Belgium in the Euros
Game 1: Belgium - Russia - Check, and now move on.
Even though Belgium defeated Russia 3 - 0, it was not a great game. The Red Devils played mediocre, lacked accuracy, lost the ball too often in the midfield, and didn’t show a lot of creativity. After the opening goal from Lukaku, you expected brilliant counter attacks. They were not there.
Sure, all this may have been sufficient to beat Russia, when it comes to the bigger teams, it won’t cut it.
Luckily we’ll have De Bruyne back. Also Meunier was strong. I’ve been a fan of both for a while.
Game 2: Belgium - Denmark - A wake up call
Due to a conflict at work, I didn’t watch much of the game live. I skipped the disastrous first half entirely. I did see the magical two goals in the second half.
The second half reaffirmed that De Bruyne, Lukaku and Courtois are what makes this team great. I was also carefully encouraged that Eden Hazard and Axel Witsel didn’t slow the game down. They are both amazing players. However in the past their style of playing wasn’t compatible with De Bruyne - Tielemans - Lukaku - Carrasco - Meunier fast and deep style of playing.
Game 3: Belgium - Finland - strong Hradecky in the Finnish goal
Watching the summary of the game, it could have been 4 or more goals from Belgium. The Finnish goalie was strong.
It is great to see how De Bruyne - Lukaku machine is getting more and more steam. Unstoppable.
We need to keep the speed and flow in the game. That’s specific advise for Doku and Eden Hazard.
Sadly no Van Aken as a sub.
Who will be the opponent in the next game. I hope Wales.
Game 4: Belgium - Portugal - meeting the butchers of Lisbon
The highly anticipated game between powerhouses Belgium and Portugal turned into a bloody meat festival. Portugal clearly had sharpened their knives, under the “leadership” of head butcher Pepe. What a disaster! Both Pepe and Palinha deserved dark red cards. Another red card should have gone to the referee who was terrible. Both the Portuguese and Belgium commentary on twitter was unanimous on that. Aren’t they always?
Belgium did not play well. A strike of Thorgan brilliance got us to win this game. The defense however was solid: Vermaelen was my man of the match. Vertongen, Alderweireld and Courtois completed the defense. Also Tielemans was very composed and reliable. Witsel, no my favorite player, was solid as a rock.
The two Belgians who didn’t play well were Eden Hazard and the coach Martinez. Eden Hazard was having fun by himself, dribbling away,and then losing the ball. The connection to the midfield was missing, and therefor Lukaku was on an island. Lukaku surely was missing his buddy De Bruyne.
Martinez failed when he brought in an underperforming and out of form Mertens. Why didn’t he bring in Carrasco instead of Mertens? When Carrasco joined the troops later in the game, the counter attack was much more lethal - although it lacked efficiency.
Next up: Italy. Let’s hope De Bruyne is fit again. And let’s pray Martinez starts with Carrasco instead of Eden Hazard. Let’s be clear, right now: horgan > Eden. And Thorgan + Carrasco = magic.
Game 5: end of the line.
Italy played courageous and great soccer. This was not Italy from a decade ago where they waited patiently for a counter attack. This was brilliant and exciting soccer.
Belgium on the other hand was slow, uninspired and a one trick pony: play it to Lukaku. The midfield was non-existent, neither in the build up, nor in the defense. The yellow card for Tielemans early in the game was dumb and impacted the play.
Playing Jeremy Doku was a surprise. I could see why Martinez selected him. Yet, Doku lacks a great pass or shot. He is fast and dribbles amazingly. And that’s it.
De Bruyne didn’t play well. It seems at the highest level, when you play for all the marbles, he falls short time after time. After the game, I learned he was still injured.
There are a lot of questions why Carrasco or Trossard didn’t play today. Or Vanaken on the midfield. Putting Mertens, who was so clearly out of form, was a mistake.
Ultimately, you have to conclude that the Golden Generation, was just a Golden Wrapper Generation. Great on paper, but rarely the dominant team, the fantastic game against Brazil in Russia not withstanding.
Coach Martinez didn’t really get the swung in the team. Not the way Mancini is getting his team fighting. He has been fighting too many conflicting goals: Eden vs Kevin, Anderlecht v Bruges, Flemish vs Walloon, known non controversial players vs young potential. Today’s game showed that: not-inspired, a lack of brilliance, and too static.
June 12, 2021
The Dark EK2020/2021 horses
I enjoy the soccer wisdom from Sporza’s Filip Joos, Peter Vandenbempt, and co. The recent Tribune episodes were especially insightful: Filip Joos en Wim De Coninck and Peter Vandenbempt en Aster Nzeyimana.
- Leave Witsel on the bench. Keep the smart deep passing Tielemans and feed Lukaku. Allow Dendocker to grow into the game.
- Carrasco over Hazard. It enables also Thorgan Hazard to do his thing.
- Doku is an ideal sub to ratch things up and find the opening later in the game.
- Lukaku, Courtois, DeBruyne are the true toppers in the Belgian team.
- Turkey and Italy will be the dark horses.
