French Stereotypes

It is good to know that there are two men out there who are reaffirming the romantic stereotype normally associated with Frenchmen.

El Presidente:

In the last few months, there have been more articles written about French president Nicolas Sarkozy's wife than about his policies. A month ago, Doug Saunders of The Globe and Mail reviewed a year in Sarkozy's life with respect to 5 women. Ofcourse, it is the 5th women in that list, his wife Carla, that has been getting all the attention. When Sarkozy went to England at the end of March, the papers gushed all over Carla. Canadian papers followed the example as well. And on Sunday, the Carla bug touched down in the NY Times.

National team manager:

Then there is the strange case of Raymond Domenech. Moments after his French team got knocked out of Euro 2008, he apparently proposed to his girlfriend Estelle Denis in a television interview. A day later he tried to play the incident down but honestly, that was just bad timing.

But what is interesting is this rumour regarding Ludovic Giuly and Estelle. This is the first I have heard of it but is this a reason why Giuly was dropped from the national team? In reality, there are better players who can play instead of Giuly for France but could his sending a text message to Domenech's girlfriend have cost him a place in the French national team? Not sure. What I don't understand is why Domenech dropped Robert Pires? I have felt that Domenech has been a bit vengeful in his team selections and does not often give valid reasons. For example: why were Sagna & Clichy not at the Euros?

If the French team manager was more concerned about his girlfriend, then is it any wonder why he looked lost and unable to inspire his players? On the other hand, the French players showed no mental strength and were not at all interested in the games. Why did Thuram opt out of the final game against Italy? Were all the French players instead thinking of their women and how they would rather spend time with them on a beach somewhere rather than run around for 90 pointless minutes? We will never know.

Euro 2008: Everyone stand back, the maestro is here

He missed the first two games of Euro 2008 through suspension but since his return, Russia have been dazzling.

Andrei Arshavin is a genius! His performance against Holland in the Quarter-finals was mesmerizing. As was the entire performance of Russia; they were faster and more agile than the Dutch. Russia passed the ball nicely and tried to carve open Holland on numerious occasions while Holland were pedestrian and only threatened to score a goal via free-kicks or crosses. Holland didn't deserve to tie the game up with 4 minutes left on the clock, but not to worry. Russia ran them off the park in extra-time and deserved their 3-1 win.

Holland for all their counter-attacking football in the first two games could not manage a decent passing move in the entire 120 minutes against Russia.

A new star has arrived. Ofcourse, Zenit St. Petersburg have known that for a while as was demonstrated by Arshavin's displays in their UEFA Cup victory.

Soccer to Arshavin: Welcome. This game has needed someone like you!!

I started watching the game back in 1988/89 because of Marco Van Basten; his goals and attacking play got me hooked to soccer. But pity that 20 years on as coach of the Dutch team, he lined up a team designed to counter-attack and not attack. He has used 2 holding midfielders so far in the tournament(Orlando Engelaar, Nigel de Jong) and against Russia, he once again went with the pair along with Kuyt up front. That meant that Holland had three players who were more useful for fouling opponents as opposed to breaking down defenses with clever play. And it showed. Holland were woeful against Russia and fully deserved to go out. Against Italy and France, when the Dutch took leads, they sat back and benefitted from the desperation on part of Italy and France to get an equalizer. But today against Russia, when they needed to do the hard part themselves, Holland were clueless.

Imagining words through a cinematic lens

Here's an open question:

When you read a book (fiction or non-fiction) do you just read the words and absorb the essence or do you visualize the images that the words evoke? And if you form images, then how do those images get formed?

In some cases, the writer goes to the effort to allow the reader to get a sense of the book’s surroundings but in other cases, the writer may leave it up to the reader to form their own visions. It is harder to form any visual images of the surroundings if one has never been to (or is familiar with) the places being mentioned in the book. Sometimes, I have found that films fill the gap by providing images of cities that I have not visited. There have been many cities that I learned about via cinema before I actually visited the places and then found my preconceptions to be either validated or corrected.

The reason I am curious about that question is because a strange thing took place when I read Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran a few months ago. This book was on my planned reading list for a while but I kept putting it off. Before I picked up the book, I learned that Paul Greengrass would be directing a feature film based on the book. I figured this was a natural progression for Greengrass as he was advancing from pre-attack (United 93) to espionage (The Bourne Ultimatum) to post-attack (Green Zone). But what I didn't count on was that his name would distort my views while reading Chandrasekaran's words. Right from the opening pages when I read the words, I was not visualizing what Chandrasekaran intended; instead I kept seeing things as how Greengrass would shoot them in the movie. The Green Zone cafeteria suddenly presented plenty of close-up opportunities that Greengrass used in United 93 or The Bourne Ultimatum. And when Chandrasekaran left the cafeteria to go outside, well then things got even more clouded for me. I started visualizing things as per the check-point camera sequences from Brian De Palma's Redacted, a film which used plenty of hand-held camera footage.

