Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group C, Romania

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): 12:08 East of Bucharest (2006, Corneliu Porumboiu)
Rating: 9/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Revisiting history

Some of the best soccer games and players existed in days before television. The only way today's fans can learn of these glorious past episodes is by reading books by fans, former players or journalists who were lucky enough to witness those magical moment in the sport. But what if the writer's memory is weak and there is no one to provide a better version of the truth? In that case, the tarnished memory will serve as fact and a legend will be formed.

The core of 12:08 East of Bucharest is about confirming a historic moment in a small town's past. In order to verify whether a revolution took place in the town in December 1989, a tv show host (Jderescu) gets two people together for a live tv debate.


The idea is to get these two people's versions and then get viewers to call in with their own stories. To start things off, Manescu (the local school teacher) gives his account and confirms he led a small revolution on that historic date.


While Manescu is providing his story, the other guest Piscosi (sitting on the left) is bored and distracted.


Once the phone lines are opened up, all the viewers who phone in only call to contradict Manescu's story. He is considered a town drunk and no one thinks much of him. After that, the show turns into a dissection of Manescu's version as opposed to having a civilized debate.

12:08 East of Bucharest is a hilarious film that is just fun to watch. It mixes political, subjective and even racial views in an easy flowing manner. In terms of film-making, 12:08 East of Bucharest may be third best when compared to its fellow Romanian films (The Death of Mister Lazarescu and 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days) but it is more light hearted than those two films. And sometimes, one needs humour to depict the absurd situations.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group B, Austria

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Antares (2004, Götz Spielmann)
Rating: 8/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: cautious approach

No soccer manager or team ever takes the field with the intent of playing out a dull game. But sometimes managers approach the game with a cautious line-up because they rather get one point from the game and not lose. And if the opposing team manager also puts out a cautious line-up, then we get a stalemate of a game, with very few chances and no excitement.

Similarly, no couple every gets into a relationship with the intention of leading a dull marital life. But with the stresses and strains of every day life, a marriage can often become a routine with very few exciting moments.

At the start of the Austrian film Antares, Eva is living an ordinary life with her husband.

Her quiet and peaceful marriage offers very little excitement. So in order to shake things up, she undertakes a passionate affair.

The affair forms just one of three stories, all of which involve residents of an apartment complex in a manner which seems to echo Krzysztof Kieslowski's
Decalogue.

But Decalogue was completely engaging and featured memorable characters. Whereas, only some of the characters and stories in Antares are interesting. The film also runs for longer than it should.

Overall, Antares along with the two Austrian films by Ulrich Seidl (Dog Days and Import/Export) give a very bleak view of Austrian life. Hopefully, the Austrian soccer team can give their nation something to cheer for in the summer. Currently, as it stands, Austria are the weakest soccer team out of the 16 teams taking part at Euro 2008.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group C, Holland

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Interview (2003, Theo Van Gogh)
Rating: 7/10
Rules compliance: All Rules met

Relevance to Soccer: listening to the star

A few decades ago, people just watched the soccer game and only discussed the player's performance. No one interviewed the soccer player or cared to hear what the soccer player had to say. Then with the advent of tv and the popularity of the game, countless tv shows and publications on the game originated. In order to accommodate all the different media needs, interviews with players were needed to fill the tv spots and pages of papers. Unfortunately, most of the interviews are not very useful which give very little insight into the game or even the player's thinking. But every now and then, a good interviewer manages to corner a player and get something useful related to the game out of the player.

Just like soccer, the history of interviews with film stars has followed a similar pattern. A long time ago, in the era of silent movies, the actors performed in front of the camera and no one really cared to listen to what they had to say. But with the popularity of movies, the number of interviews with the actors increased. And in today's day and age, interviews with actors outnumber the films they act in -- actors are often carted from room to room giving the same interview over and over. As a result, a single movie spawns more than a few dozen interviews. Most of the interviews turn out recycled words but just like the soccer interviews, sometimes an interviewer actually manages to get the actors to say something interesting.

