Monday, June 09, 2008

They’re feeling as blue as their sweaters at the moment


"In the name of the entire team, I think I have to apologize to all the Italian fans."-- Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, wondering if he and his team mates can ever go home again.

It was one of the most stunning football games in recent history, as Holland a team that had not beaten Italy in more than thirty years of battle, solidly and convincingly dispatched the World Champions over 90 minutes of Euro 2008 play.

It was by any account an amazing day for anyone wearing an Orange shirt, as the Dutch tore apart the once vaunted Italian defence with ease.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, who seems to have been playing in an Orange uniform since the early days of William of Orange, was given title to the Italian backfield, wandering in and out of the scoring areas with ease, quick on the ball, quick with his foot and leaving even more chances on the field with just misses.

While the first goal proved to be a rather controversial one, with an Italian player rolling behind Italy’s net, leaving Nistelrooy wide open to put away the opening salvo, the remainder of Holland’s goals were the kind of performance that coaches can only dream about.

While Italy had a few chances to get back into the mix, by far they were the minority partners on the pitch on Monday; Holland looked invincible in their control and spent a good portion of the game pouring the pressure on Buffon who must surely be wondering if his defenders were even on the field.






It’s the shocker of the tournament so far, putting the Dutch in a very good position to move forward towards the championship at month’s end, for the Italians who are notorious for slow starts, Monday’s disaster will be sure to add extra pressure on a team that didn’t look particularly ready to handle it on Monday.

If they come up with similar efforts in their next matches against and Romania and France, then they may as well forget about heading to the airport, we suspect that there won’t be a plane there to greet them.

One wonders just how long the march is from Switzerland to Rome anyways.

Globe and Mail-- Dutch dominate Italy
Globe and Mail-- A Dutch treat

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