the euro fever has just ended..of course with spain finally winning the tournament in Austria Vienna after a long awaited 44 throphyless yrs..well..they deserve to win actually..played beautiful football..move ball around..score goals..wat more can u ask for?
below are some stats and personal opinion for the tournament..
Champion : Espana, Spain
Champion : Espana, Spain
Runner up: Germany
Player of the tournament: Xavi Henandez (Spain)
Top Goalscorer: David Villa, 4 (Spain)
Most Assists: Cesc Fabregas, 4 (Spain)
Most Goals Scored: Spain, 12
Total Pass Completion % (team): Spain, ave 88.13%
Total Pass Completion % (individual): William Gallas 93% (in 281 mins)
Most Saves: Igor Akinfeev, 48 saves (Russia) (but seriously unlucky to let 7 in from Spain)
Most shots made: Roman Pavlyuchenko, 28 (Russia)
Most shots on Goal: David Villa, 12 (Spain)
Fastest Goal: Luka Modric, 4 min (Croatia)
Worse discipline team: Turkey (16 yellows, 1 red)
Most fouls commited: Spain, 114 (but hey..they played the most matches..) followed by turkey
Most fouls commited(player): Michael Ballack, 22 (Germany)
hmm..i suppose that's enough for the statistics..anyway..sources from http://www.uefa.com/..
now to the personal opinions...
Overacheivers:
hmm..a tough choice between the turks and the russians..but i think i will go with the turks..
seriously..they were very unlucky against Germany..the better team lost..that's all i can say..
the russian were not bad though..but they just can't play against Spain..
Underacheivers:
hmm..England..oh..wait..they r not even part of the party..
oh well..i have to go with France then..high expectations..no doubt they r in a tough group..but they only got 2 points..no wins..knocked out at a group stages..can't win..can't score much..internal conflicts..how worst can that get..
oh well..i have to go with France then..high expectations..no doubt they r in a tough group..but they only got 2 points..no wins..knocked out at a group stages..can't win..can't score much..internal conflicts..how worst can that get..
Comeback Kings:
well..this has to be dedicated to the turkish..coming back from 2-0 nil against the czechs to win 3-2..1-0 down at 119th min..and winning the penalty against croatia..great stuff..hmm..maybe they should start their future matches 1-0 down..how bout that..
Best Passing team:
Spain..obviously..oh well..holland's not bad too..
Best Goal:
there r a lot to choose from..like David Guiza's goals..both are nice..
Bastian Schwientienger(his name is damn hard to spell) goal against protugal..
a couple of David Villa's goal..or the Torres' goal in the final..
maybe Arjen Robben's "how the hell did he do that" goal against france?
but i choose this one..
Most Pathetic Bench:
Turkey's semifinal match against Germany..only 3 fit players on the bench..out of the 12 available..now..that's pathetic..
Most decorated Bench:
now..here is another tester..actually it's one out of the 2..the 3rd group stage match for Holland and Spain..where the 1st team players are rested..hmm..i would choose spain..a bench with torres..villa..silva..xavi....well..then again..in their normal matches..players like xabi alonso, cesc fabregas cannot even make it on the pitch..wat a bench..
Players that shot up to fame:
hmm..well..it has to be this 2..Andrei Ashavin and Roman Paulvyuchenko..
well..major european clubs are hunting for Ashavin..
Semifinal Specialist:
Guus Hiddink
wat had to be said..he brought 4 different teams to major tournaments in the past decades..but just semifinals..no finals..
Thug of the tournament:
haha..this isn't that hard..it should be this guy..
a quote from F365..
"The only medal Ballack deserves is for kicking and stamping,fouling more players in final than any other player."
Incidently..he also falls under the category of Final's flop..
well..he just can't win any finals..it's true..
bayern leverkusen a few years back in the champion league final..This season, in a similar story, he lost the Carling Cup and Champions' League finals with Chelsea, the Premiership on the last day and the European Championship final. not to forget the 2 finals that the Germans got to..
but hey..almost is nothing..familiar?
Hardest name to spell..
well..not hard..it's erm..bastian..schwienstienger..it's also pretty hard to pronounce too..
Best act:
quoted fro F365:
"Fabregas should headline the acts at the Royal Variety Performance! His impession of the Invisible Man last night was awesome. Only time I saw him was when he was walking off the pitch for his final bow. The boy has skills."
Clown of the tournament:
Jens Lehmann..firstly..he looks like a clown..secondly..
quoted from F365:
I'm not the kind of person to blame other people" - Jens Lehmann, June 29. "What was disappointing in my opinion was the performance of the referee, who didn't really fancy us Germans, and this is the third time I was unlucky with referees in European cup finals...He was very arrogant and in my opinion he was biased. He clearly saw a head-butt from a Spanish player towards Lukas Podolski, he didn't book him or give him a red card. Just before the end we had a good chance in the penalty area and all of a sudden he gave a foul against us where even the Spanish players were surprised to get a free-kick. It was very disappointing" - Jens Lehmann, June 29. "It's a great end to a tough year and it would mean a lot to win it because in the end my difficult season was down to my club manager" - Jens Lehmann, June 27.
well done Jens..
okok.enough already..now to the my starting XI of the tournament..
Igor Akinfeev - made the most saves..marvellous keeper
Sergio Ramos - not exactly a fan of him..great goin forward..but prone to mistakes in defending..
Philipp Lahm - great goin forward..decent defending..scored the winner to bring the germans to the finals..
Carlos Puyol - the rock of the spanish defence..
Giorgio Chiellini - presence of him prevented spain from scoring..
Bastian Schwienstienger - Germany's player of the knock-out round..repaid his faith after getting sent off at a group stage match
Wesley Sniejder - wat a player for Holland..
Marcos Senna - Spain's unsung hero..instrumental in stopping play..
Cesc Fabregas - Spain's supersub..helped them to the finals..but disappeared in the finals..
Andrei Ashavin - Russian's star player..
David Villa - how could anyone leave him out? haha..
think i shall end here...Viva Espana!!
Sources: www.soccernet.com , www.football365.com, www.uefa.com