The Dutch film Interview starts off with Pierre (a political journalist) accepting to interview Katja, a popular B movie actress.

Pierre has no interest in the interview and early on launches into a personal attack. But Katja is unfazed and bites back.

What follows is an intense dialogue, with one person clearly playing the other.

One of the reasons I picked this Dutch film was to finally see something by Theo Van Gogh. I only heard of him after he was murdered. Ian Buruma's book A Murder in Amsterdam details not only his murder but also looks at how this murder made people question Holland's stance of tolerance. Also, this film was also remade into a low budget Hollywood film with Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller released in 2007.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group D, Greece

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Rouleman (2005, Panos Karkanevatos)
Rating: 7/10
Rules compliance: All Rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Fame and a better life

Every year plenty of soccer players from around the World leave their small town soccer team for a big professional team in the city. Very few of those who leave their homes actually make it as a professional. If the rejected players are smart, they would try for a different team or if things do not work out at all, then choose an alternate profession. Ofcourse, the options for the rejected player are easier if the player moved to the city in legal manner. Recent reports have suggested that players have been getting picked from South American or even African clubs and transported to Europe on shaky immigration papers and were often left to fend on their own. But soccer is not the only case with gruesome stories of people's lives getting turned upside down after a move to the big city.

In Rouleman, Loula wants to leave her small town for the city.

Kosmos enters her life and promises to marry her and take her to the city.


But he does not mention his financial problems and shady past to Loula and as a result, the two are forced to continue living in the small town after marriage. Loula is frustrated and leaves for the city on her own. She initially faces difficulties but manages to do fine. However, Kosmos is jealous of her life and wants her back. But she does not want to have anything with him. A confrontational situation leads to only one possible predictable outcome.


No matter how bad his life is, Kosmos still manages to show interest in soccer. He wants to take Loula to see an AEK Athens derby game but she is not interested. Even when Kosmos is in jail, he is curious to know how AEK did.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group C, France

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Angela-A (2005, Luc Besson)
Rating: 7.5/10
Rules compliance: I have seen a handful of Besson's previous films so the selection fails to be one from an unseen director's work.

Relevance to Soccer: Own goals

Scoring an own goal in soccer is an awful feeling. There can be many reasons for an own goal such as lack of communication between the player and his goal-keeper, bad judgment on the player's part or just plain bad luck. Although some players are more likely to score own goals than others. But with enough training and experience, one expects these players to make correctly timed tackles to avoid those dreaded own goals in the future.

At the start of Angel-A, we find André (Jamel Debbouze)


who has made one too many bad decisions. Finding himself with a debt that he cannot pay, André chooses to end his life. But a guardian angel Angela (Rie Rasmussen) comes to his rescue and helps get him out of trouble.

Unfortunately, it is in André's nature to make bad decisions and he once again manages to dig himself into a hole. So Angela decides to give André a lesson in self-confidence in the hope that he can evaluate future situations in a better manner.



Filmed in gorgeous black and white, Angel-A is a light hearted film set in Paris. No matter how miserable André feels, he can always count on the presence of the Eiffel tower as a guiding light in his life.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group A, Switzerland

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): The Boat is Full (1981, Markus Imhoof)
Rating: 8/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Passive Offside ('neutral'), goal-line

The offside rule is often a source of dispute and controversy in soccer. Not a week goes by without professional soccer teams disputing an incorrect offside call or having a valid goal disallowed. In recent years, the offside rule has become even harder to interpret and implement because of the 'passive' offside concept. As per the 'passive' offside rule, if a player is an offside position but is deemed to be not involved in their team's play, then the referee does not call offside and stop the play. This guideline was meant to encourage attacking soccer because if a player is not involved in the play, then why should that player's team be penalized for having a valid scoring chance called back? But this interpretation has caused plenty of confusion and heated debate. Some people argue that if a player is on the field, then that player is always involved in the play, directly or indirectly -- the player might not touch the ball but instead might distract an opposing team's defender or the opposing goal-keeper's view. Also, the rule is exploited by some players who can cleverly move from a 'passive' position to an 'active' position and help score a goal. When Ruud Van Nistelrooy used to play for Manchester United, he was an expert in taking advantage of this offside rule loop-hole. In plenty of Manchester's plays, he was often in a 'passive' position at the start of the play but then turned up to score a goal from an 'active' position. But the reality was that as soon as he touched the ball, the game should have stopped because he was no longer passive. Yet, he continued to get away because in a fast paced game, the referee and linesman could not keep track of his movements.

