Bundesliga Watch

You know, the post title would be much better if this were Switzerland, but what can you do? Since it is undoubtedly Germany Day here on UF (on Armistice Day, no less), with one, two, three stories so far, why not add another one? A quick look at the woefully-ignored-by-us Bundesliga thus far will do nicely, I think.

The story, so far, tn Germany is undoubtedly that of TSG Hoffenheim. The small-town club (and I do mean small–population 3000) is in its first season in the Bundesliga and acquitting themselves quite nicely. How nicely? Well, until a 1-0 loss at Hertha Berlin this weekend, the team was in first place. That’s pretty damn swell, I think. This is not your usual small club, though. They are backed financially by Dietmar Hopp, one of the founders of SAP. Hopp used to play for the youth side of Hoffenheim, and has used his billions to build the squad up. As it stands, this is a very international club now, with players from nine countries on the squad, including three cherished Brazilians. This season is a transition season for the club, as they are moving out of their former 5000-seat stadium into a newly-built 30,000 seater. What remains to be seen is if the club can fill those seats when the newness of the Bundesliga wears off.

Sitting atop the Bundesliga at this point is Landycake’s former club, Bayer Leverkusen. Leverkusen hold the slightest of leads at this point, being even on points with Hoffenheim, while holding a one goal better goal diffential. Since Hoffenheim are also the top scoring team in the league, this is a tight race. Leverkusen ascended to the top after a scrappy 3-3 draw with Karlsruhe on Saturday. High scoring games are not the norm for Leverkusen, as their four previous results had been 2-0 wins since an early October 1-0 loss to . . . Hertha Berlin. Head to head with Hoffenheim, however, Leverkusen hold the advantage having topped the small club 5-2 in the season’s third week. There is also a big match upcoming with perennial favorites Bayern Munich in three week’s time.

Bayern Munich sit third in the table, one point behind the top two. They must be considered the hot team right now, having run off 19 points in the last seven matches since a disappointing 2-2-2 start. Whereas Jurgen Klinsmann was probably on the early hot seat before, the team is looking much more solid now. Klinsi’s big question right now must be why the hell he would care about bringing in Donovan. He is replete with attacking options to the point of Lukas Podolski–the Pole transplant who starts and scores copiously for the German national side–cannot be considered a starter for his club team. Tough times are ahead for the American.

Through the middle of the table, there are some weird issues with team’s records and their goal differentials. Fourth-place Hamburg have a 7-2-3 record, but have an even goal differential despite the four more wins than losses. The fact that all three of their losses have been 3-0 definitely plays into that. On the other hand, there is Werder Bremen. This is an up and own team who, despite holding a 4-5-3 record, have a +5 GD, which leaved them 10th in the 18 team Bundesliga. It must be because they can pump in the goals at times, having put up 5 against Hoffenheim (5-4), Bayern (5-2, away!) and Hertha (5-1).

What of this Hertha team that keeps getting mentioned? They sit 5th currently, four points behind the leaders. Between 5th and 11th is pretty hotly contested with Schalke, Wolfsburg, Koln, Borussia Dortmund, and Stuttgart joining Werder and Hertha therein.

From Stuttgart, there is a gap to the third tier of the Bundesliga. Four points separate the 2007 champs from 12th place Eintracht Frankfurt who in turn hold a one point lead over Hannover 96. Borussia Moenchengladbach and Karlruhe sit a little further back in the last safe spots.

Sixteenth place in the Bundesliga goes into a two-leg playoff against the third-placed team from 2.Bundesliga. Currently, the 16th place team is VfL Bochum. The final two spots in the table are held by the woefully out of form sides Arminia Bielefeld and Energie Cottbus. When it comes down to it, Bielefeld has the better chance of surviving, while Cottbus have the look of EPL’s Derby County last season. They have one win against eight losses with three draws. Who did that win come against? Hertha, of course. Who else?

Written by Darkvader on November 11th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Germany and bundesliga and ü75.

How Do You Say “Boo Hoo” in German?