It took a while before I could get back to reading the words and forming my own visual images as opposed to imagining where the camera would hover around each character. Strange first there!

It appears that nowadays for some popular books, the timeline between the book getting published and the film adaptation being made is getting reduced. Ofcourse, there was the case back in the early 90’s when the movie rights for John Grisham's The Firm were purchased even before the book was published. I never read the book but I did see the film. I can only imagine if the film studio had announced that Tom Cruise would be the lead before the book was printed, then that would have certainly ensured that a majority of the book’s readers visualized him while reading Grisham’s words.

Ofcourse, it is also tricky when one attempts to read a book after seeing a film version of it. If I ever pick up Upton Sinclair’s Oil! in the future, I doubt if I can shrug off the shadow of Daniel Day Lewis’s character from There Will Be Blood.

Euro 2008: Anatomy of a failure

After the final group games on Wednesday, June 18 the following are the 8 teams moving on to the Quarter-Finals:
Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and Russia.

While the following are the 8 teams going home:
Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Romania, France, Sweden, Greece.

Prior to the tournament, Austria were labeled as the worst team out of the participating 16 nations. But after the first round games, Austria have redeemed themselves as they were far from the worst team. The worst teams in terms of points and goal difference are:


Note: GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Difference

Greece: The 2004 Fairy tale finally comes to an end

Back in Euro 2004, Greece were drawn in Group A along with hosts Portugal, Spain and Russia. Greece stunned the hosts Portugal with an opening day 2-1 win and followed that with a 1-1 tie against Spain before a 2-1 defeat to Russia. They edged through to the quarters on goal difference over Spain and won all their next 3 games by a margin of 1-0. Their wins were due to team-work and organization and not to skill and technical ability. This time around, Greece got 2 of the same group teams from Euro 2004 in Spain and Russia, along with Sweden. In the end, the other teams were clearly a class above Greece in terms of on the ball ability and Greece could not manage to get away with their set-piece and defending acts like 4 years ago.

France: Les Terrible! The French rot continues from 2002

This French team was doomed for failure even before the tournament began due to Raymond Domenech's awful team selections. At left-back, Domenech picked Patrice Evra ahead of Gael Clichy; at right back, he picked Willy Sagnol ahead of Bacary Sagna. Both Clichy and Sagna were voted by their peers in the English Premier league Team of the Season and if Domenech had watched any English league games, he would have known of Clichy's pace and ability to offer options down the wings. Sagna was one of the best players for Arsenal and he would have brought strength & leadership to an ailing French defense. Even though Sagna was injured for the last few weeks of Arsenal's season, he was never given a chance to prove his fitness either. On top of that Domenech picked Eric Abidal who had a dreadful season at Barcelona. In midfield, Domenech was bent on taking an injured Patrick Vieira as opposed to picking a youthful Flamini, who had an outstanding season for Arsenal. Vieira never played a minute for France and occupied a spot in the roaster that could have gone to an able body like Flamini.

It is known that Domenech has had a difference of opinion with Arsenal's Arsene Wenger. So maybe that is why he left out three capable Arsenal players (two if you count that Flamini will be at AC Milan next season) and only took Arsenal's William Gallas. This is a reasonable assumption as Domenech has been known to spend more time with personal duels with his players than team tactics. Robert Pires and Vikash Dhorasoo come to mind. Moreover, Domenech has shown to be incapable of understanding the tactics of this French team and has often picked the wrong players or slotted players in incorrect positions.

In the end, it all came undone for France against Italy when Domenech's awful selections contributed to a worthy French exit. It is rumoured that Thuram asked not to be played in the center of the defense which led Domenech to play Eric Abidal there. Just three minutes into the game, Abidal almost presented a gift to Luca Toni but as has been common in this tournament, Toni missed his chance. 22 minutes later, Abidal was ball watching and lost track of Toni. In a state of desperation, Abidal brought down Toni resulting in a penalty for Italy and earning himself a red card. If Abidal had any sense, he would have let Toni go on as chances are Toni would have missed his clear chance. The 10 men of France never had a chance after Pirlo converted his spot-kick. Now then there is the case of Patrice Evra. He was absolutely useless against Italy. Not only was he pedestrian, he offered no help in creating France's offense down the flanks. He was so happy to play ball boy and offered to take all the throw-ins, thinking that would merit his contribution. In truth, he merely hid from his responsibilities and offered to stay away from the action. But he should never have been playing at Euro 2008 in the first place.

