David Silva scored the game winning goal off a cross from Cesc Fábregas in the 14th minute. Andrés Iniesta sent a through ball to Fabregas, who earned the start after being left out of the lineup for the semifinal. Fabregas dribbled toward the touch line and crossed the ball to Silva, one of the smallest men on the field, who headed the ball into the back of the net. The Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon committed to a near post shot, and when Fabregas crossed the ball instead of taking the shot, it left an empty net for Silva.

Spain’s next goal came in the 41st minute when Xavi sent another beautiful through ball to the left back Jordi Alba who slipped the ball past Buffon. This was Jordi Alba’s first goal for Spain, and it happened on one of the biggest soccer stages. Spain went into halftime with a 2-0 lead.

In the second half, Italy’s luck turned from bad to worse. In the 57th minute Italy made its third and final substitute, Thiago Motta for Riccardo Montolivo. But less than 10 minutes later Thiago Motta hurt his hamstring, and Italy was forced to play nearly 30 minutes with 10 men. The comeback, which was already going to be difficult, turned nearly impossible.

In the 84th minute Fernando Torres, who came on in place of Fabregas, received another splendid through ball from the assist man Xavi and scored. This marked Torres third goal of the tournament. Moments later, Juan Mata, who was seeing his first minutes in the tournament, scored off an assist from Torres. Torres’ assist tied him with German Mario Gomez for the Golden Boot, but because Torres played fewer minutes during the tournament (a tiebreaker), he won the Golden Boot.

Italy held Spain to its lowest time of possession in the entire tournament: 52 percent–a surprising number considering Italy’s bad luck in the second half. When Italy went down to 10 men, it was almost too painful to watch. Spain passed the ball around the tired Italian side that barely held possession of the ball and, when it did get possession, almost immediately gave it away. Italy did have a couple chances to score, but Iker Casillas continued to perform at a high level in goal. Spain went 512 minutes without conceding a goal, the longest streak in Euro Cup history. Spain also only conceded one goal in the entire tournament, the fewest allowed since the Euro Cup adopted the group stage in 1980. The 4-0 victory is the largest margin of victory in a Euro Cup final, although its hard to say if Spain would have won by four goals if Italy had stayed healthy for the entire game.

The back-to-back-to-back major championship titles (2008 Euros, 2010 World Cup, 2012 Euros) and back-to-back Euro Championships makes Spain arguably one of the greatest teams in soccer history. And with Spain’s core starters only being in their late 20s and early 30s, its more than likely that we’ll see this same squad for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Only this team will be slightly stronger with the return of injured David Villa, and I’d hate to see what kind of damage that team can do.

By Admin I : Here we go again digging in some advertising campaigns released in the last few days after an extensive Design Week coverage and review. So the buzz made by Euro Cup is finally over as well as all the cheesiness invested in advertising to keep up with this event. After Lebanese Brew beating the hell out of all Almaza campaigns and a flow of other ‘inaperçus‘ commercials, one managed to strike an appearance.

Zaatar w Zeit (aka the failing rebranding job) released their Euro Cup campaign around early June with what they thought was a breakthrough.

In our part of the world, we show our support for our leaders, by carrying them on our shoulders. Like wise, Zaatar W Zeit supports each country for the Euro cup, by having the actual Zaatar W Zeit staff carrying the respective country leaders on their shoulders. Are you serious?!

Guys, using political leaders for a pop oriented ad can be a quite fun idea, but honestly, it looks somehow forced: it’s like some creative wanted to stick a political leader onto a campaign to make a buzzing impact and go virally, a desperate call that managed to reach adsoftheworld.com but still appears as far fetched and adds nothing to the brand.. Not even influences behavior. It’s clear that the ad was more of a call for attention than a working campaign.

Why not?!

Well, if you had a minimum reach for these two years most influential campaigns, you can easily disregard the impact that Zaatar w Zeit failed to achieve after the award winning “Unhate“,”The return of Ben Ali” and the hit “Reporters Without Borders” campaign that evolved around controversial censorship.

The fun can easily turn out as cheesy, and the daring turns out dull!

So to wrap it up, over-using political figures in advertising especially for random purposes makes blunt failures especially that the ones mentioned above invaded the web even reaching my grandma, unless she’s the target audience of this badly designed brand (yes, i can repeat it endlessly).

Cheers to desperate randomness!

Credits: 

Zaatar w Zeit:

Advertising Agency: NINETEEN84, Beirut, Lebanon
Creative Director: Said Francis
Art Directors: Omar Kabbani, Cathy Frangie
Copywriters: Cathy Frangie, Said Francis
Photographer: Mini Me
Brand manager: Rhea Korban
Published: June 2012

Reporters without Borders, Censorship tells the wrong story:

Advertising Agency: Memac Ogilvy & Mather Dubai, UAE
Executive Creative Director: Steve Hough
Creative Director: Ramzi Moutran
Art Directors: Leonardo Borges, Rafael Rizuto
Copywriter: Sascha Kuntze
Photographer: Atp.

