Friday, June 27, 2008, 3.46am

I have a sore throat today. My first sore throat of this year, methinks. Quite a progress. I used to have it more often. Thanks God. This time maybe because I eat too many krupuk after I got home.

My jetlag has not yet gone, or I don’t know if it is jetlag or not. My body was very tired and very sick [my sore throat usually leads to fever], but I just cannot sleep. I haven’t had a nice long good sleep since my arrival at Jakarta. Yesterday I pushed myself to watch Germany-Turkey till the end. The match was very annoying, not because the result was disappointing, but suddenly the TV screen turned blue. Thrice. And then the commentators came out and talk. Firstly I was ok, because well, you cannot expect a broadcast to be perfect all the time. But that problem made me lose the moment of 2 goals! Aaarrgh!! Suddenly when the match resumed, the score was already 2-2. I even cannot watched the final whistle moment .

Then I woke up at 9am because of Steffanie’s call. I went out with my friends till about 4pm, then I went to Pasar Baru till my mum’s done with her work. That was the time when this sore throat got worse and worse. And here comes the fever.

But I still cannot sleep. I read two books (and four Tintin comics) and still didn’t work. I was awake until at least 11.30pm then woke up from my sleep at 2.50am. I felt a little better, and I was just really curious how the semifinal went. It was Russia versus Spain. I was sure that Spain could beat Russia, even that everybody in EURO’s official site said that Russia will win the cup. But Spain is my 2nd team in this tournament. Even though I was quite sure, I couldn’t help but feel afraid.

I always love Spain’s national team. Iker Casillas is my number one goalkeeper of all time [maybe because we share our birth date...hahaha]. But all I remember about Spain’s style was: ‘Just attack. No need teamwork. And be careful of the offside trap’. I always know they were good players, but I never thought that they can play this nice as a team. They were good when playing against Italy, but they cannot show their true form because of Italy’s famous catenaccio. I thought they won just because of luck [well of course penalty shoot out is always based on luck], but they deserve to win. Everybody could see that Spain was the one which always attack and play good football.

This dawn’s match really changed my mind. I’ve never seen such a nice teamwork from Spain’s team, at least from minute 51 [I turned on the TV right when Xavi scored the first goal for Spain]. They played offensively, but their defenders also done an amazing job. Russia only made 1 shot on goal. Spain made over 18 shots with 11 shots on goal. The final score was Russia 0-3 Spain. Yay!

Six years ago Iker made a series of tremendous saves while playing against Ireland in World Cup 2002. He was the hero. The title of Real Madrid’s and Spain’s first goalkeeper quickly awarded to him. But the years after that, both Real and Spain have done nothing but disappointing their fans, especially in Champions League. He made blunders [few of them were really stupid]. I saw him playing only twice this year in this Euro [no time to watch La Liga, also EPL is always better for me], and for me, he’s really good. Maybe these years ahead are his golden ages as a keeper (he’s 27 now). He still has a long career ahead (usually keepers ended their career in late 30s), and I hope he could lead both Real and Spain to their golden form again.

So the final will be between Germany and Spain. Two very different styles. If Spain can keep up with their level now, I think it’s not impossible for them to bring home the cup after 44 years (cmiiw). Or is it the time for the Germans?

PS: I really cannot decide which team I support in the final! May the best team wins…

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