Football...it can be a cruel sport sometimes, isn't it? I learned that again when watching the Switzerland-Turkey match. It was raining in Basel and though the weather became better in the second-half, the heavens were not smiling on the co-hosts. I am an emotional person and I am not afraid to say it. More on the match later.
We have the first national team in the quarter-finals. After Portugal-Czech Republic match at Geneva, Portugal becomes the first to qualify for the quarter-finals with a match to go (and that will be up against the co-hosts Switzerland) with a 3-1 win. Well, all the talk will be probably be about Cristiano Ronaldo on how his performance (including how he set up one of the goals; I watched it and it was amazing) and why he is one of the best footballers around at the moment. Coach Luis Felipe Scolari is understandably pleased and he paid tribute to his Portugal team's second half improvement. For his counterpart Karel Brueckner, the match was more than just Cristiano Ronaldo.
Now we have an interesting situation of sorts after all of those in Group A have a match to go. Penalty shoot-out could decide Group A. That is if the Czech Republic and Turkey draw in their final group matches. UEFA's new regulation states that 'if two teams playing each other in the final round of group matches draw their game and are level overall on points, goal difference and goals scored, and with no other teams involved, then their finishing position will be decided by penalties'. There will be no extra-time like in knockout matches. A draw at full-time, then penalties. The Czechs have good records at penalties as they has won three out of three attempts, twice as the former Czechoslovakia and once as the Czech Republic. In fact, when the penalty shootout was first introduced in the 1976 European Championships, they beat the then-West Germans on that to win the title. Yes (I am not kidding you and you can check in the link in this paragraph), there was once upon a time when the Germans actually lost in a penalty shootout...but that was the only time to date.
Back to more from the Portugal-Czech Republic match. Czech coach Karel Brueckner said that his side will still make it in their do-or-die clash with Turkey. A win over the Turks will see them through, no matter the results from the Switzerland-Portugal match in Basel. After his side had entered the quarter-finals, he had promptly begin the mind-games by talking up on potential semi-final opponents Germany.
Sigh. If I have to use only one word to describe the Switzerland-Turkey match in Basel, that is it. The theme for the tournament is 'Expect Emotions'. Indeed. It lived up to its billing on a rain-soaked pitch. When it first looked like the co-hosts have a realistic chance of advancing to the quarter-finals (with Portugal, which did in the earlier match before theirs), Turkey's Arda Turan has broken the Swiss hearts and making it 2-1 in the end. Sending the co-hosts out with a match to go, at the dying seconds! My feelings were muted after the goal was scored in the extra-time. It comes when 'Arda broke clear on the left, cut inside and beat goalkeeper Diego Benaglio from the edge of the area with the help of a cruel deflection off the boot of centreback Patrick Muller'.
Switzerland was unlucky to lose in their opener against the Czech Republic, and it's the same against Turkey. Just like in the opener, they have clear chances but it was not to be. Anyhow, the goal in the first-half which gave Switzerland the lead...maybe in view of the bad weather (it only became better in the second-half), it has to be the strangest goal I had ever seen so far being scored in the tournament. It's like someone threw the ball near to the goal and it stuch down there for a while before someone kicks it into the net. I don't know, it's like after captain Alex Frei had to be brought off the pitch in the opener, Switzerland has lost its triumph card (Frei is a striker). We need an award for the most unluckiest national team in the tournament (so far).
For Switzerland coach Jakob Kuhn (who will bow out after the tournament is over to make way for Ottmar Hitzfeld), vowing the party will still go on. Turkey coach Fatih Terim praised the goalscorer who would break the Swiss fans' hearts by hailing Arda Turan as a potential world-beater (given all the more during Terim's stint as Galastasaray coach, he knew Turan and knew of his potential).
Onto other news making the rounds at the tournament. The tournament so far (on and off the pitch) has mainly delighted UEFA president Michel Platini. The case of bad weather threatening a football match came into question after the Switzerland-Turkey match and UEFA has revealed their contingency plans in case really bad weather threatens a match. So while there were reports about the Swiss fans turned up to see their national team on their team bus after the match, what is not-so-nice is that the police made arrests following violent incidents between supporters after the Switzerland v Turkey match. Speaking of potential fan violence, police in Austria have brace for potential trouble ahead of the Croatia-Germany match at Klagenfurt.
I mentioned about Alex Frei earlier here. He will be facing surgery for the knee ligament tear which prematurely ended his involvement in the tournament. Maybe this is not fit to be here and under news updates not relating to the tournament but, an interview published today in Germany (no, it's not from Bild) on Germany captain Michael Ballack comparing himself to the retired Zinedine Zidane (and hinting he will like to coach the national team one day). There was some sort of controversy after Lukas Podolski's two goals against Poland given in view that the German international was born in Poland (and came to Germany with his family when he was very young) that a Polish politician threatening to withdraw Podolski's Polish passport when the man himself...does not have one in the beginning.
Euro 2008 thought of the day: The fact that the 'Nati' (the nickname for the Swiss national team) came close to scoring in their opener and the one against Turkey, shows that they can rise to the big occasions. In fact, I used to read somewhere that injured captain Alex Frei said something like after they were eliminated in the 2006 World Cup round-of-16 to Ukraine on penalties, the Swiss public has see the national team as not a 'little Swiss team' anymore. A new found respect for the 'Nati'. Coming into the tournament, they are better than their fellow co-hosts Austria in terms of pedigree and the FIFA rankings can prove it. Many in the 'Nati' play their club football outside of the country and some even play in Europe's major leagues (England, Italy, Germany) as well.
Bundesliga uber alles at Euro 2008 (And with players from the German league on 15 of the 16 teams no league is more widely represented. There have been players from the German domestic league in the starting line-ups of almost all the teams that have played of the tournament. Only Spain have no Bundesliga players in their squad.)
Austria great Krankl embraces bitter truth (When Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria drew Germany as Group B opponents last December, a treasured memory surged in the hearts of every soccer-loving Austrian, and their mouths excitedly formed the word “Cordoba”.)
Euro 2008: The Lighter Side (European Championship, offers intense matches, the misses and the Goal's. Of course not to forget the defeat, debates and controversies. Goal.com's Atishay Agarwal, looks deeper and discovers the lighter side of the Euro 2008.)
Goal.com Profile: Lukas Podolski (Goal.com profiles Bayern Munich's Lukas Podolski, who returned to form with a match-winning brace against the country of his birth, Poland, in Germany's opening game of Euro 2008...)
"Little genius" Modric ready to live up to the hype (Croatia's "little genius" Luka Modric will be in the limelight on Thursday as he and his countrymen go up against three-time champions Germany in a B match whose outcome will have a huge bearing on the outcome of Group B. "I know I am going to be under close observation," said the youngster, who next season will star in the English Premiership with Tottenham.)
