Reuters Soccer Blog

Hiddink factor should give Spain pause for thought

Spain are trying to keep the lid on the euphoria after their breaking their quarter-final curse with a penalty shoot-out victory over world champions Italy.

Because of the vagaries of the draw for Euro 2008, “la furia roja” now face Russia in the semi-finals, the team they beat 4-1 in their opening match of the tournament.

On paper, Spain have everything running in their favour. Psychologically they have the upper hand given the result of the group game, team morale has been boosted because of the win over Italy, they have no injuries and the first choice players remain fresh after being rested in the final group game against Greece.

Spain triumphed in both their previous semi-final appearances in the competition, over Hungary in 1964 and Denmark in 1984.

But with Guus Hiddink in the opposition dug-out, Spain would do well to be on their guard. The Dutchman was, of course, the coach of South Korea when they knocked Spain out of the 2002 World Cup. He also took an unrated Australia to the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup where they were desperately unlucky not to derail Italy and led the Netherlands to the semis of France 1998.

Hiddink is an expert on Spanish football having coached Real Madrid, Valencia and Betis and he is sure to have a few aces up his sleeve ready for Thursday’s showdown. With Andrei Arshavin in sparkling form following his return from his ban and Roman Pavlyuchenko on form up front, Russia could go all the way.

Great train journeys of Euro 2008

As a reporter at Euro 2008 you’re only as good as the team or teams you are covering and after Sweden and Romania’s elimination from the finals, I was the first of the Reuters team to pack my bags and go home.

It was disappointment tinged with relief as the call came after Sweden’s defeat by Russia. Exhaustion was beginning to catch up with me, so my own bed in Brussels was a very attractive offer.

So what did I think about Euro 2008? It was very enjoyable. I met lots of people, learned a lot and crated many memories … oh yes, the soccer was ok too.

Two of the most interesting, but bizarre, lessons I learned were:

Firstly, if you leave the electronic key to your hotel bedroom next to your mobile phone in your pocket, it won’t work when you get back to your hotel at 1am and you have to wake up the owner to let you in.

The second thing is that first class and business class mean two very different things in Austria and Switzerland when you travel.

Let me explain.

Hey UEFA, leave them finals alone!

As someone once famously said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

They were not talking about the finals of the European Championship at the time, but the phrase certianly applies. UEFA, under pressure it must be said from some of their 53 member associations, are weighing up the pros and cons of expanding the Euros to either a 20 or 24-team tournament.

I think that would be totally wrong.

The current 16-team championship is the perfect size and the perfect format. And 31 matches in three weeks should be enough to satiate the appetite of even the most desperate of fans.

As we all know, the competition format is simple and logical and because just the top two advance teams have to come and attack.

Add another four or eight teams and we get into the complicated nonsense we had to endure in the 24-team World Cups from 1982 to 1994 because it’s not easy to reduce 24 teams to a 16-team knockout stage. Defensive, cagey football, from teams who shouldn’t be in the finals in the first place will damage the event.

Ronaldo’s heart set on Madrid. Time for United to cash in?

Cristiano Ronaldo told Real Madrid what they wanted to hear when he reacted to Portugal’s Euro 2008 exit with a clear indication of what he has in mind for his future.

Ronaldo was careful never to mention the words Real or Madrid when he spoke to reporters in Spanish at the end of the match in Basel but his words still did not leave much to the imagination.

“Everyone knows what I want,” Ronaldo said. “But in the next two or three days you’ll have something new. (I made this decision) some time ago, before this competition. I didn’t want to say anything because we were in competition and these are important decisions.”

Asked about the likelihood of a move, he added: “The possibilities are big but it doesn’t depend on me and because of that I don’t want to talk about it.”

His comments came on the same day a senior Real Madrid figure called on Ronaldo to come out in public and give them an opportunity to start negotiations with the Premier League champions.

If Ronaldo really does want to leave, United may have to accept that the canniest move now would be to get the best deal possible from Real.

The 23-year-old winger’s ineffective performance in Portugal’s 3-2 defeat by Germany might just persuade Alex Ferguson that he is by no means irreplaceable and that 100 million euros or so might give him the chance to build an even better team.

Germans incensed by another harsh penalty

UEFA’s decision to banish mild-mannered coach Joachim Loew from the touchline for Thursday’s quarter-final against Portugal is being put down to anti-German feeling by a lot of people here, a suspicion fanned by the angry response from German FA bosses.

It’s not the first time Germany have been hit with what neutral observers (I’d like to consider myself one of those) might view as a rather harsh penalty just before a critical match.

It recalled the suspension of Torsten Frings on the eve of the World Cup semi-final against Italy two years ago, for his relatively minor role in a post-match scuffle with Argentina players. Germans also remember that they had to do without Michael Ballack for the World Cup final in 2002, although that was a more straightforward decision.

Is it a general dislike of Germans? Are there influential people that don’t want to see the country that has won three European Championships (1972, 1980 and 1996) and three World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990) succeed again?

Bierhoff was quick to dismiss such an idea at an eve-of-match press conference in Basel but he was annoyed in the extreme.

“These are isolated cases,” he said. “I don’t think there is a special story going on here. But in this case perhaps a fine would have been sufficient.”

Germany’s political football

Germany’s general election may still be a year away, but the challengers are already battling it out for the big political prize on unlikely territory — at Euro 2008.

Both conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democratic rival, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, are going to great lengths to associate themselves with the German team.

