Russian Football Surges Forward

As I predicted earlier, I was allowed to live through wearing my Sweden jersey for that game due to Russia's victory in the encounter.  The win took the Ruskies into a match up with the team unquestionably in top form this tournament; The Netherlands.  Unlike an aged Swedish team, Holland is absolutely packed with stars in their prime and with only their reputation for internal conflict standing in their way, had cruised through the group stage.  A three game run with a combined score of 9-1 saw them beating both of the last World Cup's finalists and then dismantling a dark horse Romanian team with basically a second team squad.  The so-called "group of death" was only that in the battle for second place.

So Russia's impressive victory against Sweden still left them immense underdogs against the Dutch but Hopes at the Center were high.  When, after 90 minutes the score was still tied at 1 each, the guys were almost overjoyed; having avoided becoming the Netherlands next embarrassed victim.  The first extra time ended with no change and with Sarah nodding off we decided to pick up the second extra time on the miniscule TV in the security building.

So, there we were, 7 or 8 of us at almost midnight crowded in a tiny room watching a 12" TV that continuously fuzzed as Russia sent wave upon wave of attacks against the stunned Dutch defense.  We lost our minds when Russia scored once... then twice to ice the game.  The goals were beautiful, made even more so by the level of anticipation, the late night and the overall skill shown by man-of-the-match Andrey Arshavin.  

He was like a pale, elfin version of Maradona (but faster) as he seemed to freeze the hapless defenders time and time again before finally sending in a cleverly chipped cross for the winning goal.  He then capped it off with a solo shot from the right which squirted between the legs of vaunted Dutch keeper Edwin Van Der Sar.  The thrilling finish kept most of us up for another few hours; a decision which we paid for the next morning at early morning exercises.

The next day all of us that watched the game couldn't walk past each other without hugs, shakes of the head and mutterings of "amazing."