Euro 2008 Recap--Day 4

An alarming trend is developing after one round of games at Euro 2008 -- eight matches have been played so far, and only one of them has featured goals from both teams. Once a team takes the lead, they're basically a sure bet to hold on and win, and that doesn't make for compelling TV.

It was the David Villa show in Innsbruck this afternoon, as the Valencia striker bagged a hat trick in Spain's 4-1 victory over Russia. Villa ran the Russian back line ragged all game long, making them, center back Denis Kolodin in particular, look simply dreadful.

Spanish coach Luis Aragonés opted to start the game with two strikers instead of a lone man up front as was the case in his team's friendlies leading up to this tournament, and so Villa came into the lineup alongside Fernando Torres. The pairing worked to perfection in the 20th minute, when Torres picked Kolodin's pocket at the corner of the 18-yard box, then slipped a square ball right into the path of Villa, who put it into the empty net.

The turning point of the game came almost immediately after Villa's first goal. Russia had numbers forward and Dmitri Sychev sent a low cross skittering through the area. A Russian player had the first crack at it but didn't move, and when the Spanish defenders failed to deal with the slow-moving ball, Konstantin Zyrianov picked it up. His one touch, right-footed effort smacked off the left post and was cleared away, leaving Russia inches short of an equalizer.

That failure to finish came back to bit Russia when Villa struck again right before halftime. A short Russian corner kick and poor cross right after it led to a counter-attack for Spain, and they made no mistake. Andrés Iniesta threaded a gorgeous ball through to Villa, who was even with the last Russian defender and may even have been offside literally by the length of his foot. Villa calmly slotted it through the legs of Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, who had a very respectable game in defeat.

At that point, the game was effectively over. Spain bossed the second half after going up-and-down with Russia for the first 45 minutes. The Spanish midfield, especially Marcos Senna, controlled the tempo of the game and knocked the ball around all over the field, forcing the Russians to run themselves ragged by chasing. Guus Hiddink's team eventually ran out of gas, and Villa completed his hat trick a quarter of an hour from time after another nice through ball sprung him one-on-one with Russian center back Roman Shirokov. Villa skinned Shirokov with a nice cutback move onto his right foot, then left Akinfeev guessing as he went to his left and Villa's shot went to the former's right.

A couple of garbage-time goals ended the game. Roman Pavlyuchenko picked up a consolation goal for Russia with a powerful header off a flick-on from a corner kick in the 86th minute. With Russia down 3-1, they had a chance to make things very interesting going into stoppage time when a poorly executed Spanish offside trap left Iker Casillas staring down the barrel of a wide open Russian player in the box. Casillas was able to smother the poor shot, which had been driven right into the arms of the Spanish captain. Cesc Fàbregas had entered the game in the 54th minute and was pretty quiet for the majority of the time he spent on the field, but his diving header off a rebound from a short-range volleyed effort by Xavi (set up nicely by Villa) accounted for the final margin in the 91st minute.

Russia clearly missed the creativity and inspiration of their best player, Andrei Arshavin, who was sitting out the first game of his two match suspension for a red card picked up in Russia's last Euro qualifier against Andorra. Russia just wasn't able to string any consistent possession together and even when they did manage to get something going, that last, cutting-edge ball required to really spring an attack just wasn't there.

Spain exerted their dominance in midfield but showed that they have weaknesses in the center of their defense. Carles Puyol and Carlos Marchena are both susceptible to the bone-head, moronic play every now and then, and that showed today. They both needlessly gave away possession at times with poor passes and failed to clear dangerous loose balls in their defensive third. Pavlyuchenko didn't have any support up front but still caused problems on his own. Teams that field two capable center forwards can give Spain trouble as Puyol and Marchena are there for the taking.

Reigning European champions Greece came out with five defenders (5-4-1) in their game against Sweden tonight, the first team in the tournament to do so. It's no secret that Greece made their mark in 2004 by stifling the life out of their opposition, something they set out to do today as well. They have little desire to go forward and are content with passing the ball around the back, content to kill off the game if they can't find a path of little resistance to goal or a chance to launch a counter-attack.