So I wanted to compare this 'passive' offside rule to the concept of neutrality in times of war. If one reads the history books, Switzerland is often considered as being neutral during WWII. But can a nation be truly 100% neutral when its neighbouring countries are at war? For a nation to be neutral, its borders have to be shut tight and no neighbouring citizens or armies should be allowed through; no enemy planes should be able to cross its air-space and the neural nation should not be involved in transporting or selling any resources to the neighbouring nations. In reality, it is very difficult to maintain such restrictions. While the neutral nation might not send its army to actively participate in the war, if the nation allows the enemy troops to cross its boundaries, then it is no longer neutral.

The film The Boat is Full questions the Swiss claims of neutrality. Based on Alfred A. Haesler's book, the story shows how a group of Jewish refugees struggle to stay within the Swiss borders. In order to get asylum the group have to pretend to be a family. But if the group is not found to be a family, they will be deported and sent to their death. One of the questions that arises from the film is that if a country knowingly hands over people to their death, can that nation be considered neutral?

As the camera closes in on one of the Swiss borders near the film's end, I was reminded of a goal-line in between the two goal posts.


The goal-line creates two binary situations -- in order for a goal to be scored, the whole ball has to cross the line; on one side of the goal-line is a goal, on the other side is no goal.


So I thought of the border in this film as depicting a binary situation. On one side of the border is life for the Jewish citizens, on the other side of the border is death for the citizens. The area in between the border is a partial state of uncertainty -- neither life nor death, similar to the situation where a ball stays on a goal-line, alternating between a goal and no-goal.

Just soccer but no films

Sunday: Feb 3, 2008: The African Cup of Nations Quarter-finals kicked off.

Today's two matches pitted 4 West African Nations against each other. I am familiar with almost all of the players from Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast but I have yet to see a movie from any of the four countries.

Quarter-Final 1: Ghana 2-1 Nigeria

pic from Eurosport

The hosts Ghana were the clear favourites going into this game and they duly beat Nigeria to advance to the semi-finals. Although, Nigeria surprized the hosts by taking the lead in the 35th minute via the penalty spot. Everton's Yakubu coolly slotted the ball for the opener, but on the stroke of half-time Ghana's midfield dynamo Essien powerfully headed the hosts level. On the hour mark, the Ghanian captain (John Mensah) was sent-off for bringing down Nigeria's Odemwingie on the edge of the penalty box. The decision was a correct one as Mensah was the last Ghanian player in between Odemwingie and the Ghanian net but only if Odemwingie had looked up and passed the ball to his team-mate who was completely unmarked, Nigeria could have taken the lead. Ten-men Ghana battled on and grabbed a winner in the 83rd minute thanks to Agogo tapping in a cross from a few yards out. The Ghanian goal came of nowhere and thrilled the packed stadium.

Despite having a man advantage for the last 30 minutes, Nigeria never looked like getting a winner. They never created any clear-cut chances and in fact, their performance has been very poor at this year's African Cup of nations. Nigeria started the tournament with a 1-0 defeat to Ivory Coast and followed that with a 0-0 tie with Mali. Only a 2-0 win over Benin coupled with Mali's 3-0 defeat to Ivory Coast ensured that Nigeria were in the quarters. Nigeria were once a force on the international stage in the mid 1990's but their star is fading fast not only in International soccer but also in African soccer.

