I haven't written anything about the German-Portuguese result, cause I've been too lazy. What I can say is Crisitano "Cry Baby Fucking Stupid Mentally Retarded Faces" Ronaldo really stunk up the joint. If I ever hear again about how this buffoon is the greatest player in the world when he can't even get past Arne Friedrich I'm going spit my soup, again. He is the most overrated sportsman since David Beckham. Legends are made in matches like that quarterfinal against Germany, but of course he wasn't going to come through, he is Cristiano Ronaldo. It's not like he's Michael Ballack or something. I don't care how many Champions Leagues he wins, unless he comes up with fantastic performances for Portugal in South Africa in crucial stages (such as last night's) he will always be overrated. Sort of like, well, George Best. Aside from all that I thought Hitzlsperger's contribution to the Mannschaft was a much needed improvement from what Frings had been offering. Of course Rolfes had a good match too, but Hitzlsperger's determination not to be outdone by the Portuguese midfield at the start of the match absolutely set the tone for the whole first half and two goal lead. He's really given Yogi Low a lot to ponder if Frings were to completely recuperate from his injury. I was completely shocked not to see Scolari start the Cry Baby at the right side or switch him during the match to face Philip Lahm, especially as it was clear for all to see how he was miserably struggling against Friedrich. That facilitated things for the Germans as Lahm was free to charge upwards in what became the most unfortunate match up for Portugal, watching Simao become extremely worried about the German left back, therefore following him everywhere, and losing any momentum in attack. If you would've told me before the match that Simao was going to be more concerned about Lahm, than Lahm about Simao, it would've been hard to believe, but not hard to foresee a German victory.

I don't think we could expect much different from Germany. Germany is one of those teams that usually don't raise their level very much when they raise it, but don't lower it immensely either when they're having a bad day. There's a few questions that need answering, such as Torsten Fring's health, as well as Lukas Podolski's. Especially Fring's situation is quite delicate for the Germans, because not only does his team desperately require him to raise his level in these Championships, but tonight more that ever. The test facing the German midfield that Deco and Petit will provide is probably be the sternest they will have faced this tournament so far. Frings, or whomever ends up playing alongside Ballack will have to be on his game as once and for all the German captain needs a more than reliable partner to expatiate around the pitch and take over the game as he is more than capable of doing. Germany can not afford once again to have its midfield core disappear and dissipate as they've been doing lately. They were very lucky the other night not to see their mistakes come back to hurt them as they played a weaker opponent. But tonight's opponent is not likely to forgive as Austria does. Deco and Co. will definitely take advantage of any German miscalculation and put them out of this tournament if they have the chance, they won't hesitate. One battle I'm particularly looking forward to is Cristiano Ronaldo and Phillip Lahm. If Lahm plays left back again as he did against the hosts they will most likely have a very interesting go at it. Naturally the Germans will have to be extremely coordinated defensively as they will need Lahm to mark Ronaldo during the bulk of the match, but once Portugal starts to test the small defender with long frontal and diagonal passes over his head, they'll need a plan B, as he normally struggles with those, especially if they're accurate. And I definitely do not think Germany wants Metzelder or Mertesacker roaming too far out of the central defence trying to mitigate the danger of that tactic which Portugal is very likely to try . So they will have to come up with a way of containing Ronaldo not only when/if Lahm is surpassed by a long ball, but also when the Bayern Munchen defender pushes forward as he is prone to do. Although were I he tonight, I'd think about that once or twice, as it is suicidal to leave Ronaldo all by his lonesome out on the wing. Wouldn't be a bad idea actually to start Lahm as a midfielder and let him do all the attacking he wants without having to worry about Ronaldo, and maybe leave the Portuguese player to Arne Friedrich or put Marcell Jansen in again to do that task. It'll be a fascinating dynamic on that side of the pitch tonight, without forgetting that Friedrich will also have his hands full with Simao. Still I insist that the key of the whole thing tonight is the midfield contest between Deco, Petit and Ballack alongside, theoretically Frings. I'm inclined to believe that whoever dominates that section of the pitch will find themselves semifinalists, but unforeseen contingencies in football are usually the last word. Like the aforementioned injuries to key German players, those who would replace them, the performance of the goalkeepers, as well as the referee and his assistants. And one detail which I'm not sure how relevant it will be but has been talked about ad nauseam in the German press, and that's Low's conundrum of not being able to be present near the sideline tonight. A quirky decision by UEFA, but could we expect any less from them? So, those are a few things to keep an eye on, which I'm sure that along with others will arise and are bound to have a profound impact on this beautiful match.

