Orange shock
I met a mate of mine from the west country in the supermarket this morning and we both found ourselves nominating a back-up nation to follow after England either bravely or calamitously get sent home after 3 games.
We both picked the Dutch to follow, Le Oranje, everyone’s second favourite national football team but also since the 1970’s the world’s most frustrating team also.
Denmark beat the Netherlands 1-0 earlier today with the Danes resolute and deserving of their victory, causing the first shock of the tournament and putting a dent in one of my bets. They also had two ex-Addicks in their line up. Stephan Anderson made a couple of good saves including a brave one from Huntelaar and Dennis Rommedahl, playing his 117th international, often found himself in some good space on the right but either the pass to him or from him was shoddy. Sound familiar?
The Dutch, part total football, part workmanlike, but mostly wasteful now have it all to do to get out of the group of death.
The Germany v Portugal game never really caught alight, but just when the Portuguese started to settle for a point, the Germans upped a gear and scored. The Portuguese to me badly miss an out and out forward to play off Ronaldo and Nani’s creativity and skills.
For the Germans, it was efficient and not pretty, and I bet if you opened a German dictionary and looked up pretty, it would say efficient!
Tomorrow we have Spain v Italy and Ireland v Croatia. Potential crackers in a very different way.
A long overdue thank you for your blog. I’ve been visiting for a couple of years to catch up and get another opinion. As a oversees (it’s been 13yrs mostly in NYC, now in Miami) fan, it’s great to get your perspective and round-ups. I’ve been a similar fan of NYaddick and wondered if you know what happened to his updates? We hung out a couple of times when we both lived in NY to watch Charlton games. It seems you are a frequent visitor to Miami. Next time you are in town give me a shout on the off-chance it coincides with a game (slightly more likely on the box this season). Thanks again. God knows I couldn’t keep up a blog like you do.
Up the addicks!!
Andy, comments like yours are what keeps me blogging. Thank you.
I do get to Miami quite reguarly but often as a stepping stone to get to somewhere else. But if we can make it work I would be more than happy to meet up for a game.
NYA is happily settled in Hertfordshire. I think one of the reasons for his recent blog inaction might have something to do with the fact that he and his wife keep adding little Addicks to the world!
He’s back. http://newyorkaddick.blogspot.com/
Well there you go, thanks again and in the unlikely event you are passing through MIA on a matchday (and we are on the Sky) Let me know!