As if the Cole saga and the Kris Boyd moaning weren’t enough, it appears that Poor/Afflicted Footballer Syndrome has reached the mainland, and in particular, the German national team.

Kevin Kuranyi, the prolific 26-year-old Bundesliga striker (84 goals in 202 games is decent, right?), was a little disgruntled about being omitted from the 18-man squad for the World Cup qualifier against Russia over the weekend, so much so that he upped and left at half-time.

The end result? Manager Joachim Low doesn’t want him back as long as he’s in charge.

Here’s hoping young Kevin feels good about his decision in the long-term. He didn’t get picked for one game, and now he’s out of the running for any future Germany games? Sure, it’s predicated upon Low being in charge, but do you think any future coach is going to feel enamored to pick this malcontent?

Reports suggested that Kuranyi was about to retire from international duty shortly, but it’s the classic “You can’t quit… you’re fired!” routine as Low beat him to the punch:

“As a coach, you have got to make decisions like this and you expect that some are hurt or disappointed, but that is my job and the players have got to accept it. It would have been advisable for him to come and talk to me or one of my colleagues. But none of us knew what had happened - we just sat on the bus and waited for him. I am disappointed with the way he acted. I can understand his disappointment, but he should not overreact - that is not right.”

Kuranyi’s having a tough season, but it doesn’t excuse such petulant behavior. Germany are having a difficult time finding strikers who can score goals (something I thought England were struggling with, although not recently!), but he would have had another turn sooner or later. Klose couldn’t score a goal if the posts were a mile apart, so it was merely a matter of time until the Wheel of Fortune landed on him again.

And yet, it wasn’t enough for ol’ Kevin, and now he’s going to have plenty of spare time not helping his country to win their first significant tournament since 1996.

So, another sob story invades the news landscape. Who’s next: Karim Benzema? Someone Portuguese? Antonio Cassano pulling a gun on Marcelo Lippi?

Written by Darkvader on October 13th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Boo Hoo Hoo and Germany and International Duty and Lingering Bursitis and fun with soundbites.

Ghana-Brazil 2006 World Cup Match Fixed?

I’ve been away from the blog for a bit too long. That’s life.

So today, Day One of a little project I’m going to undertake, where I post on the blog for 31 straight days. So dear reader, stick with me.

Today’s big news, besides the ongoing transfer talk and the huge acquisition of Manchester City by a United Arab Emirates business group concerns the accusation of match-fixing at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

According to German weekly news magazine Der Speigel, the 2006 World Cup knock-out stage match between Brazil and Ghana was influenced by an Asian betting syndicate. What do we mean by influenced?

Fixed.

The magazine reports large sums of money had been bet on Brazil winning by at least two goals and a former Ghana international acted as an intermediary.

Ghana lost the last 16 round match 3-0 in Dortmund on June 27, 2006 which put Brazil into the quarter-finals, where they lost to finalists France.

The information in Der Spiegel comes from Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill, whose book about betting on sport around the world is published in German on Tuesday.

Der Spiegel also claim their investigations show two matches in Germany come under suspicion after huge sums were placed on them by a Malaysian who has been convicted of attempted match-fixing.

According to the report, William Bee Wah Lim placed 2.8 million euros ($4.1 million US dollars) with Asian bookmakers on Kaiserslautern losing a first-division match at Hanover in November 2005.

As a result of Hanover’s 5-1 victory, he won 2.2 million euros.

Lim placed almost 4 million euros on Karlsruhe beating Sportfreunde Siegen in a second-division match in August 2005. Karlsruhe won the game 2-0.

A Frankfurt court gave Lim a two years and five months prison sentence in June 2007 after he was convicted of attempted match fixing in the German regional league and Austria’s first division.

He was released on conditional bail, but has since left the country and a warrant for his arrest was issued in January.

The German Football Federation (DFB) have said they will investigate Der Spiegel’s allegations concerning the two Bundesliga games in 2005.

“DFB and the German League have so far no reference points that the matches mentioned are to have been manipulated,” said a statement on the DFB website.

