June 27, 2008
Why Euro Is Such a Big Deal
By Steven StarkPARIS, FRANCE -- To spend some time in Europe during the quadrennial Euro soccer championship is to understand that it many ways, this tournament is a bigger deal on the continent than the World Cup. Sure, winning the World Cup is said to be the biggest prize in the sport. But the same teams always dominate that tourney (Brazil, Italy, etc.), and there’s a lot more prestige in Europe to beating a traditional rival you’ve competed with for centuries, than eclipsing a nation like Ivory Coast or Mexico at the World Cup. Besides, in an era when Europe is supposed to be all unified and everything, where else but in soccer and the annual Eurovision song contest can you legitimately stir up all the old tribal antipathies, which may explain why this tournament unexpectedly produced so much attacking, exciting soccer.
The championship will go to Germany or Spain, the pre-tourney favorites, but the real winners this time around have been Turkey and Russia, the losing semi-finalists. If soccer had all the political ramifications some of its adherents claim, Turkey’s gallant come-from-behind performances here against more talented foes to reach the last four would guarantee it the long-sought admission to the European Union it seeks. Alas, soccer isn’t life and while Turkey will continue to be allowed to match wits with the likes of the Germans and Portuguese on the pitch, it will be a long while yet, if ever, that it gets its place in Brussels.
The Russians have been this season’s revelation – as Zenit St. Petersburg won the UEFA Cup playing the prettiest soccer on the planet and the Russian team followed up at Euro by playing a similar version of the old Dutch style of “total soccer” better than the Dutch. (It didn’t hurt, of course, that both Russian squads were coached by old Dutchmen.) One only has to do the population math to figure out that if soccer has really caught in Russia, the continent has acquired another soccer power, on a par with Italy and Germany. Is this sport the Kremlin’s new propaganda arm in a renewed Cold War? Let’s leave that one to the political scientists, though it’s worth noting that many of the Russian stars – in the wake of their new found popularity -- are said to be leaving their club teams in the mother country to pursue sunnier climes in places like Spain. Russia may find itself tilting to Europe in ways it hadn’t anticipated.
What were the other developments to watch to come out of this tournament? There were several, including:
Felipe Scolari goes to Chelsea. Even when England isn’t in a tournament (is that why things went so swimmingly?), it has to inject itself into the headlines. Thus, right in the middle of the tournament, the richest-of-the-rich and the most obnoxious-of-the-obnoxious, Chelsea FC, announced it was hiring Portuguese coach Scolari as its new skipper. The disrupted Portuguese squad then when on to lose the rest of its games and go out of the tournament.
Scolari is being hailed as the new savior of Stamford Bridge. Don’t count on it. He hasn’t coached a club team in well over a decade (and that was in Brazil – a different matter entirely) and all he’s really proven on the national team scene is that he can take a group of talented Portuguese speakers and get them to play mildly over their heads. As a judge of talent he is untested and he is a hothead to boot. Will he last more than a year? It would be a surprise if he did.
The return of the Germans which means the return of Bayern Munich. German club teams have underperformed on the European stage the last few seasons and last year Bayern Munich got run off the pitch by Zenit 4-0 in the later stages of the UEFA tourney. This season Germans teams should do better. Their performance at Euro shows they have a lot of maturing talent and Bayern, especially, under the stewardship of Jurgen Klinsmann, should improve. Look for Bayern to make a run in the Champion’s League.
Expect the unexpected next season. Seasons following lengthy cup competitions tend to produce more surprises. Many of the sport’s stars are tired and more than usual get injured as their bodies break down. Thus, if there’s ever going to be a year when some Spanish team shatters the Real Madrid-Barcelona domination of La Liga and when some unexpected English team cracks the traditional top 4 of Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea --and even makes a run at the title -- this should be the year.
This tournament showed the continent’s favorite pastime at its best. Let’s hope it continues.
