Hail to the Tzars!

Sunday, June 22, 2008 . 3:02 PM

Ok, tt kinda sound lame. BUT! I'm just ecstatic that Russia won Holland! Everyone predicted that the leading Dutch team will defeat them. To be honest, I was also one of those who said that Holland will win. Why? Just look at their past performance at the group stages. They won all matches in the "Group of Death"- beating France (4-1), Italy (3-0), Romania (2-0). On the other hand, Russia was defeated by Spain in their first match (1-4). Subsequently, they woke up and won the rest. Nevertheless, I was still hoping that Russians could do a miracle win and thus giving a wake up call to the Dutch- what goes up must surely come down. (Ok, I admit. I'm a fan of upset wins.)

Anyway, it was definitely worth the wait and sacrifice to watch this morning's match (245am - 530am). In fact, it was so much nerve-wrecking than Portugal vs Germany's match. Guus Hiddink lived up to his nickname- Lucky Guus.

Russia's the youngest team with names like we've nv heard of. Andrei Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko, Zhirkov, Torbinsky, and so on. But trust me, soon they'll be playing in the EPL. It just reminds me of South Korea. =) When they won Italy. I mean, who would expect them to eliminate them?

I was quite disappointed with Holland's performance. I thought I could finally get to watch them do their thing, like those spectacular goals they scored at the grp stages. In fact, the only goal which Russia conceded was by Van Nistelroy (spelling). Anyway, Russia scored first around the start of 2nd half. When everyone thought tt Russia was going to win, Holland scored at the end of 2nd half. Leading to the extended time- 2 rounds of 15 mins each (I'm still new to this kind of thing). At the last few minutes of the last round, Russia scored another goal. I thought that 2-1 would be the final score, but Arshavin just wanted a goal to his name. Final score: 3-1. Sweet.

On footnote, tml's my first offical day of sch. I'm spending my last day of hol doing the assignment. Sianz. Won't be catching the semi and finals. Nvm, Russia shall be my source of inspiration and motivation.