The Host With the Most: Day 4 at Euro 2012

Soccer is known as "the beautiful game." And sometimes it is just that: beautiful.

Andriy Shevchenko probably understood this more than anything on June 11th. Ancient in soccer years at 35, Shevchenko scored two spectacular aerial goals to push one of the co-hosts to victory in the first game, giving Ukraine a position atop Group D.

Not only was it beautiful play, but the joy and pride on the faces of the host countries' fans was enough for anyone new to the sport of soccer to understand the importance and beauty of the game.

After finding themselves down 1-0 on a well-developed goal by Zlatan Ibrahimovic early in the second half, the blue and yellow found a away to connect with a tenacious Shevchenko on two occasions, sending Olympic Stadium into a complete state of pandemonium.

What is so beautiful about the occasion may be the fact that a European after-thought finds itself above perennial powers France and England. Or that a man who may have been retired had his home country not been hosting the most prestigious tournament in soccer scored two goals.

I can't wait to see what the beautiful game provides us with the rest of the tournament.

Review of Day 1 at Euro 2012

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An insane opening match to start Euro 2012. At first, it seemed Greece was packing it in without putting any pressure on the ball allowing Poland to wreak all sorts of havoc in the first 20 minutes, allowing Lewondoski to score early on to energize the home crowd. But the lunacy was just beginning.

After a harsh first yellow card on Sokratis Papastathopoulos, a phantom second yellow in the 44th minute of play made it appear as if UEFA had pulled a FIFA in terms of match rigging (the former for one of the co-host countries, the latter for France to qualify for the 2010 World Cup). With Greece looking hapless with 11 men, one only assumed they would look dreadful with 10. However, early in the second half, a mix up between Polish goal keeper Wojciech Szczesny and a defender gave Greek midfielder Dimitris Salpigidis a free chip shot to equalize in stunning fashion. More bizarre turns awaited.

Having just subbed in, Konstantinos Fortounis chipped a brilliant pass over the Polish defense setting up a chance for Salpigidis to add on another tally. His first touch wasn't perfect but Szczesny came off his line, chased the ball, and purposely tripped the attacking player, bringing about an immediate red card and a penalty to Greece. As Ian Darke said, "the match [had] turned on its head." The sub Przemyslaw Tyton came on, said a quick prayer, and went on to save the penalty from the Greek captain Giorgos Karagounis.

With the game ending in a 1-1 draw, both sides believe more could have went their way to get the greatly coveted 3 points in the first match of group play.

The other match saw much less drama, in terms of cards and outcome. For the first 12 minutes or so the Czech had about a vast majority of the possession with Russia looking extremely discombobulated. But they seemingly just needed to get comfortable on Polish soil. They quickly tallied two goals, one by whiz kid Alan Dzagoev, the second by Roman Shirokov, chipping over a seemingly overwhelmed Petr Cech.

Both goals showed an astonishingly lackadaisical Czech back line. With the defense settling in to a uncomfortable wobble, the game slowed to a bit of a crawl. With Vaclav Pilar scoring 7 minutes past halftime, the Czech seemingly had life again. But the chances of an equalizer grew fainter and fainter with each passing minute and in the 79th Dzagoev struck again with authority on a ball Cech could have done better on. Add a final bit of penalty box wizardry by Roman Pavlyuchenko and the Russians had a well deserved 4-1 results, putting them in a commanding position in the group going forward.

Friday Fisticuffs - Euro Predictions

Because when website ratings are low, you go to what draws the most attention. Therefore we bring you predictions of a soccer tournament that the U.S. isn't allowed to be in. Here are Mark and I's predictions for Euro 2012:

Mark


Group A

1st Russia
2nd Poland

Pained me to not pick my fellow Czech country men but hosts tend to overachieve and Russia is one of the best teams people hardly ever talk about. They made the semis in 2008 and lost to eventual champion, Spain.

Group B

1st Germany
2nd Netherlands

I found the Group of Death surprisingly easy to pick. Portugal's defense is incredibly suspect. Denmark will miss out due to goal differential.