I just thought I’d give you all an update on how things are going – time is flying fast, and before we know it will all be kicking off in Poland and the Ukraine. Though with the case of the latter I hope kicking off remains on the pitch, and not on the streets where it would appear that large numbers of people have been seriously put out by a fetid mix of incompetence and corruption.
The truth is that if Germany had been playing in Poland, I would have been over there in a shot. With the Ukraine though it’s a slightly different matter – one where you might end up having to pay a couple of thousand Hryvna just to sleep on a park bench. Nein Danke.
OK, some site news. As you will see quite a few more match reports have been added, but with real work sticking its long nose into things it can be a real task to keep going. It takes a good three to four hours – if not more – to write, proof-read, edit, proof-read (again) and publish each piece, and sometimes it can take three to four evenings just to do one. It doesn’t help that I don’t want to cut corners, but hey.
Rather than work my way through the full reviews and leave some games blank save for the result and team lineups, I have decided to write the pre-match blurbs first – so if you stumble across a report that has the pre-match buildup followed by a [match report] comment, don’t worry too much. I have now done all of this for the Euros from 1980, and am in the process of putting together the blurbs for the remaining World Cup matches from 1994 onwards. With luck I’ll have at least this done in a couple of weeks before recharging the batteries and cracking on with the full match reviews.
Of course, I would never have been able to do these writeups without those who have provided me with the excellent archived source material – Richard B. and more recently Wolfgang S., a fellow enthusiast out in Germany who was kind enough to provide me with material going back to 1972. As you all know from my previous posts I am concentrating on matches played from Euro 1980 onwards, but when this is done I will be working my way back to Euro 1972. After that, who knows… I may have a complete history out in time for Brazil 2014 or, failing that, France 2016.
I couldn’t end this post without gloating about the excellent performance last night by FC Bayern, who have made it to their second Champions League final in three years. Following a dramatic Elfmeterkrimi against Real Madrid CF, the Münch’ner now get the chance to win a fifth European crown at their home ground against Chelsea, who themselves pulled off a dramatic win against Barcelona.
As I write this I am working on being there – if I don’t get tickets to the game (unlikely, but one can hope!) I will probably be in the Marienplatz wearing my 2001 shirt with “Zickler – 21” on the back. So if you are going to be there and want to buy me a Weizen or two, drop me a line!