It’s Coming Home!
Ajit
Chaudhuri – Reflections from Euro 2020 – July 2021
I always thought there are some things that, by definition,
one can’t have too much of – things like sex, money and football. I’m not so
sure now, in the aftermath of three weeks of the Copa Americana and the Euros
being played simultaneously, climaxing into ‘the most important weekend of
football’, Argentina v Brazil (can Messi win a trophy for country?) and England
v Italy (is it coming home or going to Rome?). The harsh light of the following
Monday morning brought questions – were the sleepless nights in front of the TV
(followed by the sleepy days pretending to work) worth it? What did I learn? Am
I a role model to my family, colleagues and friends, especially the young and
impressionable among them, or a horrible warning? And, last but not least, am I
willing to do this again in 2022?
What follows is a list of my observations from the Euros in no particular order.
1. A
near-death experience works out well
Let me begin with something that happened early in the
tournament, Danish playmaker Eriksen’s on-field heart attack. Much
touchy-feely stuff was subsequently said along the lines of some things being
more important than football, the sensitivity of his teammates in providing a
protective shield around him while he was being treated and the team captain in
comforting his spouse, and the sense of shock among players, spectators and
audiences as this played out on live TV.
My own take is – one, that nobody gave a crap three days
later, and that the old adage ‘football is not a matter of life and death,
it’s much more important than that’ continues to be valid. Two, this worked
out well for Denmark – an ordinary team went on to its second-best ever
performance in a major tournament (it has to be said that the luck of the draw
played some part, including the Czechs beating the strong but testicle-less
Dutch, their expected quarter-final opponent, the round before), reaching the
semi-finals and going down courtesy a contentious extra-time penalty. Eriksen’s
direct replacement, a kid called Darmsgaard, ended up as the find of the
tournament, and other unknowns (such as Dolberg and Maehle) stood
up to be counted. And three, nothing would get a player in a John Terry-led
team off his deathbed faster than a whisper that the captain was comforting his
spouse.
2. Tactical
trends on display
The most visible was the return of the pure goalscoring
centre-forward (or the No. 9), or at least the need for one. It has become
fashionable to play without one (Spain’s last tournament win, the Euro 2012,
began the trend towards a ‘false 9’), and several top clubs such as the current
English champions use this tactic. In this edition of the Euros, many top teams
suffered from not having one (Spain most of all, but also Germany, Croatia,
Netherlands and Portugal), and the likes of Schik, Lukaku and
Benzema (back in Le Blue after 5 years) showed them what they were missing.
The second was on the use of substitutes – 5 are allowed in
a game (up from 3), a consequence of the pandemic. Coaches have yet to adjust,
most obviously in the final when England introducing two young and lightning
quick players in the 119th minute merely for the purpose of taking
penalties (both missed) instead of giving them time to run at an aged (and
tiring) Italian defence.
The third was the double defensive shield, or having two
midfielders primarily tasked with protecting the defence in a tactic that
Germany used effectively while winning the 2014 World Cup (WC – remember Khedira/Schweinsteiger!).
Rice/ Phillips and Jorginho/Locatelli were
outstanding for England and Italy respectively, as were Xhaka/Freuler
for Switzerland in its win over France, and Schlager/Laimer for
Austria when they gave the subsequent champions one hell of a scare.
The fourth, of wing backs bombing forward in a manner
reminiscent of Roberto Carlos and Cafu and thereby bringing
sudden and dangerous width into offensive transformation play, was made
possible by the third. Walker/Shaw for England, Dumfries/Van
Aanholt for the Netherlands, and Spinazzola/Berardi for Italy
were particularly outstanding in this aspect of play.
3. Diving,
cheating, badgering, harassing
It is worrying when there is a significant disconnect
between football as played at its lowest levels (such as my weekend kickaround
with fellow middle-aged fatsos) and at its highest. One has been caused by the technological
innovations of the past 5 years such as VAR – but given the stakes and the way
refereeing mistakes often benefit bigger clubs, football fans are OK with the
emphasis on correct decisions. Another is the on-field behaviour of the players
– some teams play as if there is a sniper in the audience, diving to the ground
like dying ducks in their efforts to fool the referee, and then gathering
around to badger and harass him. This is cheating!!
