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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jun 25, 2012 8:35 AM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jun 25, 2012 8:35 AM UTC ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: Some Things Are Worse than Racism  Danish forward Nicklas Bendtner celebrates after scoring during the Euro 2012 soccer match between Denmark and Portugal on June 13, 2012
Ambush marketing, for one — at least according to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Racial abuse directed by Croatian fans at black Italian striker Mario Balotelli during the group stages earned the Croatian Football Association a fine of $100,000 from the European football federation, which had vowed to act harshly to stamp out racism. But a day earlier, Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner had been slapped with an even larger fine — $125,000 — as well as a one-match ban. His crime? Flashing the name of a leading Irish sports-betting firm on the waistband of his underpants. Guerrilla marketing is a big no-no for the UEFA and its parent organization FIFA, which aggressively polices the ad space in and around stadiums to protect the investments of sponsors. But the fact that it drew a harsher punishment than racist abuse had many questioning the UEFA's priorities. Oh, and don't worry about Bendtner — the bookies graciously agreed to pay his fine. tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: Ronaldo Is as Brilliant as He Is Haunted by Leo Messi  Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during the Euro 2012 quarterfinal soccer match between Portugal and the Czech Republic at National Stadium in Warsaw on June 21, 2012
It was a crowning moment of individual brilliance, adding more grist to the musings of TIME's Bobby Ghosh on whether Cristiano Ronaldo could single-handedly drive his team to victory at Euro 2012. Peeling away from his marker, Ronaldo hurled himself at a low cross from the right, thumping his header down into the turf and bouncing the ball into the roof of the net for a goal that any center forward would be proud of. It was a brilliant reminder that there's so much more to CR7's game than terrorizing defenders with his speed and control down the flanks or blasting home free kicks from great distances. After he had spent the best part of an hour locked in frustration because of the poor passing and anticipation of his teammates, the woodwork for denying him what seemed a certain goal, and referee Howard Webb for turning down many of his appeals, it ought to have been a moment to savor. Ronaldo had booked Portugal's passage to the semifinal. But Ronaldo's mind was far, far away. To celebrate his goal, he barged over to the cameras and by by some accounts called out "Messi!" before blowing a sarcastic kiss. (Others insist Ronaldo was simply dedicating the goal to his young son.)



(MORE: Interview: Lionel Messi on His Sport, Cristiano Ronaldo — and Argentina)



Still, the impish Argentine Lionel Messi is regarded as the world's best player, and the fact that he plays for Barcelona, archrivals of Ronaldo's Real Madrid, draws inevitable comparisons — comparisons that drive Ronaldo mad. The problem, of course, is that rival fans are onto his Messi obsession: every time he shot and missed against Denmark, the Danish fans chanted, "Messi! Messi!" And the more he lashes out in frustration, the more of that kind of stick he's going to get. Sadder still is the fact that while Ronaldo is blowing kisses on TV, those who know Messi say it's highly unlikely he was even watching. Messi rarely watches games in which he's not involved, and Ronaldo is an issue for him only when he can see him across the pitch in the opposition's jersey. That's one bit of Messi's game that Ronaldo ought to adopt.

tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: Spain's Silence Is Infectious  Spain's Fernando Torres, Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso, from left, listen to the Spanish national anthem prior to a friendly soccer match between Spain and South Korea at the Stade de Suisse stadium in Bern, Switzerland, on May 30, 2012
For some unfathomable reason, the TV producers responsible for the Euro 2012 live feed not only chose to reprise the traditional, if stupid, practice of sticking a camera in the face of each player during the singing of his team's national anthem; they even added a directional mic. So we now know, for example, that Gigi Buffon has a great singing voice. But we were also given the disconcerting image of many players not bothering to sing at all; France's Franck Ribéry even winked at the camera before electing not to sing ahead of the England game.



Many players remain silent because they're immigrants who don't necessarily buy into their country's national narrative (often because they came from countries that were its victims). Others simply can't be bothered to engage in such passé displays of patriotic kitsch. Either way, the image of some players singing their hearts out amid others adopting a "get on with it already" silence can be a little, uh, discordant.



