EURO 2012 – Review of First Round Games of the Group Stage
Monday's Sweden - Ukraine match had plenty of attacking football with 35-year-old Andriy Shevchenko scoring a brace.
The first set of matches in the Euro 2012 group stage is complete. The tournament has included an amazing game between Italy and Spain, a surprising upset of Denmark over the Netherlands, and a heroic individual performance from thirty-five-year-old Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko.
Shevchenko, Russia midfielder Alan Dzagoev, and Croatia forward Mario Mandzukic lead the race for the Golden Boot, which is the trophy given to the most prolific goal scorer of the tournament, with two goals each.
Italy v. Spain on Sunday provided perhaps the most interesting and entertaining game so far. Spain started with a false nine, or a withdrawn center forward that creates space for others to run into, and no striker. Italy played with three defenders, which included makeshift central defender Daniele De Rossi, five midfielders and two powerful strikers in a 3-5-2 that was quite popular in the Italian Serie A this last season. The game featured fantastic passing, intelligent runs, and two memorable goals.
Denmark provided the upset of the tournament so far when they defeated the heavily favored Dutch 1-0 on Saturday. Perhaps the Danes played well – and they were organized on defense in the second half, but the Netherlands certainly squandered many chances in front of the goal. Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder provided terrific service to strikers Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben, who were unable to finish properly.
Co-host Ukraine beat Sweden in the final game of the first set of matches. Shevchenko graciously stunned the home crowd and almost single-handedly won the game. Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic also showed his power, but Ukraine prevailed after Sweden missed many chances to score.
Germany and Russia looked like the strongest teams in the tournament. Germany played patiently against Portugal and won 1-0. Russia defeated a much weaker Czech Republic 4-1 through the counter attack. Russia relied on player chemistry, and five of their six attackers played together at FC Zenit St. Petersburg under coach Luciano Spalletti, who is also known for a counter-attacking style.
But not everything has been fantastic so far. Ireland turned in the most disappointing team performance of the tournament against Croatia. While Croatia is a much stronger team on paper and dominated the game, Ireland gave up soft goals and played miserably at the back, which was one of their strongest aspects during qualifying. England v France provided the dullest game so far. Neither team seemed willing to win. England appeared to only want to defend and looked bad trying to move forward. France had the majority of possession and chances to score, but many of these chances were from long range that never really tested the England goalkeeper.
Looking forward, Russia can advance to the quarterfinals with a win over Poland today. Poland will be without their goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who is suspended after picking up a red card against Greece. Reserve ‘keeper Przemyslaw Tryton seems more than up for the task after an impressive performance in the first game. Russia should expect Poland to attack from the right side again with Borussia Dortmund players Jakub Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek feeding Robert Lewandowski. It also remains to be seen whether Poland’s second half letdown against Greece in the first game was a result of overtraining, as Lewandowski complained prior to the tournament.
In the other game today, Greece will play the Czech Republic. Greece played poorly in the first half against Poland, but played well after making adjustments to the front three attackers. Greece will be without their preferred center backs Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who is suspended after receiving a red, and Avraam Papadopoulos, who is now out of the tournament due to a knee injury. The Czech Republic will hope Tomas Rosicky and Milan Baros are able to find each other and create more chances than in the first game.
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While Italy v. Spain was a good game, I didn’t think any game played so far could match the energy of the Sweden v. Ukraine game yesterday. To me that’s the best match to date.
Sweden coach Erik Hamren has now lashed out at his players calling them “cowards.” Will that motivate them or turn them off?
And what was Zlatan Ibrahimovic doing so far off his post on that corner kick?
One more question, what’s a quality header of the ball like Ibrahimovic and one of the tallest guys on the field, doing manning the near post? Don’t you usually put the smaller guys there that can’t mark up properly with the tall defenders?
Greece are starting with the more inspired and impressive front three of Salpingidis, Samras, Fortousnis from the second half adjustments made against Poland rather than the lesser performing group of Ninis, Gekas, and Samras that started the first game.
