you to Ukraine!

Ukraine left out

After having recently travelled to the Euro 2012 in Ukraine I was hoping to see the friendly Ukranian fans continue in the tournament. This seemed so much more urgent after Poland left the tournament as the worst host nation ever. At least Ukraine won their opening match against Sweden, but after losing their second match to France they needed a good result against England.
On the other hand England, with a tie and a victory, could play more controlled, and with the return of Wayne Rooney expectations were surely high.
Ukraine played a good match, but it was indeed Wayne Rooney who scored the winner for England after a silly mistake by the Ukranian goalkeeper. That said, the real executioner for the Ukranians was none other than the referee. Down 0-1 the Ukranians put pressure on the English, and scored a goal that clearly went over the line, but that was not allowed by the referee.
A very poor call.
Maybe England says that this is payback for the goal they had disallowed against Germany in the 2008 World Cup, but Ukraine did not deserve this payback for something they had no influence on.
A pity for Ukraine.
England ended up winning the group with two victories and a tie after a pathetic French side lost 2-0 to Sweden. This is quite impressive considering that England has not played well, but has been efficient and lucky. They will now face Italy, but should not be discounted. In fact, I believe this may be England's year.

Ukranian travels

Over the last week I have been in Ukraine, exclusively to watch football. A lot had been said in an exaggeratedly eager English media to put down the country, but truth is that the English should be ashamed.
Ukraine is a beautiful country, and under the most difficult circumstances, they have prepared as well as anybody for this tournament (and I am not saying that they do not have problems).

The first match we went to was Denmark-Portugal in the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv. We had travelled on an all-night train to get to Lviv, and without a reservation at all, got a hotel room at the first place we walked into.
So much for all the stories of sold-out places....
There was a good atmosphere in the small charming city of Lviv, with fans happily mingling and drinking beer before the match. That said, if I have to criticize anything in Lviv, it must be that the stadium is situated on a field quite a distance from the city, and although a caravan of busses transported people to and from the stadium, it was tedious to get there. Also, since there was nowhere to go near the stadium, we had to bring a few beers along which we could enjoy on the grass outside the stadium.
After Denmark's sensational victory against the Netherlands in their opener, expectations were high among the Danes. However, the Portuguese are strong, and after Denmark won the group ahead of them in the last two (World Cup and Euro) qualifiers, Portugal also went into the match with a high degree of respect for a Danish side that nevertheless is far inferior to the talented Portuguese. And Denmark did indeed seem to start best until Pepe brought Portugal ahead. When Helder Postiga brought Portugal ahead 2-0, I think most of us Danes in the stadium started to fear what could happen, but on the other hand we have to admire the tenacity of the Danes, and the poor attitude of the Portuguese (Cristiano Ronaldo, who missed some horrible chances, was later quoted as saying that they had thought that victory was pretty certain with 2-0). First, Nicklas Bendtner, who always scores against Portugal, scored a first for the Danes before halftime. And then in the second half Denmark put pressure on the increasingly nervous Portuguese, Bendtner scored the equalizer for Denmark, it seemed that Denmark could in fact take home a very important tie, or perhaps even better, a victory! All of us Danish fans were very excited!
But sometimes in football things are not to happen. Substitute Silvestre Varela scored the winner for Portugal in a bit coincidential situation, where he hit the ball perfectly.
A great disappointment for the Danes, but great for the Portuguese. In fact, after the match, trying to drown our sorrows, we ended up drinking beer and singing karaoke until the early morning with a group of Portuguese fans.
An excuse to party no matter if you win or lose.... That is really what all great football fans should consider such a tournament.

