germany 0 spain 1

and that concludes the 23 day 31 matches 2008 european championships. i had mixed feelings when i switched off the tv after watching casillas lift the trophy... because i know i'll never be able to enjoy these consecutive late night matches for another 2 years. because after today the sports channel subscription will end and and life'll be back to normal and i'll be back to slaving in front of textbooks for the o levels.

well i should look at this in a positive light.

the past 3 weeks had been a cracker. i had never felt so excited when i heard my alarm clocks beep in the middle of the night. yes alarm clocks, 3 of them plus my handphone. me jumping up from bed and dashing outside to tune in to channel 30 for 2 hours of unrivalled bliss. munching biscuits in front of the tv, i could think of nothing but the match and the newspaper reports the next morning and which pictures and articles i would choose for my euro 2008 project.

sitting on my own in the living room in darkness and watching the players slug it out on the pitch, subconsciously i feel myself joining them in their fun and when the camera was trained on a bunch of fans, i took particular amusement in watching them suddenly go crazy when they saw themselves on the big screen. i saw them with their colourful afro wigs waving flags big and small, and i think that one day i'll be one of them.

there were exciting matches, like germany-croatia, netherlands-italy and spain-russia. i didn't watch any group a matches because none of the teams interested me. of course there was the dull time waster in the shape of france-romania, and until now i cannot believe how a football powerhouse can concede 6 goals (worst in the group stages) and score a measly 1. even czech republic, who let in 6 goals, managed to score 4.

i swore silently when kuyt scored against france, and stood in disbelief as van persie made it 3-1 a minute after henry's goal. i shook my hands in fury as france scuffed chance after chance. i raised my hands above my head, an amused look on my face as i watched mario gomez made the miss of the tournament, rivalled only by some dude from croatia against turkey. come to think of it, i rarely made any wild celebrations during the course of this tournament, simply because there wasn't much to celebrate about france. and though i was a mini germany, spain and holland fan during the quarter finals, when they won i did not feel the same euphoria that i felt when france scored (albeit only for one time).

i marvelled at turkey's comeback against croatia and cursed russia when they knocked holland out, because i thought italy would win spain and holland would finish italy off. but that was not to be, and to thank spain for beating italy, i embarked on a project called '1 month spanish', and from 23.6.2008 to 23.7.2008 i'd be learning spanish on my own.

i went absolutely crazy and almost punched the tv screen when the germany-turkey match hanged halfway. my nostrils flared when i watched lahm score the winning goal, wondering how the scoreline got to 2-2 in the 88th minute. but the next match, spain-russia, proved to be a cracker. as i said earlier, i could understand a spanish word on a banner, and not only that my eyes were treated to a brilliant game of football by the spanish, rivalled only by the best team in the world, arsenal.

and after 30 matches and 76 goals and 22 days, the final finally arrived. my eyes were glued to the tv screen, savouring every minute of it, not wanting the match to end. but it did in the end and i was satisfied how the tournament was wrapped up.

we've come to the end of the euros, a fantastic tournament with ups and downs and goals and howlers with the occasional controversy and red card thrown into the mix. i've enjoyed myself tremendously and it is with eager anticipation that i await the next big thing - the 2010 world cup. of course, there is the 2008/09 epl season to look forward to, too :)