I got there and realized that I forgot to print out directions to my hostel and that I didn’t have internet in order to look it up! So I roamed around the streets of Rome as nightfall surrounded me. Eventually I was able to find directions to the hostel. On the way, I stopped at a local restaurant in order to eat before it got too late and also watch the second half of the Italy vs. Germany football game! I had a pizza and good Italian wine and watch Italy win the game! The city was going crazy afterward–people in cars were driving outside of the windows and honking the whole night! I got to my hostel and went to bed in order to rest up for a busy day.

The next day, I decided to walk around the city and start with the Colosseum. But first, I had to book another hostel because I only booked one for one night. I walked from hostel #1 to hostel #2 which took around 40 minutes. It was already hot! And it was much more humid and Rome than in Madrid and I was already sweating. I dropped off my things at my second hostel and then proceeded to walk to the Colosseum. The walk was not too bad, but it was very hot and there was hardly any shade on the streets. But, alas, I came to the Colosseum!

Me at the Colosseum!

The Colosseum was amazing. It was hard to believe that this has been here for thousands of years! Imagining the gory scenes that happened in this arena was mind blowing. After the colosseum, I just walked around Rome. I decided to not to go the Roman Forum because I could see into it from the outside. Therefore, I just toured around that area. I went and saw a Dali exhibit at the museum and then decided to go to the Trevi Fountain. My trusty map didn’t lead me to where I needed to go, but I ended up walking past some other beautiful buildings! That included some building right next to Trevi that had guards with machine guns! When I got to Trevi, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Though I was surprised at how small the area was that it was in. I thought that it would be a HUGE square with this fountain, but it was rather small with a huge fountain! Here is a picture of me in front of it

Me and Trevi!

After the fountain, I decided to get gelato! There was place on the way from the fountain to the metro (which I was planning on taking) and I stopped there. I got coffee gelato and it was delicious and they gave me so much of it! My plan for the rest of the day was to take the metro for a couple of stops and walk around there because I was pursuing the landmarks on the tourist map that I got. I took the metro one stop and arrived at the Spanish steps! These steps connected the streets below to the church at the top. It reminded me a lot of the Rocky stairs in Philly!

Me at the top of the Spanish Steps

After the steps I took one more stop and ended up at some beautiful plaza. At that point I think I was suffering from heat exhaustion and decided to get some rest back at the hostel.

At the hostel, I made friends with one of the kids who I was living with and we decided to go check out fireworks that were happening near St. Peter’s basilica (not exactly there but close). We got there only for the last couple of minutes for the fireworks, but we met up with some people who my friend was staying with the next night. These guys were very nice and we decided to go to a wine bar to get the whole experience of Rome! We had wine and talked a lot–about everything from politics to the economy. It was a great night.

The next day I had to move hostels again! The hostel I moved to was only a ten minute walk away from the hostel I was at that night. I walked inside of this hostel and I felt like I was in a little kid’s house! This hostel had a lot of…character. There were stuffed animals everywhere and it was very homey. The owner was very kind as well! Anyway, I took a shower in the morning (finally now that I had a towel) and decided to cover the western part of the city since I took care of the eastern part the day before.

I started at the Colosseum as a starting point and just walked. I had no idea where I was going, except that I wanted to cover all of the landmarks on my map. I made a point to go to the Pantheon though. After walking around and admiring the city, I finally found it. And wow. I couldn’t believe it. It was definitely my favorite part of the trip I think. It was HUMONGOUS.

Me and the Pantheon

I think that picture puts it in perspective. The inside was equally as amazing. Here is the favorite picture that I took of it:

Inside of the Pantheon

After that I walked across of the Tiber river and around that part of Rome. I found a place called Beer Land and couldn’t believe it! I haven’t had a good craft beer the whole summer and I definitely was missing it. I relaxed there for a little bit before continuing my journey. I walked along the Tiber (down by the river) and ended up at the Vatican in about 20 minutes! Wow. The Vatican. I am not religious at all but seeing the Basilica was amazing. I went into St. Peter’s basilica and it was amazing. Definitely the most impressive religious building that I have seen (and it should be considering the Pope lives there!).

Me in the Basilica

After that I tried to go into the Museum, but it was closed Oh well. I heard that it was very packed and crowded.

That night I met some people in my hostel and we went out to dinner, walked around, and then hung out at the hostel and drank some wine. It was great! There were two American girls and a guy from Brazil. It was very fun!

However, the next morning is when the problems started. I got woken up by the guy who was sleeping above me on the bunk and the owner of the hostel asking if I had anything stolen. I had not, but the guy above me had a whole bag stolen! Except, the owner said that she found my wallet in the girls bathroom. Oh, okay. I did not put that there. And there were 40 euros missing from there. Okay. Not the biggest thing. At least my stuff didn’t get stolen. But then I couldn’t find my shoulder bag. Hmm.. It turns out that the owner found it on the couch in front of the entrance next to a black bag that didn’t belong to anyone in the hostel. All of the things that were inside of my bag including my passport (!) was in the black bag! Wow. Well nothing was stolen. Its weird that that was missing while the person who took the bag from the guy above me didn’t take my iPad (which was sitting out) or my camera (which they knocked down in the process of taking my wallet). Weird.

