Euro 2008 recap:
Consistent Spain deserved to win

By Kevin Wong

Pic three weeks of competition, the Euro 2008
soccer tournament finished on June 29 in Vienna,
Austria with Spain emerging as this year’s champion.
How did the competition’s two hosts, Switzerland
and Austria play in front of their home fans? Switzerland
was eliminated in the first round, but they played well.
“Misfortune” would be the best word to describe this
home team. In the first half of their opening match
against the Czech Republic, the Swiss team should
have had an opportunity to score on the penalty kick
because a Czech defenseman was touching the ball in
the penalty box area. However, the referee did not see
the handball on the field. Also, the Swiss captain and
the team’s number one goal scorer, Alexander Frei, was
injured before the half and never returned. In the second

 

half, the hosts had a great chance to tie the game, but
the ball hit the crossbar and out. Switzerland finally lost
to the Czechs 1-0.

Switzerland played very hard and tried to get
their first victory in their next match against Turkey.
Unfortunately, the Swiss team lost once again. The
hosts were officially eliminated after just two games.
Fortunately, the Swiss team got a consolation win in
their last group match against Portugal. The final score
was 2-0. If Frei, the Swiss captain, did not get injured in
the first match, he could have scored more goals to help
his team to advance to at least the quarter-finals—or
beyond.

What about Austria in Group B? This team was
also eliminated in the first round, but they did not
play poorly at all. Austria had lost 1-0 to Croatia and
Germany, and they tied with Poland 1-1 in their own
group.

The Germans were among the biggest stars of this
year’s cup. The 23-year old German forward, Lukas
Podolski, scored three goals in this tournament and
will probably go on to be a number one goal scorer for
Germany in the near future. The team’s defenseman,
Philipp Lahm, also earned fame for scoring the game
winning goal against Turkey in the semi-final. Germany
of course ultimately lost to Spain 1-0 in the final, but
hopefully, the team will be able to recover soon and win
their fourth Euro trophy.

In May, I predicted here that Holland and Romania
would likely advance to the quarter-finals from Group
C, the so-called “Group of Death”. The actual outcome

July 7, 2008

was Holland and Italy. Surprisingly, Holland defeated
Italy 3-0, and won 4-1 against France. Wesley Sneijder,
Holland’s 24-year-old attacking midfielder, scored two
fantastic goals in the first round. The shooting style of
his first goal was very impressive because it was very
similar to the goal of Maro Van Basten in Holland’s
famed 1988 Euro final against the Soviet Union.

The comparisons continued in the quarter-final,
when Holland once again challenged the Russians. The
pace was very quick in this quarter-final game, and the
passionate Russians got a well-deserved win. Russia
scored two unanswered overtime goals and won 3-1.
Ironically, the Dutch team was “killed” by their former
head coach, Guus Hiddink, who was now coaching the
Russians. The Russians were later eliminated by Spain,
the Euro Cup champions.

The performance of Romania was better than
France. Romania initially tied with France and Italy, but
proceeded to lose to Holland. Don’t count Romania out
when they compete with other great European teams
like Spain, Croatia or Portugal in the future.

And what about the Euro 2008 winner, Spain?
This team was very consistent in the whole tournament.
Their defensemen were very stable at the back. The
goalie, Iker Casillas was the hero to help his team to
win all the games. Also, the forwards were powerful
because David Villa and Fernando Torres had scored
six goals combined in this tournament. After the success
this year, will the Spanish team be able to win another
trophy in 2012?

 

Where Are They Now: Tennis Edition

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

 

 

 

 

Bjorn Borg

The Swedish-born Bjorn Borg, now
52, retired from professional tennis

in 1984 after nine years on tour. He

is largely considered to be one of

the most skilled and talented tennis
players in history. Considering that he
won 11 grand slam titles—41 percent
of the grand slam tournaments he
played in—calling him one of the
greatest isn’t far off.

The six-time French open
champion took retirement pretty
rough initially. After calling it quits
at just 26 year of age, and despite his
enormous on-court accomplishments,
Borg’s loss was quickly considered to
be one of the biggest wastes of sports
talent ever.

Borg suffered drug overdoses
soon after retiring, and after that
began his own fashion label in
Sweden. He attempted a comeback
from 1991-1993, but that went
nowhere, as he was defeated several
times.

 

 

John McEnroe

Perhaps one of the fieriest players in
professional tennis history, the now 49-
year-old McEnroe hasn’t let retirement
from tennis slow him down.

He was inducted into the
international tennis hall of fame in
1999, and has served as the American
captain for the 1999 U.S. entry at
the Davis Cup. For a number of
years McEnroe worked as a tennis
commentator, as well as a talk show
host on NBC. In 2006, he returned
to doubles competition 12 years after
retiring. He was victorious in his first
outing back, becoming the oldest
player to win a major event in over
thirty years.

McEnroe now competes regularly
on two senior tours, does cereal
commercials, guest starred on the
comedy 30 Rock and appeared in the
Adam Sandler film Mr. Deeds.

 

 

Anna Kournikova

Once the internet’s most searched
woman, Kournikova, 27, is now
in semi-retirement after a string of
serious back problems.

Despite reaching a #1 ranking
among women’s doubles players,
Kournikova was always known much
more for her looks then her tennis.
Recently, ESPN ranked her #18 on
their top 25 all time biggest sports
flops. Initially one of the worlds’s
most hyped and discussed athletes,
she never managed to win a singles
title in her entire career. All 16 of her
WTA victories came in the doubles
division.

Like a lot of young tennis stars,
Kournikova retired very early, though
in her case it was due to injuries. She
last competed in 2003 at age 22, but
since then has participated in several
low-key exhibition matches.

 

 

Jimmy Connors

Another tennis legend, the St. Louis-
born Jimmy Connors, 55, won a
record setting 109 men’s singles
championships. He had a long career,
stretching from his tour debut in 1972
all the way through to 1996. During
his legendary career, Connors won
eight Grand Slam championships
and was ranked #1 in the world nine
times, including one historic run
where he sat atop the world rankings
for an astounding 160 straight weeks.

In 1998, Connors was voted into
the International tennis Hall of Fame.
Currently, Connors frequently serves
as a commentator on professional
tennis shows with former rival John
McEnroe. From 2006 until March of
this year, Connors coached modern
tennis star Andy Roddick, the 2003
U.S. Open champion.

 

 

 

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