Unfreakingbelievable. You just can't kill these guys. I kept thinking during the whole match last night about the Mutu penalty save. And of course it's very easy to see Italy gaining tremendous momentum heading into the final stages of this competition. If anyone really thinks that things are going to be even a little easy for Spain, you haven't been paying attention the last three or four decades. This is what Italy does, tournament after tournament, World Cup after World Cup. They love to be underrated, underestimated, and then WHAM, they almost always end up tearing apart the dreams of teams that actually set as their goal the possibility of playing beautiful, attacking football. It's almost too easy to predict isn't? Spain will play widening the pitch with free flowing, attacking football, as Italy waits, and waits for the counterattack and KA-BOOM. Adios Espana. And the same will probably happen to the Netherlands in the semi final if they do meet. Freaking shame. I do hope of course for our sake and the sake of football that I'm terribly wrong about all this, but unfortunately I have the odd feeling that we are going to have to put up with another speculative, defensive and tactically over-controlled dose of how the Italians interpret the game. Unless of course they are willing to set out with a noticeably forward leaning Perrotta-apart from Toni and Del Piero obviously- as they did at times during the World Cup with Gilardino, whom I still can't believe was left out of this tournament. I don't think playing Cassano is the same thing. He had his chance before with the Azurri and didn't really measure up, so I don't really get his recall. I know he had a good campaign with Sampdoria, but still. So it's there set on the table for us. A clash of two historically football mad societies, one with a terribly successful national representative, the other not quite as much, but trying to overturn it's image of always failing at the moments of utmost importance. And taking the extremely experienced Italians out of these European Championships, would be a very big step in that direction.

Gruss Gott. That's how everyone greets you around here. It's their way of saying hello. Although apparently it really means God Bless. It's surprising how religious people here in Austria and southern Germany are. We in Mexico are 98% Catholic and we rarely say God Bless, it's more like " 'sup ", but in spanish. Just one of the few cultural learnings one has the pleasure of acquiring in these here parts. I also learned " SCHEISSE GEH ZU HAUSE !!!! SCHEISSE MANNSCHAFT!!!!! " Now apparently that's not a greeting or hello, but that's what furious, red faced, screaming German fans around me were yelling at their team all night at Ernst Happel. And one can not really blame them. This German team didn't look at all like the big mean football machine they're supposed to be. More like a slow, timid, disorganized unit after a big thrashing. And timid they were. Joachim Low seemed to definitely have been overly self conscious after the Croatian "disaster". His tactics spoke as much. Apart from the back four Germany has typically displayed under Low, the Germans were exaggeratingly cautious while in dispossession of the ball-constantly retreating Podolski and Fritz to marking assignments-which made them almost completely tame and slow in transition to attack after much of their stamina seemed spent running after the opponent's ball. In this sense the manager seems very confused to me. I never thought I would say this being a big fan of German football all my life, but what the Germans are doing in these European Championships is close to anti-football. You don't order your most dangerous attackers to defend. Podolski and Fritz are there to open the pitch and to offer much needed attacking dynamism to the team-although Podolski is amazingly slower than you would think-but it is obvious that Phillip Lahm's height is considered a liability by the manager when it comes to the long frontal and diagonal ball, therefore his preoccupation with the outside midfielders to constantly retreat. Still you would think that if Frings and Ballack are going to disappear completely during big lapses of the match, the least they could do is manage to cover Podolski's, Fritz's, as well as the full backs behinds as they sprint forward. These cowardly tactics seem fit for a showdown with the 1970 Brazilian team, not against poor little Austria, who actually managed to appear menacing thanks to Germany. And when the most spirited, dynamic, intelligent, brave, dangerous and simply best player for your team so far in the tournament is your left back, you're in deep sh... Germany were very lucky that they were playing Austria last night. Cause had they been playing, oh i dunno, Portugal, it would've been a very long night. Or even Croatia again, they would've lost again. No doubt in my mind. I posted before the tournament, stating the importance of Torsten Frings for this team. He has been a very weak midfield companion so far. He was ok against Poland, but after that, nichts. He and others, like Klose are going to have to start to show their stuff, otherwise Germany have almost no shot at all to win this thing, because Phillip Lahm's brilliance isn't enough to get them where they want. So Gruss Gott Deutschland. Cause if they continue down this path, it will be Auf Wiedersehen very soon.