“Immediately after becoming known of the suspicious factors DFB president Dr. Theo Zwanziger and German League president Dr. Reinhard Rauball affirm both federations aim at a comprehensive clearing-up of the affair.

“Already on Saturday morning an inquiry was started to look into the games concerned.”

German football endured the most serious crisis in its history in 2004 when referee Robert Hoyzer admitted having received 70,000 euros to influence the results of 23 matches, mainly second and third division games, between April 10 and December 3, 2004.

MY POV: This would be absolutely devastating news. No one wants to see professional football turned into professional wrestling, especially at an event as big as the World Cup.
If this story is true, all the work FIFA’s undertaken to prevent this very situation will be for naught. An immediate inquiry needs to be undertaken, much like Germany’s doing, to make sure world football isn’t polluted by gambling syndicates.

I found this excellent interview on Der Speigel’s website with the author of the book, Declan Hill. Here’s the whole interview. I’ve included a small excerpt. It’s a riveting account of Hill’s attempts to track down the characters involved in the scandal. It reads like a James Bond 007 spy thriller.

SPIEGEL: You have spent three years investigating the international betting mafia. Have you lost all pleasure in football?

Declan Hill: I love football the way one loves a woman, but by now I ask myself quite early on in a match, whether there is anything suspicious going on. There are no precise statistics about betting manipulation in football, of course, but it is shocking how often people in the world of betting talk about matches that have been manipulated – not just in Asia or Eastern Europe, but also in the major football leagues, such as in Germany, and even during world championships.

SPIEGEL: On June 27, 2006 the match ended 3:0 for Brazil.

Hill: The Ghanaians played as though they were putting their whole heart into it, but then there were a number of stupid mistakes: passes didn’t succeed, the defense was careless, the team collected three stupid goals. After the game I was in the stands in Dortmund with tears in my eyes because I was convinced, at least emotionally, that the match had been fixed. I phoned Chin from the stadium: “I didn’t believe you, but you are a genius.” He said: “How can I be a genius if I earn so little money with this?”

SPIEGEL: Did you speak with (Ghana Captain Steven) Appiah about the accusations?

Hill: Not just with Appiah, but also with the goalkeeper Richard Kingson and other national players too. They all assured me that they were completely unaware of the manipulation of the team in Germany. However one of the players did admit that he had been approached by Asian betters in 2004 during the Olympic Games. And they all said that Appiah was the captain of the team and that you would have to talk to him. I then met with him in an industrial area in Accra. We talked in his car and he said that he had been approached a number of times in the course of his career and that he had taken money too. The first time was in 1997 during the under-17s World Cup in Malaysia and also in 2004 at the Olympic Games in Athens; however he had been given money in order to win games, not to lose them. He had then shared the bonus among the players.

SPIEGEL: Ghana’s team captain, who was until recently signed to Fenerbahce Istanbul, says that he has accepted money from third parties twice during his career?

Hill: That’s exactly what he says. I had trouble comprehending this, so I spoke to him again over the phone, and he repeated his account.

SPIEGEL: And during the 2006 World Cup in Germany?

Hill: He was approached there too, but he says that he refused. I also asked him whether the Malaysian had gone to other players too. He replied: “Yes, I think he did the rounds.”

Written by Darkvader on September 1st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 2006 World Cup and Brazil and Germany and Ghana.

Euro 2008 Final: Spain 1-0 Germany

I wanted to get this post up sooner, but I’ve been blog-less for the past few days as a result of a beer-filled long weekend out of town. I did watch the final on Sunday, though, and although I was cheering for Germany, I can’t say I’m disappointed that Spain won — they were the best team both over the course of the tournament and in the final itself.

Germany started the stronger team in this game, with Miroslav Klose spurning a good chance to score as early as the third minute. They looked particularly dangerous as they attacked Sergio Ramos down Spain’s right wing. But Spain were on top soon enough, with Jens Lehmann called on to make a great save in the 14th minute when Christoph Metzelder and his awful playoff beard almost deflected Andres Iniesta’s shot into the net for an own-goal.

