Euro 2008 Review Part I

The recently concluded European Championship has been hailed a successful one due to the attacking stand that most teams seemed to adopt. Many teams employed good tactics with far more technical players than before. This will be a 4 part review of the tournament. First off, the group stages.

This could be the first championship that I can remember where none of the host nation got through the group stage. Switzerland performed poorly in all their matches and their quality was apparent when their star man, Alexander Frei had to hobble off within 20 minutes of the opening match with a hamstring injury. The defensive solidarity that the Swiss showed during Germany’06 was nowhere to be seen. Austria performed slightly better but eventually got knocked out as exuberance and panache means nothing in a sport where quality stands tall. The Germans and Croats can count themselves lucky that the Austrian lack a finisher of real quality.

As the reigning champion going into this tournament, Greece was by far the most defensive of teams. That they were never a force going forward is a fact that was never going to be doubted. Without a point and only a goal to show in the entire group stage was embarrassing. Romania held the much fancied Italians and French to stalemates but was not enough to advance to the quarterfinals. Their dependence on Mutu and Chivu was much too obvious. It was easy for opposing teams to crowd these two players and thus nullified any threat the Romanians thought they have. But time is on the Eastern European country as many of their players are relatively young and if kept together, they will surely pose a bigger threat in the coming tournaments.

Age was the dominating factor in the dismissal of France, Czech Republic and Sweden. With more than half of the team on the wrong side of 30, these three teams found the going tough as the matches comes thick and fast. Injuries to Vieira and Henry put paid to France’s demise. Yet these were calculated risk that Domenech took when he announced the squad. Flamini would have provided the impetus needed in the middle of the park. Movement from back to front was to slow and this helped the opposing to easily regroup whenever there is a counter attack. Czech’s failure also reads from the same problem although their ultimate failure stems from one of the younger and better players. Petr Cech already had a forgettable season culminating in another error that the Turks profited. At 35, Henrik Larsson would surely have played in his last tournament. The future does not look too bright for the Swedish team as Ibrahimovic looks to be the only world class player in their side.

continue in part II