Euro 2008: Day 8

Spain vs Sweden

2 - 1

Greece vs Russia

0 - 1

I'm not sure whether I'm going to see these games today or not. I'm not particularly attached to any of the teams, especially since my two rooting interests in this group, Spain and Sweden, are playing against each other, and I have a lot of homework I should catch up on. It certainly does worsen my already questionable work ethic to have all of my days basically end at 6:00. I haven't decided yet, though, so we'll see. In any case, if I'm forced to choose, I say go Team Tall Indians! (Sorry, Spain. You're still smokin' hot, though!) Russia and Greece... I don't care much about that game either way, but I guess it would be nice to see poor forlorn Russia win a game. I'm not sure that's possible though.

Update: Well, that was unexpected. To be honest, I was a little burnt out on this whole two-football-games-a-day thing, so I decided to only see one of the games being played last night, and Spain/Sweden promised to be the more entertaining of the two. But it seems like I missed quite the surprise in the second game. Sure, I wasn't expecting Greece to repeat their Euro Cup title, but I wasn't expecting them to get knocked out quite this early. And by the Russians, too, that's gotta sting a little. But, yay! Go Russia! You aren't completely hopeless at sports that aren't hockey! (You're still not going to beat Sweden in your next game, though, I hate to break it to you.)

On a completely shallow note, I think Spain/Sweden was probably the best-looking game so far in this tournament. Both teams are full of dreamboats, and the Swedes in particular are always charming and smiley, even in defeat. At one point last night, a Swedish player was taken down at the goal line and sent rolling into the end boards head first. He got up grinning from ear to ear, and shrugged it off. I think I might be in love with the Swedes. On the other hand, I also have a raging, girly crush on Spain's Fernando Torres:

I wonder what the soccer term for Puckbunny Fodder is.
[Getty Images]

Ahem. Okay, with the swooning out of the way (for now), I can focus on the actual game. I got to the fan mile a little late, and Spain was already up 1-0 on a Torres goal (swoon!). The Swedes tied it up not long after, though, thanks to a goal by a guy with the most un-Swedish sounding name ever:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Are you Swedish, sir? No really. Are you?
[Getty Images]

After that, the game kind of went into lock-down mode. Lena, who was watching the game with me, started complaining that it was getting boring, but personally I loved watching the Swedes play defense. Maybe Spain was doing just as good of a job and I only noticed Sweden's defense because I wanted them to win, but it was a real joy to watch. There were multiple times when a Spaniard would be powering toward the goal at a good pace, only to be stopped dead and completely undressed of the ball. Another time, Sweden calmly and effectively turned away multiple Spain shots in a row, including one on a gaping net that was deflected away by a defender. Anyway, sexy defense seems to be Sweden's thing. It's a shame that they had to crack at the very last second, when David Villa scored in stoppage time to give Spain the win, but from a purely objective standpoint it was a beautiful goal. The shot itself wasn't anything great, but the long pass that made the shot possible was gorgeous: powerful and arcing and perfectly placed. So it was hard for me to be upset, even if the game didn't end the way I wanted it to, especially since Sweden should be able to handle Russia in their next game (at least I hope) and should join Spain in moving on to the quarterfinals.