Arshavin. Arsene. Arsenal. Three great sources of arse-related jokes, destined for greater greatness together? Arshavin’s agent certainly thinks so:

“The stable situation in the club and the influence of Arsène Wenger to Arsenal and to English football is huge. I think this is an advantage,” said Lachter. “If Arsenal go for Arshavin it could be really good for both parties. Arsenal is a very young team and Arshavin is 27. There’s something about combining young and older players, they propagate attacking football.”

Oh please oh please oh please let this happen. I don’t want to wax emotional, but if this only proves to be a close shave, a rumour created by a cheeky agent, I’ll be bummed out.

…so shall it be. Thistle71 called it: Holland to crash out of the quarterfinals against Russia. I started to worry when I saw the Russians put Sweden to the sword - unsurprising in principle, but more dramatic in practice. From what I saw of the game, the Dutch just ran out of ideas and speed. Arshavin… well, I think that Sir Alex Ferguson should drop his objections to Cristiano Ronaldo leaving, and use the money to cross the palms of Zenit for the services of Arshavin… but what do I know?

My only objection to the Russians winning is their countrymen… but I suppose that there won’t be a bottle of anti-freeze or break fluid left in the country by tomorrow morning, so perhaps the colossal hangover will keep their hyper-nationalism* ebullience in check.

Speaking of, the last I heard from Thistle71 he was in a bar in Seattle with some disappointed Dutch fans - specifically, a text message saying “damn these Dutch fans are DRUNK.” This will end well, I can sense it.

*Not that this makes them any different from the rest of Europe, it’s the enormous chip on the shoulder and nuclear arsenal that raises the odd eyebrow.

Now admittedly it’s not denying the Italians a goal, then getting a free kick decision completely wrong and giving the Italians the opening for their win against Scotland, but my old chum Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez was up to his old tricks today during the Germany - Austria match. Thirty three fouls in 90 minutes, three yellow cards (a bit slack, surely), and both managers ejected… all in a day’s work. Actually, for all that the Oracle of Glasgow Andy Gray was making some noise about Mejuto Gonzalez being a fussy referee, the game statistics don’t show that heavy a hand: the Turkey - Czech Republic game yielded 28 fouls, 7 yellow cards, and a straight red when noted Turkish goal-keeping bully Volkan Demirel (6′ 2″, 203 lbs) brutally knocked over defenseless Czech striker Jan Koller (6′ 6″, 227 lbs).

Perhaps it’s not that Mr Mejuto Gonzalez is a crap referee - but when he gets it wrong, he doesn’t do so in half measures.

Q: What’s the closest I’ll get to supporting Scotland in Euro 2008?

Excellent commentary for Turkey v. Czech Republic - like watching it with my extended family, except of course with actual knowledge of the game as opposed to boundless enthusiasm and an inherent knack for invective.

And here I thought that Holland was a sentimental choice for this tournament. I can’t think when I’ve enjoyed two games as much as their dissections of Italy and France - beautiful to watch, and with much to appreciate. How a team that theoretically has no defense has been able to soak up the pressure from the opposition is amazing - at one point during the France game, unless my eyes deceived me, even Rudd van Nistelrooy was tracking back and tackling. Speaking of, his ridiculous move to thread the ball backwards between two French players and start the move that led to a Dutch goal was a thing of delight - the sort of audacious ball control that you’d expect from a Brazilian team.

I’m past prognostication - somewhere between Germany losing to Croatia and Italy barely escaping from Romania with a draw, it became even more clear than usual that I know nothing.

I’m just hoping that the Dutch don’t crash out in the first game of the elimination stages. But even if they do, what a pair of opening games to leave behind.

Oranje!

… and the bar is set high.

I hadn’t written up much about the Euro 08 competition yet because aside from Turkey - Portugal, I hadn’t seen much that merited comment. And then Holland took the field against Italy. The first goal remains one that will generate pointless discussion for years, since it can be justified with a Supreme-Court level assessment of the rules of the game, but the second goal was as nice a counter-attack as you’ll ever see. Van Bronckhorst’s placement and pass, Kuyt’s perfect controlling header (I’m sorry about all the rude things I’ve said about you, Dirk), and Sneijder’s incredible volley.

The only reason that this hasn’t displaced Dennis Bergkamp’s goal against Argentina in 98 on my Dutch miracle goals list is that Bergkamp both controlled the pass and scored - but otherwise, I don’t see how you could pick between them.

Oranje!

For whatever reason, I haven’t been all that excited about Euro 2008. Maybe it’s the absence of post-colonial match-ups like Portugal - Angola in the last world cup, and the fact that almost everyone fought everyone else at some point, so why bother using historical punch-ups as a guide?

Now that’s nearly here though I shall drop the facade of sang froid, and get cracking with the shouting and screaming. This is the first major tournament for which I have a DVR, so I don’t have to play my usual game of guessing which games are worth recording and getting it horribly horribly wrong.

There are plenty of good previews that will give more than I ever could, so before you head off to the Guardian, my pick to win:

Pick by heart: Holland, despite the near total absence of defensive players. Oranje!

Pick by swashbuckling: France, with the incomparable Ribery

Pick by strength of team / ease of path: Germany.

