So it finally came down to Spain vs Germany. Two of footballs power houses. Spain being the chronic underachievers and Germans , some may say, over achievers. I would usually take "over achievement" as a positive; because that suggests that Germans usually played beyond their potential and raised the bar of the game each time to achieve what they did in all these years.
Normally I would have supported Germany, but last Sunday I was for Spain. For one I wanted them to release their "chokers" tag. It's like I would usually support Yankees but if Red Sox has not won for 88 years and meet Yankees in finals, I would root for them. (Remember 2005? or was it 04. Anyways)
I have sympathy (which I know I shouldn't) for chokers. Like South Africa in cricket. How such a talented lot end up screwing everytime, is still a mystery for me?
Coming back to the finals, I would have preferred a higher score than 1-0. Nevertheless Torres's superb flick of his toes more than made up. Although the score of 1-0 did not really do justice to the dominance of Spain in the game, it also did show some German resilience.
Finally more than anything else Soccer won. Euro showed us that Soccer is alive and "kicking". The Europeans are shedding off that extra cautious 'defensive' approach they acquired in last few decades. The high scoring games, barring the finals, showed that. Also Turkey was the story of the tournament as far as I am concerned. And the way they made mockery of so called top teams, goes to show soccer wouldn't be a monopoly of Latinos and Euros for too long, hopefully.
It was fun 21 days. Can't wait for 2010 WC. Nothing gets bigger than that.
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