Euro 2008 Ladies Championship – Group B

You’ve seen the rules. You’ve seen group A. Let’s carry on, shall we? Group B includes Germany, Croatia, Austria, and Poland.

Germany:

Croatia:

Since the first picture included 2 ladies, I don’t feel bad for this one only containing 2/3rds of a lady.

Austria:

So glad euro2008girls.com doesn’t post the age of the people they photograph……..

Poland:

As hard as it is for me to preclude the Austrians from advancing, I’m pretty sure the girls in that first picture are both 16. As much as I love that, I don’t want to go public with my support of that. Therefore, Croatia to win the group and Germany to advance as the second place finisher. Here is the table.

Group B:

Croatia
Germany
Austria
Poland

The Last Soccer Related Euro 2008 Post

…because I’m leaving the window open for some EuroGirls posts.

 

BV put me on the spot for a more in depth Euro final post earlier, but really, what can one say?  The forearm tat loving Spanish were simply better than the Germans, themselves afficianados of bad dye-jobs.  To quote the mighty Cardillo over at Deadspin:

When a team plays six games and wins six games, outscoring them 12-3 and playing an attractive brand of soccer, there’s not a whole lot to breakdown. Again, so many times moments of lunacy, or mistakes, or referees whistles determine big matches in world soccer. If one side is simply better – Germany couldn’t even get the ball in the dying minutes thanks to the pressure of Xavi, Senna, Carzola, Güiza, etc. in their own half – it’s almost as much call for celebration.

Spain absolutely fucking dominated.  The game could have just as easily been 3-0.  Germany played with the same flaws that they had been all tournament (ie: an overreliance on set pieces, a lack of form at the front, and an uncanny resemblence to the Dutch while playing Russia in their lack of desire to move away from the ball/generally maintain possession), though the Spain were the first second team to convert those flaws into a German loss.

 

The only difficult question surrounding the match was who the man of the match for Spain was.  Torres and Sergio Ramos seemed the early clear cut choices for me, but as the game went on it became clear that Marcos Senna insisted on giving Germany fits throughout the second half.  He was a major reason the Germans didn’t mount more of a comeback effort than they did.  Really, you could have any of the three for MOTM and not be wrong.  I think we all know who Spain’s Queen Sofia would vote for though….

Oh yeah, another thing?  5 of Spain’s 10 starters in the field are under 25 years old.  There were 12 total <25 players on the squad this summer.  I guess what I’m saying is keep your eyes open for a Spain/Argentina final in South Africa as Spain due to get better for the next couple years.

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