Kind of a compact car of a match, in the end. Fuel-efficient. Practical. Great for fitting into small spaces, but nothing to put a gleam in your eye when you see it in your slot at Avis. Even the rain, which briefly looked as if it might be cruising for a fling with my go-to [...]

Now…that's reality out of the way. Let's talk about that other thing that happened.
The moment the first lightning strike knocked out the international broadcast feed in the second half, causing televisions around the world to freeze, revert to static, or, worse, suddenly cut to Rece Davis, was, for me, the moment that Euro 2008 became [...]

This imperative mode is better than a bullet list.
Read Zach's lightning bolt on the Germany-Turkey match.
Read Richard on why Arshavin's age doesn't matter.
Read Josh Patashnik's New Republic piece on the autocratic dark side of the Russian resurgence. Thesis: Abramovich and the oligarchs aren't funding Russian football because they're patriots, they're funding it because they don't [...]

Put the outcome to one side. The astonishing thing about this match was that Turkey set the tone from the beginning, and with the exception of a few bad stretches in the second half, controlled it till the end. Germany's moments of success came from exploiting lapses in Turkey's execution of their gameplan, lapses that [...]

from Chapter 13 (“A Racehorse of Genius Crystallizes the Recognition of Being a Man Without Qualities") of The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil, translated by Sophie Wilkins:
The time had come when people were starting to speak of genius on the soccer field or in the boxing ring, although there would still be at most [...]

from Chapter 7 (“In a Weak Moment Ulrich Acquires a New Mistress") of The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil, translated by Sophie Wilkins:
The fascination of such a fight, he said, was the rare chance it offered in civilian life to perform so many varied, vigorous, yet precisely coordinated movements in response to barely perceptible [...]

Andrei Arshavin is already 27. Did you realize that? That's just two years younger than Henry when he transferred to Purgatory and Shevchenko when he transferred to his little three-legged stool behind the Chelsea bench. I've enjoyed watching Arshavin as much as everyone else during the two games he's played at Euro 2008, but I [...]

Weirdest exchange between Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth during the last two quarterfinal games (tie):
1. On Hamit Altintop
Smyth: 'Hamit' means 'golden ball,' you know.
Rae: 'Altintop' does.
Smyth: Right.
Rae: 'Ball that is golden.'
Smyth: One or the other.
Rae: I'm surprised you don't remember our Turkish lessons during those very pleasant days we spent in Istanbul a few years [...]

First: Zach recently asked why Americans focus so much on diving in soccer, when American sports have their own problems with cheating. This is something I've wondered about, too, and after giving it some thought, my latest guess is that it's not the diving Americans mind so much as the writhing on the ground feigning [...]

A thrilling group stage has gone the way of the snows of yesteryear and the car keys of late last night, but before we move on to the quarterfinals let's take a moment to name the best goal from the third round of games. Well, I'll take a moment to name one. You take a [...]