Always look on the bright side of life...

WOW. What a game! What a result! What a performance! HAHA!!!! YES! Greatest football match I've ever seen! Who could have imagined a 3-0 Oranje victory over the Italians!?! Who would have thought that the Dutch supporters would be chanting "Always look on the bright side of life" to the departing Azzuri fans in the dying minutes of the game?!? After 5 completely listless and boring matches leading up to this one, and with a 0-0 result from the France/Romania game, I was truly expecting both of these teams to play very conservatively, with neither wanting to risk ending up at the bottom of the table. Within 10 minutes of the start, it was obvious that the Dutch had something else in mind. Never in my life have I seen midfield play like the masterpiece that van der Vaart and Sneijder delivered, and the much maligned back line looked awesome.
The first goal? UEFA has come out this morning and stated that the officials interpreted the rules correctly and made the right call, so what else can you say about it? Would it have mattered if Ruud was called off? I doubt it. Holland was well organized, motivated, and clinical in every aspect of the game. This honestly reminded me of the US/England game a few weeks ago. Much like the US in that game, yesterday the Italians seemed confused and couldnt come up with the touch needed to string together more than 1 or 2 passes. Maybe Cannavaro's absence impacted their play, maybe they just underestimated the Dutch, maybe they just aren't that good.
The second goal was just perfectly sublime. What can you say about it, it will go down with van Basten's '88 volley as one of the best ever. What makes it a better goal to me is that it was the result of an absolutely perfect counter attack. You could just see van Bronkhorst after he cleared that shot off the line, he was screaming for the ball...he had so much space in front of him...and the pass to him was perfectly laid out for him to run on to. When he sent his cross over in Kuyt's direction I really didn't think Dirk would be able to do anything with it, but his soft header to Sneijder was right where it needed to be, and the man of the match's finish made my jaw drop. A great goal, but a 2-0 lead still just didn't seem like enough. I was happy, but still worried. The second half saw the Dutch back on their heels for long periods of time, but the surprise back line of van Bronkhorst, Mathijsen, Ooijer and Boulahrouz (no Heits?) stood strong with help from Engelaar and De Jong. I thought Engelaar in particular played excellent, as did the one guy that I was worried about the most, Mathijsen, who had the pleasure of marking Toni for most of the night. The second half did see some chances for Toni and the Azzuri, but Gio's goal off another perfect counter attack with about 10 minutes left put the game away and ensured Italian embarrassment.
This may be a beginning of an the end for the old dinosaurs of European soccer. The decade long domination by the Italians and French may have finally come to an end, and we are all going to benefit from it. The Dutch reminded the world what exciting football can look like. Hopefully the days of plodding along, playing boring defensive football, and scoring one goal and then sitting on it are over. The Azzuri are naturally getting absolutely killed in the Italian press today. They have some major problems to deal with, as does France, who looked totally worthless yesterday against a pesky Romanian team. Things are looking good for Holland, and a +3 goal differential doesn't hurt. Its only the first round of games, but the Dutch look to be the class of the tournament at this point. But can they keep it up?...that's what I'm going to keep wondering until the match against the French on Friday....the 13th.