Euro 2008: Day 9

Switzerland vs Portugal
2 - 1

Turkey vs Czech Republic

3 - 2

So, some genius decided it would be a good idea to have both daily games for the last round of the group stage playing at the same time, and I have no idea how this is going to work. Today it's pretty clear cut, since the Portugal/Switzerland game is inconsequential and the Czech/Turkey game is crucial to determining who moves on. But in the future, I can see it getting tricky for the TV stations to decide which game they should air, and I have no idea what the fan mile is going to do. I'm pretty burnt out on standing and watching games, and I need to conserve my energy for the Germany/Austria game tomorrow, so if I end up watching this game at all, it will probably be from the comfort of my dorm's common room. This may facilitate more instantaneous blogging, but I'll probably just fully give in to my laziness and write up a recap tomorrow morning, as usual. As for my rooting interest, I'm pretty apathetic. Right now I'm tentatively cheering for Turkey, but I feel this is a very wait-and-see-how-I-react-to-the-first-goal type of game. I'll keep you posted.

Update: So I ended up taking a break from football last night, and didn't watch either game. It's probably just as well, since I heard that Portugal/Switzerland was the game they televised, which doesn't really make sense, and I would have wanted to see the game that actually mattered. Instead, I hung out and played some charades, and learned some swear words from Alice's Czech roommate. It sounds like I missed some pretty exciting games, though. I'm totally astounded by the outcome of the Swiss game, and I'm curious to know if Portugal just played a bunch of their second-string players, or decided to let the host country at least win one game, or what. Because the Swiss really had no business winning that game. I'm happy for them, though.

The other game seemed like a real heartbreaker, and I sure could have put my newly-learned Czech swear words to use, as the Czechs gave up a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2. It was the first time the score has changed dramatically so far in this tournament, and I'm somewhat sorry I missed it. Actually, I'm surprised I couldn't hear the Turks celebrating from my dorm room. I'm sure they must have been excited.

Anyway, we now have our first 100% certain results: Portugal takes first place in Group A, and Turkey takes second place. Czech Republic and Switzerland, thanks for playing.