Spain, however, is always a picture of national harmony, even if its starting lineup includes five Catalans, a Basque and an Andalusian — all regions that have long resisted bending the knee to Madrid. But whether they're Basque, Catalan or Madrileño doesn't matter — none of them sing. That's because Spain's national anthem has no lyrics. Could the instrumental national anthem be another lesson the Spanish have to teach the footballing world? tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: Strikers Are Finished? No; Formations Are Fluid  Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores past France's Philippe Mexes during the Euro 2012 Group D soccer match between Sweden and France in Kiev, Ukraine, on Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Football hacks eagerly searching for a strategic leitmotif at Euro 2012 thought they'd found it when Spain took the field for its group opener against Italy without a single forward. "Death of the Striker?" headlines screamed in response to the idea that the reigning world and European champions could try to win a game with four defenders and six midfielders, keeping their passes short and their movements fluid. And yes, in fact, they could (though they had to come from behind to tie the Italians). They did the same against France but won by the comfortable margin of 2-0\. (The same hacks, of course, were hoping the strategy would flounder in the way that Barcelona's tactics had when faced with Chelsea's 10-men-behind-the-ball defense.)



But coach Vicente del Bosque was happy to throw strikers on when he thought the situation demanded them, as in the game against Ireland and in the last half-hour against France, when the prospect of Pedro and Torres running into space behind them kept the French defense from pushing forward. Tactics are fluid, after all, and today's strikers are expected to do (literally) miles more defensive running and tracking of opponents than their predecessors. Wayne Rooney, for instance, runs more for Manchester United and England than did the classic box-to-box midfielder of English football folklore.



(MORE: Eight Players to Watch at Euro 2012)



Against Sweden, of course, England clung to the vision of the traditional English No. 9, a lumbering center forward who does most of his work in the air, his back to the goal, when the team fielded Andy Carroll. If Carroll's breakthrough goal demonstrated the virtues of that approach, the fact that England so often gave the ball away while hopefully hoisting it toward him was a reminder of its flaws. In the same game, England's Danny Welbeck reminded us that there's a new breed of striker emerging in England, whose game is based more on speed, skill, balletic athleticism and intelligent movement. His winner against the Swedes was a peach of a goal: he improvised an exquisite back-heeled flick to convert a cross played behind him. That's the sort of goal that ensures that the striker's craft is never dispensed with. So, too, did Zlatan Ibrahimovic's cracker of a volley against France. Or my goal of the tournament thus far — Mario Balotelli's volley over his own shoulder against Ireland.

tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: France Is the New Holland  French forward Karim Benzema and teammates react after Sweden's second goal during the Euro 2012 soccer match between Sweden and France at Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, on June 19, 2012
Any American youth coach looking to illustrate the maxim that "There is no I in team" would be spoiled for choice at Euro 2012\. One option would be the histrionics directed by Cristiano Ronaldo at his teammates for stray passes or, more perilously, his reluctance to play defense, which left his team vulnerable to raids down the left flank when Portugal lost the ball. But a more obvious example might the Dutch, the beaten finalists of World Cup 2010 who had been fancied to reach the final four at Euro 2012\. Their campaign imploded in a rolling riot of personality conflicts, resulting in their failure to win a single game, as longtime feuds among key players broke out in open warfare.



The whole world knows that Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie loathe one another, and it showed. Nor was there any trying to hide Rafael van der Vaart's enmity toward Sneijder — and toward coach Bert van Marwijk and his son-in-law, skipper Mark van Bommel, after he was left on the bench. Van der Vaart made sure the press knew all about his dim view of the proceedings in the Dutch camp. Most telling was the moment midway through the match against Germany when van Bommel was yanked off and replaced by VDV, who was handed the captain's armband too — as in, "O.K., Mr. Bigmouth, let's see what you can do." Not enough, it turns out, as the winless Dutch looked like a bunch of talented individuals shopping their playing abilities for scouts rather than a team driven by common purpose.



