Sunday, June 25, 2006

We're done...

Its a sad day in the Netherlands. We've just lost a war... Yes, a war. Really I hear you asking? Yes, really. A soccer/football-war. Both sides sustained heavy injuries with in total 4 fatalities. All of it under the command of a mad Russian.

For those of you who tuned in to CNN instead of ESPN to see the war-coverage, Holland lost 0-1 to Portugal in a brutal match with 12 yellow cards and 4 red cards. For the statistically inlcined among us, yes, that's a record...

Holland was the better team, but Portugal was better at deceiving the referee and killing the game. Since - as the saying goes - all is fair in love and war, it doesn't matter anymore. The result stands and Holland is done. The classic under-archievers have not been able to break free as the Euro '88 team - with a center-forward called Marco van Basten - was able to do.

Since that squad - with besides van Basten, also having Ronald Koeman, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Arnold Muhren - beat the then Soviet Union in the final I guess there was a rather frustrated Russian watching that game. Payback's a bitch...

Better luck next time.