It's official. Enter Italy and exit
Spain. Spain can beat Italy in the final if they want, but they are
said to be boring by mainstream international media. This information
is actually 18 months in arrears. They should have realised Barcelona
were faded when we said it. Barcelona is Spain. What we did not see
coming was Andreas Pirlo. By the same window, exit Xavi Hernandez.
The Euro 2012 finals get to fold on
Sunday after England surpassed many people's expectations and drew
criticism from within of Roy Hodgson's tactics, as if Harry Redknapp
could have done better. The English were undone by the ever overrated
pair of Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard. They could have done better
without the duo.
It must be said that the Spain versus
Portugal semi-final resembled a Barca against Real Madrid El Classico
clash given the predictable tension and void tactics. The embarrasing
amateur mistake by the Portuguese coach of leaving the best for last
stole the show.
How noble it would have been for
Cristiano Ronaldo to score the final and winning penalty. As he never
lived to see the moment, all were reminded of always putting one's
best foot forward. The least he could have done, was to let the
showman take the 3rd one.
Generally, the tourney put paid my
fears I wrote about in one of my last articles; that international
football is becoming extinct. Save for the few matches of smaller
football nations and the Italy versus Germany semi-final, the Euro
2012 was a cold siesta.
For starters, how does any teams in the
universe, boasting of Wesley Sneider, Robin van Pierse, Rafael van
der Vaart, van Bommel and Nigel de Jong, to name but a few, fail to
win or draw a single match?
National team football needs young and
upcoming players of great ambitions. The overpaid experienced
professional will keep wasting a lot of our time and money. One can
only hope that Spain have seen their last victory in the tournament.
As much I am not an Italian fan, it is a choice between a
right-handed and left-handed devil.
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