PARIS—“Goals, goals, goals!” proclaimed the flashing neon sign outside the dingy strip bar that was last night’s Group D. After three days of football that witnessed three goals apiece, the four ‘D teams’ came together to produce a sexy offensive show akin to what you’d find in the more depraved quarters of Tijuana.

Spain thumped Russia in the early game, living up to expectations foisted upon them by punters who made them the tournament’s numero dos betting favourite. The Reds scored early and often against a Russian side that didn’t play too badly but was a little lax in the back, a porosity that was more than exploited by Spain’s speedy attackers. The 1964 champions scored four goals, more than each respective group managed IN TOTAL on each of the first three days of competition.

The ball movement exhibited by the Spanish was the best seen so far in the tournament. When I played youth soccer in B.C., a favourite maxim of coaches, faced with a kid who considered himself a dribbling wizard, was, “Son, the ball runs a lot faster than you ever could. Let the ball do the work.� Last night, Spain followed this to a T. They would recover possession from the Russian forwards, and within three passes and just as many seconds a Spanish attacker would have the ball, in space, thirty-five yards from goal, with no defender within five paces of him.

When you pass and move forward as well as the Spanish, and provide enough space to the likes of Iniesta, Xavi, Fernando Torres, and hat-trick author David Silva Villa (hey, they’re both Spaniards named David, what more do you want from me?), you’re going to score. And as my buddy and erstwhile midfield-mate Cohen pointed out, they didn’t even really need any true strikers to ripple the twine four times.

As mentioned, the Russians, apart from an inability to slow down the sublime Spanish attack, looked dangerous themselves going forward. They produced several scoring chances and even nabbed a goal off a powerful header from replacement first striker Roman Pavlyuchenko to make the final 4-1. The Russians could still easily emerge as the second team from this group if they sort things out at the back.

The same optimism does not apply to the current holders, the Greeks, who played for a 0-0 draw from the first whistle and were justly punished by the footballing gods with a 2-0 loss to Sweden. The Greeks did everything they could to keep the game scoreless, at some points passing the ball between their back three to waste time for a good minute, feigning interest in attacking about as unsubtly as an NBA coach sitting his top five players to tank a late-season game for draft lottery purposes.

Well into the second half, it looked like the strategy might actually work, until much-maligned Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic pounded home a cracking strike from outside the box in the sixty-seventh minute. The lead was doubled five minutes later by the sort of garbage goal one associates more with hockey, as Swedish defender Hansson, chasing down a bouncing ball on the Greek line, stumbled and had the ball accidentally bounce off one knee, then the other, and into the Greek net.

The raucous and substantial Swedish delegation rejoiced in the stands, and the Greeks, needing goals after nary an offensive instinct exhibited through the first two-thirds of the match, looked lost trying to find two goals to equalize. The 2-0 score line was well earned by the Swedes, who resisted the Greeks’ effort to deprive the paying fans of anything resembling a world-class football match.

By grace of some football god, the more attacking team has been rewarded for its efforts in the majority of the first-tour matches (France’s stalemate with the Romanian shell defense being the obvious exception). As Portugal meets the Czechs and multi-limbed goalie Petr Cech in tonight’s early game (with the winner likely avoiding Germany in the first knockout stage), and winless squads Switzerland and Turkey face off in the late game (with each hoping to avoid early elimination), we’ll see if the more offense-minded teams continue to reap their just rewards. After the pleasure of seven goals in one night, cross fingers that the spirit of “Goals! Goals! Goals!� isn’t suppressed by the fun police. We want more hot goal-on-goal action, dammit.

Yesterday’s Recap

Winners: Spain and Sweden

Top player: Spain’s David Silva Villa scored more goals in one game (three) than every team in the tournament save the Netherlands. Give the man his medal. Build the man his monument. The only blemish on Silva’s night: injuring his finger while celebrating the first goal with Fernando Torres.

Best goal: With apologies to the Spanish, who made things look easy, this one goes to Zlatan Ibrahimovich, finding space off a great one-two pass outside the corner of the Greek box and firing a bullet past grey-haired keeper Antonios Nikopolidis. The hardest-hit goal of the tournament to date (followed five minutes later by, hands-down, the ugliest goal of the tournament so far).

In-game beverages: A bit of detox after this weekend’s wine-fest. Mlle. Trotter and I cooked vegetables and watched both games at home. (If we’re talking indulgences, does lying in bed in boxers and a t-shirt to combat the Parisian heat, eating chocolate mousse and watching Sweden-Greece on a screen set up at the foot of the bed count?)

Final note: After seeing each team play once, I’m upgrading Spain to co-favourites with Germany and Portugal. Italy looks lost without Cannavaro, and in that vein I’m not yet sold on the Netherlands because I think they caught a team on a swift decline. Sweden looked better than I expected, Croatia were less than convincing, and I may be the only one in this entire country who’s not worried about France. Their game against the Dutch on Friday night should be entertaining, and telling.

Tags: Euro 2008

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Posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 11:53 am. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.