Three thoughts after Spain’s 1-0 win over Germany gave the Spaniards their first European championship since 1964 (and second major trophy in their country’s history):
• Spain’s victory is a victory for entertaining soccer. Nothing against the Germans, who played some memorable games in this tournament, but Spain was the best team in Euro 2008—and its championship is a symbolic reward in a Euro when attacking soccer came back to the forefront after a dark and dreary Euro 2004. Spain created more chances than Germany today and deserved to win, but Luis Aragonés’s men also played honest defense, allowing not a single goal in the three knockout-round games against Italy, Russia and Germany. This game won’t go down as a classic in the annals of the sport (how many finals ever do?) but it does conclude a classic tournament, one that I still consider to be the best major international soccer tournament since the 1986 World Cup.
• Spain’s England-based guys added even more nuance to their team’s attack. For most of the tournament I’ve thought that Aragonés undervalued his Premier League players: primarily Fernando Torres (who’d never play 90 minutes) and Cesc Fabregas (who wasn't able to crack the first-team lineup until the final). But Torres and Fabregas ended up being two of Spain’s most important players in this title run, not least because they melded the traditional Spanish short-passing style with a more direct approach that shows the influence of the league in which they play. El Niño’s hard-earned goal today wasn’t the only chance he created with the sort of scrappy hustle that we usually associate with Germany (and England), not Spain, and if the Spanish can continue to meld that grit with their youth, technical skill and forgetfulness of their past, we may be on the verge of a Spanish-dominated era in world soccer.
• Marcos Senna did it again. It would have been a perfect way for Spain to punctuate this European triumph if the magnificent Senna had scored on his point-blank chance in the 81st minute. And even though he failed to finish (proving why he's a defensive midfielder, I suppose), Senna put on another clinic today by preventing Michael Ballack from exerting an influence on the game. Ballack saw his own blood after knocking heads with Senna late in the first half, and from then on Ballack was a different player, one who couldn’t energize the German attack aside from a brief stretch midway through the second half. Before this tournament I wasn’t sure that Senna was the right choice as Spain’s midfield anchor, but it quickly became clear that he was one of the best players in all of Euro 2008.
Through-balls: From Blog pal Craig Stouffer after the match: “How do you think Raúl feels right now?” ... I kept waiting for what I felt would be the inevitable German push in the final minutes. None came, partly because Germany had some bad give-aways and partly because Spain didn’t go into the prevent defense and maintained possession extremely well. In the last 10 minutes it looked like Spain, not Germany, was the team that had been here before ... Philipp Lahm is a heck of a player, but he let Torres abuse him on that goal. After a momentary struggle with Torres, it looked as if Lahm actually let Torres go to get in on the ball ... Big credit to Spanish outside backs Sergio Ramos and Joan Capdevila for holding Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger in check. The German forwards were never much of a threat in this tournament, which meant a ton of pressure was on Podolski and Schweinsteiger, who just didn’t deliver this time.
Finally, I want to say thanks for reading during the Euro. This is the first time I've done a tournament-long blog, and the Comments section (with only one or two minor exceptions) has been a place where fans can discuss and debate with good humor, as if they were friends doing it over a drink after the game. For me the last three weeks have been a blast. I hope we can do it again soon.
Feel free to post your comments below!
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I beg to differ on your comment stating that Philipp Lahm is a heck of a player. His freelancing on offense leaves him out of position at the back too much, and if it weren't for his goal in the 90th minute against the Turks, everyone would have blamed Lahm for the eventual loss. He was playing horrible, and I'm not fully convinced that it was injury that caused him to be substituted out at the start of the second half by Joachim Low.
thehemogoblin is…
The University Of, OR
Total Comments (29681)
Great final, in the end, Spain was rewarded with the championship that it deserved, Torres looked much better today, due mostly, in my opinion, to Cesc playing very similar to how Gerrard plays behind Torres at Liverpool, exploiting the best aspects of El Nino's game, his speed, athleticism, and strength, while exploiting the fragile German central defense.
Anyone else relishing the potential possibility of a titanic clash between Argentina and Spain at WC 2010??
KopHawk83
Ames , IA
Total Comments (320)
Few of us will know how hard this was for Aragones; which is ultimately giving him the greatest respect. He had to measure precisely how to play his most prized pupil, Fernando Torres. It obviously paid off. Aragones had to step back and be patient with Sergio Ramos when his natural instinct has always been to be aggressive. He will never get the credit that is due him for some of his past mistakes and for keeping so much of what was said about him or his team away from the media and for struggling through with the rest of his players.
The accolades will come out of the woodwork and people in many different media outlets will testify to knwoing how great Spain was all along but, especially on this blog, my guess is there are a lot of truly happy people right now. Many of us could really feel that this was Spain's moment. I'm glad they were right.
Burgundy
Baltimore , MD
Total Comments (138)
??VIVA ESPA??A! CAMPEONES DE EUROPA!
As a native Spaniard I thought this day would never come! Forty-four long and arduous years! I was really starting to believe we were cursed and that I would never see them win a major tournament in my lifetime. But now, they've finally got the monkey off their back. Classic underachievers no more! It's a historic day for Spain and all the Spanish football fans ansd supporters around the world! I will never forget this moment for the rest of my life!
