Europe's New Campeones

Decades passed, but Spain, with all the class and speed never made it large. They faltered every single time. They seemed to promise with new and energetic players, but never tasted success like real champions. At last, the Matadors took home something to cheer about. The Silverware of the Euro Cup.

The time zone difference forced me to miss all the matches that were played in Austria/Swiss. All I could do was hook up to the television early in the morning and find out what happened last night. I repeated the same after the night of the finals between Germany and Spain. I knew Germany would win, but longed for Spain to do so. Little did I know that I was in for a big surprise. A Spanish Surprise. The 1-0 scoreline didn't tell much of the story. My ill luck always reigned and I never got to watch the single goal that was scored. What I heard was, it wasn't a classy goal from Torres but it was the touch that made all the difference between the two sides. After a not-so-great tournament for himself, he would never forget that goal or that match. It's more of an emotion than a Cup Victory for Spain. Surely they were dying to lay their hands on any damn major Tournament that came in their way. I always considered Spain a tricky side, but they never converted that to major victories.
This Euro was exciting to say the least. It was full of surprises and the 'biggies', like France, Italy, etc. gave up too soon. Teams with no hopes turned into squads of Heroes. Remember the celebrations in Turkey?? You need nerves of steel to win a row of matches in the dying moments. Remember Russia?? The return of Arshavin transformed Russia overnight. Though the whole tournament was filled with upsets and shocks, I knew Germany would make it somehow. And they did. I expected to see Portugal in the finals again, but they left suddenly without a trace. Spain seemed to stay away from the limelight all through and showed themselves right at the end. Atleast it wasn't a final like last time, a major upset. If anything could have gone wrong for Portugal, it was then, against Greece. Though some would call Spain beating Germany as another upset, I wouldn't because the creativity and skill of the spanish players should never be underestimated. They all play for big clubs in big leagues and they know exactly when to flick the ball to the unmarked player...

As a whole, this tournament lived up to it's promise of entertaining. It's all we need in the end. I am saying this wearing a Made-in-Italy shirt depicting a German spraying Champagne against the backdrop of an Italian supercar-giant. A World Champion. You don't need to think twice to remember his name ...