Anyway, I left and then just explored the city and went home. I got home from the airport just in time to see the end of the Spain-Italy football match! Go Spain! It was amazing to see them win and the whole city was absolutely wild.

Overall, I couldn’t be more happy with the trip. I can’t believe I was actually in Italy!! Ah, I wish I could go back all around Italy. It was amazing.

Dan

After hanging out in the plaza for a few hours we decided that it wasn’t going to stop until sunrise and decided to call it a night. What a great day to be in Spain!

1) Breaking your dominant hand makes most things reaally really difficult. This list of things includes, but is not limited to: typing, writing your rent check, cutting veggies, applying nail polish, washing your hair, opening and closing windows, washing dishes, applying liquid eyeliner, sleeping comfortably…You get the picture.

2) My boyfriend is quite nice. He’s been helping me with the aforementioned things. I haven’t asked him to help me wash my hair though…yet.

3) I don’t actually have iPhone insurance. So, broken screen it is.

4) Despite all of the above, it’s still possible to have a great weekend.

My attempt at taking notes right-handed from a phone call at work on Friday — Meal I somehow managed to make for T-Man (teriyaki marinated chicken) — our respective roommates playing darts on Saturday night

Crowd that gathered at a local pub to watch Spain beat Italy — Barbecue! This may be becoming a weekly event. — US Olympics Gymnastics trials HECKYES. So sad about Nastia Liukin.

We’re having a barbecue on the 4th and I’m so excited to whip up whatever I can for the occasion. I’m going to make baked beans with the help of T-Man’s crockpot, and maybe some salsa and guacamole. If I’m feeling extra motivated, I may even make a batch of my mom’s frozen margarita slushies! Her stuff has a serious kick!

What is everyone else looking forward to making (and eating) this week?

I leave you with a video from Jenna Marbles, who I love and who absolutely gets it spot on when she describes having a broken hand!

Wow! I should dream big more often, voice my desires to the cosmos.

Spain is officially the best team there is and ever will be. (In my mind’s eye, there’s an ascending Mexico so I l have to leave some wiggle room.)

On Sunday, Spain won its third consecutive national championship — Euro Cup ’12. It was a decisive 4-0 show over Italy.  No “boring” Spanish play on display.  La Furia Roja came out attacking and went to halftime up 2-0.  The third goal came late in the second half from substitute extraordinaire Fernando Torres.

And there’s more!  Minutes later he manuevers a brilliant pass for his Chelsea teammate Mata.

So if you’re counting, that’s three goals and an assist for Torres for the tournament.

In the end, what catapulted Torres to the top of the leaderboard was what handicapped him too:  He had been benched for much of the tournament. Playing far fewer minutes than the other top-scorers.

That Spain won wasn’t a big surprise, but that freaking Fernando Torres took the Euro Cup 2012 Golden Boot award was.  I couldn’t dream that.  I just wanted him to get a chance to play in the final.

All who thought that would happen, please raise your hand. Bend at the elbow. Pat yourself on the back. And go buy a lottery ticket.

The cosmos are on your side.

PHOTOS: Spain celebrates in Kiev, and screenshot of UEFA Golden Boot website.

Related articles

• Fernando Torres: Golden Boot Wakes Up Those Sleeping on El Nino (bleacherreport.com)
• Torres wins Golden Boot at Euro 2012 with 3 goals (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• Spain 4-0 Italy: Olé Trinity as Torres wins Golden Boot (mirror.co.uk)
• Spine-tingling Spain make history (full-timewhistle.com)

Starting off on the hardwood; the Boston Celtics re-signed Kevin Garnett to a three-year, $34 million deal over the weekend. The question now is, will Ray Allen follow in KG’s footsteps?

“5 Questions” With DA: [worldnow id=7459374 width=385 height=288 type=video]

Moving to the other team in their off-season, the Boston Bruins kept quiet the first day of NHL free agency. Peter Chiarelli said it will likely remain that way, but is this the right move for the B’s?

Kalman: Don’t Be Surprised With B’s Silence

As for the Red Sox, David Ortiz was named their lone All-Star on Sunday. With a payroll of $173-million payroll, is it disappointing they only have one player going to Kansas City for the mid-summer classic?

With Kaufman and DA both Syracuse alum, they had to get some Orange talk in there. Who will be the better draft pick: Chandler Jones on the Patriots or Fab Melo for the Celtics?

And last but not least, Kaufman gives DA a little guff for Italy’s loss to Spain in the Euro Cup over the weekend. Accepting the defeat, DA gives a PSA for all those not into soccer, yet…

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Fernando Torres, winner of the Golden Boot