Domenech took an old and aging French team to Euro 2008. He had hoped that these old stars would work their magic and bail France out as opposed to coming up with a tactical plan himself. In the end, his aging team were too tired to bother playing and Domenech had no options on the bench to change things around.

Poland: bright start then fade to black

Poland were not that bad in their opening game against Germany as they attempted to string together some decent moves. The introduction of Roger Guerreiro in the second half certainly gave the Poles an attacking bite but they could never put away their chances. Poland were lucky to get away with a 1-1 tie against Austria as they should really have been 3-0 or 4-0 down in the opening 20 minutes. Poor Austrian finishing and some good saves from Artur Boruc kept Austria at bay. Poland needed a miracle in their final game against Croatia to advance but they never looked up to the challenge.

Austria: The co-hosts do themselves proud

Austria certainly played well but poor finishing cost them goals and points. Still it was good to see them holding their heads up high and attempting to create chances.

Romania: 2 points but could have been so much more

Romania have no one but themselves to blame for their early exit. If Romania had been a bit more adventurous they could have beaten France in the opening game but they settled for a 0-0 tie. Against Italy, a mistake from Zambrotta led to Mutu putting Romania ahead. However, a minute later they let in a soft goal to allow Italy to come back into the game. In the last 10 minutes, Romania got a real gift when they were awarded a non-existent penalty. But Mutu could not put his kick away and Buffon was the Italian hero as he saved the penalty. Still Romania could have advanced against a changed Dutch team in the final game. But for whatever reason, Romania refused to attack against Holland. Maybe they were hoping that the Dutch would score a few own goals but the second string Dutch squad were in no mood to make life easy for Romania.

Czech Republic: no creativity costs them in the end

It is certainly hard to replace players like Nedved and Rosicky but the Czechs offered nothing in their opening game against the co-hosts Switzerland; they were lucky to get away with a 1-0 win as they did nothing in the game. They tried to play some football against Portugal but were no match for the speed of the Portuguese. Even though they built up a 2-0 lead against Turkey, the Czechs could not cope with wave after wave of Turkish attack and mentally folded to bow out of Euro 2008.

Sweden: lack of pace, tired legs and sitting back prove costly

Sweden only needed a draw against Russia to advance out of Group D and it looked like Sweden only wanted to play for a draw. They offered nothing in terms of attack and Russia should have easily won their game by a 4 or 5 goal margin. It was shocking to see such a terrible display from the Swedes but then again, they put in a dull second half against Spain which cost them dearly in the end when David Villa scored a 90th minute winner.

Switzerland: like Austria, co-hosts do themselves proud

Things could have been different had Switzerland put away their chances against a dull Czech Republic in the opening game. But the injury to their captain and star player Alexander Frei certainly took a bite out of their offense. Switzerland were unlucky against Turkey as well losing to a last minute strike. Atleast, the Swiss ended the tournament with a well deserved win over group winners Portugal.

Euro 2008: Group stages complete

Group D: The Russians are coming....

Spain 2-1 Greece

Russia 2-0 Sweden

The Dutch better beware as the return of Andrei Arshavin has suddenly revolutionized the Russians into a pacy and potent attacking force. With the aid of Arshavin, Russia dispatched a slow, tired and generally poor Swedish team with considerable ease. Arshavin scored the second goal but the game should have been over long before that as Sweden offered nothing except a looping Larsson header that hit the woodwork. It appeared Sweden were content to sit back and hope for a 0-0 tie but Russia had other ideas in mind.

Spain scored two second half goals to finish the group stages with a 100% record. A completely revamped Spanish side were still too strong for the defending European Champions who ended the tournament as the only side on zero points. Atleast Greece managed to score one goal, a beautiful header by Angelos Charisteas via a free-kick. The Greek goal certainly evoked memories of Euro 2004 as back then it the headed efforts of Charisteas that led Greece to their unlikely European title.

Euro 2008: Dutch and Italian delight

Group C: Holland and Italy advance

Holland 2-0 Romania

France 0-2 Italy

Holland did their part by winning their 3rd straight group game and knocking Romania out of Euro 2008. As expected, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar started for the Dutch and scored a goal. How much longer can he stay at Ajax? Surely a bigger club will snatch him up. Van Persie stayed on his feet and blasted in a powerful second goal to finish off an impressive first round for the Dutch. Holland won their first three games 3-0 over Italy, 4-1 over France and now 2-0 over Romania. Out of the 9 goals the Dutch have scored, seven different players have found the net -- Van Nistelrooy, Sneijder (2), Van Persie (2), Van Bronckhorst , Kuyt, Robben and Huntelaar.