There are two problems with this philosophy and we saw them both in tonight's match, won 2-0 by Sweden. A team like Greece can only survive for so long by playing in a shell and inviting pressure onto their defense. Greece was able to survive for 67 minutes before a moment of brilliance from Zlatan Ibrahimović opened the scoring. The Juventus striker played a nice little one-two with his front line partner, the ageless Henrik Larsson, and finished off the move by taking Larsson's return pass first time and sending an absolute rocket shot from just outside the corner of the penalty area into the back of the net. Greece's goalkeeper, Antonios Nikopolidis, did well just to get a slight touch on it with a glove but he had no chance to save Zlatan's screaming right-footed drive. Sweden had been knocking on the door all game long with several good opportunities, and it was just a matter of time before they were able to ram it down and get a breakthrough.

The other problem with the way the Greeks play is that once they concede one goal, the floodgates usually open. Sweden's Petter Hansson, who started alongside Olof Mellberg in the center back position, scored the scrappiest goal you'll ever see five minutes later to make it 2-0, which was effectively game over with the anemic Greek attack. Nikopolidis came out very well to cut the angle down on Freddie Ljungberg, who was in alone 12 yards from goal. Ljungberg's shot was saved, the rebound was popped high into the air by an off-balance Johan Elmander, who came into the game just a minute earlier for Ibrahimović. The ball eventually came down to Hansson in the 6-yard box. His header was blocked by one of two surrounding Greek defenders, came down to the ground, and was bundled home by Hansson despite those defenders' best effort.

Sweden understood that the key to beating Greece was patience, and they exhibited that in this game. They refused to fall into their opponent's trap by getting caught out and allowing a counter-attack, and they knew that they needed to unlock the back line and get a moment of magic to finish it off. The same Greek defenders that had previously gone 425 minutes without conceding a goal in the European Championships are now four years older than they were when that streak started, something that coach Lars Lagerbäck obviously tried to stress to his team. He had his team make Greece's older group of players chase the ball and work to earn their point. In doing so, they grew tired as the game went on and let their guard down.

I was very impressed with the way Sweden played tonight. They'll need to repeat that performance (and probably even better it) in their next game as it'll be against Spain, who looked dominant earlier over Russia. A point there for Sweden and they'll be sitting pretty heading into the third and final group match against Russia. However, a loss to Spain and the Russia-Sweden match becomes winner-takes-all as Russia will beat Greece and go into their third game with three points, equal with Sweden if they don't get anything in four days' time. Remember, the first tie-breaker in this tournament is head-to-head results, not goal differential.

Group D Standings (after one game):
1. Spain (3 points, +3 goal differential)
2. Sweden (3 pts, +2)
3. Greece (0 pts, -2)
4. Russia (0 pts, -3)

Group A -- Portugal, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Turkey (in that order in the standings) is back in action tomorrow, with the top two teams and the bottom two playing against each other. A win for either Portugal or the Czechs would likely see that nation through to the quarterfinals, and the loser of Switzerland-Turkey is as good as eliminated. I'd expect to see Switzerland, backed by their boisterous home crowd, win and stay alive to fight another day, and Portugal to also get a victory over the very uninspiring Czech Republic.

Euro 2008 Preview--Group D (Part 1)

Apologies for the delay in getting this out, but here we go, it's the final group preview for Euro 2008. Next week, I'll make my predictions for the knockout rounds, with the quarterfinals on Monday, semifinals on Wednesday, and the final on Friday. That will lead us nicely into the weekend, when the second-largest international tournament in the world finally kicks off.

