England v. Portugal: Euro 2004What a game. Thank god I'm not English (or Portuguese) , otherwise the sheer drama of that penalty shoot-out would have had me in about the same state of hysterical nervousness (and then, after the final whistle, outright deflated defeat) that I felt when the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final went to extra time. Instead, with no real emotional investment in the game (enjoyable though it is to watch the English go down, we had just spanked them at rugby, so I was willing to let them have this one) it was just pure, unadulterated high drama.

As if the game itself wasn't full of enough talking points (Rooney, disallowed goal), the penalty shoot-out was a classic. Poor old Becks (at least he got it out of the way early - unlucky Darius Vassell would surely wish he had gone first, and then at least have the tentative excuse of not knowing the turf was a bit cut up). And how cool is Ricardo? Makes the stop, then steps up and bangs the winner home. Just the sort of thing I imagine goalies around the world dream about, and which Ricardo got to live out. Fantastic. What. A. Legend.

And the disallowed goal. Looked a simple decision from here. John Terry was all over the goalie, stopped Ricardo from jumping, and Sol headed home unopposed. Foul. Pretty simple isn't it? The readers of The Sun certainly don't think so...

THE referee appeared to be in a world of his own. Please tell me why our goal is disallowed when a player jumps on our own player's back. This is sheer stupidity.
BILL JEFFERIES, Essex

WHY should some fool who officiates the equivalent of Sunday league football be allowed in charge of such a big game. He is either an idiot or he bottled it - he should never be allowed to referee again.
TERRY JONES, Ealing

Ooooh, unhappy. At least one Premiership ref has come to Meier's defence, and one imagines the English will eventually get over the feelings of being wronged in much the same way the Italians will with their scandanavian conspiracy theories. Or maybe not.
# |

blog main page