(MORE: England-France Clash Reprises an International Soccer Paradox)



But it's an old story to say that coaching the Dutch is an exercise in herding cats; this year's prize for fratricidal feuding must go to the French. After all, the strength, form and cohesion they'd demonstrated during an excellent qualifying tournament had been taken as evidence they'd exorcised the ghosts of South Africa 2010, when the team's World Cup campaign imploded amid acrimonious public exchanges between players and coaching staff that led to the squad going on strike and refusing to train after striker Nicholas Anelka was sent home for insulting the coach. But it turned out, following the team's chaotic loss to Sweden, that the French dressing room is still deeply divided. Both Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa reportedly tore into the coach after the game in a dressing-room shouting match. Then, in their quarterfinal clash with Spain, the French looked listless, with Ribéry often looking like the only player with much fight left in him. And Samir Nasri's petulant handling of the media didn't help.



Still, the French can take heart from their progress in plugging leaks. After all, in South Africa, Anelka's colorful harangue of his hapless coach, Raymond Domenech, was reported verbatim in the French press. This time, the players acknowledged that harsh words were exchanged, but they largely kept the exact content of those exchanges to themselves. But the fact that coach Laurent Blanc seems ready to wash his hands of this lot and move back into club management speaks volumes. tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: Rumors of the Death of Barcelona's Style Are Greatly Exaggerated  Spanish striker Fernando Torres, right, controls the ball next to Leonardo Bonucci of Italy during a Euro 2012 soccer match between Spain and Italy played at Arena Gdansk in Gdansk, Poland, on June 10, 2012
Barca haters pounced gleefully on the Spanish club's failure to prevail either in La Liga or the Champion's League last season, declaring the death of the "tiki-taka," Barcelona's signature short-passing style that prioritizes possession and patient buildup play over using two or three lightning passes to get the ball from defense into a goal-scoring position. And when Spain, whose progressive-possession play is based on Barca's style, started the tournament without a recognized striker on the field, it was greeted as the ultimate folly that would bury what critics saw as an approach based on passing the ball all the way into the net.



A symbolic refutation of those critics came 18 minutes into Spain's quarterfinal clash with France. Spain was once again strikerless but hardly predictable. The ever brilliant Andrés Iniesta, against whom France had fielded two right backs, nonetheless freed his left back Jordi Alba with a brilliant through ball for the Spanish defender's overlapping run. Alba brought the ball to the byline and sent a perfect cutback cross to the back post, where it would usually be met by a striker. Except in this instance, it was Xabi Alonso who provided the bullet-header finish. Alonso isn't a striker, of course; he's the defensive midfield anchor, although his passing range and game intelligence make him the best deep-lying playmaker in Europe. Spain's attacks have been masterminded by Barcelona's Xavi, but Alonso has provided a second level of playmaking with his ability to deliver penetrating passes from deep positions. Even if you shackle Xavi, you haven't snuffed out Spain's creativity, because it has more than one source.



(MORE: Barcelona vs. Chelsea: The Revenge of Soccer’s Short Men)



Still, nobody expects Alonso to be the player making the late run into the box to apply the finishing touch to a far-post cross. But the number on his back says it all: 14\. This was not simply a case of Spain playing without a recognized No. 9, the traditional number denoting the center forward, from the days when the number on a player's back indicated the position he played. No. 14 was made iconic by the Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, in the first noticeable break from position-identifying numbers. Cruyff, one of the architects of "total football," was hard to lock down to a single position. He was a forward, sure, but he played with unique positional freedom and also with a coach's sense of how to organize his teammates in different phases of the game. And it was Cruyff who was instrumental in bringing the DNA of "total football" to Barcelona in the '70s, planting the seeds of the modern Spanish game.



The arrival of No. 14 in the box to head home a ball intended for a nonexistent striker highlights the fluidity of the Spanish system, in which players rotate duties, always maintaining a coach's sense of the overall shape of the team and the opposition. Alonso began his run into the area because France's Florent Malouda wasn't tracking him, perhaps assuming that Alonso's defensive duties would preclude him from joining the attack — but in a system with six midfielders, you can't make such assumptions.