Italy got a stroke of luck with their second goal when Thierry Henry deflected De Rossi's free-kick into the French net but overall, I cannot feel any sympathy for France, even though they lost Ribery to an early injury. The best chance France had was when they were 2-0 down with Benzema striking a beautiful curler but Buffon made a remarkable save. If the French Federation does not fire Raymond Domenech in the next 24 hours, then well there is no future for French soccer.

Euro 2008: Signs of life & some shock therapy

I have learned a lot of things via soccer but on Sunday, I learned something new entirely. Turkey's stunning 3-2 comeback win against the Czech Republic was just a phenomenal result but the manner of their late winner can be attributed to a footballing example of "shock therapy". Naomi Klein's excellent book The Shock Doctrine talks about how various individuals and corporations use(d) time of emergencies to sweep wide changes to take advantage of innocent citizens. The rationale behind this is(was) that when people are in an emotionally vulnerable mental state, then anything goes. Turkey were trailing 2-1 with less than 5 minutes to go when a fumble by Petr Čech allowed Turkish captain Nihat to level the game up. The Czechs were in a state of shock so much so that less than a minute later, another Turkish attack allowed Nihat to break free and curl a beautiful shot to lead Turkey into the Quarter finals.

Petr Čech is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best. This was just a rare mistake by him. Last year, he fumbled a corner against Arsenal which allowed William Gallas to head Arsenal to a 1-0 win over Chelsea. On Sunday, he stumbled yet another cross but before that, he and the entire Czech defense were busy trying to withstand wave after wave of Turkish attacks. But his mistake sent the entire Czech team into a state of disbelief. And it was then that they were most vulnerable and Turkey were full worth for their remarkable win. Another example of this "shock therapy" took place in the 1999 European Cup Final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United. Back then, Munich took an early lead and dominated United but they were unable to score a crucial second goal. With time running out, Man Utd tied the game up. Bayern were in such a state of shock that less than a minute later, they let Man Utd get another goal to win 2-1 -- two goals in 2 minutes gave Man Utd the European Cup. In the 2005 European Cup final, Milan raced to a 3-0 half-time lead against Liverpool. Milan dominated the game except for 6 second half minutes when Liverpool scored three goals to tie things up. In those 6 minutes, Milan looked completely disorganized and disoriented.

It was good to see Turkey come away with a win. Yah for attacking football! And the tournament is finally showing some signs of life. In fact, one had to wait until the 4th day for two teams to score goals in a single game. When Spain beat Russia 4-1, the lone Russian goal was the first time at this year's tournament an opponent managed to find the target. The 8 previous games had ended 1-0, 2-0, 1-0, 2-0, 0-0 & 3-0. A majority of the football has been cautious and dull but there have been some rare delightful moments. And Turkey's magical final 15 minutes stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Also, the game showed that sometimes the margin between defeat and victory is separated by a tiny fraction. Czech Republic could have made it 3-0 and finished the game off but their shot hit the post. On the other hand, Arda Turan's 75th minute goal hit the inside of the post and went in to make it 2-1. When Nihat curled his stunning shot, the ball appeared to be curving above the goal until it hit the underside of the crossbar and settled in gracefully into the net.

After Round 2, only two out of 16 were eliminated
It was good to see that after all the teams had played their first two games, only two teams were officially eliminated (Switzerland and Greece). All four groups had been won with a further 10 teams in contention for that crucial second place.

After Sunday (June 15) & Monday's (June 16) games, both Groups A & B are now decided.
Group A: Portugal and Turkey advance

Switzerland 2-0 Portugal

Turkey 3-2 Czech Republic

Group B: Croatia and Germany advance

Austria 0-1 Germany

Croatia 1-0 Poland

Day 8 -- Sat, June 14:

Group D: Spain wins group

Spain 2-1 Sweden

Greece 0-1 Russia

David Villa just keeps increasing his asking price. Villa scored a delightful last minute goal to lead Spain to a worthy 2-1 win over Sweden. Even though there were some nasty fouls in the game, both teams played a technically delightful game to watch. The first half was a real joy to observe in terms of the effort from both Spain and Sweden. However, in the second half Sweden sat back allowing Spain to play some clever balls and display some tricks. Still Sweden looked dangerous on the counter-attack and both teams tried to get a winner until the final minutes, even though both attempted to push for a winning goal within the confines of their cautious framework.

And in other news....

The NY Times has joined the list of international newspapers to talk at length about Mukesh Ambani. India is always on the news nowadays and Ambani is never far from it. But what is interesting about the article is the specific elements that it talks about the rise of the Ambani name makes it clear that Mani Ratnam's film Guru is a clear look at Ambani's life, with the addition of some songs and romance (ofcourse!).

