Fuck.
As per usual then. Though it doesn’t help when the referee gives one Russian a second yellow card only to withdraw it after his linesman convinces him the ball had gone outside the line, when it hadn’t. But on the whole Oranje played its usual overconfident, lazy game.
Fuck.
It’s at times like these that I miss Steve Gilliard, as I would’ve given my eyeteeth to see what he would’ve made of the Turkey-Croatia match. His blog was the best place I found on the net to talk football during the Worldcup two years ago and the previous Eurocup four years ago, and I miss the cameraderie of it. This game would’ve been great fodder for Steve and his commenters, something we would’ve relished liveblogging and discussing.
Because, wow, what a weird game this was. First we get some seventyfive minutes of Turkey playing the defense game, content to let Croatia attack and play all their balls back to the keeper, then they finally decide they have to attack and the game gets lively, but still ends in a goalless draw. In extra time the Turks played much stronger, getting various chances to score, only to see the Croats lob one in after their keeper made a stupid mistake, one minute before time. Desperately they attack, but Croatia intercedes and counters, turn out to be offside and some ten seconds before the end of extra time the Turkish keeper takes the free kick, gets it to
a Turkish attacker, who hands it over to his mate who shoots and scores. Penalties. Croatia misses twice, Turkey doesn’t and their keeper stops the last Croatian chance to stay in the game and turns from villain into hero.
Turkey’s through to the semi-finals, Croatia is gutted and going home after believing they had done it one minute before the end of extra time. What a game.
The last of the group matches for Oranje and the least exciting, as we’re already through and the “b-team” is starting. First half was a bit hesitant, got better by the end, but still goalless by halftime. By then the other game, much more interesting than this one but you have to stay loyal to your own team, had already decided the Romanians’ fate, as the French got a penalty against and Italy scored. Once Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Robin van Persie scored in the second half it was all over. Romania couldn’t come back and Oranje remained unbeaten, but what a pity Italy got to go through instead; the Romanians deserved it more.
Seeing the Oranje “b-team”, though hesitant and awkward at first, still grow as a team during the game and seeing how good some of those lesser players actually are, gives me great hope for the rest of the tournament. We’re not just dependent on one or two genius players this time. We even seem to have a decent defense for a change!
Four-one against France. After the three-nil victory over Italy with which Oranje started the tournament, the big worry was that this was a fluke, a one-off. With this game Oranje proved it wasn’t, that they won against Italy not because Italy was so bad (though they were) but because the team was so good. Against France they had to struggle harder to win, but they still won. So Oranje is now through to the quarter finals and the country is very very happy indeed for a team nobody had much trust in before the tournament started.
Bloody hell.
3-0? Against Italy? The world champion? If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it. All respect to Marco van Basten, the coach, who everybody had already given up on. If you can thrash the world champion like this, you have proved all your critics wrong.
But damn, I thought my heart would burst at some point in the game. It is so un-Dutch to be so commanding in a game I kept expecting the Italians to equalise and then win the game. But they didn’t. For once we had a team that wasn’t just focused on attacking, but which was incredibly strong in defense too. Unbelievable. What a way to start Euro 2008.