Looking forward to more Portugal

Today the group of death in EURO 2012 killed two: Denmark and Netherlands are going home. Germany and Portugal are off to the quarter-finals.

The Danish go home having shown a good fight. The Dutch not so much.

Portugal v. Netherlands was an exciting match. The Oranje started strong, scoring the first goal with Van der Vaart 10 minutes in, but could not keep up with the Portuguese speed (or their own?!) and an inspired Cristiano Ronaldo (who put in the other two for a final score of 2-1 to the Portuguese).

I mention this again because I don’t seem to grasp it: it is quite odd to see a Nederlander squad full of huge stars perform so badly and irrationally at times. It makes absolutely no sense. Either they got caught up on the quick Portuguese dynamics or they are simply getting too old for this. Or too nervous?

Huge kuddos to Portugal. They were smart, fast, skilled… I have not seen a counter-attack this fast in a long time. The Dutch men did create some solid chances but did not get close to the volume of game presented by the Gajos.

Well done. Looking forward.