Quarter-Final 2: Ivory Coast 5-0 Guinea

pic from Eurosport

This was clearly a mismatch. Before the game, I had expected a 3-0 or a 4-0 Ivory Coast win but I was surprized at how well Guinea managed to contain the talented Ivory Coast team in the first half. Keita's well taken goal in the 25th minute was all that separated the two teams at half-time. In the second half, it all came undone for Guinea in the final 25 minutes. After a long ball opened up Guinea's defense in the 68th minute, Aruna Dindane raced past Guinea's goal-keeper (Camara) but he somehow missed the open net. Even though Dindane let Guinea off the hook, it was a worrying sign to see Guinea exposed so badly as their entire defense was missing. Guinea were throwing caution to the wind and were pushing forward to get an equalizer, so it appeared to be only a matter of time before Ivory Coast would hit them on the counter-attack. Sure enough, two minutes later Didier Drogba powered past the final Guinea defender to calmly place the ball into the bottom corner for a 2-0 lead. Another two minutes later, Drogba carved open Guinea's defense with a perfect through ball and Kalou rounded the helpless Camara to walk the ball into the net to make it 3-0. Guinea were in shambles now and it was not a surprize to see Ivory Coast score two more goals.

Ivory Coast continue to march along in this year's tournament. Their team is loaded with talented players in every position and should be one of the favourites to win this year's tournament.

Monday, Feb 4 Quarter-Finals:

Tomorrow's two matches see the defending African Cup Champs Egypt take on Angola and the talented Tunisian team take on Cameroon. With the exception of Angola, atleast I have seen films from the other three countries.

Drops of red tinged oil

Follow the trail. Where there is black oozing liquid, there will surely be blood. The blood may not be clearly visible on the surface but it will exist as a fusion of dried up blood molecules mixed and mated with the sands of time.


After all, in the last 90 years or so, oil has been the center of major battles and regime changes. The mad rush started just before World War I with the discovery of oil in the Middle East and the growing need of the Western World on oil to power their naval ships and war planes. Border lines were drawn and secret deals were made with nations to get their oil supplies. The need for oil started shifting certain political attitudes and even started influencing foreign policies.

In WWII, it was the need for oil that changed the fate of Japan and Germany. After Japan's oil supply was cut-off in the pacific, they attacked Pearl Harbor and as a result drew the Americans into the war, forever changing the course of the battle. Germany's downfall was partly fueled by Hitler's decision to break his pact with the Soviets and go after their oil fields. A wasted battle with the Soviets depleted the German troops and aided in the Allies marching towards victory.

After WWII, oil was once again center as the Cold War starting dividing the global map into strategic assets. The assets had to be protected at all costs, even if that meant regime changes. A moderate ruler would be replaced by a dictator or a dictator had to be thrown out in favour of Western friendly leaders. The political power of oil was truly exemplified when the oil supplies were turned off by OPEC in 1973. Anger and Panic surely led to some drastic plans drawn up to ensure that the World would never again be at the mercy of a few nations. We may be seeing the consequences of those decisions in current times.

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it was the panic of seeing the Soviets having access to oil supplies that led to a CIA backed campaign to drive the Soviets out. And it was oil that led to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent Gulf war. In fact, if it were not for oil, then Kuwait might not have existed in the first place. But it is interesting that Iraq invaded Kuwait not only to annex the oil wells but also as a form of revenge against what a Northern Kuwaiti oil well was doing. Apparently, lateral drilling techniques at the Northern Kuwaiti well were leading to oil getting sucked from Iraqi wells and filling the coffers of Kuwaiti money. This technique of 'drainage' would be most familiar to Daniel Plainview, the main character in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will be blood. In the movie, Daniel himself engages in sucking oil out of neighbouring lands, without their permission or knowledge ofcourse.

And in the year 2008, oil is once again a cause of debate regarding wars, invasions and even future national deals. Given that the world firmly depends on oil (unless one drives a car in Brazil), the timing of There Will be Blood could not be more appropriate.



There Will be Blood is about the greed that exists in man as he lusts after oil. But Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) did not start out going after oil. His initial object of desire was gold as that was the precious resource in 1898. Two years later, he moves onto oil.