Barca4Life
Milwaukee , WI
Total Comments (180)
Ooops my bad. ??Viva Espa??a! There much better. :D
Barca4Life
Milwaukee , WI
Total Comments (180)
The better team won. The fan zone here in Vienna was about 75% German by my guess, but most everyone without a stake in it was pulling for the Spaniards. There are going to be some great celebrations throughout the night!
flinx1241
Total Comments (5)
In American football, the saying goes that "Defense wins championships." In futbol, Spain proved once again that it's the "Spine," and not the outside flair, that determine soccer glory. From Casillas to Puyol to Senna to Fabregas to Torres to Euro 2008 Champs! Well done and most assuredly well deserved!
BigMike608
Indialantic , FL
Total Comments (6)
Too bad Raul was not a part of it. He deserved to be.
w3wa2003
Total Comments (16)
Hi Grant! Just want to congratulate you on your Blog. I'm from Portugal and have been following your blog since day 1. Every evening after the games, I would check up on your entries, and thoroughly enjoyed you writtings. Thanks again for the great coverage!
SMR23
Total Comments (5)
Oh I give up! LOL! I'm too giddy right now to even care. I can't understand why Low stuck with Klose for so long? He's had a poor tournament by his standards and I was surpised that he wasn't subbed for sooner. I wonder what the deal was with Lahm? as Andy Gray mentioned I can't imagine he was subbed for unless due to injury? He was far from being Germany's worst defender on the pitch and instead of skewering him for Torres' goal, why can't people acknowledge that it had more to do with an individual piece of brilliance on Torres' part? To be fair Torres missed at least three or four other good chances to score. I'm sure most people are going to point the fingers at Podolski, Klose, Ballack and Schweinsteiger for not creating enough goal scoring opportunities. But their back four was just as poor if you ask me. The Germans were lucky not to have conceeded more than one goal. It had more to do with Torres' poor first touches than their defense that kept him from netting more goals.
Barca4Life
Milwaukee , WI
Total Comments (180)
It certainly was an entertaining tournament and Spain fully deserved to win.
Thanks, Grant, for the thoughtful blog. I hope your bosses at si.com allow you to do this for every major tournament.
boffo
Portland , ME
Total Comments (5)
yes, we made it,
Spain deserved it, really.
germany only was germany at the beginning of the game.
viva espa??a, and of course Raul deserved to be there.
anyways we love our country.
MANIN S. RAMBIS
Total Comments (1)
thanks grant!
CAMPEONES CAMPEONES OE OE OE
Big Chaco
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1279)
Why do defensive teams get such a bad rep? Sure offense is entertaining for the masses and your average fair weather fan, but in no way do I feel a team should be knocked for stacking up their defense, especially when through and through so many of the best teams in every sport have had dominating defenses. Being from Chicago, I've seen every championship won here in recent memory, won by a defensive team: the '85 Bears, the '05 White Sox, and even the Bulls team of the 90's were dominant cause they kept people from scoring just as much as they could score -- and no one could argue those teams were not entertaining. Where offenses can be intermittently on fire and sputter, defenses remain a team's rock to lean on and your best way to win consistently.
Obviously kudos to Spain, but I still feel that to win and to win consistently is the ultimate goal and that there's no better way to do that than to create a solid core at defense.
marcotomas
Chicago , IL
Total Comments (10)
Spain deserved to win the game and the tournament, period.
That said, Germany was absolutely pathetic. The wonderfully efficient Germans looked anything but. It could have/should have been a wider margin. Torres hit the post, Senna missed his chance, and on another a player marking the post blocked a ball on its way in. We watched a 4-0 game that ended up 1-0. What a horrible showing. Schweinsteiger tried but had no help, Ballack was horrendous, Podolski was silenced by Ramos, Klose was terrible, Hitzlesberger was terrible, Lahm gave up the goal, the centerbacks looked super vulnerable. It seemed like almost every pass went astray. Casillas was never threatened.
Just as a pure fan of the sport, I expected more from a final and a finalist. Either the Germans were all hungover from the night before, or they were a complete fluke in getting here.
knick4life
Mount Vernon , NY
Total Comments (26)
Phenomenal job Grant and congratulations to Spain fans everywhere. You deserved this one.
GoldenThread
Morris , MN
Total Comments (319)
I don't know about this Premier League love. Fabregas plays the Spanish tiki-taka style for Arsenal and Torres still plays the same way in Liverpool as he did in Atletico. The only difference for these two is the space they get in the EPL that they wouldn't get in La Liga
Big Chaco
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1279)
people don't forget that it shouldn't have been Germany-Spain, it should have been Turkey-Spain. that would have been a far better game. I truly wish the Turks had pulled it out against Germany. Germany won that game, but Turkey should have.
Germany looked lackluster the last two games. Spain looked great in the last three. Congratulations Spain, and I can't wait for WC10
lordluck
Middleton , WI
Total Comments (1)
Much props to Sergio Ramos for wearing an Antonio Puerta t-shirt. He would have definitely been on that roste
Big Chaco
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1279)
VIVA Espana!!!
salvaje50
Total Comments (336)
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