I am excited for Germany v Holland. Germany can take control of the group if the Dutch play like they did against Denmark. But if they do come to play it will be a heck of a game.
So Ryan, is Vollbrecht German or Dutch?
Good recap. I agree with Brian that Ukraine-Sweden was a highly-spirited game. For me it was the most anticipated game and it delievered in spades. Not only was it energetic with end-to-end action, it had the heroes of both teams step up—(more or less)—which is always great to see.
although spain v italy was one of the better match 1′s, i think my 3 favorite in this order are:
1-ukraine v sweden, surprisingly better match than expected. ukraine going to battle with the old guard one more time in front of the home support. such a sight to see
2-russia v czech, neither side cared to defend, incredibly open. russia displayed their dominance at times, but the czech side did not stop attacking. the czech’s knew they were going down, but went down swinging
3-germany v portugal, germany appeared to be the more dominant side in the match, hummels and neuer were phenomenal the entire match (especially last 20 mins). this group is ridiculous, the world still gets to be entertained by Germany facing Denmark & Netherlands
in group A so far with czech republic pounding greece, i would say second spot is pretty much theirs to lose… this result so far makes the afternoon match, all the more intriguing, as well as the third matchday in this group, i am especially eyeballing that czech v poland affair
Ukraine v Sweden – great game to watch and the King snatchers were defeated so SKOL to that
Spain v Italy – just a wonderful match to watch
England v France – though a positive result for GB, all things considered, an UGLY game to watch. Franck Ribéry looks in prime form for the French Olympic Diving team.
No one is answering the phone at Universal Stone in Shakopee. All the Russian stone workers must be watching the game v. Poland
Boo to Holland- losing to Denmark??? I hate the Danes almost as much as Sweden. Can you tell I’m Norwegian
Tomas ( needs to spell it right) Rosicky played a great first half and now has an achilles injury that could keep him out on Saturday. The Greeks have looked like they nurse the Ouzo prior to the first two games.
On the Ukrainian corner kick goal, it really looked to me as though Lustig was the player assigned to the near post and Ibrahimovic was marking Shevchenko (although not tightly enough). On the replay, it was quite amazing the narrow space the ball went through between Lustig and the post, although he had come off the line initially and had to attempt to recover, which was clearly a mistake (he appears to have a constant, sometimes ill-considered, desire to go forward).
Portugal v Denmark, easily the best match to date… hopefully the dutchies vs ze germans can live up to the hype this afternoon
Rants
GET BALLACK OFF THE AIR!!!!!
WHAT IS UP WITH THESE HIDEOUS SHOE COLORS?????
back to the regularly scheduled programming
tomA$$
ahhh, shoe colors… i’ve always wondered what Euro 2012 was all about
@jezapenguin – damn straight, a fellow needs some pet peeves he can bellow about. That’s what happens when you get to be my age ya whippersnapper, geez no respect for your elders. Careful, I have the backing of the AARP Mafiaso
@tomA$$
lol
Boo to TomASS for the Denmark comment. Norwegian or not. Denmark is ranked 9th and showing they are very resiliant even though there is not a lot of talent there.
@PK
- agree on not a lot of talent there
- resilient …….insert other slightly, above average terms instead, same thing
ranked 9th in the World……by the great and complex FIFA ranking system……pay no attention to the men behind the curtain
So the question of the day is, “would there be more whiskey consumed in Ireland with an Irish win or loss today?”
re·sil·ient/riˈzilyənt/
Adjective:
(of a person or animal) Able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
I would say Denmark is holding there own quite well in a very tough group. True test is with Germany.
Polish pachyderm knows squat about soccer, bring back #8 on the sushi menu.
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/06/13/psychic-indian-elephant-flops-at-euro-2012/
Low lie the Fields of Athenry, where once we watched the small free birds fly, our love was on the wings, we had dreams and songs to sing, now it’s lonely ’round the Fields of Athenry.