We who play football do not play it like this – we love
that it is a contact sport, and we use the game also as a way to build strength
and character and not to teach how to be an asshole and a fraud. Italy, Spain
and Portugal were especially unwatchable for this aspect of their game (the
sight of Ronaldo being touched on the side and going down clutching his
head was particularly off-putting), and other teams also used this shit to
their benefit (Sterling’s dive for England against Denmark, for
example). FIFA, please crack down! While we understand the need to protect
flair players, and to ensure that what used to happen to Maradona day-in
and day-out does not happen today, this nonsense has got completely out of
hand.
4. Players
who made an impression
It is difficult to follow football and not know Donnarumma,
but this was the first time many actually saw him play – his club AC Milan has
not played in Europe for years, and Italy did not qualify for the 2018 WC. And
he was even better than his reputation – big, technically correct, and
confident both in the air and at stopping shots. What a goalie! For once, I concur
with the pundit’s choice of ‘player of the tournament’.
There were two lost-wonderkids who re-enforced their
potential at the Euros – Schick and Renato Sanchez (a rare Portuguese
who tries to stay on his feet).
The geriatrics did not shame their generation on the
performance front – Pandev, the Italian central defence with Bonucci
even scoring in the final (and Italy winning its quarterfinal against Belgium
in the battle between grandparental defenders), and Ronaldo winning the tournament’s
‘golden boot’. The same could not be said about their behaviour, with Pepe’s
being particularly egregious. Mohamed Ali famously said that ‘if you
are the same person at 50 that you were at 20, you have wasted 30 years of your
life’. Sadly, some players have not changed with age.
The debutants had players who will surely move to bigger
clubs – Arajuuri and O’Shaughnessy for Finland and Bardhi
and Elmas for North Macedonia.
And one now realizes why some small clubs are able to punch
above their weight in their respective leagues – because they have fantastic players,
who also shined for their countries at these Euros. Atalanta’s Freuler, Goosens,
Maehle and Pessina; West Ham’s Coufal, Rice and Soucek,
Leeds’ Aliosky, Klich and Phillips, et al.
5. The
biggest disappointments
Easily Turkey and Russia, but also good to see these
wannabe dictatorships’ hot air balloons pricked in full public glare – most
especially in Turkey’s 0-2 loss to Wales in Baku with its strongman primping in
the audience. Pre-tournament favourites France and Portugal as well for going
out so early – France catching Switzerland on a day in which every Swiss player
had the game of his life (Arsenal fans were pinching themselves to recognize their
on-again-off-again captain, and Shaquiri reminded fans why he was once a
highly regarded offensive pivot), and Portugal mistaking theatre for football
in a game against Belgium’s golden generation.
6. What’s
with the hairstyles?
Ten years ago, football was aptly described as ‘22
fellows in perms running after a ball, and Spain always wins!’ Today,
younger players seem to prefer tattoo parlours over salons – the only one who’s
mane would have required skills of a level beyond those of a barber under a
tree was M’babu (no, he’s not the outcome of a liaison between Kylian M’bappe
and an Indian bureaucrat). And most
older ones who sported long tresses in their younger days have transitioned
from looking like they would give pleasure in a men’s jail to looking like they
would take it (such as Kjaer and the absent Ramos). It was left
to Hamsik, still sporting the mohawk that he wore while captaining Slovakia
at the 2010 WC, to carry the card for hairdressers.
The players looked alright despite this. A consequence of
the economic downturn was less advertisements in the run up to kick-offs, and
audiences thereby got to see the teams lining up (we were also treated to Wembley’s
booing of the German, Danish and Italian anthems in turn, followed by a sharp
downswing in the betting odds for England hosting the 2030 WC). The Danes
looked the nicest, the Turks (with the exception of Mr. Perfect Jawline Soyuncu)
the most thuggish, but nothing quite matched the 1990 WC where the Italian
line-up outdid any male catwalk (Giannini, Maldini, Zenga)
and the Dutch (Koeman, Rijkaard, Wouters) looked like
Uderzo’s inspiration for Asterix’s pirates preparing to board a ship.
