Surviving the first night of Euro2004

Had an absolutely tiring day yesterday, with work and all, and then my normal dose of futsal in the afternoon to ensure that by the time the Portugal and Greece game kicked off, i was barely able to stay awake at the mamak stalls. Actually, it was a pretty sad game for the Portuguese team, and it is hard to admit, but from the game, it would seem like Rui Costa looks a bit past it, since they had a much better game in the second half once Deco came in and took over the "playmaker" role from him. From the first half, it was all Portugal with possession and Greece defending for ther lives, but sad to say, the Portuguese team looked as if they didnt have any ideas on how to unlock the Greece defence.

I was feeling really tired so i decided to head home during halftime, and by the time i reached home, the game had already started. It looked pretty promising with the changes that they made at half time, with Deco and Ronaldo coming in, with the latter strutting out his step overs and all. However, once i settled down in my seat, what does the Portuguese boy wonder do? With a sudden rush of blood, he accidentally trips a Greece player in his own box and conceeds a penalty. Penalty taken, (which was a pretty good one, i must say. How come these "smaller" teams never have a problem with penalty takers?!), game over of Portugal, i couldn't bare to watch any more, so i decided to get some shut eye before the Spain match. I read that in stoppage time, the Portuguese team actually did manage to score, courtesy of a Cristiano Ronaldo "header".

Actually I woke up at 200pm, and flicked on the TV only to find a local football programme being shown. I thought to myself, OK, this could be interesting, so decided to check it out. Five minutes into the show, once i saw Haliza Misbun (it was her right? I think ) attempting to show that she can indeed act like a brainless monkey, i thought to myself, "this is absolutely frigging SAD". Turn off the TV, alarm clock set to 245am (when the game ACTUALLY started).

The Spain Russia match (well, the bits of it that i managed to watch, considering I was continously falling asleep and waking up) was a much much better affair. It seemed like an end to end sort of game and the tempo was pretty fast. I though Vincente and Exteberria, both playing on the Spanish wings, had a pretty decent game for Spain. Both Morientes and Raul had a bright first 10 minutes or so, before both of them just faded away. At the end fo the first half, still 0-0, i decided to myself that i needed my sleep and switched off the telly. I read that on 60 minutes or so, the Spanish team made changes and brought in Valeron, who scored the winning goal with his first touch of the game.

Anyway, thats the first night of many in the coming month which i think i'll be staying up to watch games on telly. I have absolutely no idea how i am gonna be able to wake up tomorrow morning to watch the England France match and manage to turn up at work in a non-comatised state. One thing though, did anybody notice that Shebby Singh was just struggling to express his opinions in Malay during the show?