With an amazing tournament full of excitement and surprises coming to an end, Sportable previews the UEFA EURO 2008 Final between Germany and Spain.

How they got here:

Germany:

Group stage: W 2-0 v Poland, L 1-2 v Croatia, W 1-0 v Austria (6 points, 2^nd place)

Quarterfinal: W 3-2 v Portugal

Semifinal: W 3-2 v Turkey

Spain:

Group stage: W 4-1 v Russia, W 2-1 v Sweden, W 2-1 v Greece (9 points, 1^st place)

Quarterfinal: D 0-0 v Italy; won penalty shootout 4-2

Semifinal: W 3-0 v Russia

Tactics:

Germany:
Since the quarterfinal against Portugal, Germany has fielded a 4-2-3-1 with Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger at the wings, two defensive midfielders in Thomas Hitzlsperger and Simon Rolfes, and captain Michael Ballack as the CAM. It is likely, however, that Torsten Frings will replace either Rolfes or Hitzlsberger for the final. Miroslav Klose has been leading the line as a lone striker. Joachim Lowe also went back to the 2006 World Cup backline after Marcell Jansen’s ineffective performances, moving Turkey killer Philipp Lahm back to LB and bringing back Arne Friedrich. As a result, Germany has been more industrious in midfield and is much more offensive minded with six goals in two matches. The concern is the four goals that they have conceded since the quarters. Only the second Turkish goal can be attributed to Jens Lehmann being crazy Jens. Against a Spanish side that looked great against an offensive-minded Russia, Germany must be watertight at the back.

Spain:
Obviously the big question is whether Spain will have Valencia forward and EURO 2008 top scorer David Villa. With him, they play a 4-4-2 with Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Carlos Marchena and Joan Capdivela at the back, Marcos Senna as the holding midfielder, Xavi as the playmaker, Andres Iniesta playing in an adaptive role at right winger, David Silva at left winger, and Villa and Fernando Torres up front. However, it is unlikely that Villa will be fit, as team doctor Jesus Jimenez says that the mercurial striker has a small tear in the back of right thigh that would ordinarily take 7-10 days to heal. If that is the case, then Cesc Fabregas will deputize as he did to maximum effect against Russia. Spain coach Luis Aragones’ preferred formation is 4-5-1, and with Fabregas’ man of the match display, he will not hesitate to deploy him against the Germans. Spain plays a slick passing game that they can either use at a slow build-up pace or a fast attacking style. With Xavi and Fabregas in the lineup, their passing and ball control is even more clinical and will be the key to holding possession. The Spanish defense has been dogged by questions, but it has managed to keep two clean sheets. Of course, a lot of the credit has to go to the captain Iker Casillas. Read the rest of this entry »

With the UEFA EURO 2008 tournament from Austria-Switzerland just days away, the Sportable staff will bring you team previews leading up to the opening match. Group by group, we will discuss team rosters, flaws. and chances of being crowned European Champions.

Group A Matches:
June 8th: vs. Poland (Wörthersee Stadion-Klagenfurt)
June 12th: vs. Croatia (Wörthersee Stadion-Klagenfurt)
June 16th: vs. Austria (Ernst Happel Stadion-Vienna)

Deutschland - ein Team - ein Ziel
Every time Miroslav Klose gets on the team bus he will see the above team motto which reads, Germany - one team - one purpose. Let me just be frank and candid: The Germans were handed the draw of the tournament. A lackluster group that includes Poland, Croatia, and Austria will pose no problems for the Germans in securing a first place bid out of the group stage. After that, Germany should cruise all the way to the semifinals, where a possible date with Portugal lingers. This all leads to the big questions. Can the Germans actually win a tournament for once? Or will their underachieving late in tournaments continue to haunt them?

Read the rest of this entry »

The German Parliament has found another great use of tax payer dollars: commissioning a report to find the number of injuries sustained to fans, police officers, and bystanders during soccer games in the last 12 years. The numbers are disappointingly low. I would have expected the German people to be able to inflict more damage over the past 12 years than they have.

The report said that 660 police officers have been injured during battles with fans in first and second division matches. While that comes out to 4.58 officers hurt per month, I would have thought it would have been much higher. You would assume that during one really good riot about 20 police officers would have gone down. That covers the average for a full five months, and you’re telling me they couldn’t have done any better?

Also included in the report is the fact that 1,324 fans were injured during these clashes, which tells me one of two things. Either the fans were aiming their attacks at other fans, which I think is a highly likely proposition, or the police officers were just that much better trained at fighting. The latter is also a highly probably option. More than likely it is just a combination of both. The thing that really gets me is the number of bystanders who were injured. I don’t know exactly what the definition of bystander was, but 1,616 of them were victims. Thats just over eleven “bystanders” a month getting hurt.

This just shows that the fans in Germany, and probably everywhere in Europe clearly have no regard for anything. This is a whole lot of damage to inflict on a soccer fan base in a span of 13 years, and to be honest, it makes those Dodgers and Raiders fans seem a whole lot less scary. Also making them seem less scary is the list of 9,399 “violent sports fans” that the German Police have documented. These fans aren’t allowed into stadiums or to leave the country just before a national team match. I love the fact that this list even exists, but most of all, I love the fact that hooliganism is such a problem that the government decided that stepping in and keeping numbers was necessary.