As ever, I am mostly in agreeance with Gavin Hamilton's viewpoint. It was a great victory for football with the advent of Spain to European Campiones. Their passing and movement and imagination outshone the functional Germans who lacked the guile and the cuteness to convert their chances when they arose. And as much as the Spanish team were streets ahead of the germans man for man, one always felt it would come down to the mental aspect of the game, pitting the perennial under-achievers against the perrenial over-achievers. The first fifteen mintues of the game looked like the Spanish wouldnt have had the bottle for it but once they settled down into their passing game they killed the Germans and shouldve won by more.
With regards to Gavin's team of the tournament, everybody has a different opinion and I would commend the inclusion of Chiellini, who was one of the few italian players to come out of the tournament with his reputation enhanced. And also Gio van Bronckhorst, who's displays against italy and France where he was playing killer passes at will and scored one himself makes me, as an arsenal supporter, rue the day the club sold him on.
One pick in Hamilton's team that i whole-heartedly disagree with is the inclusion of David Silva. Out of the entire attacking side of the spanish midfield, I am flabbergasted to see the inclusion of Silva. His good points are that he has a good, powerful shot on him, he's quick and energetic, and was kept on in matches where Aragones was taking off players like Torres, Cesc and Xavi. He was consistent alright, consistently average. In a midfield which included Cesc, Xavi and Iniesta all picking out balls, holding possession and creating openings, as they have mastered for their clubs, the majority of time when the ball reached Silva, the move broke down either through misplaced passes or putting his team-mate in trouble with a stupid pass, thus, ultimately panicking at the crucial moment. Case in pont, where iniesta pulled a beautiful ball back to him across the goal in the final, giving him time and space to take a touch and shoot... he panics and balloons the ball into orbit. The simple fact that Xavi, the man of the match on sunday, the player of the tournament, the man who broke the russian's will in the semis was left out in favour of David Silva is ludicrous.
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
