A game without passion

Monday, June 9, 2008 at 0:04 | Posted in Euro-2008, football, Sports | 9 Comments

Football games between Germany and Poland have all preconditions to become something similar to ice-hockey games between Finland and Sweden (apart from the fact that score record throughout the years in those hockey games is much more even). I was therefore surprised to note how little passion each of the two teams invested in the game. It looks like everybody expected Germany to win, including the Polish team and it was just a question of playing off the 90 minutes to the inevitable result.

The Germans played well, no question about that, but they did not put their heart in the game. It looked very much like 9 to 5 football. It was very odd to observe that player of the game Lukas Podolski did almost not at all celebrate his two goals: just as if scoring a goal at each half was something of a routine performance of a bureaucrat working in the office from 9 to 5.

Poland was somewhat in the game until the second goal. A consolation goal would have made my pool record look better but I have no objection to the outcome. The next game against Austria is crucial for Poland but they have to try harder than today to pull it off.