No tactical system is static, of course, and they all depend on the ability of the players to make them operational. Most important, they have to adapt to the tactics and abilities of opponents. Teams with talented and motivated players and clever coaches will figure out ways to beat Spain and Barca. And just as certainly, Spain and Barca will develop counterstrategies — all of which they will learn from one another. That's what keeps it interesting.

tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: Mario Balotelli Could Be the Muhammad Ali of European Football  Italian defender Leonardo Bonucci (R) puts his hand on Mario Balotelli's mouth after Balotelli scored during the Euro 2012 football championships match Italy vs Republic of Ireland on June 18, 2012 at the Municipal Stadium in Poznan.
He's utterly brilliant when he turns it on, quite possibly the most dangerous striker in Europe precisely because he's so unpredictable. But Mario Balotelli's also a veritable "character" in a game that no longer really encourages players to express their personalities on or off the field, and also a highly intelligent but deeply troubled young man, at odds — for obvious reasons — with the society that created him. You try being a black man in Italy — not an immigrant, but a black Italian, because your Ghanaian parents were forced by circumstance to put you up for adoption, and you had to learn that when you expressed your talents on a football field, a substantial section of the crowd would make monkey noises and throw bananas at you.



(MORE: Germany Looks Great, Portugal Is Purring and England Expects)



So Balotelli acts up. And speaks his mind. And drives sports commentators crazy with his antics, and his attitude. Asked about the prospect of racial abuse at Euro 2012, he made clear that if he encountered any in the street, he'd end up in prison, because he'd kill the perpetrator. Balotelli is angry and intelligent, a player of rare gifts that, if harnessed by a coach willing to understand him — like Manchester City's Roberto Mancini, whom he cites as a father figure — will deliver that decisive edge. But his Manchester City teammates will be the first to tell you just how exasperating Balotelli can be, because each match is often a contest between himself and his demons and doubters, with his teammates a cast of faceless extras.



Still, such characters are rare in football, and in most sports. He reminds me of a young Muhammad Ali: brash, confident, feeling his way in a world whose rules he believes are stacked against him. This is not to say he'll turn into a political activist or that he won't flame out. But there was an emblematic moment in the breathtaking goal he scored against Ireland — a goal that very few players could have scored. Immediately afterwards, as he began berating either his coach or the media, his teammate, Leonardo Bonucci, ran up to hug him in congratulations — and also to firmly clamp a hand over his mouth. Balotelli gets a bum rap from the commentators he seems to annoy to no end — just like Ali did early in his career. He's only 21, and he hasn't flamed out. He played a key role in Manchester City's English premiership title (the first time they've topped the standings since 1968), and remains a key figure in Italy's prospects for reviving the fortunes of its national team. The haters are waiting for you to fail, Mario. Don't give 'em the satisfaction!

tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: Angela Merkel Thinks We're Working  June 18, 2012 - 4 Football Poznan Poznan 18 06 2012 European Championships Italy ITA Ireland IRL 2 0



Irish supporters with a banner that reads "Angela Merkel thinks we're at work" on June 18, 2012.
The Irish fans who sported that message on their flag going to the tournament created an image that went viral, capturing something vital about the Euro 2012 tournament being staged at a moment of eurozone meltdown. The Irish simply couldn't compete on the field. Nor could the Greeks, when given an opportunity to put one over the Germans. The image of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, viewed by many Greeks as their tormentor-in-chief by virtue of her insistence on strict austerity policies, celebrating her team's trouncing of Greece will likely have stuck in the craw of many watching the game back in Athens.



