It's been a while since blog inspiration has struck, but some scintillating soccer action has changed all that. A fortuitous confluence of events dropped a magic weekend in our laps, bringing live action and the best of the best of international action on the tube.
First up: USA v. the top team in the world...Argentina. The Americans held their own (and then some) before 78,000+ at Giants Stadium, sticking with the unbelievably skillful South Americans to hold on for a 0-0 draw despite playing a big chunk of the second half a man short thanks to a red card. (Note to Pablo: Don't throw the ball at the ref.) A world-class marathon tailgate party of shrimp, steak and kielbasi with friends from FC Dallas, MLS and the Colorado Rapids set the stage, topped only by one of the greatest scoreless games I've ever seen.
Next, the European Championships delivered a great afternoon of football, with France and Romania muddling their way through a frustrating draw before the main course: World Champs Italy against the always enthralling Dutch. A great friend, Brett (from DC via Denver and the UK), helped me watch the matches on Monday afternoon, braving a thoroughly dejected Polish crowd at Rossi's to witness an absolutely dominating performance by Holland. The match, pitting my favorite MetroStars acquaintance (Italy coach Roberto Donadoni) against my all-time fave player (Netherlands coach Marco Van Basten) was headed for classic status before the opening whistle, and never disapppinted, with the Oranje Army destroying the Azzuri, 3-0. Wesley Sneijder (sounds like Schneider!) provided the exclamation point on the day, smashing a side volley with his right foot (picture above) to cement the victory.
2 comments:
It was a special weekend for the Glorious Game.
How's training going?
As i sat here debating how best to phrase my support for Sverige, they went a second goal down to Russia, who i'd like to point out geographically do not belong in this tournament.
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