It's amazing how football goes sometimes. You think of the many people involved in world football, and you feel that probably Peter Cech is less deserving of this kind of outcome than anyone else. But when it's rainy and the ball is wet you punch not catch, any 12 year old goalkeeper knows that. Still he and his teammates played well enough to deserve better. But it's football, and this game is rarely fair. It's very difficult to be analytical after a match like that, one can only watch jaw-dropped in awe and feel the high intensity of the Turks see them through, and probably farther than we could imagine. After events such as last night, one gets the feeling that concepts like "Team of Destiny"-which I've mocked before- are actually viable. So don't be surprised if Turkey go on and win it all after such a high emotional episode for them. You just watch. Aside from all that, I actually thought it to be quite unlucky for the Czechs, not only because of the moment to moment cosmic football explosion they suffered in the dying minutes of the match, but because they without a doubt had their best performance of the championships last night. Every tactical mistake Bruckner had made, and which I've killed him for, he corrected. Plasil and Sionko played quite different roles than in their previous two matches. They avoided the line like the plague to drift constantly towards the middle and leave those parcels for Jankulovski and Grygera to plow. Those two defenders offered more daring attempts up front in the first half of last night's contest than in the whole previous two matches put together. Bruckner finally became aware of how ineffective Plasil and Sionko are as wingers, so he did the next best thing and made them play inside where Turkey probably didn't expect them to, and that created all sorts of problems for them, especially in the first half, as they probably didn't expect such dynamism from Jankulovski and Grygera either. I know I didn't. Still, it's fantastic to see how football is much more than tactics. How the game is decided on the pitch by the will and spirit of 22 players who by virtue or error truly hold the outcome of the game. Not the minds-and some of them quite pretentious-of people on the sidelines who sometimes heighten their own importance, or at least try to, but will always remain peripheral figures to the real protagonists and providers of such magnificent drama as last night's. The players.

Yesterday's performance by Spain reminded me of all the great Spanish sides that have had fantastic starts to tournaments only to end in disappointment. I'm starting to wonder if this team is no different. Some of the players appear to have intermittent contributions and lack consistency while taking their team's momentum forward. In this sense Marcos Senna is utterly important. He's everybody's partner in the Spanish team. We all talk about Xavi, Iniesta and the important sprinklings David Silva provides with his quick and technical play, but Senna is the crucial clog in this squad's midfield. He provides the balance that Deco provides to the Portuguese (two brazilians, surprise, surprise), and when he has a less than stellar performance as he did yesterday, Spain struggle more than usual. I couldn't give a toss that they won last night. I just know their performance was nowhere near what it was against Russia. And that's typical Spain. When the tournaments reach their crucial stages, they begin to falter. We'll see. Ok, now a few words on tonight's only important match. It seems to me that everyones overanalyzing this contest consequently portraying it as a very close one. The Czech Republic's tame tactics will be their own undoing against Turkey. If Bruckner plays Plasil again on the wing tonight, I think I'm gonna kick my own ass due to frustration. It even seems like he's doing it just to piss me off. Plasil-and Sionko as well to be honest-are infuriatingly helpless stuck to the lines. They don't know how to play there. THEY'RE NOT WINGERS FOR FU.. SAKE. They can play on a four man midfield on the outside, that they could do. But to play them up front as if to partner a lone helpless striker-which I have no idea as to why Bruckner insists on playing with only one man up front-is completely ineffective. I think Turkey's dynamism and superior ball skills will see them through. I hate making predictions, but what the hell there it is.