In the absence of injured Golden Boot winner David Villa, Fernando Torres was playing as a lone striker — a familiar role from his time at Liverpool — and causing lots of trouble for the lumbering German defence. He’d already sent a header off the post with Jens Lehmann well beaten, when he scored the game’s only goal in the 32nd minute. Xavi’s through ball split the defenders, Torres outmuscled Philipp Lahm and then, with Lehmann coming out to claim the ball, clipped it perfectly over the keeper and into the net.

If Torres was the pivotal figure for Spain, so too was Michael Ballack for Germany. Ballack has had horrible luck in major finals, and it didn’t get any better for him here. He was already hampered by a calf injury — although I think you’d have had to chain him down to stop him playing — and then he got a cut over the eye toward the end of the first half, after a collision with Marcos Senna.

I think that just added to his sense of frustration, because a few minutes later he got booked for an altercation with Carles Puyol, and he seemed to spend the second half getting increasingly pissed off at the entire world. He did have a couple decent shots on goal over the course of the game — one deflected by Ramos, another one going just barely wide — but mostly he was cro-magnon-ing around and fouling people.

And with Ballack not at 100%, the rest of the team was also malfunctioning. Philipp Lahm was hauled off at halftime and replaced by Marcell Jansen — supposedly due to injury, but come on. (Poor Lahm — I swear I remember him being a good defender; I don’t know what went wrong.) Klose got kicked in the balls early in the second half. And then later in the game had the indignity of being replaced by Mario Gomez. It just wasn’t a good day for them, really.

Germany did have a good spell of pressure partway through the second half, but Iker Casillas and his defence held firm. Luis Aragones sent on Xabi Alonso for Cesc Fabregas — who’d been much less effective than in the semi-final — to shore up the midfield, and shortly thereafter brought on more fresh legs in the form of Santi Cazorla — to replace David Silva, who’d come dangerously close to getting sent off after going nose-to-nose with Lukas Podolski. (I think Silva must have been on his tippy-toes at the time.)

There was a chance that things could’ve gotten out of hand, with the Germans trying to muscle their way back into the game, but the referee did a good job of calming things down — although I still don’t understand why he’d booked Casillas in the first half. Anyway, Spain reasserted themselves, passing their way through Germany as they’d been doing all game. Lehmann had to make another good save from Ramos’ diving header in the 66th minute, and then from the corner, Iniesta’s shot was cleared off the line by Torsten Frings.

The clock ticked inexorably down, and Germany had still only managed one shot on goal all game. Spain, meanwhile, continued to threaten, with Dani Guiza coming on for Fernando Torres — who’d worked his ass off — and almost immediately setting up Senna for what should have been their second goal. Spain might have liked to pad their one-goal lead, as there was always a chance that Germany could surprise them with an equalizer, but the Germans were mostly just lumping the ball forward in the late stages of the game, and Spain were always able to regain possession.

And so it finished 1-0 — albeit a pretty action-packed one-goal game — with Spain becoming European champions for only the second time. They’d already overcome their reputation as chokers with that penalty shootout victory over Italy, but they’ve now killed it off completely with such a comprehensive win. As for Germany, I said before the game that they had been more than the sum of their parts, but they showed their limitations here against a Spanish team that was undoubtedly superior.

I’m not going to pick a team of the tournament, because I’d probably end up like the TSN/Sportsnet crew, who went with an unorthodox sort of 2-5-3 formation. But a few awards to round things up…

Game of the tournament: Turkey 3-2 Czech Republic
It’s hard to narrow this down, because there were so many great games, and Turkey in particular were involved in several incredible results. But this was the epitome of their tournament: a comeback from 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go that was highlighted by brain farts on the part of both goalkeepers, with Petr Cech dropping a cross to gift Turkey an equalizer in the 87th minute, and then Volkan Demirel getting sent off in stoppage time for flattening Jan Koller — no mean feat.

