Five Things We Learned in Swissaustria Today, June 7th

June 7th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

1. Swiss goalframes are thicker than normal
How many players hit the woodwork today? Johan Vonlanthen must have thought he’d equalized for Switzerland but found the frame instead, Cristiano Ronaldo bounced a great free kick off the base of the far post and Nuno Gomes headed against the crossbar. Those things can’t be regulation.

2. Jan Koller is auditioning for White Men Can’t Jump II
He’s 6′7″ and renowned for his aerial dominance. But Swiss defenders Patrick Mueller and Philippe Senderos beat him to pretty much everything today. I’d still back Koller against Wesley Snipes though.

3. You can take the Brazilian out of Brazil…
…but you can’t take Brazil out of the Brazilian. Here’s Pepe’s goal today.

Not bad for a big central defender, eh? If only I’d had the foresight to put him in my Euro 2008 Draft Team and win a day off work courtesy of my co-bloggers. Oh wait, I did!

/smugness

4. Roberto Rosetti should do the rest of his reffing in Austria
The Italian ref won’t be a popular man in Switzerland today. He turned down two penalty appeals for Tomas Ujfalusi handballs.

5. It’s still 1992.
Czech Republic were referred to as “Czechoslovakia” on both the BBC and ESPN today. Good news for Slovakia though, as they weren’t expecting to be involved.

Any more to add to that?

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Comments

By Chris | June 7th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

If everyone’s going to call them Czechoslovakia, they should have at least allowed Marek Hamsik to replace Tomas Rosicky. Hamsik would’ve bossed that midfield.

By Sooz | June 7th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

6. They don’t make balls the way they used to.
Referring to the Europass gloria, of course. Poor Cisse. He did a promo for this one and everything. When asked what he wants to see in a ball, I am pretty sure he said he would like to see it go all the way to France, but my French is so bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNnSS3Ar5to

Posted from Canada

By colman1860 | June 7th, 2008 at 9:03 pm

1. Nuno Gomes actually hit the goal frame twice, once on his header, and once following the advantage played by fandel after simao was taken down on the edge of the box.

2. Jan Koller may be tall, but he was NEVER renowned for his aerial dominance. In fact, he is known to be weak in the air, and has said so himself several times back in his Dortmund days.

4. Only one of those was a handball, the other was shot at him and his arm was by his side.

Posted from Canada

By Daryl | June 8th, 2008 at 3:32 am

colman1860,

that’s not so much “things we learned” as “things Daryl got wrong”. Thanks anyway though!

Posted from United Kingdom