Storyline: Teams that normally wouldn’t have qualified in the past, made the tournament. Lesser teams played a highly defensive, technical game, resulting in a lot of draws. Written by Lucy, Minnesota.
As I sat in the grass on the outdoor patio at Brit’s in downtown Minneapolis, seconds after the final whistle, I looked around me at the fans in my vicinity. There were two or three groups of people clapping and cheering, but the majority were silent as they got up to leave the pub after Portugal’s championship win at the UEFA Euro tournament.
Courtesy: twincitiesrestaurantblog.com
There were many disappointed people grumbling under their breath as they shuffled out the doors. It was a reaction I believe to be completely justified by the performance of both teams in the championship game.
Scoreless by the end of regulation — with the most exciting moment perhaps being when Ronaldo had to leave the match due to a knee injury — this Final was a perfect representation of the tournament as a whole. Overall it was rather dull and underwhelming. The Finals marked the fifth contest of the Knockout Round that had to be decided after the end of regulation. Portugal played in three of those games.
Although the tournament did have some exciting moments, like when Iceland knocked out England in the Round of 16, it didn’t seem to have the same thrill or flair as past Euro tournaments.
So what was it that made this tournament not quite as special? Let’s look at how the tournament differed from past years. This year, UEFA changed the number of teams allowed to qualify from 16 to 24 and added a Round of 16. The top two teams in each of the six groups advanced, along with the top four third place teams.
While in theory this may sound like a good idea–with more games and more national teams able to qualify–it actually negatively affected the play of the football game. Teams that normally wouldn’t have qualified in the past were not at the same level as most of the top 10 teams. That meant (in order to stay in the tournament) they had to play a highly defensive, technical game resulting in a lot of draws.
Courtesy: eurolivestream2016.com
Case is point is the eventual champion. Portugal remained in the tournament by playing a highly defensive game and drawing games while still moving on to the Knockout Rounds. The intensity of play decreased when teams didn’t have to win games in order to continue in the tournament. For many people that made this tournament much less fun to watch.
In the group stage, Portugal didn’t win a single game, but the team still moved on to the Knockout Rounds. Portugal only won one game in regulation time.
How is that possible? How can a team that only won one regulation game be the Euro 2016 champion? The answer to that question is the reason the Euro lost some of its appeal this time around.
