The New Republic

Of all the blessings bestowed upon this tournament not the least satisfying has been the re-emergence of Andrea Pirlo as a player of the highest class. His performance against England last night was as complete a display of midfield generalship as you could wish to see. If this owed something to England’s perplexing willingness to grant the Juventus man time on the ball then that was there fault and scarcely something that should be used to diminish Pirlo’s excellence.  READ MORE >>

If you have a headache, which is somehow related to a sense of utter meaninglessness; If baseball looks like fun; If you start craving food like French fries and bacon frappé; If you catch yourself reading the NYT Magazine while watching the game, until you realize that might be an even greater waste of time; If you start wondering if all the hours, days, and years you have spent watching soccer may have been misspent; If you start devising insults as answers for questions you anticipate coming from friends and family (”How was the game?”); READ MORE >>

Among the many pleasures of the tournament, Franck Ribéry ranks high on my list. Even yesterday, in the loss to Spain, I thought he was the only French player who would not let go of the bone. On the flip side, has there been a more disappointing player in this tournament than Karim Benzema? No, there has not—not by a long shot, and not even by the vast span of inaccuracy that accompanied his long shots, which were basically the only shots he had. READ MORE >>

I once knew a quiet guy who liked to play soccer because playing, he said, allowed him to communicate without talking. You could see how football communication worked—and how it didn’t—in the Spain-France game. The Spaniards kept chattering, boring everyone who was not in on their tiki-taka lingo, laughing at their own jokes, confident that there would be no interruption coming from the French. READ MORE >>

I grew up hating Germany, but at this time no other national team—not even Spain—provides more football-watching pleasure than Germany. For some time now, the Bundesliga matches have been compulsively enjoyable. Borussia Dortmund is fantastic, having built a core team from no-names, beating Bayern (spending money like crazy by German standards) as they wish. Most of the German clubs are in the black, the tickets are cheap, the stadiums are full and the football academies have been steadily developing young, exciting players. READ MORE >>

Lord spare us from any further jokelettes about tonight’s Bail-Out fixture between Germany and Greece. In any case, the boys from Monty Python were way ahead of you: That was then and this is now, and the Greeks need more inspiration than this to prevail this evening. READ MORE >>

Now that the first round has ended, let’s talk about a topic that’s dear to my heart. Of course, by the term “let’s” I mean “let me,” as in let me unload this off my chest. You, my dear delightful readers, can add your input, but first, allow me. Does it seem to you that with every tournament, the number of footballers who are unlikeable—or as my grandmother would say “slightly disagreeable”—seems to increase? READ MORE >>

“No one believed in us at the start,” Steven Gerrard said morosely after England beat Ukraine 1-0. Since he mentions it, some of us still don’t believe that England will win this tournament, or that they deserve to, although we’ve already seen that virtue and quality are not always rewarded. “The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily,” says Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest, speaking of her own unpublished novel. “That is what Fiction means.” But that is not always what soccer means. READ MORE >>

Czech Republic vs. Portugal I think Portugal wins. When your chances of winning are drastically reduced because Rosicky won’t be playing, you’re not that good of a team. No offense to Tomas. I’m an Arsenal fan and he’s been wonderful this season, almost as good as he was before the spate of injuries that befell him. But he’s nowhere near the main man. Portugal has been playing well. Second game: Germany vs. Greece READ MORE >>

I watched most of the Greece Russia without much attachment. I had no dog in this fight, not even a flea. I’m an Arsenal fan and couldn’t even sustain enough animosity toward Arshavin. I didn’t really blame him. He hadn’t shown any inclination to cover an opposing player or tackle anyone since 2008, maybe 2007, so it was my fault that I kept expecting him to. He had cost us many a game but it was Wenger’s fault that he kept faith with the Russian. One of these days, an epiphany and Arshavin would track back. Nope. Never happened. READ MORE >>