Little here, little there
It's down to four teams in the European Championships. Very excited that my favorite team, the Dutch, are still in the running. The other teams are the Czech Republic, Portugal, and Greece (yes, that's right - Greece). Before the tournament started, about a month before it started, I had predicted that the Dutch would win the tournament, and if not them, then the Czech Republic. Amazingly, it has that outcome likely. It's crazy how it got there. The Czechs have won all four of their games, including a victory over the Dutch. The Czechs have recently caused all kinds of headaches for Holland, getting good results against them on several occasions. Thankfully for the Dutch, they play Portugal in the semifinal. Portugal's no cake walk though, as they are the host for the tournament and get to play in front of the home crowd. And they took out the Dutch to keep them out of World Cup 2002.
Greece is a real shocker, having actually beaten Portugal in their first match in the tournament. However, you can recover from a defeat, as both Holland and Portugal (and Greece) have been able to do. Now, it's win or go home though.
Kudos have to go to the Czech and Portuguese coaches, and also to the Greek coach. The Czech coach has really been voicing a solidarity for his team. Having won their first two games, they were able to rest their starting players for their third contest because they had already won the group. When media talked about him fielding a B side, he said, "We are no B side. These are Czech internationals, and we are one team." Good players certainly but drawing inspiration from their coach, the team went out and dispatched the Germans. (Sounds sort of like Risk, doesn't it?) These Czech guys are really incredible. A lot of the other teams, in the crucible of their own expectations, frenetic fans, and obsessed media, tend to have these dramatic flair-outs and underperform. Meanwhile, these humble Czechs keep plowing through with good soccer that is skillful and smart with no egos to maintain. You get the sense that these guys, if they lost, would walk to their wives and give them a kiss and then embrace their young son. Other teams lose, and players and media and fans cry about conspiracies and antagonistic refs and all other types of nonsense. It's inspring to me. I wish I were more Czechish.
And in dealing with hostility and criticism, the backbone award has to go to Portuguese coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. Portugal have big expectations because they have big stars and their team has played very well in the last two European tournaments, although they ended up going down. Plus, they are the host for this tournament, so the home fans are expecting a big showing. As it turns out, the Portuguese were humbled by the Greek team in the first match of the tournament. It looked like they were certain not to qualify. He didn't fret and kept his team focused. And it turns out that rivals Spain frittered out of the competition, and Portugal won the group (amazingly) and Greece tagged along in second place.
So those four teams came from two groups. Group B, with France (defending champions) and England (blowing people out like the 2003 Lakers) are both out, as are Italy and others. So it's these four now.
But about Scolari, he doesn't pay any regard to the media's ideas about what he is doing right or wrong. He just picks his team and sends them out. Pretty levelheaded guy. It's funny that he won a World Cup with Brazil and yet Portugal complains pretty loudly if his team doesn't win. Shows the fickle nature of fans and why you should pay attention to valid criticism but not listen to open complaining and voicing of grievances.
The Dutch have the stigma of being fragile, so we'll see what happens to them. They have held it together so far, to the amazement of their fans. Even managed to stay unfazed through 120 minutes of action and a penalty shoot-out in their last match. When they put it together, it's like water poring through holes in diverse streams and coming back together in a waterfall - it just goes to all the right places. Or like the dead army that swarms Minas Tirith in Return of the King. It's an unstoppable barage of effectiveness and victory.
The weekend was pretty random. Little here, little there. Been doing so much hiking and biking that unless I get out and run around, it feels like I waste all this energy. I played a couple games of Chess, so my brain was in overdrive, but my legs were not used that much. July's probably going to be a little bit crazy, and hopefully August will afford time for a nice vacation.
I'm reading through a book on the history of the Democrats. It's interesting, though it seems more like a sports event in how it is treated. "With two decades to go to the century, it's the Democrats in the lead in the house 46-42, but the Republicans are roaring back through President Arthur's veto to take the lead . . ." It's a bit too focused on the power struggle - who's winning, rather than on what the core of Democratic belief is. Maybe because that is mostly what politics is about - winning. I don't know, it just seems a bit too chronological rather than ideological. But that said, I have certainly picked up a lot, and I learn that a truer passion to me is history. And looking at history, first from one side and then from another, is a truly meaningful way to get into it. You start to get into the emotions of it, the tug and pull, what's at stake, etc. Start to work through some of the ideas yourself. And every little bit, you see some person's deeds described, and you realize, "Wow, that didn't come from people's voices, that came from somewhere deeper inside this person. He rose above, he transcended for a moment, and in that he was undefeatable."
As you read too, you realize how diabolically repressive we have been against blacks and women. That in our party system we have often crowded out any other ideas that could bring a new change into the mix, some progress that comes from outside our camp that we need to attach onto. It's embarassing, embarassing. Where is the voice of the black person in politics? I know that blacks have enjoyed the benefits of certain policies, but is their voice one of the shaping voices? I hope so.