The second match we had tickets for was England-Sweden at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev. This is a beautiful stadium where the final of the tournament will be played, situated centrally in Kiev and with good accessibility. The atmosphere was also excellent before the match, with an overwhelming majority of merry Swedish fans in the zone we got in through (barely any English fans, which I guess had been directed in through another part. Apparently there were indeed some problems with English behavior in spite of the heavy police presence that we saw during the match). And wearing our Denmark shirts, we got a lot of sympathy from our Swedish neighbors.
We had extraordinary seats on second row behind the Swedish players box for what turned out as the best match of the tournament so far. I was happy to see Sweden play so well against an English side that in spite playing better than against France, still seems overly defensive. Still, Steven Gerrard is a crucial player for England, and gave the perfect pass with which Andy Carroll brought England ahead, and the English were leading at halftime to the disappointment of the many Swedish fans, as well as me.
But Sweden started the second half the best: only five minutes went by before Olof Mellberg equalized, and ten minutes later all Swedes were delighted when Mellberg scored again to bring Sweden deservedly on front.
Maybe this is England's year, as they are lucky at the right moments. Theo Walcott equalized for England on a goal where the Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson looked somewhat confused. After this, both teams had chances, until Danny Welbeck scored a spectacular and lucky goal for England. After this, Sweden seemed broken, and England was closer to 4-2 than Sweden on an equalizer. Sweden was out, but has been a good side in the tournament.

The two matches we had bought tickets for before the tournament were Denmark-Portugal and Sweden-England, and had originally planned to stay the last days in Kiev.
But on our way into the Sweden-England match we were approached by a young Canadian guy who offered us two tickets for the Germany-Denmark match in Lviv for 30 Euros a piece. Following the principle of not planning our trip, we immediately bought the tickets, and the next morning we had to go out on a mission to get train tickets back to Lviv, as well as a return to catch the flight we had from Kiev on the day after the match. Our luck did not leave us: we got the last tickets on the night train that same night, and return tickets on the new fast-train between Lviv on Kiev, arriving 3 hours before our flight.
And in Lviv, we again got a hotel room in the first place we walked into.
Not planning a trip is the best way of travelling.
The atmosphere in Lviv was if anything livelier than for the previous match, but this time the Danes were heavily outnumbered by a lot of German fans who in my view turned out to be some of the best fans I saw during this tournament. Friendly and with great songs, there was a slight feeling that Denmark had already been defeated before the match started.
Still, there were high hopes among the Danes knowing that the match also depended on the other match being played as the same time, Portugal-Netherlands, where the Dutch vice-World Champions had to win to avoid the total humiliation of exiting the tournament with three defeats.
I was surprised to see Germany play with controlled respect for the Danes, even after they went ahead on a goal by Lucas Podolski. But Denmark again fought back, and Michael Krohn-Dehli equalized for the excited Danish fans. In the meantime the Netherlands was leading Portugal, and Danes started singing happily. In the second half Denmark played fine, although too controlled as news came in that Portugal had equalized, since Denmark then needed a victory. There was not increased pressure, and instead, ten minutes before the end of the match, Lars Bender scored the winner for Germany.
In the meantime Portugal had scored a winner against the hopeless Dutch, and it was certain that Denmark would be out of the tournament together with the Netherlands.

It was of course a disappointment that Denmark was out, but in fact I think that Denmark did far better than I would have expected before the tournament.
And of course, it was a great experience to see these matches and experience the atmosphere of the tournament in a beautiful and friendly country such as Ukraine and with a great friend!

Summer football

The match between England and France had the atmosphere of a dentist´ waiting room. In a 1-1 match that had a very slow pace, it was an enormous disappointment to see an English team that did not want to do anything but defend, while France somehow wanted to win, but was without much creativity. This was more like a summer friendly match than the start of a great tournament!
Two great nations that live on their history, but who hardly deserve to be in the next round of the tournament, and I really hope Ukraine and Sweden (which ended 2-1 to the home side later) will dispatch these two sides, whose otherwise great fans seem to have become boring and without creativity as well.

"Dynamo"

I recently read the book, "Dynamo", by Andy Dougan.
I think that many people have heard part of this tale, at least the more popular version: the Ukranian footballers who in Nazi-occupied Kiev defied the Wehrmacht in what was to be a friendly football match they were supposed to lose, and died for it. Much of the myth around the legendary side Dynamo Kiev is built up on this. Andy Dougan largely follows the story; he tries to demystify the myth of the heroic players who defied all odds for their love of the game; most were men trying to survive a war, and had been working at a bakery managed by a sports-crazed Ukranian, who decided to make a football team from all the former stars to play in a football tournament set up by the German occupiers.
The team outperformed all, even humiliating a German side. But that is where the story somehow questions whether the team actually was torn apart because of that victory: many of the players continued in Kiev, some survived the war, and some were sent to Siretz, a prisoner camp known for its barbarism on the outskirts of Kiev. Three of the great players of Dynamo Kiev were executed at Siretz, a part so well described in the book that one feels the grueling suffering the prisoners went through. The ones shot were Ivan Kuzmenko, Alexei Klimenko and the great Nikolai Trusevich, who had been one of the best goalkeepers in the world at the time. And here, Mr. Dougan adds to the legend telling how Trusevich last words were “red sport will never die” and wearing his goalkeeper jersey!
The book is excellent, as it puts the dilemmas of the war into the trivial world of football; how football was seen both as a means to motivate people, and as an outlet for political protest in an environment where life was worthless (this book is interesting to read in conjunction with Simon Kuper’s “Ajax, the War and the Dutch”, also about the world of football during WWII).
If one is interested in sports, football and history, this is well-worth a read!

