With better communications, its now possible to watch international tournament in South America And the Africa Cup of Nations. With that in mind, I've to say that this year's Euro 2008 really exceeded my expectations and was as close as I’ve to come watching practically every game in a tournament. Teams seemed to have the freedom to just enjoy playing without the pressure one sees infect players at the World Cup. This was especially surprising in the knock-out stages. Typically, teams would in the past score one goal and shut shop for the rest of the 90 minutes to protect that goal. Cue tedious back-passes etc. At Euro2008 each knock stage so 2 or more goals and event the Spain-Italy game still saw plenty of chances. 4 teams (Spain, Holland, Turkey, Russia) really played real football and percentage teams (Italy, Germany, Greece) i.e. teams that are built on defensive play, were either sent packing early or didn't compete against the real football teams.
I hope more international tournaments are played this way. I think its no coincident that no British team was at Euro 2008-international football requires a bit more guile than kicking the ball upfield and being able to run up and down the pitch.
1 comment:
I missed the finals as i happened to have attend another function. I hear it was a nail biting game.
Hongera the winners
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