It continued more the next day, when Slovenia, in their first major tournament in years, went balls to the wall in the second half, finally scoring late to eke out a draw against Denmark. We saw in the next day when Romania scored two bangers to beat Ukraine, in Romania's first tournament in a long time. Then Turkey overran the stadium in their win of Georgia. On and on and on it went. Day after day, game after game. There's much of this tournament to go, and it's already breaking the bank of memories.
Three things define this Euro's so far. First the nature of the crowds, the atmosphere, the fan zones. All of it such a nice return of a mostly fan-less Euro 2020 (played in 2021) and the weirdness that hung over Qatar 2022 like a pall. And truthfully, while I'm sure the US World Cup in 2026 will generally go off fine, even then the atmosphere won't be the same. We ahve to savor every moment of how great this has all been.
Second, the level of bangers. Not sure if it has crossed the 2018 World Cup in terms of the total panolpy of audacious banger goals, but this is certainly coming close. Just a crazy amount of goals from outside the box, even from teams you wouldn't expect like Romania getting two screamers in their opening game. There has been some icnredible ballsiness on these shots.
And finally, and maybe most importantly, the style of play has been refreshing. We've come so long from our 2010 and 2012 nadir, when nearly every game would be some team driving 75% of possession and the otehr sitting back. Sure, there's still some of that now, but the games have by and large fed off the crowd and been more open, and certainly more dynamic, with weird awesome swings like Denmark dominating a first half and almost at the drop of a hat switching to Serbia. There's a freshness with this unpredictability.
But really, att least as the group stage is concerned, the real glory has been that first point. The fans, the atmosphere, teh chanting, the vibes. I mentioned early on that viral video of the Albanian fans breaking raw spaghetti in half in front of Italian fans on the street. In writing it seems stupid and the wrong (read: annoying) type of people may look to say its offensive. However, in reality, it was hilarious. The Italians comically overreacted in disgust. It was a beautiful moment, and there's been so many more.
It's been a while since we had a major tournament in what woudl be seen as a traditional football powerhouse. We had the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which was a celebration of all things South American football, and then the 2016 Euros in France which was supposed to be spectacular. I often think the world writ large is unfair to the vibes, atmosphere of Russia 2018, but are probably right to say what a disappoinment teh 2022 World Cup was from a fan perspcctive. Giant throngs of fans all unison in one color, mobbing the streets and open plazas of German towns: that's what these tournaments are supposed to be about.
Same with the play on the field. THis is the third Euro's since it expanded to 24 teams, and while that still leaves some unfortunate situations of 3rd place teams in groups making the knockouts, for the first time it seems like there are 24 teams worthy of being here. The gap between best and worst is smaller than ever, and the fans packing every building, and all 23 countries traveling well in Germany, has made this just a perfect brew.
I hope it never ends. It will of course. Already in the third set of group stage games, that perfect routine of a game at 9am, 12noon and 3pm has broken. But that's not to say we already haven't had the spectacular so far, with Germany's stoppage time equalizer against Switzerland (to win the group), Hungary's 90+10' winner against Scotland, Italy's dramatic goal in the 90+5' to draw Croatia and secure their place (and almost certainly end the run of Luka Modric). This tournament has had it all. Euro 2024 is a masterpiece of a tournament, six years in the making. The first real, non-bastardized major tournament post covid is making up for lost time.
That third aspect, the level and evenness of play, is super important in this as well. The most pointed example is the Manchester City players who play best in that system, just control and keeping and probing the ball, in Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne, have had fairly average tournaments. This isn't the tournament for complex, possession heavy systems. We've had teams wear down from over pressing. No, instead this has been the tournament of bangers, of 1v1 dribbles, of counters, of brilliance. I truly hope I don't overplay what is to come, but this has been a special, special tournament halfway through.