And no news day would be complete without a look at the surging oil and food prices. Ofcourse, such news would never be truly certified unless the following lines are included: ..rising demand from China and India.

The Group of 8 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States — are many of the world’s largest consumers of oil. But most have little say over production, and over drivers of oil prices like rising demand from China and India.

Yes there is rising oil demand from China and India. I think every one gets that now as it cut and paste in every article about rising oil prices. But how many of those new vehicles on the Chinese and Indian roads are gas guzzling suv's, mini-vans and hummers? Let's see now. America and Canada sucks up oil for decades in wasteful vehicles but if other nations need the same oil for their tiny cars which can't ever go over speeds of 60 Km/hr because of congested roads, well the West does not like it. I suppose Daniel Plainview put it best:

Euro 2008: Rang De Mausambi

Day 7, Friday June 13

Holland 4-1 France

Italy 1-1 Romania

Psst. Have you heard?
What?
The Dutch are back!
Really?
Yup. They beat Italy 3-0 and dispatched France 4-1. And they are playing like a team again! No more infighting.

Wait...Hang on a minute. Let us get some things clear first. This Dutch team is not like the old Dutch team of the 70's. This team is a ruthless, colder and more sinister version of the previous Dutch teams who believed in pure football. Yes the Dutch class of 2008 play like a unified group of players, which includes hunting in packs -- counter attacking together and fouling together. But they are not the creative force of the past, who took the game to their opponents as opposed to sitting back and taking their chances.

Although credit must be given where it is due. Holland were indeed clinical and took their chances well. But just like against Italy, Holland benefitted from a slice of good fortune. Against Italy on Monday, Holland scored a proper first goal but I still believe they got the call due to an initial error but it just so happened on a closer inspection, it was a correct call; that call changed the complexion of the game and Holland went on to pick apart a broken Italian team. Against France, a clear-cut penalty against Holland was denied when Ooijer handled a French shot. And that call did change the game as France pushed forward and Holland took advantage of the gaps available to them.

The Dutch started the game with a flurry of fouls (De Jong took out Ribery less than a minute into the game) and took an early lead when Kuyt stayed on his feet to smartly head home. But Holland did nothing after that until their second goal. They just sat back, fouled France whenever they got a chance, and used the burning pace of Robben to double their lead. Ooijer, Kuyt and Giovanni van Bronckhorst were quite proficient in fouling their French counter-parts (note: although Makelele was equally sinister in fouling his opponents). But I should not complain too much as this is the way European football is going -- sit back, break up the opponents play and hit them on the break. Talented players like Kuyt are an example of the way European soccer is evolving. Kuyt spends more time off the ball, making runs, fouling his opponents than spending creative time on the ball. No wonder he is such an asset to Liverpool where he fits in perfectly with Rafa's plan to play boring football. And I still cannot forget the foul that Kuyt got away with against Hleb against Arsenal in the champions league. On the other hand, Van Persie has much more talent than Kuyt but because of his injury, he has only gotten a minor role at Euro. Still it was good to see Van Persie take his chance beautifully against France. Van Persie is the player most associated with the good old Dutch attacking football not Kuyt but it is because of players like Ooijer and Kuyt that Holland are getting their results.

Still despite all my dislike about the Dutch fouling, I sincerely hope they go ahead and win Euro 2008. They have scored the most beautiful goals of any team and are the best of an average bunch of European teams this year.

When I first saw Group C, I had wondered if Holland and Romania would advance like a scenario from Euro 2000. Back then, Portugal, England, Germany and Romania were drawn in a tough group. Everyone expected England and Germany to advance but based on the technical talent Portugal & Romania had, I had expected Portugal and Romania to upset England and Germany and that is exactly what happened -- Portugal and Romania moved to the Quarters. This time however, I thought France and Italy would advance despite their problems. But as it turns out, both France and Italy are in danger of going out. If Romania beat Holland, then the result between France and Italy will not matter. Romania could have made life easier for themselves had Mutu converted their penalty and knocked Italy out on Friday but Buffon saved Italy and now the World Champions need a huge favour from the Dutch to advance. For France, I really hope this tournament is the end of Raymond Domenech's coaching days as he done nothing to improve the rot that has existed in the French team since Euro 2000.

Day 6: Lighting strikes again after a gap of 10 years

Croatia 2-1 Germany

Austria 1-1 Poland

10 years ago Slaven Bilić was a player in the Croatian team that upset Germany at the 1998 World Cup. This time around with Bilić as the coach, Croatia once again screwed up the odds to beat Germany to advance to the Quarter Finals. Germany's numerous problems were exposed and they must now regroup to avoid another embarrassment at the Euros.

