Euro 2008 Updates

Wow. Russia is minutes away from going to the semi-finals of the European Championships for the first time since the break-up of the Soviet Union, thanks to Guus Hiddink, wonder coach extraordinaire. They've put on quite the show today. They've played fast, furious football and were incredibly fast off the counter-attack and the Dutch just looked awful.

The concerns throughout the group stages with the Dutch have been their back four. They've just looked sloppy on defense at the back and Russia took full advantage of that- especially with their speed. The Dutch got one back in the 86th minute but the Russians added 2 more in overtime to win it handily 3-1. (It's official. They won as I wrote this.)

So, I was cheering for Portugal. I was cheering for the Netherlands. You can be damn sure I won't be cheering for Spain- and I might be cheering for Germany at this rate, ;-) but wow. Big surprise. Turkey got through yesterday on PKs against the Czech Republic and now this. Hiddink is genius. He got the Aussies out of the group stages in the last World Cup- something unheard of, since the Aussies are more rugby players than football players- but someone needs to get ahold of the US Men's National Team and tell them that if they need a coach they should get Hiddink. He seems to have this golden touch for taking random teams deep into tournaments and he's got the Russians back to the semi-finals for the first time in 20 years. Not bad at all.

So wow, where does this leave us: Turkey-Germany and Russia vs. Spain or Italy. I'm not sure how I feel about any of those match-ups. Germany looked hot against Portugal, but they also looked a little complacent at points too- and Turkey might just have the gumption to take advantage of that- and maybe, just maybe pull off the upset, but I doubt it. Russia looked damn good. Spain, Italy or Germany is going to have their hands full with Russia. People take note: there's a new player on the rise in European football. Whether they can keep at it is something else, but for right now, they're goin' on up.