free rommy New York → Kansas City → San Francisco → Stockholm → Berlin

Euro 2008 is getting me all anxious…

I was fortunate enough to work from home today. The moving company guy came to survey my place in order to get an estimate of the stuff i'm bringing with me. Not a bad day to be working from home, considering the weather in SF is beautiful. I'm sitting in my living room with the windows open enjoying the nice breeze (which in the late afternoon is now turning into a light wind)

Some would say that it's one of those days I should be sad to leave. These don't happen too often in SF and when they do the city is beautiful. Everybody is out and about. The energy, the smiles on peoples' faces. All stuff you love to see in one of the most beautiful cities in the world...

But rather than get nostalgic, I was getting anxious. Anxious to pick up, pack up, and move out.

It's Euro 2008. It's one of the best events in sports, and like the World Cup, it only comes about once every four years (on alternating summers of the World Cup). It's a chance when the sixteen greatest teams in European soccer (actually...at some point I'll need to start calling it football so it might as well be now) duke it out for the title of European Football Champion. By some standards that would almost make them the World Champion since Europe is made up of the best teams in football (with the exception of Brazil and Argentina...Brazil is still the team that people call the best in the world). Euro 2008 will dominate every European's evenings for the month of June. Work stops early, pubs fill up, extreme national pride ensues.

Rarely in any world event (not in American sports, not in the Olympics) do you see Europeans take time to be so proud of their thousands of years of history and nationalism take such strong form as it does around the sport of football. It's one of those rare moments when I look at American sports and wince at the marketing and think to myself how Americans may be the most successful at managing sports leagues as businesses, but they will never garner the unrelenting "blood, sweat, and tears" pride that football has managed to prune out of their fans every year for over one hundred. It's for that reason that I'm getting excited at the prospect of moving abroad. I'll be in the same time zone as the world's greatest sport watching with the world's biggest fans...

This Euro 2008 year is special for one big reason. England one of the top teams in Europe, failed to qualify for Euro 2008 after "losing a sensational game to Croatia at Wembley" - BBC SPORT. It's one of those rare instances where a world powerhouse in the football is denied the chance to participate in a critical chance to further enhance their legacy and prolong the pride of their nation and their fans. This means that the group of 16 is more wide open than usual.

So today, in HD, I got two watch two matches in the early rounds of Euro 2008. France - Romania was unexpectedly uneventful. France, another European powerhouse and sure contender, failed to show up (metaphorically speaking) for their match against underwhelming underdog Romania. The game was completely boring and the result was a nil-nil (0-0) tie. It was one of those matches that should've been an easy early win for France and should have put them at risk for elimination in the so-called Group of Death...

...that is until the following match ensued. The Netherlands - Italy match up provided an even greater unexpected result. This match is what we all endure boring 0-0 ties for a lifetime to get to see once in that lifetime. It was a match for the ages. It was a battle of pride: an previous power turned underdog, The Netherlands, against a proven world power time and time again (and defending champions of the 2006 World Cup), Italy.

Italy was supposed to come in and dominate on offense and defense. The Netherlands was supposed to struggle, particularly on defense. Italy was supposed to penetrate and score with skill, speed, and style.

The "three esses" didn't belong to the pretty boys in blue today. The Flying Dutchmen held all the cards today. They outran, outperformed, outshined, and outprided the Italians all over the field. They had a quickness and an energy not seen among the Dutch in quite some time. The Italians were virtually powerless against the unexpected clean, crisp, almost flawless style that the Dutch exhibited. It was truly a match for the ages.

It wasn't without controversy, however. At the helm of the Dutch National Team was Ruud Van Nistelrooy, one of the best football players in the world, but an aging one and one who almost didn't get to play on the Dutch National Team. Early in the match he scored a goal that by most standards should not have counted. He may or may not have been offsides, but another player in the area who was off the field and "deliberately came back on, in offense of the rules of the game", should have been carded, and the goal not allowed to count. A rare case of a not-often-seen rule being broken, the rule remained broken, and the goal stood. This may have been the needed catalyst for allowing the Dutch to outperform and the broken spirit that caused the Italians to lose just enough hope to become vulnerable. The Dutch would go on to score two more goals in the match, thus handing Italy it's worst Euro 2008 loss, and one more goal against them than they'd seen in all of the 2006 World Cup. The Netherlands would beat Italy for the first time in thirty years, and made a statement for the remainder of the tournament.

It's amazing to think that in a part of the world so rich with history, more and more history gets made in such a exciting forum for competition and national pride. I can't wait to become a part of it.