Azzuri Campioni

 Simon B

What a dumb way to decide a championship. 

I know that all the long-time football fans who are all much older than me will probably disagree with that take and say that penalty kicks are a fair way to decide a game and that they are good for the game.

I partially agree with that statement.

Football is the only team sport I know that still allows games to end in ties. Every other sport goes to overtime and/or a shootout if the game is still tied after regulation. That way there's always a winner. I think that that's the way it should be in football too. 

The confusing part is that sometimes there's extra time and sometimes there isn't. If it's a regular-season game or a group stage contest, games can end in ties. If it's a knockout game or a do-or-die game, they go to a quirky extra-time period, and then if it's still tied a penalty shootout.

I think that they should do the extra time followed by a shootout in the games that would otherwise end in a tie and in knockout games, they should do overtime until there's a golden goal. 

Why?

In hockey (which is the only other major sport that has a "shootout"), goalies have a huge advantage in the shootout because they take up so much of the net. To score, you've gotta have a lot of skill and precision. In football, the goalies look so small in the net and it's extremely rare to see a saved penalty shot. With most missed penalties, the shooter misses the net instead of the goalie making the save. 

If you gave me 10 shots against an NHL goaltender in a shootout scenario, there's no chance I'm getting close to scoring. But if you gave me 10 penalty kicks against a pro soccer netminder, I think I have legit shot a scoring one if I pick a spot in the net and shoot it as hard as I can there. It's luck. The goalie guesses which way you shoot and if he guesses right he also has to save it and that in itself is almost as difficult. 

When important games are decided by a goalie guessing where an attacking player will shoot, I don't think that the best team will always come out on top. 

If they play until there's a golden goal, the stakes get higher and higher as time goes by and it's all about which team will crack first. That can prove that one team was better instead of one team being luckier.

The Game Itself

Before this game a lot of people asked me who I hoped would win and this is a situation where I couldn't decide. 

The story of the Italians not making the World Cup three years ago then coming back with a new manager and win the Euros was a feel-good story that I thought was cool. But I'm french, and France and Italy have a long rivalry so I didn't think I'd get much fulfillment out of them winning.

I love the English team. Their players are young and talented and they're so fun to watch. I really like the players and their style but what I don't like is their fans. One win in the group stage and they're all yelling "it's coming home!!!" at the top of their lungs. Fun fact: the Euro cup has never been "Home" (to England) because the three lions have never won it before. I'm sure many England fans are really nice people but when it comes to cheering for their team they can be obnoxious. 

In the end, I chose England because they've been on a 55-year international trophy drought which is 1 year longer than the Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup drought so I could somewhat sympathize with them.

The game itself was dominated by the Italians. Luke Shaw put England up 1-0 two minutes in with the fastest goal ever scored in ta Euro final.

After that goal, Italy shut any chance at scoring for the English and had almost 75%  of possession. Italian keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had basically nothing to do all game after that point. It was almost inevitable that Italy would tie it and maybe even win the game in regulation. 

After Leonardo Bonucci tied the game in the 67th minute, the game went into a sort of deadlock. I don't blame either team for this though. If you're at the final stage of the competition, it becomes more of a first mistake loss instead of the next goal wins. Even in extra time, there weren't many chances on either end and that's when English manager Gareth Southgate brought on players like Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho so he'd have fresh players for the shootout. 

Penalites

I already said what I think about penalties but they still happened so here's what I thought. In penalties, goalies have a huge mental advantage. They're not expected to save the penalty so no one blames them if they let one in and if they save one, they become heroes. 

Both keepers were in their first Euro and they're both young. Italy's Donnarumma stands at 6'4 so he's covering more of the side of the net that he dives on than the 6ft Jordan Pickford so the English shooters would have to be more precise. 

Marcus Rashford hit the post and both Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka's shots got saved by Donnarumma to conclude England's three missed penalties to Italy's two and just like that the Azzuri became European Champions. 

I knew that there was going to be one terrible thing to come after all that. No, not that 19-year-old Saka would feel terrible for missing his penalty to that people would criticize Southgate for picking a teenager to take the decisive shot. That is what comes with losing a final on penalties and it's normal and part of the learning curve for any young team. 

I came to the realization that all three English players who missed their penalties were of minority races in England (Rashford of Jamaican descent, Sancho of Trini descent, and Saka of Nigerian descent) and that many fools would be caught up in the heat of the moment and they would be subject to terrible racist remarks. Racism is and will always be unacceptable. I'm sure that being a minority added pressure on Saka, Rashford, and Sancho to score their penalty. Not only because the tournament was on the line but because it's evident that these comments would flood their way if they missed.

That was a sad ending to what was a really good tournament. 

The Wrap

Italy celebrated long into the night and brought the cup to Rome to celebrate with the people. 

That's the best thing in all of the sports. The winning team celebrating with their fans. Sure for the 23 other countries that didn't win it sucks but there were a lot of positives to come out of this tournament.

North Macedonia scoring their first major tournament goal, Patrick Shick's unreal half-line strike against Scotland, Scotland tying England in the group stage, Germany being out, then back in, then out then finally qualifying, comeback thrillers ing the round of 16 and so many more that I don't have the time to name off right now. 

It was a good tournament and UEFA can be proud of themselves.

My next soccer content? The upcoming Champions League season in September, and World Cup Qualifying. Canada has a real shot at a World Cup for the first time since 1986, I'll definitely write about their journey.

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Thanks for reading!