What makes the pool play stages of an international soccer tournament infinitely more exciting? Seeing the World Champions crushed in their first match, shut out, by three of course.
Perhaps at some point in the distant past you may have thought that I was a fan of Italian soccer because I have a tie to Italy through blood, but you were wrong because I am an American. And being an American means nothing if it does not mean we pick the cultures we choose to allign with and bastardize the ones we disagree with....and that these lines of allegiance may change on any given day. However, when it comes to soccer, there are two teams (and one player) I despise and the Italians are one of the lucky few. I loved the Zidane head-butt in the World Cup finals but was disappointed when Le Bleu came away without the big trophy.
I will always cheer for the team opposite the Italians but today was even better than that because the Italians were out and out SLAUGHTERED by my team, the Dutch. The Dutch play the most entertaining style of soccer and what I absolutely loved about them today was that, being up 2-0 in the second half was not reason enough for them to slow down or time waste. No, no, they attacked, attacked, attacked, getting a number of chances including one shot off the crossbar and another that went in to make the final tally 3-0. Orange crush. 3-0. Ha!
I was rather upset when I found out my Dutch boys were in the Group of Death for these Euro games along with France, Italy, and Romania. That's killer! By rank and past performance, Italy and France would be expected to make it out. But Holland leads the pack right now. Two more games in this round to go, of course. I'll be pulling for the boys in orange and for whoever is opposite the boys in blue.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
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