Steinmeier surprised journalists during a trip to China last week when he converted an ordinary fuel stop in Helsinki into a soccer-watching party.

Eager to catch Germany’s match against Croatia, Steinmeier had his China-bound plane roll to the door of a VIP lounge at Helsinki Airport immediately upon landing just before half-time, where a giant TV screen was set up for the ambitious foreign minister, his accompanying aides and journalists.

Cringing when Croatia went ahead 2-0, Steinmeier jumped up from his front row seat and headed for the door, grumbling: ‘The fuel tank must be full by now.’ But it turned out he was only joking. He sat back down in time to see Germany pull one back before ultimately losing 2-1.

Just days later, Merkel, Steinmeier (wearing a tacky tie with the red, black and gold German colours) and four other equally ambitious ministers from Merkel’s cabinet flew to Vienna to watch Germany’s next match against Austria. 

From underdogs to champions, fun is a banned word with Greece

From a tiny second division Portuguese stadium to the luxurious surroundings and facilities of an Alpine sports centre, Greece are feeling like true defending champions at the Euro 2008.

The atmosphere, however, is not nearly as happy as it was in Portugal.

Four years ago when Greece settled in Vila do Conde, a sleepy seaside town in the estuary of the Ave river north of Porto, noone, including myself would have ever dreamt that a few weeks later coach Otto Rehhagel’s men would be crowned champions of Europe.

The surroundings certainly did not point to that.

The early morning training sessions were attended by only a handful of reporters, security was almost non-existent and there was seemingly no pressure on the players.

We would park our cars metres from the stadium entrance, wait there for the team bus to arrive, chat to the players as they got off and as they signed autographs with the few security guards, and then we would make our way to the concrete stands to watch the training.

Party over at Euro 2008?

To lose one tournament co-host seems unfortunate, but to lose two? Well, it seems it probably wouldn’t matter at all.

Switzerland have already bowed out and Austria are only just clinging on after a stoppage time penalty equaliser against Poland on Thursday. But the Euro 2008 organisers are insisting that no hosts equals no problem.

As soon as the Swiss made their early exit, Switzerland’s sports minister, national team coach Koebi Kuhn and UEFA spokesman William Gaillard were quick to weigh in with assurances that the party would continue even if Austria follow Switzerland’s disappointing example.

Some may have been surprised to hear that the party had even begun. A mixed bag of weather, including the deluge that nearly drowned those of us ‘fortunate’ enough to have front row seats for the Switzerland v Turkey game, and the two local teams’ early results had already put a sometimes literal dampener on the first few days.

And while the tournament’s organisers clearly have an interest in saying everything is fine, some local businesses seem less convinced. Fanzones away from Switzerland’s main host cities, catering specifically to local supporters, have already reported some disappointing attendance figures, citing weather and the Swiss results as the main factor. Even some of the host city fan zones have reportedly been laying off some of their temporary workers due to lower than expected turnover.

In cities where visiting fans have arrived en masse there is certainly no lack of atmosphere. My own home city, the Swiss capital Berne, has been joyfully swamped by a fantastic orange-wigged army of Dutch supporters. The nearest thing we usually get to that is the city’s annual early morning festival in celebration of the onion – but that probably belongs in another blog….

But the point is that surely local interest is a must in any of the cities not blessed (if that’s the right word?) by hordes of drunken Dutch fans. UEFA might be reckoning on a cumulative television audience of something like eight zillion people, but for the fanzone concept to remain a success, the fans who actually bother to visit the tournament even without tickets will want to know that there’s enough local atmosphere to make it worth their considerable efforts. So do you think Switzerland can pick themselves up from the early exit that few of the fans here expected, even if the rest of Europe did?

Euro 2008: For the anoraks, it all points to Germany

Sat with my anorak on in Vienna in the Reuters Euro 2008 office I spent much of the week in the build-up to Euro 2008 buried in weird and wonderful statistics … and a lot of them point to Germany winning.

For example, the last time the Germans played on the second day of a European Championship final tournament was at Euro 96 in England. They beat the Czech Republic 2-0 at Old Trafford, Manchester and went on to lift the trophy for the third time.

Here, at Euro 2008, they play Poland on the second day of the tournament.

During qualifying for the Euro 96 finals Germany won eight matches, losing just one in a group featuring Wales.

In qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals Germany won eight matches and lost one in a group featuring? You guessed it, Wales.

And also Germany/West Germany won a European Championship eight years after Belgium had hosted the competition, which they last did in 2000 – eight years ago.

Euro 2008 referees: the team that can’t win

Football fans all love to hate referees … but getting close up and personal with them would change a lot of people’s opinions.

Meeting the refs and other match officials for Euro 2008 at their media open day at Regensdorf just north of Zurich was an illuminating experience.

UEFA first opened the doors to the men they dub “the 17th team” at Euro 2004 and while you go along expecting to be yellow-carded if you so much as trip over a paving stone, you quickly realise that referees are often unfairly maligned by managers, media and public alike.

The first thing you notice is how young and fit they are. The retirement age for elite referees is now 45 and most of them look a lot younger than that. In fact, many look like they could actually be playing.

What also comes across in talking to them is that they seem to be genuine football fans who love the game as much as anyone.

Roberto Rosetti of Italy, the ref for the opening match between Switzerland and the Czech Republic, is widely regarded not just as the natural successor to Pierluigi Collina as the best Italian referee, but probably the best referee in Europe and possibly the world.