Austria kept their slim hopes alive with a 1-1 tie against Poland. Both teams displayed plenty of poor football but amazingly, both teams still have a shot at the quarters. Although, neither team has an easy job -- Germany will be a handful for Austria and Croatia will atleast want a tie against Poland to avoid Portugal in the next round.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Films

Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Turkish snapshots

There is plenty of beauty to be found in both of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's features Climates and Distant. Even though there isn't much dialogue in both films, one hardly notices the lack of words because the camera is so well placed that we can perfectly understand what the characters are thinking and feeling.

A relationship on the ropes: Climates (2006)

A marriage is breaking apart.



We witness intimate moments between the couple. Very early on, we can tell something is not right between the two. In the following picture the wife, Bahar (Ebru Ceylan), wakes up from a dream she had on the beach. What did she dream about? That her husband (Isa played by Nuri himself) was throwing sand on her face and suffocating her. Hmmm..



The distance between the two is growing.



Just like in Distant, the male character still finds time to take beautiful pictures.



In a cafe thinking about his life and waiting to get Bahar back.



The snow falls tenderly around Bahar, not wanting to disturb her thoughts.


The intimate scenes between the couple and their solitary moments when the characters looked into the distant horizon reminded me of Antonioni's films (L' Avventura & L' Eclisse)




Loneliness and wanting space: Distant (2002)

Mahmut (Muzaffer Özdemir) likes his solitary lifestyle.



When his cousin Yusuf (Emin Toprak) arrives in town,

Mahmut is hospitable at first. But eventually he gets bothered because Yusuf's presence disturbs his day to day activities.

So Mahmut stays out of the house late, drifting across the beautiful city that is Istanbul.



Mahmut shares a lot with Isa from Climates. Both prefer to keep to themselves and both love to capture the simple beauty of Turkey via their camera. Maybe one day the two could meet in one of the countless cafes in Turkey and discuss their lives, or even chat a bit about the state of Turkish soccer.

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Ratings out of 10

Distant (2002, Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan): 9.5

Climates (2006, Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan): 9

Euro 2008: Days 4 & 5

Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain, Russia

Spain 4-1 Russia

Greece 0-2 Sweden

Both games went as per plan with Spain and Sweden winning as expected.

David Villa increased his market price with a hat-trick for Spain. Only teams such as Real Madrid and Chelsea might be able to afford Villa now and he is surely out of Arsenal's market price.

It was good to see Cesc get his first international goal for Spain, even though it was an easy effort.

Russia's poor defending made Spain look quite good. Time and time again, Russia could not pick up the Spanish forwards on their cross-cutting runs. Spain's second goal involved Iniesta's defense splitting pass for Villa, but Iniesta had tried that same pass before in the game, especially for Torres.

7 errors too many:

Sweden's second goal against Greece involved a comedy of errors from the defending Euro champs. After a Swedish goal-kick was sent upfield, a Greek player incorrectly sent his header upwards and backwards which resulted in his fellow Greek team-mate failing to control the ball and conceding a needless corner. From the resulting corner, the Greek keeper (Antonis Nikopolidis) failed to punch the ball firmly and another Greek player headed the clearance poorly on the edge of the penalty box. Now, despite all this Greece could have been fine but yet another Greek player kicked his poor clearance directly to a Spanish player. In all the chaos and confusion, no Greek players picked up Freddie Ljungberg who was left on his own. Nikopolidis saved Ljungberg's shot and the resulting save was not cleared, allowing Hansson to bundle the ball over the line with his knee. It appeared that the Greek players were still in shock from the first Swedish goal and were mentally not ready as they let in the second goal 5 minutes later. Greece's fairy tale run from Euro 2004 has finally ended.

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Group A, second round of games:

Czech Republic 1-3 Portugal

Switzerland 1-2 Turkey

Portugal booked their place in the Quarter finals and Turkey knocked out the co-hosts Switzerland, thus avenging their defeat at the hands of the Swiss in the 2006 World Cup qualifying games. The 2006 World Cup play-off games between Switzerland and Turkey were a violent affair. Even though the Euro 2008 game between the two on Wednesday was not one for the faint hearted, the blood visibly present on two Turkish players faces was the result of accidental clashes. So the final group game between Turkey-Czech Republic now becomes a one game play-off where the winner will make the quarters as both teams are currently tied with the same number of points and goal difference.