Yawn!!!

Italy-Australia and Switzerland-Ukraine get the price for the most amazingly boring matches in this World Cup, and certainly score high on the list of all-time most boring matches. What a waste of time!

Italy played boring as usual, and even one man up, the Australians were as much a threat as a lazy koala. In the end, the Italians had their usual luck, scoring on a non-existant penalty, properly taken care of by "Snotti".

Switzerland has become the first team ever to be eliminated from the World Cup, without conceding a single goal. Don't know how much I'd be proud of that one after last night. I counted two chances in the whole match, including extra time! And the Ukranians were no better, pointelssly playing the ball around. I have no idea how deserved it was for the Ukranians to win, but the fact is, that the Swiss certainly do not aim like Wilhelm Tell.

Italy-Ukraine are playing their quarterfinal next Friday evening. Another bore probably - I can't wait to be doing something else...

By the way, below is a very accurate description of the Australia-Italy game (courtesy of http://users.on.net/~billt/italianjob.gif):

Teams bound for the World Cup in Germany

The World Cup in Germany is approaching. Some teams are almost surely qualified - like Ghana... Actually, there is still a largelly theoretical chance that Ghana will not qualify (a large victory to Congo against South Africa, and Ghana losing against Cape Verde).

But after this weekend's qualifiers we have nine teams who we will be sure to see next year in Germany:

• Germany: The hosts are not playing qualifiers, but are not overly scary, after losing to Slovakia.
• Argentina: Already been qualified for a couple of months, and losing to Paraguay changes nothing.
• Brazil: The defending champs made sure they would be in Germany by destroying Chile 5-0.
• USA: This will be the fifth world cup in a row for the North Americans, who defeated their Mexican arch-rivals 2-0 in Ohio last Saturday.
• Ukraine: This will be the first world cup for the Ukrainians, after a 1-1 with Georgia. That they are the first European team to qualify besides the hosts, is only the more impressive when seeing their qualifying group 2, with teams such as Turkey, Greece and Denmark.
• Japan: The Japanese are no surprise qualifiers in the Asian zone, and will be a welcome team in Germany.
• Iran: Trailing Japan in the Asian qualifiers Stage 3 Group B, the Iranians will make their first appearance since France 1998, when their most memorable moment was to defeat a weak US side.
• South Corea: One of the strongest Asian sides since their 1986 appearance, they will have to fight hard to defend their semifinal spot of the World Cup in 2002.
• Saudi Arabia: Surely won the Group A of the Asian qualifiers Stage 3 Group B in front of South Corea.

Other countries, like Mexico, Tunisia, Portugal, Uzbekistan or Cameroon, are only one step away from certain participation in the World Cup next year. Furthermore, Australia is sure to get (yet another) a chance against South America's number 5 team, after defeating Samoa 7-0 in the first play-off of the Oceania qualifying zone.

Denmark not to Germany 06

Denmark lost the all important game against Greece. And while Ukraine won, the Eastern European's are ahead in the group with 14 points, with Greece trailing second with 8 points.
Denmark is on a disappointing 4th place, with only 6 points. With some very hard games still to go (Turkey away, Greece at home, Ucraine away), Denmark looks far away from Germany. As a Dane, this is hugely disappointing: why have the world cup next door, if we won't be able to see our own country!?
In a recent poll on the Danish football site bold.dk, 57 pct. thought that Denmark would not qualify. I have a hard time being optimistic, and I must say I agree with the majority on the poll.