portugal 1-2 greece
It's the curtain-raiser of euro'04! The result was a major upset as portugal were the favs(since they have a better team on paper and they're the hosts). Watching the match really made me think a lot. I, with many others, never thought greece could pull a win on the hosts because from the matches I watched them play in the past, their standard wasn't near the way they played yesterday. I thought they were just like russian players who only had stamina and liked to use their body size to outplay their opponents. The match was an eye-opener for me because the greeks played great attacking, smooth-flowing football! Their strike force was also playing well with the strikers very comfortable when they're with the ball and terrorising the portugal defence before scoring the 1st goal of euro'04. The goal was beautifully taken from just outside the box from where the ball went to the bottom left corner of the goalposts (the goalkeeper simply had no chance sia). That demoralised the portugese team who were already rather depressed before the match even started. What mattered more was the hunger for victory that all the greek players displayed (something lacking in most of the portugese players). The only portugese player who impressed me was Christiano Ronaldo, the Man-Utd player I initially hated most. His style of play(dribbling too much unnecessarily), irritated me all the time as it made him seem like a very haughty youngster who hasn't seen the world. Yesterday's match changed my perspective of him. When he was introduced into the team in the 2nd half, he played well and brought the ball down to the by-line many many times but he always cross the ball into the penalty box without even looking to see if there were any of his team-mates present(of course, there wasn't) and his efforts were all wasted. Initially I thought it was very stupid of him and I wondered what he was really thinking! Later in the match, when he blew a good chance to score and the camera zoomed-in on him, I saw his rather teary eyes and realised he was the only player in the portugese team who possessed the determination to bring the hosts back to win the match. After much thinking, actually the fault might not lie in him! Since his team-mates know he will dribble down the left-flank and cross back into the penalty box, why aren't they running into position to receive it?? Furthermore, the first thing he did when he came on was to concede a penalty(poor thing...). Towards the last 10mins of the match, he managed to score a goal but it wasn't enough to help his country. The camera man zoomed in on the portugese fans in the stadium after the match and most of them were teary-eyed, ready to cry. This is how passionate fans can get about football! Everyone supports their team with the faith that they have a chance to lift the cup in the end of the competition. The sad thing is that there is quality in the portugese squad and to me, yesterday's defeat was a result of wrong tactics employed by the manager(who I din really think was great, haha). The strikers weren't doing enough as well. But the result is fine with me as I don't really support portugal...hehe...'cos Figo's attitude just isn't right and good enough to earn people's respect!
posted by sc @
Gran Torino - Jamie Cullum
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