2:51pm Tuesday 17th June 2008
By Ben Barnett
…And I’m not referring to the arrests made by Austrian police before and after the Germany-Poland grudge match, I mean the spirit of the underdog.
There’s been no surprises so far but you’ve got to tip your flat cap in the direction of the hosts and the other unfancied teams who have so far battled through their opening games, albeit to little avail.
I thought Austria and Switzerland showed enough determination during their respective and surprising narrow defeats at the hands of Croatia and Czech Republic to be proud of.
Croatia struggled for most of the match to exert real pressure against a team whose fans were too embarrassed to see them take part in the tournament that they sent a petition to the Austrian FA calling for them give it a miss.
As for Switzerland, they really, really should have scored when Tranquilo Barnetta (my Swiss cousin) smashed towards goal, only for the onrushing Johan Vonlanthen to volley against the bar with Cech beaten.
Poland were workmanlike as ever in the defeat to Germany and probably the least inspiring to watch so far but they did frustrate the Germans for a good part of the match, making them wait late for the second goal.
They should have equalised when Maciej Zurawski intelligently pulled off his marker only to scuff wide a side-footed shot, but there’ll miss their captain who picked up an injury.
Turkey were spirited too against Portugal, they kept Ronaldo quiet with the exception of one run and a few set pieces and even though they lost at least they attacked.
We don’t know whether any of them can reproduce the efforts of Greece but what we do know so far is that Germany coach Joachim Low is leading the way in the fashion stakes with his sculpted hairdo and fitted shirt; thanks to some insightful commentary we know that the names of Poland players would beat any other squad for points on the scrabble board, and French boss Raymond Domenech is nuts after revealing he picks his team based on their star signs.
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