Discover, Create, Produce & Consume:

How does a natural resource become valuable? When someone is able to create and mass produce a use for the resource. Otherwise, the resource would lie tucked away beneath the earth without anyone bothering to dig it up. If a resource has no value, then people like Daniel Plainview would not risk their life in order to get the precious resource.

Watching the action:

We hear no dialogue in probably the opening 15 minutes or so of There Will be Blood. We don't really need to. Just by observing Daniel, we know what kind of person he is. And when we do hear his first on-screen words, they are powerfully arresting. These are the kinds of words that can sway and lure people into a false sense of security. Daniel's measured words provide confident leadership and hide his evil intentions. Isn't that what all great leaders do? Mask away their real intentions with silky words? Well Daniel is a very good talker. When he talks, you can be sure people will listen. And if people do not want to listen to him, then he simply walks away as he does not have time to waste.

If the film had ended after 75-80 minutes, I would have applauded this as a masterpiece. But the film goes on for another 75 minutes. We are given enough information in the first 80 minutes to know everything about Daniel, his relationship with his son, the true nature of the religious man (Eli played by Paul Dano) and all the deals/handshakes/compromises that have to be made in order to be successful in the oil business. The final hour just spoon feeds examples for people who did not get that Daniel is pure evil or that Eli is not the true prophet that he is. The last hour shows that money is superior to religion and can truly bend people. But we already knew that very early on in the film.

Acting wise, Daniel Day-Lewis has given an amazing performance. Pure genius on his part! Then there is the haunting background score which alerts us of impending danger, which causes us to get restless and uneasy at the evil that lurks in men's hearts. The music and Daniel's voice still linger in my head, almost 4 days after seeing the movie. And I believe, they will stay with me for a very long time.

Rating: 8.5/10

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group A, Czech Republic

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Zelary (2003, Ondrej Trojan)
Rating: 7.5/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Trust and understanding

Imagine the scene. A soccer player plays a ball into open space. But no player runs onto the pass and the ball rolls harmlessly wide. The fans laugh at the player who played the ball. As the tv camera focuses on the player, we see either a bemused or an angry look on his face. He played the ball into an empty space excepting his team-mate to run onto it. But the team-mate was not on the same wavelength. The tv commentators inform their viewers that this failed pass was due to a lack of understanding between the two soccer players, because the player's team-mate is a new addition to the team and did not have enough time to settle down. Eventually, when the new soccer player settles down, he will be better able to anticipate his team-mate's passes and make the appropriate runs. Well, atleast that is the idea. While some players settle in with no problems at their new teams, there are some players who never really adapt to their new team and understand how the team plays.

The core of the World War II Czech film Zelary involves understanding between two strangers. Eliska is member of the Czech resistance and seeks to help out her members with a mission.


But things go wrong and she ends up on the Gestapo's list. She has no choice but to leave Prague. The head of the resistance decides to send Eliska with Joza to a small isolated village (Zelary) in order to save her.

Initially, Eliska detests Joza and cannot stand him and his habits. The two eventually come to understand each other and realize the importance of having the other in their lives.

Even though the story is very predictable, there are some beautiful visuals which capture the countryside perfectly. While watching the vast empty spaces, all I kept thinking was that a soccer ball would look great in the background. But alas, World War II was no time for soccer.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group B, Croatia

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Sorry for Kung Fu (2004, Ognjen Svilicic)
Rating: 7/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Immigration & Citizenship regarding national teams

A boy is born in Rio. Growing up, he plays plenty of soccer just like all the other kids around him. But the young boy does not make much impact in a nation packed with too many talented players. As a 16 year old, the young kid travels to play football in Croatia. He joins one of the country's biggest clubs in Dinamo Zagreb, but once again he does not impress as much. He is loaned out to a small team for whom he starts scoring goals. Finally, someone is impressed! Dinamo recall him and give him another chance. The rest they say is history. He becomes the club's top goal scorer and is even given citizenship to represent his new home, Croatia. Once again, the goals start flowing and his 10 goals help Croatia qualify for Euro 2008. In the meantime, he gets transferred from Zagreb to Arsenal in the summer of 2007. This is the story of Eduardo Da Silva, the Croatian-Brazilian who is certainly one of the sharpest goal-scorers in Europe at a young age of 24.

