Pronto, Azzurri!

It’s been easy to ignore the European Cup going on, because I don’t have a TV at home and I only see it on monitors out at restaurants and bars which play the matches at lunchtime. The Azzurri simply do not look as strong for Euro 2008 as they did for World Cup 2006. Russia and the Netherlands look like they're the best teams in the tournament to me. Italy has qualified for the elimination rounds, and plays Sunday against Spain, but they did it after getting squashed by the Dutch, tying Romania, and then beating former World Cup championship rivals France. They have some of the same players from their World Cup-winning team in 2006, but of course there always has to be new blood and European football (we call it “soccer”) is not a sport for old guys. Like me. The only person on the Azzurri this year older than me is the coach. But, I'll monitor their game on Sunday against Spain, and hope for the best.