Guus is goed, nee?

Ouch. Surprising, but somehow, not something unexpected. The Dutch – 9 goals in the group stages, so fluent that spectators the world over found themselves drenched in drool at the end of their three games – fall just as flatly, if not spectacularly when it matters most. I don’t know which is more unfortunate, that it happened, or that it came as no big surprise.

Whatever the case, Guus Hiddink has come up trumps as top Dutch in EURO 2008, and I can’t see him not being one of the top, if not the top coach in European football right now. What he did with South Korea in 2002, and now with the Russians – must be attracting the attention of one Thai owner of a piddling middle-level team in England.

Final point on that game: the Arsewiper DID say that in extra-time, the odds would be with the Russkies. heh heh. Got another one right.

That Roman Pavlyuchenko reminds me of someone. Someone just as tall and gangly, gets more chances than anybody else in the team, guilty of missing many many chances, is the source of much frustration, but eventually does score a few from the million chances he gets. Well, that someone seems on his way out of Arse, so if we get a good profit, hurray. (Though I must add that to Pavlyuchenko’s credit, he doesn’t look like he’s gonna trip over his legs every time he’s on the ball).

But if there’s one Russian who does seem worthy, it’s of course Andrei Arshavin. If it weren’t for his fixed £10 million buy-out from Zenit, his value must be in the high 20’s by now. Let’s see who he signs for. We haven’t had much luck with these Russian (or ex-Soviet) types – remember Oleg Luzhny? And that fellow Alexander Hleb? Maybe having gone through a Ukrainian and Belarussian, a Russian would do a better job.

So with three of four quarters out of the way, we have Germany, Turkey and now Russia. Yes, the Italians are the underdogs – if that can be said – in tonight’s game. But what must be going through Spanish minds right now? Haha. Poor dudes must be wondering if all these so-called “favourites” have been cursed to knock-out disappointment. It’s funny. The Russians get whipped by Spain, and are now seen as favourites. The Dutch have one mediocre game in the midst of three super ones, and are sent packing. All said, it could just be that Italy’s experience will see them through. Fingers are crossed for Spain though.

No Arse news more than the usual farts. With more teams out of the way, and players open to talking new contracts, that may just change soon.