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In the defence

8.07.2008, by Michael Comments (0)

Philipp Lahm/Photo: flickr.com

The defence of the fanline08.at EURO team hardly includes players that had been expected there before the European Championship.

The Spanish team of eleven, thanks to their superb combination football, knew how to fill spectators with enthusiasm. Not only were the precise short passes very valuable for bridging the midfield, the Spanish attacks also were often based in their own defence. Carles Puyol, at a height of 1.78 metres, was able to even defend headers by tall strikers from the opposite team. We also give him credit for the excellent overview he showed. Sergio Ramos proved to be a permanent danger in the right back. As a nominal right back he sprinted so often alongside the opposition’s penalty area shooting dangerous crosses from there that his position in the tournament would deserve a denomination of its own.

The exciting Russian offensive football was praised a lot during this year’s EURO. However, the team would not have advanced to the semi-final without an excellent defence as well. As a defence representative of the Sbornaja Yury Shirkov would be part of our EURO selection. In line with Puyol, Shirkov, as a strong left back, enhanced the strikers in the front and thus pushed the dynamics of his team colleagues.

How much the world of football enthusiasts looked forward to the opening game of the Portuguese on June 7! A magnitude of scores by Cristiano Ronaldo was predicted, and the committed offensive duo Deco and Nuno Gomes in fact won 2-0 over Turkey without problems. But it was defence man Pepe who took everybody’s breath away. The born Brazilian scored one goal, another one was denied because of offside. While Portugal had to go home during the quarter finals, Pepe was one of the great performers who, just like many of his European team members, co-directed the games actively.

Above all in the game against Turkey 24-year-old Philipp Lahm was the main responsible for Germany’s advancement to the final. While he caused the 2-2 equalizer, he showed strong nerves in the 90^th minute, initiated a great attack and, after a double pass with Hitzlsperger, shot his team into the final. But also in the other games defender Lahm, at a height of only 1.70 metres, was one of the steadiest players within the German team.

The actual candidates of the Italian defence for a place in the All Star Team will go home empty-handed. Fabio Cannavaro, who in 2006 was appointed World Football Player of the Year as first centre back, and Marco Materazzi (defender of the year 2007) will miss out: Cannavaro was out of the game due to an injury already during the preliminary stage and Materazzi was taken out by national coach Donadoni already in the first game, because he had had severe troubles with the Dutch offensive. In the following games he was not allowed to play again - Giorgio Chiellini had taken over the role of the Italian defence director. Other than many of his team colleagues Chiellini was in good shape. It was due to him that the Italians, who had to accept three scores by the opposing team in the opening game, had to put up with only one score in the remaining tournament.