Another Euro 2008 open thread but one in which we feel compelled to note how tonight’s match was an insight to the central role of television in the experience — as evidenced by how flat things went (at least where I was watching) when the global TV feed apparently collapsed for significant portions of the second half, including the 2-1 and 2-2 goals. At least it was back in time for Lahm’s emphatic finish on the winner.
Author Archives: P O Neill
Hard to hide from trouble
It wasn’t clear over the weekend how the Zimbabwe crisis could manage to get more complicated but now we know: Morgan Tsvangirai has taken refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare. It seems that he was left with little choice since, far from seeing his withdrawal from Friday’s “election” as a concession, the state security apparatus was taking the opportunity to crush the MDC. A few things now seem clearer. First, the EU is now drawn into the crisis more than before. The US and UK are probably relieved that it wasn’t their embassies. Second, the regional approach to crisis resolution has failed i.e. leaving it to the Southern African Development Community. And it has failed because of Thabo Mbeki [Incidentally, I once heard a South African political comedian observe that you can’t spell Thabo without Botha].  Any notion that Mugabe had enough reasonableness left in him to ease towards a compromise is gone — his plan was to unleash all the thugs this week, no matter what.   Anyway, one hopes that the EU can look up long enough from the Irish dossier to see a crisis looming.
Euro 2008 open thread
With the obvious topic being that breathless incredible match in Geneva. Now while the superlatives like “best match ever” should be held in reserve (particularly given the extent to which the goals turned on simple mistakes — and possibly the Geneva rain), the Turks did a great job, especially in staying positive after conceding the second goal. Tacticians will argue that the Czechs gave them far too much space down the right wing and left the opening. Anyway, sorting out who plays goalie in the quarterfinal against Croatia will seem like a minor problem tonight.
Pass the parcel
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband provided indication today of the emerging EU strategy for dealing with the Irish No to Lisbon: it’s being left up to the Irish government to sort it out, but with a reminder of the high stakes should they choose to accept the referendum result. Or, as Miliband colourfully put it —
If you like he’s [Irish PM Brian Cowen] got to decide whether or not to apply the last rites. We’ve got to listen to his analysis of what went wrong
Yet Miliband also insisted that UK parliamentary ratification would go ahead next week, which will be hard to defend from Tory attacks that it reflects a presumption that the Irish will be talked out of their rejection, since otherwise ratification is pointless.  One wheeze floated in yesterday’s Telegraph (see also) is that Ireland would be left on the sidelines as the other 26 agreed to implement Lisbon on their own, with the Irish catch-up taking place by attaching the Lisbon provisions to an Irish parliamentary ratification of Croatia’s EU accession, whenever that happens.  But the fact that such schemes are out there is just one indication that the ministers don’t yet really have a well-laid out plan for how to proceed.
EU 2009 open thread
In which we discuss the European Union Treaty of Lisbon, due to come into force in 2009. Irish state broadcaster RTE is sticking to its earlier prediction (based on the Irish specialty of “tallymen” who watch the ballots as they are being sorted) that the Treaty has been rejected. See RTE news updates and Irish Election for blog commentary. Plenty of space on Doug’s post too.
Euro 2008 open thread
One thought: Probably the first true upset of the tournament with Croatia’s win. Germany looked strangely like England against them. It means that Austria’s final match will matter a lot despite its likely irrelevance to Austria’s prospects.
Euro 2008 open thread
One thought from the first match: qualification form seems to matter. Russia scraped into the tournament. They had some nice touches but the gulf in quality showed. Would England have been picked apart the same way?
Second Fiddle
Lest we be accused of running an all-football blog in June, let’s pause to briefly take note of the fact that George Bush is on the continent at the moment, beginning in Ljubljana (and a little unsteady on his feet?) for the EU-US annual summit before going to Rome, Berlin, Paris, London, and Belfast. One interesting aspect this time is how few people seem to care — for the most part, Europe seems content to wait him out and see what Obama or McCain can offer in January. Adding to the sense of fin de siecle is that, all going well, this will be the last EU-US summit in its current format i.e. with the EU counterpart whoever holds the 6 month rotating presidency at that time. Because of course, if the Irish people listen to Bernard Kouchner, they will vote Yes on the Lisbon Treaty and the permanent EU presidency could be up and running in time for the summit with President Obama/McCain in Washington this time next year.
All according to plan
That has to be the theme from Les Bleus following yet another slow start to the group stages of a tournament — such a start a couple of years ago not precluding an eventual run to the final. Since there will be more attention on Raymond Domenech’s starting selections: Anelka? The man who somehow dodged the opprobrium after Chelsea’s penalty kicks loss in the Champions League final, with John Terry taking the fire.  Surely a prime candidate for a reshuffle before the next match.
Thank God for anthems
There I was thinking that the Euro 2008 opening ceremony was the usual bizarre interpretative dance performance to which UEFA seems addicted — not even good on TV, for which the visuals seem designed — when a singer (must figure out her name) and the Basel crowd did a great job on the Swiss national anthem, the Schweizerpsalm.  Let’s play football!