Runner-up: Russia 3-0 Holland
Holland had disposed of Italy and France with ease in the supposed group of death, but an Andriy Arshavin-inspired Russia were brilliant in the quarterfinal and essentially beat them at their own whirlwind attacking game.

Goal of the tournament: Wesley Sneijder vs. Italy
A textbook-perfect counter-attacking move, with Gio van Bronckhorst clearing the ball off the line at a corner, and then pelting downfield to get involved again with a crossfield pass to Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt then headed the ball down for Sneijder to hook it past Gigi Buffon from an almost impossible angle. A fantastic team goal and a fantastic finish from Sneijder.

Runner-up: Bastian Schweinsteiger vs. Turkey
Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski sometimes seem to have a telepathic connection — see also Schweinsteiger’s goal against Portugal in the preceding game; here, Podolski broke down the left and crossed to Schweinsteiger coming in from the other flank, who flicked the ball brilliantly across the keeper with the outside of his right boot.

Player of the tournament: Marcos Senna
UEFA’s technical panel may disagree with me — they gave the Golden Ball to another Spanish midfielder, Xavi. But Xavi had periods where he was brilliant and periods where he was invisible. Senna was also often invisible, but for the right reasons: you want your defensive midfielder to go unnoticed, because that means he’s doing his job. He was the solid base for Spain’s tiki-taka attacking play, and a shield for their not always convincing defence. Consistently good throughout the tournament.

Hotass of the tournament: Iker Casillas
Captained his team to the title. Possibly the only keeper in Swisstria who actually knew how to deal with crosses. A big part of the reason why Spain gave up only three goals, and none of those in the knockout rounds. Went mano-a-mano with world champion Gianluigi Buffon in a penalty shootout and emerged victorious. And celebrated winning the whole shebang by stripping down and spraying his teammates with champagne. Well done.

Written by Jen on July 2nd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Germany and Spain.

German Humans Not the Only Ones Sucking At Futbol

Written by Darkvader on July 2nd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Fish and Germany and Precious Roy and sucking.

Spain – Winner of the Euro 2008

Euro 2008 is over and Spain are the new European champions. One hour before midnight Iker Casillas lifted the trophy and the celebrations begun all over Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna and in every major city in Spain.
La furia roja is finally on the top of Europe 44 years after the glorious generation that dominated the Old continent in 1964.
The lads of Aragones showed off great maturity in the matches, despite their youth and inexperience, and by many football reviewers they deserved the victory.

The Spanish national team was in the group D alongside with Greece (former European champion), Russia and Sweden. The group phase was passed easily with 3 wins of the three matches. Italy was the team who met Spain in the quarter-finals. The game was not one of the best of the tournament coz Spain faced very dangerous opponent who knew how to play on a result, despite the awful football for watching. The game was decided after penalty shoot-out and Casillas was the man of the match saving 2 of the 4 penalties. Once again the Madridista showed to the world that he is the No1 goalkeeper. In the semi-finals we all saw one of the best matches of this Euro when Spain faced Russia. Led by the excellent coach Hiddink, Russia showed great display during the group stage and especially in the quarter-final with Netherlands, but obviously Spain was way too big bite for them. The match ends 3-0 for Spain and the whole squad was about to prepare for the great final. Big loss for the final match for Spain was the injury of David Villa – the top scorer of the Euro 2008.
The last barrier on the way to the glory was Germany – team who didn’t play such a good football during this competition but their experience showed off as crucial when they beat the opponents Portugal and Turkey which showed much better display then Germany in the matches. First 15 minutes of the game haven’t promised anything good for Spain, but then they turned over the match and took the ball possession also creating some chances. In the 32” Fernando Torres picked up a through ball from Xavi and flipped over Lehman and that was the end for the Germans. They had more than one hour for playing but I think that even if they played whole night they wouldn’t score. In the rest of the match the attendance saw only chances for Spain but they didn’t score. It was 1-0 for Spain in the end!

So, if you make a little overview of the Euro 2008 I think that you will agree with me that Spain deserved this trophy more than any other team.
Congratulations!

