Rode Duivels

[hnpcc]

I have to admit I did get very excited by the progress of the Belgian men's football/soccer team, particularly after the game with Italy.

1 man down! And they still kicked arse! Against play-acting Italians! (No, I'm not still bitter about the World Cup).

So I was kinda, sorta, maybe hopeful that they could squeeze a medal out of it.

And then they played Nigeria.

Why? Why? Why?

How did they go from such a good game, controlling the play, moving well, defending well, to what was a complete mess? Argh!!

It was so bad I couldn't watch all of it, I had to keep flicking across to the other channel in the hope that when I flicked back things wouldn't have gotten worse. But they did. Repeatedly.

The only saving grace was the late goal which at least salvaged some respect[1].

And then they met Brazil in the bronze medal playoff.

Oh Duivels. So near... and yet not.

On the good side, hopefully this means that their chances in the next Euro and World Cups are slightly better, giving me someone to barrack for when Australia get knocked out by Brazil in the round robin stages (or whatever the hell they're called.)

(I was even more surprised when I saw the Belgian 4x400m men's team coming in second, right up to the last change. Whereupon they got passed. Still, better than the Australian team, which spent most of the race coming last and just managed to pass Poland and Jamaica in the final leg. Who knew that Belgium had such a good track and field team? Mind you, who in Australia had ever heard of any of our track and field winners before the event either?

[1]we ended up with the same score line last night at soccer. Those late goals are very face-saving.

Comments

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

Had you forgotten about that endearing quality of Belgian football then? Still, it's a huge accomplishment, seeing as we usually can't even qualify for the European championships unless we're the ones organising them! There might be some hope with this new generation.

And the running, yay! :-) The commentator had already said five times that the last runner was the weakest, but the poor kid was only 19 and it was his first big event. He was the reserve, the other guy was "still tired from his 200m event".

Go Tia Hellebaut for the high jump though. Wooohoo! And the ladies from the 4*100m. Without them, there would probably be riots in Belgium right now.

[hnpcc]

My main memory of Rode Duivels is the 1990 Mondiale. Where they weren't bad, actually... until they hit England (from memory).

Since then... not so good.

And yeah, go the eventual medal tally! Especially the 4x100m, which was just embarrassing watching the number of stuffups happening.

Still, Australia is never going to knock winning by everyone else stuffing up - that's how our first winter Olympics gold came about. :-)

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

Stuffing up? Excuse me! I'd like to point out here that the Belgian girls are faster than the English girls, Kim Gevaert can beat Kwakye or whatever she's called as long as she doesn't stuff up her start (as she did in the 100m semis). So even if both teams hadn't messed up, we'd have still had a shot at the bronze (assuming Jamaica would've won, which is very likely)
And passing the baton is an essential component of the relay, if you can't manage that, the whole discipline is ruined. A-ha!

[hnpcc]

I've no doubt the Belgian girls would have gotten in the medals, it's just nice to go up a colour. And always good when the opposition decide to take themselves out for you!

And passing the baton is an essential component of the relay, if you can't manage that, the whole discipline is ruined. A-ha!

Which is why it was embarrassing to watch. I mean, really that should not be happening to that degree at that level!

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

*puts Belgian flag away again* :-)