But what if Eduardo had not left Brazil? He certainly would not have gotten a chance and his career would have been over even before it could have started. Is there anything wrong in Eduardo representing Croatia? No! One of the reasons people emigrate is to find better employment. At the end of the day, professional soccer is just another job even though it pays a lot more than jobs most soccer fans hold. But when it comes to soccer, there are some very ignorant attitudes regarding immigration and citizenship. Certain factions in soccer want a 'pure' representation, meaning people only born within a country should represent their nation and that no immigrants can play for their new country, even though the soccer players have gotten a valid citizenship. FIFA president Sepp Blatter is one such person who wants this so called 'pure' practice. But Blatter would not want to stop at the national level. He even advocates that European soccer clubs implement a quota system to limit the number of foreign players that can play for a local club. The argument for having a quota limit at the club level is that this would help promote local talent. Even though there is no evidence so far that foreign players are hampering the development of local talent. Still, these backward thoughts of quotas and pure representation continue in 2008, at a time when global movement of people is much more common.

I really wonder what people like Sepp Blatter would make of the Croatian boy in Sorry for Kung Fu. Because even though the boy is born in Croatia, he is not of Croatian blood. Is that enough to single him out? Unfortunately, that is what most of the local people in the movie do.

At the film's start, Mirjana returns back home to Crotia from Germany.


Even though she had problems with her parents when she left, they cautiously accept her back. Until she tells her father that she is pregnant. The fact that she is not married and pregnant is a matter of shame for Mirjana's father. Eventually, he comes to accept his daughter's decision and since the father believes the son will be of Croatian blood, he is willing to accept the child provided the baby can have a father. When the son is born, the rest of the family do not let the father see the baby fearing that he will not be able to handle the shock. But news of the baby's features spreads through the town and racial jibes follow. Mirjana has no choice but to leave town with her young baby.

I cannot help wonder if Mirjana's son grows up to play football and one day becomes a good player, will all the people accept him?


Will people like Sepp Blatter come out with a statement along the lines of that only people whose blood lineage runs all the way back to a nation's history should represent that nation in soccer games? I hope not. At the end of the day, soccer teams should pick the best players, no matter where they come from.

................

The death of Heath Ledger is indeed a shock -- NY Times , Guardian, David Thomson's blog.

It will be strange to see his Joker role in the new Batman movie. I suppose the strangeness might be along the lines of seeing The Crow after Brandon Lee had died before the movie came out in 1994.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group B, Germany

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Goodbye Lenin (2003, Wolfgang Becker)
Rating: 8.5/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Unity through soccer.

Euro 1992 -- Reunification of Germany, teamwork of Denmark, collapse of Yugoslavia and the Soviet union

When the Berlin wall came down, my first reaction was not a political one but a soccer related thought -- I felt that German football would rule the world for years to come! Even though the West German soccer team was much superior than the East German team, East Germany had a string of quality soccer players. So I thought a unified German team would mean that these East German players would play for the new unified team and help strengthen an existing strong West German core. Well any such thoughts were dismissed when the new unified German team struggled in the opening stages of the Euro 1992 tournament. In their first game, Germany struggled against the tactics of an efficient Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S, former Soviet Union) team and were spared blushes when a last minute free kick from Thomas Hassler earned them a 1-1 tie. Germany then went onto beat Scotland 2-0 before getting thrashed by their bitter rivals Holland 3-1. A 3-2 win over Sweden earned the Germans a place in the finals, where they were outsmarted 2-0 by the smooth fast flowing football of the Danish team.