Football, of course, offers at best a symbolic reversal of the power balance, and even then can hardly be relied on to do so when the opponent is a brilliant German team. Still, perhaps the most beautiful moment of the tournament came when the Irish serenaded their battered heroes for the last 10 minutes of a thrashing at the hands of Spain with a haunting rendition of "Fields of Athenry," a dirge of suffering and despair and an eternal flame of hope



And, of course, Spain, Portugal and Italy are all still in the race to give debt-strapped southern Europe a strong chance of getting the last laugh on Frau Merkel. tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: Goal-Line Calls Should Be Left to a Machine  England's John Terry clears the ball away from his goal during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group D match between England and Ukraine in Donetsk, Ukraine on Tuesday, June 19, 2012.
Even FIFA head Sepp Blatter agrees now that it really is time to let cameras and computers determine whether a ball has fully crossed the goal line when the attacking side claims a goal and the defenders claim to have cleared it. Ghost goals have long been part of the game — either those awarded that never crossed the line, or those denied that did — but the authorities tried to remedy those at Euro 2012 by stationing a referee's assistant right behind the goal to adjudicate goal line calls that were too difficult for either the ref or the line judges to accurately call.



And there was such an official on duty when Ukraine scored a goal against England that was disallowed. Humans make mistakes, particularly because they're watching the play and have to turn their eyes to the goal line within a split second. Only a machine won't be distracted by having to look in two places at once. So, yes, goal line technology is now inevitable. But, the end of phantom goals will spoil the narrative of so many losing sides. This one worked in England's favor (England fans will also tell you that Ukraine should have been called for offside in the build up), but the last great clamor for the technology came after England's Frank Lampard scored against Germany at World Cup 2010 but the ref didn't see it. Then again, had there been goal line technology in 1966, England might still be waiting for its first-ever World Cup title.

tkaron2010 ## 10 Things We've Learned from Euro 2012: England's Capacity for Delusions of Grandeur Is Undiminished  English players stand dejected after the penalty shootout during the Euro 2012 soccer championship quarterfinal match between England and Italy in Kiev, Ukraine, June 25, 2012\.
You didn't know whether to feel sorry for the lads, or relief, but this was the first time in years that an England team was heading off to an international tournament without their national media proclaiming that England's moment had finally come. Here was a workmanlike outfit coached by the pragmatic Roy Hodgson and captained by the taciturn scouser Steven Gerrard, and nobody was expecting much of them. But diminished expectations, and the failings of others had worked in their favor, as they rode their luck to win their group by drawing with France and then narrowly beating Sweden and Ukraine. That earned England a quarter-final showdown with four-time world champion Italy, and an immediate renewal of fantasy talk in the English media. "Gerrard warns Italy will be no pushover," they wrote. No pushover? That makes it sound like England were going into the match as favorites. "They are similar to us and it will be a very close game," the skipper warned. "Let's not underestimate them one little bit."



(MORE: Come On, England! Ahead of Euro 2012, Why Has the National Soccer Team Consistently Disappointed?)



How England could be talking down to Italy in this way is quite bizarre. Only Brazil has won the World Cup more times than the Azzurri, and the last time England beat Italy was in 1997 — and before that you have to go back to 1977 for an English victory. Sure, there's a generational transition underway in Italian football that has seen a downturn in the team's performance, but, sorry, Stevie, Italy is not really "a lot like" England at all. Sure, dogged defending took the Italy-England game to extra time and then penalties, leading some English journalists to brag that England had not been beaten in open play at Euro 2012\. Sure. But England hadn't really looked like it could beat Italy, either. England's great achievement at Euro 2012 was that it proved exceedingly difficult for better teams to break down. That's a creditable quality, of course, but it rarely wins tournaments. (Greece in 2004 being the one exception.) It's rather like being the Stoke City of international football. tkaron2010 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7159313/10-things-weve-learned-about-soccer-from-euro-2012/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7159313/10-things-weve-learned-about-soccer-from-euro-2012/"},"headline":"10 Things We've Learned About Soccer from Euro 2012","datePublished":"2012-06-25T08:35:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T15:19:17.373Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/archive/7159313/10-things-weve-learned-about-soccer-from-euro-2012/","keywords":["Soccer"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7159313/10-things-weve-learned-about-soccer-from-euro-2012/","name":"10 Things We've Learned About Soccer from Euro 2012"}}]}] ```