» Join Speeple | People | Groups | Blogs | News
» Join Speeple | People | Groups | Blogs | News
Published: Sat, 28 June 2008, 07:00, also tagged: europe, sport, football, germany, final, vienna, soccer, russia, spain, turkey, austria, uefa, euro 2008, european cup, андрей аршавин
The Euro 2008 football tournament is finally wrapping up with the final to be played in Vienna this Sunday.
Spain comfortably beat a disappointing Russia, a team which promised so much but just simply didn’t deliver. Russian team play and energy was non-existent in comparison to their previous two matches against the Netherlands and Sweden. One key reason I believe is because their man of the moment, Andrei Arshavin, wasn’t really involved in the game. On previous matches he was orchestrating the Russian play, this time he was silent.
Spain hasn’t won a major football honour since 1964 when they won the European Cup. Amazingly, this is even further back than England’s victory in the 1966 World Cup.
Published: Mon, 23 June 2008, 17:51, also tagged: sport, football, italy, germany, soccer, russia, netherlands, spain, portugal, euro 2008, penalties, oranje, андрей аршавин, gus hiddink
Gus Hiddink's impressive Russian team produced the upset of the tournament by beating a strong Netherlands side 3 goals to 1. The Dutch were simply outplayed in every area of the game and the Russians on fire. Great team effort, the Russian players didn't appear to tire, and Andrei Arshavin's talent was something to behold.
For the Oranje it must be a bitter pill to swallow after brushing aside two teams that reached the FIFA World Cup final in 2006. I honestly can't take anything away from Russia's performance, they were the better team.
The Spain, Italy quarter final promised a lot, but delivered next to nothing. Italy must bare most of the criticism for a poor using defence minded tactics. I wonder if it was actually their plan to play for penalties, which means the Spanish victory in the penalty shoot-out is all the sweeter.