- England has a deep team and with 5 or 6 substitutions per game, that can make the difference.
- Portugal will be strong and is a France-light.
- The likely path of Belgium will be a tough path where they encounter strong teams in earlier rounds. A better path is one where you end the first round as second in your group.
June 9, 2021
Euro 2020/2021
The European championships will be a repeat of the mundial: France over Belgium in the half final or the final. And overall, France is my favorite to win it.
France with Kante, Benzema, Mbappe is battle hardened and lethal in a hurry. Lloris will be their weakest point.
For Belgium, this is the last opportunity for the golden generation. The team is entering the tournament suboptimal with several key players recovering: De Bruyne, Hazard, Witsel. There is a lot of goodness as well: Thorgan Hazard and Carrasco on the left, Courtois is a rock in goal. There is some new blood with Tielemans.
In a head to head between France and Belgium, it will be about efficiency and strategy. Thus far, the French have proven to have that cooler killer instinct when it counts.
June 9, 2021
Kings Canyon
One and half million people visit Sequoia National Park every year. A little more than half of them make it across the mountain to Kings Canyon. What a shame so many people miss out on the beauty of the canyon.
Today I was in awe. I’ve seen plenty of rivers in the Sierras along our backpacking trips. Yet, nothing came close the Kings South fork river today. This has to be the most picturesque river I’ve ever seen.
Everywhere you looked there were whitecaps as the river fought against the rocks. Looking up there was the beautiful canyon made up with rocks of many different colors and shapes. The Roaring Waterfall didn’t steal its name. And the Zumwalt meadow was idyllic as one can imagine.
The only challenge was getting there. From Three Rivers, CA, we first took a small road (Dry Creek Road) which barely fit 1.5 cars. On the way back, we took highway 245 all the way down to Woodlake, CA. At least this road was a two-way lane. I don’t think there is a straight stretch. It felt like the road back was a long series of left and right turns down the mountain, as if we were alpine skiing our way back. The most scary part was that we didn’t see another car for probably 40 miles.
Even though the trip was long, it is worth every minute. Next time, I would look for a camping spot in Kings Canyon and make it a two day trip.
June 3, 2021
And then there was one
With this week’s trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, I have visited seven out of the eight national parks in California.
I’ve visited plenty CA state parks, from North to South, and the smaller National recreation areas, historic sites, preserve, and monuments. Yet, the “National Parks” are the major league parks. In order of exploration:
- Yosemite
- Redwood
- Lassen Volcanic
- Pinnacles
- Death Valley
- Joshua Tree
- Sequoia & Kings Canyon
The one missing on my dance card is Channel Islands National Park. I do have a few trips to Los Angeles on the horizon.
June 2, 2021
I have not been waiting for a Friends reunion
I am a big Friends fan. I was a saddened fan when Friends was removed from Netflix. Friends was our to go to series when we wanted something short, easy and fun at the end of the day. As Malcolm Gladwell captured in his recent book Talking to Strangers, Friends was satisfying because everybody was “matched”: their emotions, their thinking and their facial expressions matched.
I still use Friends’ analogies in my day to day. When I need to tell a story at work about an imaginary employee, I use Phoebe, or Ross, or Gunther, or another cast member’s name, not currently at our company. I sometimes name my team meetings cheekily with “the one about …”. For example, “The One about our development process”. We play Friends trivia on Christmas eve.
As you can tell, Friends left a lasting impression on me.
However I have never been a big fan of a Friends reboot or reunion. The magic happened in the late 90s. Actors move on: Rachel is no longer the klutz in Apple TV’s Morning Show. Actors get botox and plastic surgery. Hello Monica. And the most interesting anecdotes are well known among aficionados and owners of the special Friends trivia set. I do not believe anyone has been holding out on a bombshell revelation for a future potential reunion show.
But that was never the goal of HBO. The Friends reunion was HBO’s Hamilton. We signed up for Disney+ to watch Hamilton and are still a subscriber, a year later.
Since I have been very curious about The Mare of Easttown show, and still need to start Game of Thrones (yes, kill me now), I may take the bait and sign up.
The only problem is I don’t know which other streaming service to drop. Netflix is a staple. Apple TV+ came with our new iPhone. Amazon Prime is the kitchen sink plan. Disney+ has some great shows, including for the kids. At least I can avoid Hulu and Peacock for now.
June 2, 2021
It is a big tree state
I have seen plenty redwood trees. From the State Parks in the Bay Area’s backyard (Castle Rock State Park, Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Preserve, Portola Redwoods State Park, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Hendy Woods State Park) to the trees in the Boy Scout of America Boulder Creek preserve. Camping out among these giants is amazing. I even ventured up the coast to the Redwoods National Park. Most these trees have been coastal sequoias or redwood trees.
This week we visited the other type of sequoia: the giant sequoia trees at Sequoia National Park and Kings National Park with General Sherman and General Grant up front.
Even though I have seen plenty redwood groves, seeing these giants is amazing. Especially when you consider that these trees are more than 2,300 years old.
June 1, 2021
