Euro 2008 Wrap-Up

*All* the predictions I made for the quarter finals in my last blog were wrong. My bad: I had stuck to the cliches. Never have I been so happy to be wrong, though. Euro 2008 was a scintillating tournament - perhaps the highest-quality international tournament ever. In Europe at least, there is very little to pick between the top teams. Only Austria, Switzerland, and Greece made no mark. Oh, and England are probably hoping Don Fabio can get their house in order: give the quality of football played in Euro 2008, qualification for the 2010 world cup will be a non-trivial undertaking.

--Spain: I can't stop oooh-ing and ahhh-ing. The whole team played the beautiful game. Torres' goal in the final was astounding. I have to wonder if Liverpool are a good enough club for him, and how many more seasons Rafa will be able to keep him before the really big boys come knocking. The argument in the media has been that Marcos Senna, rather than Xavi, should be the player of the tournament. It is heartening to see midfielders, rather than strikers, get credit for once. 

--Germany: Massively over-achieved, as usual. Although they are hard to like, all credit to them. Craft vs. graft the commentators called the final. Nothing captured the German spirit more than the bleeding Ballack's reluctance to leave the field to get cleaned-up. 

--Turkey: Great value for money. The way they played in the semi-final when missing as many as 9 players due to injury or suspension really shames Italy, who chose to go negative when missing only two players due to suspensions. I'm an Italy fan, so, please, Lippi, help the Azzurri get their act together. 

--Portugal can't hide behind the excuse that the Germans were too tall: the same was true for Spain, and they won anyway. C. Ronaldo still needs to prove himself on the international stage.

--Italy: If you play for penalties, (a) practice them, and (b) have men, not boys like di Natale, take them. Donadoni, as a player, himself missed in 1990 against Argentina. He should have known, and prepared, better. He paid for the fiasco with his job. 'Nuff said. 

--Mauro Camoranesi: In my opinion, the only Italian who had a good tournament. He ran his socks off, and his crosses were inch-perfect. (Pity Toni was in couldn't-score-in-a-brothel form. I wonder if playing in the Bundesliga instead of Serie A / Premiership / La Liga has anything to do with it. ) I'm not sure why Donadoni doesn't play him for the whole 90 min. His confident/arrogant penalty in the quarterfinal was reminiscent of Romario's in the 1994 World Cup final shoot-out. For that one act, Mauro will have a place in my heart for ever and ever, just like Romario does. Yup, we're on first-name basis now :)

Finally, a word about Wimbledon. Everyone's going on about how Rafa has closed the gap with Federer and how this will be his year. I'm going to commit myself now and say Federer will win in four sets.