A championship that ends in a bland 1-0 game does tend to affirm certain prejudices about this sport. And after the wild craziness of Germany-Croatia, Germany-Turkey, or Russia-Netherlands…
Oh, well, it was a fun two weeks anyhow. Congratulations to our Spanish friends!
It was rather bla, but the Germans finally lost!
1-0. Yes. Bland? No.
This was a great tournament which definitively had more exciting matches, with Russia-Netherlands as one of the most entertaining international matches (except if you happened to be Dutch) but as soccer finals go, this one was pretty entertaining. It didn’t even go to a penalty shoot-out.
“didn’t go to a penalty shootout” is setting the bar kinda low, don’t you think?
Bland: the expected team won by the expected margin in the expected way. Nothing about this game /surprised/.
Doug M.
Bland? Not really. There were a good few shots on goal, mostly from Spain, and I was on the edge of my seat for the last 20 minutes, when Germany started getting their act together in midfield.
Anyway, it has been a marvellous tournament overall, one of the best in recent memory.
Sidenote: I saw some people in the FanZone (via BBC TV) waving the European flag, which is one way to ensure you have something to wave at the end of the evening.
I thought it was a close game if you consider how bad Germany played and how many blown chances Spain had.
Senna won’t live it down for a while. Leastways, I don’t think he will.
Doug, here I do in fact have the spirit of a convert. So you may wish to discount what I have to say. Which is simply that I agree with Anthony, with the caveat that the Spanish team did get crazy defensive and low-risk during that period.
But not a bland game. A bland game doesn’t keep you biting your fingernails; this one did.
Are you sure you like soccer? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.
I would say I’m trying to like it.
Sometimes — Germany’s recent games against Croatia and Turkey come to mind — it’s easy. Other times, less so.
Doug M.