Yesterday's performance by Spain reminded me of all the great Spanish sides that have had fantastic starts to tournaments only to end in disappointment. I'm starting to wonder if this team is no different. Some of the players appear to have intermittent contributions and lack consistency while taking their team's momentum forward. In this sense Marcos Senna is utterly important. He's everybody's partner in the Spanish team. We all talk about Xavi, Iniesta and the important sprinklings David Silva provides with his quick and technical play, but Senna is the crucial clog in this squad's midfield. He provides the balance that Deco provides to the Portuguese (two brazilians, surprise, surprise), and when he has a less than stellar performance as he did yesterday, Spain struggle more than usual. I couldn't give a toss that they won last night. I just know their performance was nowhere near what it was against Russia. And that's typical Spain. When the tournaments reach their crucial stages, they begin to falter. We'll see. Ok, now a few words on tonight's only important match. It seems to me that everyones overanalyzing this contest consequently portraying it as a very close one. The Czech Republic's tame tactics will be their own undoing against Turkey. If Bruckner plays Plasil again on the wing tonight, I think I'm gonna kick my own ass due to frustration. It even seems like he's doing it just to piss me off. Plasil-and Sionko as well to be honest-are infuriatingly helpless stuck to the lines. They don't know how to play there. THEY'RE NOT WINGERS FOR FU.. SAKE. They can play on a four man midfield on the outside, that they could do. But to play them up front as if to partner a lone helpless striker-which I have no idea as to why Bruckner insists on playing with only one man up front-is completely ineffective. I think Turkey's dynamism and superior ball skills will see them through. I hate making predictions, but what the hell there it is.

The last time the French admitted a crucial goal in a crucial instance was remarkably similar to last night. Then, one could've made the argument that Materazzi was too big, too strong. But the same could not be said about Dirk Kuyt. Again a corner from the right side appears to have been France's downfall and although much more contributed to their defeat than one goal, it definitely opened things up for the Dutch and set the table for another historic night. One should not minimize one bit what the Dutch have done so far in this tournament, however it seems that the "Group of Death" should've been coined the "Group of Age". Italy and France seem to suffer from the same ailment. They're old. For instance, when Italy and France elect-or should I say are compelled- to play Christian Panucci and Willy Sagnol respectively at right back, something's up. It's almost as if Andy Brehme were still playing at left back for Germany. I'm being facetious with this example of course-or trying to be- but it's only to prove the point already made in an earlier post about age. Almost the same arguments made about Italy then can be duplicated in regards to the French team. The cornerstones of these two teams seem to have been worn out, and as the match went on last night between Dutch and French, nothing seemed clearer. France were almost completely surpassed at every level. We've all known about van Nistelrooy's brilliance, but yesterday a few players in Oranje raised their hands to become protagonists in another historic trouncing. First off, Sneijder looks to have become what we've all been expecting from van der Vaart for some time. He's become the baton bearer and playmaker of this team, an amazing transformation in this player but apparently a year under Bernd Schuster will do that to you-speaking of which, at Madrid he's become the player Beckham could never be. Khalid Boulahrouz form in the national team surprises me no more, what does surprise me is his inability to translate that into club football. Two years ago he had a fantastic World Cup for Holland prompting me to suspect he would become one of the great defenders on earth, only to return to mediocre form with Chelsea. Seems the Oranje shirt compels him to perform at a higher level and it's great to witness. And then there's Gio van Bronckhorst. He has returned-during these European Championships at least-to the form we remember from him at Barcelona. His long passes have regained the accuracy that Ronaldinho, E'to and Co. thoroughly enjoyed at the Catalunian club in the past. Still, having written all this about them something worried me. I have absolutely nothing against enjoying a fantastic and historic victory, but last night looked as if Holland had won it all. The players-and their families-celebrated as if they had nothing else to play for, as if it were all finished. Mission accomplished, as it were. They've won nothing yet, and better than anybody they should know it. It seems that a typical passiveness and lightness lingers in the Dutch temperament that has led them to so many disappointing conclusions in the past. Let's just hope, for their sake and ours, that this is not another symptom of failure. The other match was a paradoxical affair as the Italians were much better than in their previous outing, but still somehow deserved to lose the contest. Mutu was again nonexistent during the first half but deserved to make good on his penalty kick attempt due to his efforts on the second, sadly it was not to be. Camoranesi and Grosso returned to their World Cup form but the Italians become too tired too early in these matches-unlike two years ago-and are forced to throw too many crosses too quickly and frontal long passes- which Toni did a very good job of trying to bring down- and were easily controlled by an alert Romanian defence. It seemed to me even more clearly than in their previous match how the Italians haven't tried to modify their game one bit from the World Cup. They keep playing consistently vertical bordering on impatient at times, but there's a notable difference this time around. There's one important piece of the World Cup puzzle missing for them, and that's Alberto Gilardino. It's true that Gilardino didn't enjoy a ton of playing time during their World Cup run and only scored one goal, but he provided the Italian attack with a lot more dynamism and a constant threat to opponents as a distracting tool with his diagonal and forward movements. They are without a doubt in my mind, missing that kind of striker, if only, to provide some youth to the squad which for the umpteenth time, they desperately need.