To start, here's the fixture schedule for Group D (all times Eastern):

June 10:
Spain vs. Russia (Noon; Tivoli-Neu Stadion, Innsbruck)
Greece vs. Sweden (2:45; Wals Siezenheim Stadium, Salzburg)

June 14:
Sweden vs. Spain (Noon; Tivoli-Neu Stadion, Innsbruck)
Greece vs. Russia (2:45; Wals Siezenheim Stadium, Salzburg)

June 18:
Greece vs. Spain (2:45; Wals Siezenheim Stadium, Salzburg)
Russia vs. Sweden (2:45; Tivoli-Neu Stadion, Innsbruck)

Greece:

2004 marked the first time that Greece had qualified for the European Championships in 24 years, so expectations were understandably tempered. Under the helm of a German, Otto Rehhagel, however, the Greeks pulled off the shock of all shocks by winning the whole thing, defying odds that had them as 150-1 underdogs to do just that.

Let’s be clear. Greece isn’t a traditional soccer nation and will never have the same prestige and talent that some other European countries do. They have a hard time qualifying for international tournaments, much less doing well in them, and we all know that what Rehhagel’s team was able to accomplish four years ago was a fluke. They didn’t even make it to the World Cup in 2006.

Under Rehhagel, though, Greece will never be blown out in a game and they’ll always have a fighting chance to take a positive result. He is a defensive-minded, disciplined coach whose teams are well-organized and have good camaraderie on and off the field. None of his players stand out that much more so than the others, so there’s never a problem with that “star complex” that we’ve seen with high-profile players like Didier Drogba or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who, as the leader of Sweden’s front line, will be up against the stalwart Greek defense.

Greece breezed through qualifying for this tournament, but there were no other countries that posed any significant threat. The key players on this team are all in their late-20’s or early-30’s, so while they were in their prime in 2004 and in qualifying, I’m not sure how much they have left in the tank for this tournament.

With that said, this team’s strength has never been their pace and athleticism. They’ll slow the tempo down to a stand-still at times. They tackle hard and furiously, and they really try to lock down the middle of the field and make their opponents beat them from the wings.

Antonios Nikopolidis will be in goal and at 36 years of age, probably will be making his last significant international appearances for Greece, so you know he’ll want to go out in style. Much like David James, he can be impenetrable when on the top of his game, but he also is very susceptible to the odd calamity every now and then. He has two impressive, attack-minded full-backs ahead of him — Giourkas Seitaridis on the right, and right-footed Vasilis Torosidis on the left. In the middle, 6′5″ Traianos Dellas and Sotirios Kyrgiakos, only one inch shorter, should win most every aerial battle in the area.

In the midfield, I think we’ll see a compact, three-man group. Benfica’s Kostas Katsouranis is very versatile and has become a good all-around player from his roots as a true defensive midfielder, the captain, Angelos Basinas, is a field general that is also hard-nosed and can tackle, and little Giorgos Karagounis has the most creativity on the team and is great from the set piece.

Up front, Theofanis Gekas, who led the German Bundesliga in the ‘06-’07 in goal scoring with 20 and scored 11 this season in 26 league games at Bayer Leverkusen, will play in the middle, Ioannis Amanatidis will be on Gekas’ right and drop deep, and Angelos Charisteas, who scored the winning goal in the Euro 2004 final against Portugal, will drift to the left.

Greece absolutely must get to their third and final group game against Spain with four points already in the bag, because they have absolutely no chance of coming out of that match with anything and four points will be the minimum to progress.

Russia:

Guus Hiddink is one of the most underrated, under-appreciated coaches in the world and with him at the helm, Russia has a realistic chance to advance out of this group. Hiddink has taken his native Holland to the World Cup semifinals, South Korea to the same stage in 2002, and Australia to the Round of 16 in 2006, where the Socceroos were eliminated by Italy after a terrible refereeing decision, which resulted in a penalty kick, went against them late and allowed Italy to escape in a game in which they were easily the inferior team.