Euro 2008: Day 3

Two more games and a total of three goals again

Group C: Holland, Italy, Romania, France

Holland 3-0 Italy

France 0-0 Romania

The Dutch earned a well deserved win over Italy but the score-line is a bit deceiving. Italy were not played off the park and Holland didn't offer any beautiful football like Dutch teams of the past. Instead, Holland offered Italy a lesson in the execution of the perfect counter-attack and were aided by a huge helping hand from the referee. Holland's opening goal should not have counted. Ruud van Nistelrooy was clearly offside but this is not the first time Ruud boy has scored a goal from an offside position. In his time at Manchester United, RVN made a career out of manipulating the passive offside rule to his advantage much to the frustration of his opponents. Today, RVN did what he does best -- stick around in the 6 yard box in an offside position to score a goal. Like Inzaghi, Ruud is the master of the 6 yard box and his 26th minute opener changed the game completely.

Italy had started off decently and it took a while for the Dutch to get into the game. However, after the Dutch took the lead, Italy pushed upfield and Holland just attempted to hit them on the counter. From an Italian corner, Holland raced upfield and Dirk Kuyt headed into the path of Wesley Sneijder who finished nicely from a narrow angle to double Holland's lead after just 31 minutes. Italy had chances to score a goal but poor finishing let them down. A good free kick from Pirlo was saved nicely from Edwin van der Sar and from the resulting counter attack, Holland scored their 3rd goal in the 79th minute to wrap up the 3 points. Once again, Kuyt was the provider for the 3rd as his cross was headed home by Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

First look at Group C:

This was the group I was most looking forward to and the Holland-Italy game was probably the most enjoyable game of the tournament so far. While Holland were good in counter attacking, Italy still produced some good moments. One such moment came from Gianluca Zambrotta who turned Kuyt inside out in the 53rd minute but unfortunately Zambrotta could not fashion a goal out of his slick trickery. The Italians were poor in finishing their chances off and Di Natale, who was impressive in the Serie A last season, was especially guilty of not being sharp.

The France-Romania game was just terrible. Pathetic. Both teams should be kicked out of the tournament for being so bad. And they should take the Czech Republic and Croatia along as well.

Friday's Group C games are set up nicely. Italy take on Romania in the early game and have to win. While a win for Holland against France would send the Dutch through to the quarters. France will have to come out of their shell against Holland but based on today's evidence, they have nothing to offer. Still, this is a strange game. One incorrect call, one penalty and everything could change. But before Friday, there is the matter of Group D games on tuesday, along with the second games for Group A (Wed) and B (Thu).

Euro 2008 Day 3: The Blues are fading away

Group C: Holland, Italy, Romania, France

France 0-0 Romania

Even though I have not seen today's opening Group C game, I was expecting France to tie 0-0 with Romania. At best, I thought France might have managed a 1-0 win but given the current rot in the team, 0-0 was the way to go. Sure enough, the game ended goalless.

2002: the downfall starts..

The malaise in the current French team started during the 2002 World Cup. A lot was expected of France during that tournament but a majority of the players appeared tired and jaded. The Arsenal duo of Henry and Vieira had nothing left in them as they played themselves into the ground to win a memorable league-cup double for Arsenal, while the injuries to Zidane (just before the tournament) & Pires left them with no creative options.

2004: no improvements

France should have rebuilt after that 2002 loss as they had a great crop of young players but they turned in a dire display at Euro 2004. They were awful against England in the opening game and only salvaged a 2-1 win via two late goals from Zidane (a free-kick and penalty). A 2-2 draw against Croatia was followed by a 3-1 win over a mis-matched Swiss team. In the Quarters, France could not manage anything against an organized but talent less Greek team.

The warning signs were there but apparently no one was listening. The French Federation hired Raymond Domenech and it has been nothing but disaster since then.

The Road to 2006

These were the results that France managed in the qualifying games for the 2006 World Cup:
France 0-0 Israel
Faroe Isl. 0-2 France
France 0-0 Ireland
Cyprus 0-2 France
France 0-0 Switzerland
Israel 1-1 France
France 3-0 Faroe Islands
Ireland 0-1 France
Switzerland 1-1 France
France 4-0 Cyprus

The team had no creative ideas and produced nothing but pathetic displays in the qualifying games. But since France made the World Cup, Domenech was safe.

France's performances in the 2006 world Cup were forgettable. They began the tournament with a predictable 0-0 tie with Switzerland (I am proud to have predicated that correct result, which helped me in my soccer pool) and followed that with a muddled 1-1 tie with South Korea. A 2-0 win over Togo allowed France to make the second round where they came back from a goal down to beat Spain 3-1. Not much credit to France there as Spain once again failed to play to their potential. A 1-0 Quarter final over Brazil was seen a great result but all France had to do was stand their ground and prevent Brazil from having space to run around; they could then simply observe an ineffective Brazilian team offer nothing in terms of offense. France duly beat Portugal 1-0 in the semi's to make the final. Since France played decently in the final and only lost on penalties, all was forgiven again. Domenech was kept in charge.

