An American in Paris
An interesting (biased-American) take on the UEFA Euro 2008 Tournament going on right now.
The following is an email exchange to and from my uncle James who is living in the south of France with his French wife and dual-citizen child.
I wrote to him after the Italians beat the French 2-0.
"Italy and France. That was an ass kicking.
But those Dutch look unstoppable. I love their style of play. They're like the University of Hawaii of Soccer.
:-) "
His response:
"HOLLAND RULES!
It's called 'Total Football'. The Dutch have mastered the art of passing triangles, interior passing in the offensive zone and utilising the mid- and backfield to generate scoring opportunities. It is the pure Continental style that is very much like Soviet-style ice hockey.
Holland is tiny (14 million at the most) and always produce great teams. If they were 140 million, they would be unstoppable. Thank God they are small or we'd be seeing a lot of 'oranje' and a lot less, yellow and bleu (azzurri too!).
I love it when they beat the big teams, much like when Portugal win (another small country but unfortunately, two Brazilians are a part of the team, including the coach (Solanos) and a starter (Deco).
FRANCE: LA VIE EGO-TIC
What a terrible team without Zizou (not Steve but Zinadine). They thought they were the best team going into this tournament, especially players with no experience in International play (Benzema and Coupet, the goalie, who both played for L'OL and that's about it.). No cohesion, no concentration, no coaching and no conquests (struggling on that last 'c' word, sorry about that). They were pathetic. The country is going to rethink its experiment with players from the banlieus (the poor suburbs were most of these guys come from). It's a problem similar to USA basketball - street ball always loses to fundamentals and 'team' concepts. Team USA has fared poorly in major competitions because of it.
ITALIA: They are a dodgy lot.
Gattuso is getting on my nerves. I don't like de Rossi and Matterazzi is an ass. Luco Toni rocks and Rosso is my favorite player right now.
Tons of potential and could win the whole thing. Don't expect it to happen if Cannavaro, the world's best defender, continues to be sidelined with a leg injury.
Italy could face Holland in the semis - what a treat that would be.
PREDICTION: Holland v. Croatia
They are playing the best right now and are healthy.
Ciao for now."
The following is an email exchange to and from my uncle James who is living in the south of France with his French wife and dual-citizen child.
I wrote to him after the Italians beat the French 2-0.
"Italy and France. That was an ass kicking.
But those Dutch look unstoppable. I love their style of play. They're like the University of Hawaii of Soccer.
:-) "
His response:
"HOLLAND RULES!
It's called 'Total Football'. The Dutch have mastered the art of passing triangles, interior passing in the offensive zone and utilising the mid- and backfield to generate scoring opportunities. It is the pure Continental style that is very much like Soviet-style ice hockey.
Holland is tiny (14 million at the most) and always produce great teams. If they were 140 million, they would be unstoppable. Thank God they are small or we'd be seeing a lot of 'oranje' and a lot less, yellow and bleu (azzurri too!).
I love it when they beat the big teams, much like when Portugal win (another small country but unfortunately, two Brazilians are a part of the team, including the coach (Solanos) and a starter (Deco).
FRANCE: LA VIE EGO-TIC
What a terrible team without Zizou (not Steve but Zinadine). They thought they were the best team going into this tournament, especially players with no experience in International play (Benzema and Coupet, the goalie, who both played for L'OL and that's about it.). No cohesion, no concentration, no coaching and no conquests (struggling on that last 'c' word, sorry about that). They were pathetic. The country is going to rethink its experiment with players from the banlieus (the poor suburbs were most of these guys come from). It's a problem similar to USA basketball - street ball always loses to fundamentals and 'team' concepts. Team USA has fared poorly in major competitions because of it.
ITALIA: They are a dodgy lot.
Gattuso is getting on my nerves. I don't like de Rossi and Matterazzi is an ass. Luco Toni rocks and Rosso is my favorite player right now.
Tons of potential and could win the whole thing. Don't expect it to happen if Cannavaro, the world's best defender, continues to be sidelined with a leg injury.
Italy could face Holland in the semis - what a treat that would be.
PREDICTION: Holland v. Croatia
They are playing the best right now and are healthy.
Ciao for now."