Written by done_mkd on July 2nd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Aragones and Euro 2008 and Germany and Spain and Torres and Villa and Xavi and casillas.

Spain Vs Germany 1-0: Final of Euro 2008 Full Highlights - Video

Spain became the victorious in the Europe as they win the major trophy of Euro 2008 against Germany in the Final. The dream of Germany to win the Euro 2008 has been collapsed by the deserving Spain. Spain have their first trophy for 44 years and the glory is all the greater for overcoming opponents such as these. A Premier League footballer was decisive but the key individual in Vienna was

Written by Sudip Kafle and Sujan Kafle on June 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Germany and Spain and euro-cup 2008 and final and highlights.

Euro 2008 Liveblog: Germany v. Spain

Okay kids, this is it! You know where we stand in terms of predictions, but we have yet to hear from you clowns. Let’s get some suggestions in early, before the match gets too far underway. Germany v. Spain! Wienerschnitzel v. tapas. Berlin v. Barcelona. BMW v…Oh well. Hopefully you are in a good mood and ready for today’s match. Personally, I am ecstatic, as I have been watching Landon Donovan cry in HD thanks to the abuse heaped upon him and the LA Galaxy by DC United. After the jump, all the details.

The starting XI for Joachim Low’s German squad:

Centre official: Roberto Rosetti (ITA)
Assistant referees: Alessandro Griselli (ITA); Paolo Calcagno (ITA)
4th official: Peter Frojdfeldt (SWE)

Is anyone out there, or am I blogging with myself?

00:01 - And we’re off!

01:00 - Throw-in from Torres put out, resulting in a throw for Ze Germans.

01:50 - The boobirds come out as Spain opens up very timidly, moving the ball in their defensive third of the pitch.

02:55 - Bad touch from Ramos forced by Schweinsteiger, but Klose is unable to get off a shot.

03:43 - Long ball from Silva, but Torres is offside.

04:27 - More offense from the Germans, as Podolski plays Lahm at the endline, but he is unable to cross the ball in-bounds.

05:56 - Sergio Ramos pushes forward, and the ball eventually gets to Capdevila, who is about 28 yards offsides.

06:59 - Ballack gets loose on the left around Puyol, but the ball served across the goal doesn’t find anyone waiting for it.

08:24 - Klose pushes the ball into the middle for Hitzlsperger, but the quiet midfielder gets off a very weak shot. Too easy for Casillas.

09:16 - The Germans are moving the ball much better than the Spaniards. The crowd is still booing, although that might be residual from Enrique Iglesias’ performance.

10:54 - Poor ball forward for the Spaniards, and Torres and Mertesacker get tangled up. No foul, as the ball was already firmly in Lehmann’s hands.

11:10 - Klose earns a corner. The resulting kick by Schweinsteiger is punched out by Casillas, straight to the Germans. Frierich delivers a ball into the box which is grabbed by Casillas.

12:29 - Torres is fouled by Lahm, but the Spaniards play the resulting kick back into the midfield. They are very tentative.

13:50 - Torres drives the ball into Iniesta, but it comes off Metzelder, which forces Lehmann into an excellent save. The corner is played short to Iniesta, back to Xavi, who puts forth a poor cross.

16:09 - Spanish free kick from 35 yards, and the ball goes directly to Lehmann. Very poor effort.

Ed’s note: I am not impressed by Torsten Frings’ tale of pain. I once broke 3 ribs in the first game of my rec season, and played 3 more games before I realized it. Suck it, Torsten!

18:51 - Deep ball from Silva to Torres, and Metzelder hacks at Torres resulting in a free kick. The ball from Xavi finds Torres, who heads it over the goal.

21:26 - Ballack fouls Xavi as he passes the ball to Cesc. The free kick is played back to the Spanish midfield, and then back forward for Fabregas. He gets it to Torres, who puts it off the post and Sergio Ramos and Capdevila both muff chances at the follow.

