Just as Home Food is bliss when had after a long time so is a match like Holland v/s Italy when you watch it after a drab affair like France v/s Romania.
It was a fantastic contest, although the scoreline suggests otherwise. Had Italy taken the chances that came along their way the scoreline would not have looked so bad.
If someone would have asked me before yesterday that if there was a team that could out muscle the Italians? i would have said "None".But now i have a different answer. Dutch beat Italy at its own game yesterday. They fought like gladiators for every ball. Surely thats not the way the Dutch used to play before.
Italy's defence was made to look pedestrian. Now when was the last time U saw their defence as pedestrain? We all knew that Defence was not Holland's forte, but it was Holland which looked the more solid of the two in defence.
Italy's defence looked extremely vulnerable.Maybe they were affected by the absence of their charismatic skipper "Cannavaro" or they were taken aback by the physical game that Dutch played or could be a combination of both.
Coming to specific players, Schiedner, Kuyt, Van Bronchost,Van Der Wart were all excellent for Holland, Van Nistelrooy was good as usual. Van Der Sar had a good game.Readers would do well to remember that the influential "Robben" is still injured.
Pirlo was good in patches, he was not allowed to be his usual self, Nor was the Workhorse "Gattuso". Kudos to the Dutch for achieving that. Coming to the striker "Luca Toni" i am somehow not that impressed with him. I dont follo the Bundesliga where this guy plays, but from whatever i have seen of him i feel he is overrated like "Thierry Henry".
All in all a Nice game of football, where we had a lot of End to End stuff. The Dutch were slightly better in Defence and special in attack on the given day. If they can sustain this kind of a play, then they can go the distance for sure.Coming to Italy, i feel i they will still qualify as i dont see France beating either Italy or Holland.
A rocking start to the Euro.Hope Euro rocks till the end.
8 comments
Deepthi, thnks for bringing this point up.
Players playing for a country is something which has been taken too far by the Media.If u look at it objectively players play to satisfy their own ego. Fame is the biggest factor even in Olympics.
And there is nothing wrong in playing for oneself after all sport is played by the Individual for enjoyment. Divisions for the sake of competition has now become too big that players are expected to die for the country on the field. I see nothing wrong in players playing for themselves. Lets look at sport as sport.
I agree with playing for oneself is good but when divisions are made u shld play for the country i suppose..rather than playing for oneself.suppose football world champs are france...so players shld be proud for themselves bcos they won..does france shld feel proud bcos they won the world championship. if it is this way it is simple that the country which has gud revenue wins the world cup.
Deepthi, its not all money as u think it to be. The players whom u r referrin to are those who came a generation back to settle down in France. Football at club level is highly commercial( Money does not guarantees success on all occasions, U simply have to look at Real Madrid to confirm that, they stuggled a couple of seasons back).Football at International Level is not commercialized to that xtent. So u can still watch the Euro and Njoy.
gud article Ram.
initially thought Italy would easily go through but surprized with the result[3-0].
now they are at top of group
kudos to Basten.
Sridhar Ji,Thnks. Keep coming and Keep posting.
i don't much follow foosbal...pchh
Thts ok Santu, I suggest you start watching it and u will fall in love with it for sure:)
