Dutch Aren't Russian Into Anything.

Greetings, gentle readers.
Since last we met, the European Championships of 2008 have taken another couple of weird turns for the more interesting. The heavily-favoured, and hitherto undefeated Dutch team were soundly thumped in the Quarter-Finals by none other than... the Russians? In the most heroic display since Lev Yashin last pulled on the black jersey for the USSR, Akinfeev, Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko and company have astonished the footballing world by playing the famous "total football" style back at the historically-acclaimed creators of the system—and beating them at their own game. In English terms, the previously Matt LeTissier-esque Pavlyuchenko has suddenly turned into a lean Shearer-like machine, and the indecisive Arshavin of two years ago has been replaced with one with aspirations to be another Steven Gerrard. Suddenly, the Russians could play counter-attack and offensively press flank play as well as any Dutch squad since Van Basten was a player.
Oh, and the Italians lost in a penalty shootout. Does that mean that Gianluigi Buffon (the world's highest-paid goalkeeper) is rubbish? No. I hate to reiterate a sports cliché, but the Spaniards wanted it more. Even if all of their Liverpool players were off the pitch at the time.
But moving on to the Reach for the Top National competition of last month, it was a whirlwind of emotion at the seeding tournament. There were twelve teams from across Canada participating:
Auburn Drive High School from Nova Scotia
Burnaby North High School from British Columbia
Carberry Collegiate High from Manitoba
Harry Ainlay High School from Alberta
Kennebecasis Valley High from New Brunswick
Lisgar Collegiate High from Ontario
Oromocto High from New Brunswick
Royal West High from Montréal, Quebec
Saint Paul's High from Manitoba
Sir Winston Churchill High from British Columbia
University of Toronto School from Ontario
West Island College High School from Alberta
Several of these teams had participated in the 2007 edition of the Reach for the Top nationals, and not without some success. What the seeding tournament revealed was that there were bound to be some surprises from the previous year.
John Clarke, returning from the previous year, led his Vancouver team from Sir Winston Churchill in a stronger and more confident fashion than ever before, and his team mates grew in stature when in his presence. The New Brunswick contingents seemed calmer and more assured, despite the loss of some key players from the previous year. Christina Entz was the most vocal, if not the most charismatic of the returning challengers. No Peter Burton to stop either of them this year...
The tension builds as we wait for the next instalment of this gripping tale...
(possibly before the Germany-Turkey semifinal on Wednesday...)
Cheers,

-mARKUS