24:11 - Podolski earns a corner. Schweinsteiger puts in a ball that is too low, but his second ball comes out to the far post. Ballack receives the ball and fires the ball into Xavi. On the Spanish break-out, Lehmann goofs and has to put the ball out. The resulting throw-in leads to a low shot taken cleanly by Jens.

26:23 - Klose plays the ball through to Podolski, but he is unable to find Hitzlsperger in the middle.

During discussion of NASCAR, we find out that Andy Gray was treating a lady-friend to some shopping yesterday. Fascinating!

28:28 - Ballack is fouled by Senna, and Lahm takes the free kick quickly, but the Spanish take control.

28:51 - Torres gets loose, but Metzelder is able to track him down and put the ball out. The corner kick is played in, but the Spaniards are called for a foul in the box (Sergio Ramos).

30:21 - Silva plays the ball out, resulting in a throw for Lahm. Silva has some words for the AR, who doesn’t seem interested. The ball comes back out to Fabregas, who puts in a low shot that is taken cleanly by Lehmann.

32:20 - GOAL! Spain 1 - Germany 0. Torres gets loose once again, this time darting between two German defenders (Lahm and Mertesacker). Lehmann comes out for it, but Torres pokes it over him.

34:10 - Iniesta gets forward and plays the ball to Silva, who puts it way over the goal. The Spaniards have their tails up.

35:11 - Ballack is bleeding, although it’s not clear where the cut came from. Ah, it appears it was a head-butt from Senna.

36:01 - Schweinsteiger draws a free kick at 30 yards out. The kick is played into the box, but it skies over the bar.

The replays really demonstrate just how brilliant the goal was from Torres. He beats 2 German defenders (one of whom, Lahm, is arguably the team’s best) with his speed, and then beats Lehmann with a smart touch.

37:49 - Ballack fouls Fabregas, and is then sent off again for blood streaming down his face.

39:11 - Schweinsteiger is fouled by Capdevila, although it’s a soft call. Hitzlsperger plays the ball into the box, but the ref calls it back since he hadn’t blown the whistle. The stoppage actually gives Ballack a chance to get back in. The second kick is played into the box and put out by Senna for a corner. The third kick of this series is played out by Casillas, directly to the Germans, who earn another corner. That ball is played out to the top of the box, and played out by Xavi before Hitzlsperger can perform the bicycle kick.

41:31 - Ballack gets involved in an altercation, and Casillas comes flying out of net to push him away. They both earn a yellow card for their trouble.

43:18 - Free kick for Spain near midfield, and it gets played all the way back to Casillas. Fabregas moves forward with the ball, but is dispossessed by Schweinsteiger. The ball is played into Metzelder, but the Spanish respond well, and get the ball up to Iniesta, who earns a corner. The resulting kick is played short to Senna, who eventually plays it into the box. Sergio Ramos goes down trying to earn a PK, but the ref waves it off.

45:00 (+01:00) - Halftime. Spain 1 - Germany 0 on a brilliant goal from Torres.

Written by Darkvader on June 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Germany and Liveblogs and Spain and The NY Kid.

A really quick, hungover preview of today’s festivities

Die Mannshaft. La Seleccion. Cooly efficient Teutonic machinery against the emotional, flamboyant, insanely skilled Spanish. And about a million other timeworn national cliches. ESPN is even bringing up the Holocaust. Yes, it can only mean the final is upon us. A quick UF preview, after the jump.

Written by Darkvader on June 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Germany and Ian and Spain and cesc fabregas.

Watch Euro 2008 Final : Spain Vs Germany Live streaming FREE

Sunday 29 June 2008
31 Germany 20:45 Spain Vienna - Ernst Happel

The Austria-Switzerland Euro 2008 had lots of exciting moments from its starting date of 2008 June 7. Now June 7 has came to June 29 which means Euro 2008 final day which will decide the champion of Euro Cup for this year. Lots of expectations from th fans of other teams to be in the final but its always the deserving team which

Written by Sudip Kafle and Sujan Kafle on June 28th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Euro 2008 and Germany and Spain and euro-cup 2008 and final and watch live.