The road to Euro 2008

The following are the results of France's 2008 Qualifying games:
Georgia 0-3 France
France 3-1 Italy
Scotland 1-0 France
France 5-0 Faroe Islands
Lithuania 0-1 France
France 2-0 Ukraine
France 1-0 Georgia
Italy 0-0 France
France 0-1 Scotland
Faroe Islands 0-6 France
France 2-0 Lithuania
Ukraine 2-2 France

France are truly lucky to be in Euro 2008 as their two 1-0 losses to Scotland highlighted their creative inability. Despite having some of the best players in European football, the French team cannot manage to even turn in one decent performance.

I still expect France to bundle their way into the Quarters at Euro 2008 and they may even make the semis, but this team is living on its last legs. The Federation needs to bring in a visionary manager who can get the best out of the players and even integrate some of the younger players in the team. Also, they need a manager who does not spend more time running around on personal crusades against his players while neglecting the tactical developments of the French team.

Euro 2008 Diary: Day 2

Group B: Two games, three goals

Austria 0-1 Croatia

Germany 2-0 Poland

The results of both Group B games ended up as expected but it was good to see both Austria and Poland attempt to get a good result from their opening games. Croatia took an early lead via the penalty spot (Luka Modrić) but they didn't do too much after that. To Austria's credit, they took the game to Croatia but their finishing left a lot to be desired and it is no wonder they were labeled as the tournament's worst team. On a few occasions, Austria could not keep up with the Croatian players and had to commit fouls to keep the score-line down. Besides winning the penalty, Ivica Olić was pulled back more than once otherwise he could inflicted more harm on the co-hosts.

Germany got the win everyone expected of them and they could have had more goals. Polish born Lukas Podolski got both German goals and his lack of celebration at both goals was nice to see.

First impressions of both co-hosts:
Switzerland were unlucky not to get anything from their opener against the Czechs yesterday and today Austria were unfortunate as well to not atleast score a goal. Both co-hosts tried to play football but their technical problems were apparent. The Swiss are hit quite hard because their captain and one of their best players Alexander Frei was injured on Sat and is out for the rest of the tournament.

Euro 2008 Diary: Day 1

Group A: Two games, three goals

Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic

Portugal 2-0 Turkey

The opening game was simply dull and boring. The Czechs went with a 4-5-1 formation which meant that Jan Koller was left upfield on his own, with little support. The Swiss had some decent chances but the game never sparked into life. As a result, in the second half when the Swiss defense fell asleep, Václav Svěrkoš nicked a neat goal. The Swiss to their credit pushed forward for an equalizer and could have tied the game up but Johan Vonlanthen struck the cross-bar. In the end, the Czechs did enough to get the three points.

Note: At half-time, Swiss captain Alexander Frei left the field with an injury and if his injury is serious indeed, then the Swiss will be left with no bite for their remaining two games.

The Portugal - Turkey game started off predictably -- Portugal only played with one pure striker (Nuno Gomes) and that meant Portugal's attacks came from the flanks via the experienced Simão & Cristiano Ronaldo. A fast paced first half produced little in goal mouth action with the best chance being Ronaldo's free kick expertly saved by the Turkish goal-keeper, Volkan. Pepe's header was correctly ruled for offside in the first half for Portugal.

Not much happened early in the second half even though Nuno Gomes hit the post after a nasty foul on Simão carved open the Turkish defense. However, just after the hour mark Pepe finished off a beautiful move by exchanging a pass with Nuno Gomes before Pepe's goal attempt was helped over Volkan by an on-rushing Emre. After that goal, the game went into a dull lull as Turkey could not muster any clear-cut chances. Portugal could have even had made it 2-0 but Nuno Gomes headed against the crossbar via a Ronaldo cross. Then Portugal's coach, Scolari, decided to remove their only striker Nuno Gomes to bring on another midfielder/winger in Nani, meaning the only goal-scoring threat would come from Ronaldo. But no such goal scoring threat came from Portugal as they watched the inability of the Turkish players to pick the right option in the final third of the field.

But Ronaldo did play a part in Portugal's second goal of the night -- with time winding down and Turkey having pushed everyone forward, Ronaldo's run and pass to João Moutinho enabled João to pick out an onrushing Raul Meireles who calmly slotted the ball into an empty neat to seal a Portuguese victory. Prior to that goal, there was a nasty two foot lunge on Nani, another reminder of the game's ugly side.

Overall, an average opening day. Portugal looked the best team of the bunch but their lack of strikers might cost them in the tournament. If a team wants to stop them, then all they have to do is cut off the supply line via the flanks and Portugal will be left with no creative options.