I won't even try to post anything sensible or analytical today as it is impossible to really observe a futbol match from the stands with ten drunken, hugging, shoving, screaming Croatian hooligans on top of you. But I noticed how Marcel Jansen has-probably unfairly- gotten the you know what beat out of him by the German press. Yes, he didn't have the best of performances, but he's had plenty of good ones for the Mannschaft to at least get some grace period. We'll see how the Deutsch rebound from this defeat, and the first thing that comes to mind is that if they do qualify, which we all expect I think, they should be facing Portugal right away. Needless to say, a sort of advanced final. Should be fascinating stuff. Still the Germans have work to do in Vienna against the hosts. But one is compelled to conclude that if they can't beat Austria, they shouldn't even have a shot at the title in the first place.

Every once in a while appears a team that seems to have no choice but to offer us beautiful futbol. As if they weren't told thats this is the age of mediocrity. They didn't get the memo that they are supposed to play hard, physical, mindless, marathonic English Premier League style. It seems as if they know no other way, but to be generous to the futbol ogler. That was Spain last night. Watching them, they looked like a bunch of eight year olds playing on the street with no further consequence than having a good time. Hence the title, Spain seem like "The Red Fury" no more. More like the Red Beauty if you ask me. One of the beautiful things about their game is having that kind of midfield. Probably incomparable to any other nowadays. There seems to be no bind from which Xavi, Iniesta and Senna can't get out of. It's gorgeous to watch. It's almost like having three Fernando Redondos on your team (well, maybe I went too far there). They look almost perpetually in control of any situation as long as Spain manages the game. When Spain does not enjoy the majority of the ball control-as happened briefly at the restart- they struggle a bit, but that scenario seldom takes place. Actually as the match was still young I had the feeling that Russia was going to have a good night, because they seemed at times to be able to completely open the pitch with their wingers at will-something uncannily similar in the manner to which Zenit St. Petersburg does until you remember that Advocaat was Hiddink's assistant for a while, then it seems almost warranted-and complicate matters for Spain. But that lasted like five minutes or something, until Spain adjusted as Puyol (man of the match in my opinion, Villa's hat-trick notwithstanding) and Marchena took control by swiftly lateralizing to the flanks to help Ramos and Capdevila eliminate this Russian threat. It all must've been quite surreal for Guus Hiddink, considering that Spain were exactly playing the way the Dutch manager dreams his teams would perform and have performed in the past. All throughout the match I kept thinking how Russia was not playing as badly, but they were facing the team that without a doubt best combines speed and precision in Europe, if not the world. I also kept thinking that if Spain is not able to win this thing, or the World Cup two years from now, they are never winning anything, as this is the most talented generation of Spanish footballers I have ever seen. Still one feels the need to be measured while laying praise on them. Because I remember how two years ago we were all ready to award this team with the World Cup after one performance, and then what happened? Let's see if this is not simply just another Spanish promise of glory, only to be left empty handed and wondering if consolidation will ever come for such a futbol mad society.