085“In The Dugout : Ole! Ole! Ole!”

posted by cibol on June 7th, 2008

Remember last time I posted about how I was looking high and lows for CM 01-02? Guess what? I finally found them. I finally found them at one of the most remote places in KL, Atria - The Dead Shopping mall!

After all the hard work, finally I found it.

Speaking about football, Euro is going to kick off in about an hour or so. I haven’t been talking about football since the day Mourinho left Chelsea but now, it doesn’t really matter. The guy himself a job with Inter, happy for him. I do missed him a lot though, not so much of Average Grant but I do pity him also. Well, that’s life Move on!

Which team I support? Deustchland of course. A draw that’s as easy as the girls in the Shepherd’s Bush Walkabout pub after happy hour – only Croatia and Portugal really stand in their way before the final in Vienna – helps as well, of course. Germany’s best chance in over a decade to win a major tournament. Doubters will recall that we haven’t actually won a single match at the European Championships since the final of 1996. But then, we’ve haven’t come up against Austria.

The players to watch :

Basically I think Germany will line up with a flat four in midfield. Bastian Schweinsteiger takes over the right side from the injured Bernd Schneider, Thomas Hitzlsperger plays on the left, while Torsten Frings and captain Michael Ballack, the two most experienced players, will anchor the side in the middle. All four are one-paced: attacks will rely on collective movement and sharp passing rather than spectacular individual bursts through the opposition. I just love the new look of Germany’s formidable midfield but the only thing that I’m quite worried about is the defence. This is because Jurgen Loew is keeping faith with the Metzelder-Per Mertesacker partnership at the back “die Brüder Schnarch und Schleich” - the Sleepy and Crawly Brothers. But there aren’t many alternatives.

Mario Gomez (Number 32)
With everyone looking for a powerful centre-forward who can play up front on his own, no surprise that Gomez has featured large on the radar. Germany’s 2007 player of the year has been prolific for Stuttgart, showing at the same time that he can repeat the feat for his country. Tall, powerful and two-footed, the 22-year-old is wanted by a host of top clubs.

With Ballack having the time of his life at Chelsea, I guess it’s time for Germany to at least be in the semis.

Blame it on the gaffer …