If all to be a Democrat means is that you try to rid society of any limitations on your personal choices, then I think I'm going to be sick. Who knows? I haven't learned it all yet. We'll see what can be discovered.
Greece is a real shocker, having actually beaten Portugal in their first match in the tournament. However, you can recover from a defeat, as both Holland and Portugal (and Greece) have been able to do. Now, it's win or go home though.
Kudos have to go to the Czech and Portuguese coaches, and also to the Greek coach. The Czech coach has really been voicing a solidarity for his team. Having won their first two games, they were able to rest their starting players for their third contest because they had already won the group. When media talked about him fielding a B side, he said, "We are no B side. These are Czech internationals, and we are one team." Good players certainly but drawing inspiration from their coach, the team went out and dispatched the Germans. (Sounds sort of like Risk, doesn't it?) These Czech guys are really incredible. A lot of the other teams, in the crucible of their own expectations, frenetic fans, and obsessed media, tend to have these dramatic flair-outs and underperform. Meanwhile, these humble Czechs keep plowing through with good soccer that is skillful and smart with no egos to maintain. You get the sense that these guys, if they lost, would walk to their wives and give them a kiss and then embrace their young son. Other teams lose, and players and media and fans cry about conspiracies and antagonistic refs and all other types of nonsense. It's inspring to me. I wish I were more Czechish.
And in dealing with hostility and criticism, the backbone award has to go to Portuguese coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. Portugal have big expectations because they have big stars and their team has played very well in the last two European tournaments, although they ended up going down. Plus, they are the host for this tournament, so the home fans are expecting a big showing. As it turns out, the Portuguese were humbled by the Greek team in the first match of the tournament. It looked like they were certain not to qualify. He didn't fret and kept his team focused. And it turns out that rivals Spain frittered out of the competition, and Portugal won the group (amazingly) and Greece tagged along in second place.
So those four teams came from two groups. Group B, with France (defending champions) and England (blowing people out like the 2003 Lakers) are both out, as are Italy and others. So it's these four now.
But about Scolari, he doesn't pay any regard to the media's ideas about what he is doing right or wrong. He just picks his team and sends them out. Pretty levelheaded guy. It's funny that he won a World Cup with Brazil and yet Portugal complains pretty loudly if his team doesn't win. Shows the fickle nature of fans and why you should pay attention to valid criticism but not listen to open complaining and voicing of grievances.
The Dutch have the stigma of being fragile, so we'll see what happens to them. They have held it together so far, to the amazement of their fans. Even managed to stay unfazed through 120 minutes of action and a penalty shoot-out in their last match. When they put it together, it's like water poring through holes in diverse streams and coming back together in a waterfall - it just goes to all the right places. Or like the dead army that swarms Minas Tirith in Return of the King. It's an unstoppable barage of effectiveness and victory.
The weekend was pretty random. Little here, little there. Been doing so much hiking and biking that unless I get out and run around, it feels like I waste all this energy. I played a couple games of Chess, so my brain was in overdrive, but my legs were not used that much. July's probably going to be a little bit crazy, and hopefully August will afford time for a nice vacation.
I'm reading through a book on the history of the Democrats. It's interesting, though it seems more like a sports event in how it is treated. "With two decades to go to the century, it's the Democrats in the lead in the house 46-42, but the Republicans are roaring back through President Arthur's veto to take the lead . . ." It's a bit too focused on the power struggle - who's winning, rather than on what the core of Democratic belief is. Maybe because that is mostly what politics is about - winning. I don't know, it just seems a bit too chronological rather than ideological. But that said, I have certainly picked up a lot, and I learn that a truer passion to me is history. And looking at history, first from one side and then from another, is a truly meaningful way to get into it. You start to get into the emotions of it, the tug and pull, what's at stake, etc. Start to work through some of the ideas yourself. And every little bit, you see some person's deeds described, and you realize, "Wow, that didn't come from people's voices, that came from somewhere deeper inside this person. He rose above, he transcended for a moment, and in that he was undefeatable."
As you read too, you realize how diabolically repressive we have been against blacks and women. That in our party system we have often crowded out any other ideas that could bring a new change into the mix, some progress that comes from outside our camp that we need to attach onto. It's embarassing, embarassing. Where is the voice of the black person in politics? I know that blacks have enjoyed the benefits of certain policies, but is their voice one of the shaping voices? I hope so.
If all to be a Democrat means is that you try to rid society of any limitations on your personal choices, then I think I'm going to be sick. Who knows? I haven't learned it all yet. We'll see what can be discovered.
posted by David at 3:30 PM
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