Best of Euro 2008

July 8th, 2008 | By: Jan | 1 Comment »

Glowing Jens By now most clubs have started their pre-season preparations, most Spaniards have recovered from their Euro party hangover and I had time to sit back and inspect the Euros from Germany’s perspective for one final Euro 2008 blog post, before leaving the tournament to the history books and moving on to the World Cup qualifiers.

This is also your great last chance to share your favourite moments of the tournament with the readers of this blog.

Best Comedy Act: A tie between Germany’s defence and David Odonkor’s performance on the right side of midfield against Croatia.

Special Achievement in Jersey Technology: Jens Lehmann for wearing a neon jersey, which left a glowing spot on my TV screen long after the games had ended. Mad Jens proved that he is also a mad scientist, as neon coloured jerseys are scientifically rumoured to irritate penalty takers. Lehmann didn’t need to save a single penalty, but his jersey still managed to irritate Germany’s defenders.

Most consistent player: Torsten Frings - consistently grumpy.

Stick it to the man Award: Lukas Podolski scoring three goals, setting up another two and sticking it to Uli Hoeness and whoever was involved in bringing him to Bayern.

Vanity Fair Moment: Oliver Bierhoff and Michael Ballack getting into an argument after the final. The media assumes it was about some silly banner for the fans. In reality Oliver Bierhoff was just jealous that Ballack had overtaken him in Germany’s all-time top scorer ranking (Bierhoff: 37 goals / Ballack: 38 goals - insane amount for a midfielder by the way)

Best Kevin Kuranyi Impersonation: Mario Gomez

Best Free Kick: Michael Ballack

Most beautiful WAG: Sarah Brandner (Bastian Schweinsteiger)

Most powerful WAG: Angela Merkel (Bastain Schweinsteiger again)

Breakthrough Performance: Marko Marin - until he was sent packing again.

All-expenses paid holiday trip won by: Heiko Westermann and Piotr Trochowski

Best Team Goal: Klose > Podolski > Ballack > Podolski > Ballack > Podolski > Schweinsteiger > Goal

Best Villian: Manuel Mejuto after sending Jogi Löw to the stands during the match against Austria.

Best Coach in a Supporting Role: Hansi “Slick” Flick guiding Germany to their best performance of the tournament.

Franz Beckenbauer’s moment of truth: “This team puzzles me.”

Best Impression of Martin Scorsese at the Oscars: Michael Ballack (i.e. there’s still hope)

Best Individual Goal: Philipp Lahm (with some help from Thomas Hitzelsperger)

OK, I better stop now, I feel nostalgia is kicking in - despite some critique worthy things it wasn’t too bad a tournament for Germany.

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Comments

By diana | July 9th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

So now we have a new nickname for Flick. Hansi “Slick” Flick…I like that. Jan, this is really cracking me up. Despite we all know how the tournament went for the national team.

The ‘Best Free Kick’ award? If I have my favourite goals of the tournament, Ballack’s screamer of a free kick will be in my top three. It’s a shoo in. I said ’screamer’ because I will never forget what the commentator on the pay-TV was saying of the goal - ‘That was an absolute screamer!’. That goal even got the newspapers here drooling. Not in the literal sense.

Mad Jens’s glowing jersey left a glowing spot on your TV screen? You know I was like thinking when I first saw what he was wearing - ‘Lehmann went to get an away Chelsea shirt?’. One of the two colours (the other is white) of Chelsea’s away jersey for the previous season is a turn-off for me. Till now I kept calling it as the Barcelona away jersey (until reading one of your posts at the Bundesliga Offside that Borussia Dortmund used to have jerseys of this colour) for some weird reason (given Barcelona once have this colour as one of their away jerseys like in two seasons ago or something).

Regarding my favourite moments of the tournament…I have a few but, I will never forget how Jogi reacted when Lahm scored the goal against Turkey. All the more that was never shown on my TV (the breakdown in transmission at that time meant that when there was transmission again, what I get is the German players celebrating being in the final) and whenever I looked at the repeat of that again (you did just that by posting the video to the ‘Best Individual Goal’ award, Jan), I was chuckling and smiling at the same time. I don’t remember seeing Jogi like this before.

And with this kind of reaction - http://euro2008.worldcupblog.org/news/eurovision-kid-on-christmas.html, it never fail to put a smile on my face. I am serious.

Posted from Singapore