EURO 2012: Final Final Thoughts!

A tournament that started brightly then faded a bit in the sudden death stages has finished with a bang with Spain totally outclassing a good Italy side 4-0.

This was possibly the finest of Spain's tournament wins given they were without two of their best players, David Villa and Carlos Puyol and were forced to play two players out of position due to injury and lack of form of the next best options, i.e. Sergio Ramos to cover for Puyol, and Fabregas to cover for Villa.

Every time Spain had the ball they certainly looked like scoring and probably should have won by a bit more. They just looked like men compared to the boys in azure.

It means that Spain have won 3 tournaments in a row, a world first along with a European first of successfully defending their title.

So questions to ponder eventually..
1.Is this Spanish team (2008-current) better than the Brazil team that won the 1970 World Cup?

2.Is this Spanish team the best football team the world ever seen?

3.Are the Spanish dominating football as the Australians did with cricket and All Blacks with rugby?

For now though, time to savor a fine Spanish win. Well done Espãna! See you in a couple of weeks!

EURO 2012 Team of the Tournament

It may have been a slightly underwhelming knockout stage after an exciting round robin but there have been a few standouts in Poland & Ukraine.

Having watched pretty much all the games I can watch depending on where I am and what is being shown, here are my thoughts on the team of the tournament.

I've gone for 4-3-2-1 given most teams appear to have gone for this formation in this tournament.

Manuel Neuer (GK) - best goalkeeper in the world surely? Hasn't put a foot wrong in this tournament.

Philipp Lahm - Germany's captain is Mr Consistent whichever flank he's playing.

Matt Hummels - The one constant in the German central duo. Very consistent and not bad in the air too.

Sergio Ramos - Played at centre-back despite a full season for Real at right back but has filled the hole left by the influential Carles Puyol nicely.

Glen Johnson - a bit of a surprise pick but Johnson has been very good scurrying back and forth his flank. Great in attack and defense.

Andrea Pirlo - A bit of a Christopher Plummer style comeback, Pirlo is once again showing the form that got pundits rating him as the best midfielder in Europe. A very cheeky penalty against England was definitely a key moment in that shootout.

Andres Iniesta - Spain's best midfielder and most dangerous attacker. Has provided the energy in the team for the full 90 or 120 minutes.

Cesc Fabregas - Has shown his class whether he's playing as a striker or midfielder. Has sort of justified del Bosque's decision to leave out Torres and play a midfielder-laden forward line.

Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal is Ronaldo. Never has one team been dominated by one player. A surprise he didn't take the 4th penalty against Spain but has had a fine tournament nevertheless to justify his tag as Europe's most potent midfielder.

Jesus Navas - The Sevilla winger who shares his first name with our Lord Jesus Christ has saved Spain as a super sub with some quality passes and runs into the box. Surely a big club will pick him up this summer for a lot of money.

Mario Balotelli - The mercurial City striker has been outstanding in the last 3 games, creating scoring opportunities for his team and scoring key goals himself. This could be the tournament where he finally quiets the doubters.