The Papadopoulos Perspective 1.0

Well, Euro 2012 is here and the electricity brought about by international football is at its peak as the tournament in Poland and the Ukraine barrels towards the final round of Group Games. You should therefore be speaking of incredible free-flowing matches full of spectacular goals and whole-hearted commitment for a cause? However, the tournament so far has been dominated by my alarming resemblance to Greek centre-back Kyriakos Papadopoulos, as demonstrated below.

I am Martin Gibson, and this is the first Papadopoulos Perspective.

Martin Gibson   --   Kyriakos Papadopoulos

Group A contained the so called ‘weak, dull and unentertaining’ countries of the tournament, or as I like to call them, the ‘Jake Humphreys’’ of the football pitch. As much as it was expected to follow all bookies predictions, it was brilliant to see that stereotypical suggestion broken as the final round of games proved nothing short of highly dramatic changes to the group set-up, and ultimately concluded with the untimely exit of the much fancied Russian team. The Russians could only have themselves to blame after failing to continue their blinding start with a frankly pathetic showing against the mighty Greek team.

They produced a performance which many have argued as being a replica of the unforgettable Chelsea vs Barcelona performance. The only exception being that the team portraying Barcelona in this instance were a lot more like your local pub team rather than the greatest club side ever in the history of the world. While I am at it, Russia had been led by one of the most over-rated players of all time, Andrei Arshavin, who managed to single handedly prove he should probably be a little midget cheerleader rather than a leader of the largest country in the entire world.

Outside of the Greeks group, the games have arguably been more entertaining from a neutral’s point of view. Have the Irish been in Euro 2012? They have you say, I haven’t seen them? They are out already? But the tournaments only just started? Well, that is the Irish performance covered...

I have not enjoyed the Spanish, 'no striker' tactic and would love to see them beaten. As much as they can be entertaining to watch (once every ten minutes when they decide to go towards the other teams goal rather than round and round in pretty little triangles), I am more a fan of the wide open game - the end-to-end, no holds barred approach. Enter England…

#Papadopoulos

For the full, uncut version and further musings, check out my site. Ευχαριστώ.

Picture: http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/fcnan/diary/201006230002/
Links: www.uefa.com, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football, http://bleacherreport.com
Edit: tgatehouse
Original piece: Martin Gibson