Hiddink is inventive (three different formations with those three nations in the World Cups), charismatic, and popular; he is already in demand as his contract with Russia will expire after this tournament. He led Russia to this tournament from a group that included England, Israel, and Ukraine, so he’s already playing with house money in the sense that Russia was no lock to reach this point, especially having not even gotten to the last World Cup.

Like him, this Russian squad is very underrated and is capable of causing a “surprise”, although calling it that would be a disservice to the Russians and their abilities. Igor Akinfeev is one of the best young goalkeepers in Europe; he plays for CSKA Moscow and had a clean sheet streak of 362 minutes in only his second campaign in the Champions League. At just 22 years of age, he is his nation’s present and future at that position.

Ahead of him is a solid back line, which is laden with competition for three of the four spots. There are the veterans — the Berezutskiy twins and Sergei Ignashevich, each of whom, like Akinfeev, play for CSKA Moscow – who may all start, but a capable, less experienced group made up in part by Denis Kolodin and Roman Shirokov, who plays for current UEFA Cup holders Zenit St. Petersburg, are challenging for starting positions as well. Alexander Anyukov, who also plays for Zenit, is the only sure bet in the back four and will be on the right, and if I had to guess, I would go with experience and familiarity and say that Ignashevich and Alexei Beruzutskiy will be in the center, with Vasili Berezutskiy at left back.

In the midfield, Hiddink has been using two holding midfielders — Konstantin Zyrianov, who scored the second goal in Zenit’s 2-0 victory over Rangers in the UEFA Cup final and the reigning Russian Footballer of the Year, and Igor Semshov. Ahead of those two is a group of three, normally led by an absolutely fantastic attacking midfielder, Andrei Arshavin, another Zenit player, but Arshavin is suspended for the first two group games and his absence will be a huge blow. On the right, the blindingly quick Vladimir Bystrov will give opposing defenses fits all game long, and the creative but more defensive-minded Yuri Zhirkov will play wide left.

On his own up front will be Roman Pavlyuchenko, who has carved out a very successful career in the Russian Premier League and has been either the top goal-scorer or the joint top goal-scorer in the division in the last two years for Spartak Moscow.

Arshavin’s presence will definitely be welcomed back in the third game but until then, Russia will need to find a way to make due. Coming up with four points against Spain and Greece would put them in a terrific position with Arshavin coming back, but three points is more likely. Russia’s last game is against Sweden, and it could be a winner-take-all 90 minutes.

The second half of this preview, covering Sweden and Spain and my final prediction for Group D’s standings, will be up by some point this evening, so make sure to check back later.

Greece's Euro 2008 Squad

Wow, as soon as I finished posting the Dutch squad, Greece came out with their final roster. Tomorrow's workload is getting lighter by the minute, as now only nine more nations still need to submit their teams.

Greece is the defending champion, and will compete in Group D with Sweden, Spain, and Russia. They're coached by a German, Otto Rehhagel, who has been in charge since 2001.

Get ready for a lot of "O"'s and "S"'s, everyone...

GK (3): Antonios Nikopolidis (Olympiacos), Konstantinos Chalkias (Aris), Alexandros Tzorvas (OFI Crete)

DEF (9): Giourkas Seitaridis (Atlético Madrid), Christos Patsatzoglou, Paraskevas Antzas, and Vasilis Torosidis (Olympiacos), Loukas Vyntra, Nikos Spiropoulos, and Yannis Goumas (Panathinaikos), Traianos Dellas (AEK Athens), Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Eintracht Frankfurt)

MID (5): Angelos Basinas* (Mallorca), Stelios Giannakopoulos (Unattached), Giorgos Karagounis and Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos), Kostas Katsouranis (Benfica)

FWD (6): Georgios Samaras (Celtic), Angelos Charisteas (Nuremberg), Dimitrios Salpigidis (Panathinaikos), Theofanis Gekas (Bayer Leverkusen), Ioannis Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt), Nikolaos Liberopoulos (AEK Athens)

*Captain

Nine defenders? Hmm..

More on Greece on Thursday.