Euro 1992 was an interesting tournament in terms of unification and collapse of nations. With 2 weeks to go before the tournament, the Yugoslav team was kicked out due to the Balkan war which resulted in the nation's collapse. The Balkan crisis ensured the permanent disappearance of one of Europe's strongest soccer teams in Yugoslavia. I still feel if there was no conflict in the Balkans, Yugoslavia would have won Euro 1992. On the other hand, a unified German team was stronger on paper with the East German additions of Matthias Sammer, Thomas Doll and Andreas Thom but failed to combine together on the field.

Then there was the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S). With the collapse of the Soviet Union, a mixture of former Soviet republics was allowed to field a team. C.I.S started off brightly against Germany before settling for a 1-1 tie. A gritty 0-0 tie with the holders Holland followed before C.I.S were firmly dispatched 3-0 by Scotland and finished bottom of their group. Note: this tournament was also a time when a win was only worth 2 points, as opposed to the three that are currently awarded.

Denmark, who were the runners up to Yugoslavia in the qualifying stages, were invited to take the place of Yugoslavia and made the most of their invitation -- a quickly thrown together Danish team beat Platini's French team 2-1 (France were another pre-tournament favorite) and went onto knock out the Euro 1988 holders Holland on penalties in the semi's before unlocking Germany 2-0 in a historic final. There was only one real superstar in the Danish team, Brian Laudrup, one half of the talented Laudrup brothers (Michael did not play for Denmark due to differences with the coach). The Danish goal-keeper Peter Schmeichel was still not a household name even though he got a transfer to Manchester United in 1991. Euro 1992 truly established Schmeichel
as one of the best goal-keepers in the World and he went onto have a very successful spell with Manchester United with whom he spent 8 years and won plenty of titles.

1990 World Cup -- the final appearance of West Germany

After finishing up as runners-up in the 1982 World Cup (3-1 loss to Italy) and the 1986 World Cup (3-2 defeat to Argentina), West Germany finally won their 3rd World Cup with a lucky 1-0 win over Argentina. A weakened Argentine team were cruelly denied a penalty by the Mexican referee Edgardo Codesal and a few minutes later, the referee gave West Germany a non-existent penalty in the 85th minute. Andreas Brehme placed his spot-kick beyond the reaches of the Argentine goal-keeper Sergio Goycochea to send West Germans into a delightful frenzy.

Revisiting 1990 via a film

Well I always thought that only West Germany celebrated the 1990 World Cup win. Little did I know. Even though German unification (or reunification) did not take place until October 1990, the humorous German film Goodbye Lenin shows how some East Germans celebrated the 1990 World Cup win on July 8. The main character in the film, Alex, notes that soccer truly helped speed up the unification of the two neighboring nations.

The film starts off just before the collapse of the Berlin wall. In the few months after the wall came down, changes happened in East Germany overnight. For example, all the former communist food items disappeared from the shelves and a new wave of Western goods started becoming available. Alex gets a job with a satellite company that tries to hook up as many Eastern homes as possible. The company's policy is to pair an East German employee with a West German to help speed up understanding between the two nations. And satellite sales are certainly boosted because of the new found interest among East Germans to watch West Germany in the World Cup.

For me, the biggest surprize was to find that Goodbye Lenin featured so many scenes regarding the 1990 soccer tournament. 1990 was also the first ever soccer tournament I saw and I remember all the games.

In the following picture, Lothar Matthäus is about to take his penalty against Czechoslovakia in the quarter-finals.



He celebrates his goal which was enough for a 1-0 win and a meeting in the semi-finals with rivals England.



The following are scenes regarding the semi-final penalty shootout between West Germany and England.

The player on the tv screen is Chris Waddle. He steps up to take the 5th and final kick for England.


But he blasts the ball over the goal sending West Germany into the final.


That sends the local mix of Eastern and Western German employees into wonderland.



Where do those statues go?

Also, a common cinematic scene with the collapse of communism appears to be removing the statues of Lenin from the city. In Goodbye Lenin, this fascinating picture shows Lenin's statue being carried through the city.


In the next picture, the status appears to be asking Alex's mother (who is a firm believer in communism) to fly away with him.



Finally, the statue flies away almost as a symbol of the East German's beliefs heading over the clouds.