Euro 2012: The Semi Finals


Just What The Euros Needed

So far Euro 2012 has been a pretty decent tournament. Big plusses include, pretty uniformly good group stage matches, where incisive attacking play has generally been rewarded and super-negative defending punished; the abject failure of genuinely useless teams like the Irish; rewards for well organised, football playing defences who display the ability to transition from defence to attack effectively; and an almost total lack of cheating, diving, and cynical fouling (one reason why Ashley Young’s stats might make frightening reading). And while the quarter finals might not have risen to the standards we might have hoped, they have produced the right results and yielded two hugely interesting semi finals.

There’s no doubt that the four teams who remain are the best four teams in Europe. Indeed the only team who could realistically claim to be hard done by in the entire tournament are the Russians, who peaked far too early and paid the price for not getting results against Poland and Greed (sorry Greece). Yet however good the Russian play was, their failure to score key goals in group matches prevents them from being true top four challengers.

All four teams share one key characteristic. They each have a clear, well understood and distinctive footballing philosophy, which they execute to perfection. And the thrilling thing about these semi finals is that they pit these philosophies against one another so blatantly.

The Spanish have mastered total possession football, dominating all aspects of their games, while simultaneously making scoring look difficult and being suspect at the back. Masters of the footballing world for the last 4 years, they are finally struggling as teams develop strategies to counter them. For them it is all about the team and the style of play.

Portugal are completely different. For them the gameplan is simple. Give the ball to Ronaldo. The entire side is built around the aim of giving Ronnie the maximum number of chances on goal. Sure the likes of his Real teammates Pepe and Coentrao, Chelsea’s Mireles and Man U’s Nani have their own talents, but they’ve all been subsumed in the service of the undoubted queen bee of football. Outstanding against Holland a week ago, with a Spanish Championship finally behind him, Ronnie is convinced that this is his year. All he needs to do to prove his supremacy is to win the Euros. All everyone else has to do is stop him.

Germany are the most expansive of the four remaining teams. Blessed with more great strikers than the entire Prem, they are built on the ball playing creativity of Schweinstiger, Ozil and Khedira, with Badstuber’s defensive shield keeping the defence clean. If Spain are all about possession, then Germany are all about the move from possession to attack. Sure they may be more impatient, but so far they’ve been the most successful team this tournament.

If there’s a surprise package here it’s the Italians. Some suspected that the French, Russians or very improbably the Engerlish might have taken this position, but all fell well short. Indeed, the Italians succeeded because they did what they’ve been doing for so long so effectively, keeping a tight defence, being good on the ball and having genuine gamechanging players like Pirlo who can do it in big games. Pirlo’s masterful control of the game against Engerland has pipped Ronnie’s display against Holland as the single dominant performance of the tournament.

So we’re faced with two tantalising games, where the mas que un team philosophy of the Spanish confronts the unarguable individualism of Portugal, and the ferocious offense of the Germans meets the classic resistance of the Italians. Both should be fantastic to watch and should go a long way to establishing the way the biggest clubs in Europe set out to play over the next few seasons.

If I had to predict, I’d say that Portugal (just) and Germany (easily) will come through.

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