Today we saw our first team eliminated from the tournament, a relegation-style scrum played in a monsoon, and even more off field drama from Portugal. Lets recap, after the jump.
Portugal 3 - Czech Republic 1: Apparently Portugal's team is valued at $600 million dollars, which is absolutely ridiculous to think about. Which probably explains why Roman Abramovich has made it his goal to employ about half of them. This game was kind of scrappy, and Portugal were somewhat flattered by the scoreline. A team with better finishing than the Czechs would have punished some of the mistakes made by PortuChelsea's backline. Botswinga is going to get exposed in England if he doesn't pay a little more attention to his defensive duties. Ronaldo at least put some focus back on the field by netting his first marker of the tournament. Deco and Quaresma scored the other two for the winning side, while Sionko netted one for the Czechs. The soap opera cranked up again, however, when it was announced that Big Phil Scolari is taking over at Chelsea. I'm not sure its a huge distraction, but the timing seems curious. What if Portugal choke again in the latter stages of the tournament? What exactly does timing the announcement today do for Roman, besides keeping his name in the tabloids? Big Phil can ponder what to do with Nicolas Anelka next year at the Bridge over the next few days, as Portugal have qualified for the next round.
Turkey 2 - Switzerland 1: Due to the downpour, this one was like a dour Bolton - Wigan affair, but was enlivened by a bit of drama at the end. Arda Turan buried one deep into injury time to eliminate the Swiss, exacting a bit of revenge for their elimination in qualification for the last World Cup. No fights today, either. The Turks now face a do or die match with the Czechs in their final game to determine who advances into the next round.
Linkage:
Lego football highlights of the Germany Poland game, fan violence not included.
Ballack gets a bit of service. Hey yo!
Don't let Jim Rome get wind of this. David Villa fractured his finger while hugging Torres in a goal celebration.
Non Euro 2008 related:
US roster announced for the qualifiers against Barbados. More Adu, less EJ please.
Beckhams are the cheapest tippers in Hollywood. [via Red Card]
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9 comments:
as i was at work for the portugal game, i cant judge ronaldo's performance. but i trust the BBC guys and their consensus was it was one of his more lackluster all around performances even though he scored and set up goals.
now according to fox soccer his game was 'genius' and 'proved he is the best player in the world'
i am REALLY inclined to believe the former
You would be correct. Nothing special. Unless you think diving on the slightest contact makes someone special.
No, It just makes you Italian.
I'll be here all week, try the pork chops.
I watched the Portugal game when I got home from work -- thank god for DVD -- and I haven't seen that much diving since I was into SCUBA.
Ronaldo took a slight whack to the chin from a Czech defender's hand and after hamming it up as though he took a crane kick to the chin from Mr Miyagi, he flopped to the ground. It was as though his massive chin injury caused him to lose control over his legs.
It was embarrassing.
I hope Ronaldo gets carded and sent off in some critical moment for diving later in the tourney, then fucks off to Real Madrid.
Boswinga... Chelsea's next great defensive liability
Speaking of diving, here's Salon's sports columnist complaining about it although I think he's wrong to single out the play that he did and to not say anything about Ronaldo:
http://www.salon.com/sports/daily/feature/2008/06/12/soccer/index.html?source=newsletter
I don't want to re-open our horribly executed cards-after-the-fact debate from the fledgling days at UF, but a yellow to C Ronaldo for that faked de-toothing issued this morning might start to clear some of that up.
I used to begrudgingly respect the guy because he's fucking talented as all get out, but after yesterday I re-remembered that he's really just a twit.
Amusingly (for us at least), Cardillo wrote that C.Ronaldo was his player of the match yesterday. *sigh*
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