P.S. I watched the final for Euro 2004 in the guest lounge at the Hotel Framnes in Grundarfjörður in Iceland. This time, I’ll be in a wedding in LA at exactly the time of kickoff of the final. How the mighty have fallen.

This is the extended disco mix of the list I left over in the comments at Doug’s splendid blog, in response to his presentation of 15 songs that mattered to him. What I’ve listed below is not in any way an exhaustive list, but it does capture a few moments in time.

1. Wings - Band on the Run. On heavy rotation for years in the car and the house, it reminds me of being in the back of a Peugeot 405 wagon in both Wales and Holland, like nothing else.
2. Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap. One of the first cassettes I ever owned, put on endless repeat when I was supposed to be sleeping at my grandparents’ house on the Christmas I received it.
3. The Police - Message in a Bottle. “Roxanne” wasn’t that big a hit in Europe, but I remember seeing the video on Top Pop (Hilversum 1 represent!) and even though I didn’t really know what these proto-new wave kids in the video were about, it seemed like a real change in popular music - this was when punks were still considered beneath public consumption, I suppose.
4. Ultravox - Vienna. Certainly not the first concept video I ever saw, but a step more ambitious than others I remember, and I also really liked the song. Plus, my brother who couldn’t have been older than 4, thought the chorus started, “Oh, piano,” which I still fill in when I hear the song now.
5. The Jam - Town Called Malice. It’s just a great song. In later years I would really get into the Jam’s back catalog, but this was an insanely catchy hit and I just loved it. The fact that it’s a shining example of people singing about how shit the UK was didn’t really sink in until later, but that has only increased its appeal. And the UK was shit in the late 70s and early 80s.
6. Flock of Seagulls - I ran. Even though I had heard it when it came out in Europe, this song will forever remind me of the first couple of months that we lived in California - driving to school from Port Hueneme to Camarillo, across the Oxnard Plain, past miles of farms, baking in California sun like nothing I’d ever seen and listening to this in heavy rotation on the Mighty 690.
7. Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls. The video was one of the first signs of the speed of change of Thatcher’s Britain as the recession of the early 80s ended. I remember watching that and thinking that only 3 years had gone by, and Britain had changed a lot. I loved the song, but it still gives me the same sense of being slightly sad about truly having left the UK and Holland behind. Oddly enough, I know that I’d had that same sense in person in 1984 when we went back for the first time from the States, but for whatever reason, this song is emblematic of it in a different way. Sometime between 1984 and 1986 I went from being an ex-pat to an immigrant, and that was philosophically a weird shift. West End Girls reminds me of the shift.
8. The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary. Just as my purchase of “No Sleep til Hammersmith” right before moving to the States in 1982 was indicative of a break with buying only what I saw on Top 40 shows, this song was the beginning of the end for a time when I listened to bad heavy metal and pretended that I didn’t like songs by Prince. Oddly enough, it was also a bridge to the two official malcontents in my (very small) high school class - they were a bit surprised that the conformist dork actually listened to something slightly out of the usual.
9. The Cure - Why Can’t I be you?. Aside from being a truly magnificent example of what the Cure could do when they got their pop on, it reminds me of the summer between junior and senior year in high school, of finally having a car, and being able to go sit on the beach with friends whenever the hell it seemed like a good idea. Living in a commuter town 35 miles from all my friends was no way to spend high school, at least not the way I did it at the time.
10. Jane’s Addiction - Mountain Song. I could have filled the list just with songs from my first year in college, but this remains the one that I destroyed my vocal chords to, in the privacy of my car. Despite the presence of at least 50 LAPD officers (there had been a stabbing at the show the night before), their concert at the Ford Amphitheater in LA remains one of the most electrifying shows I’ve ever seen.
11. Sonic Youth - Kool thing. I listened to a lot of hip-hop in the late 80s and early 90s, but there was a lot of nonsense that went along with the content. This was a welcome change of pace, a great propulsive song, and the presence of Chuck D was the cherry atop the sarcastic cake. (Along with “Kings of the Wild Frontier,” it also turned out to be a favorite song in common with Mrs DC Trojan, but I was a few years out from meeting her at the time.)
12. Primal Scream - Higher than the sun. Purchased at the old Tower Records on Sunset, a chance buy before it was an official “alternative must have.” Also reminiscent of shenanigans with a young lady, but that’s neither here nor there.
13. Goldie Presents Metalheadz - Inner city Life. I got on the electronica bandwagon with a vengeance in the 90s. There was an independent store in Providence that specialized in obscure imports where I picked up the Counterforce CD that this song comes from. I know I spent more time listening to Dubnobasswithmyheadman, but this track was the shit for me for some time.
14. Super Furry Animals - Wherever I lay my phone (that’s my home). I am a huge fan of the Super Furry Animals. Guerilla was the first CD of theirs that I bought, and it was like a breath of fresh air. This was the song they started live shows with for a while, and it’s just generally fab. It also supplemented “Stickshifts and Safety Belts” by Cake as “our song” between me and Mrs DC Trojan.
15. Leftfield - Phat Planet. Even though “The Last Broadcast” by Doves was the soundtrack of being a new father after the fact, this song was the exit track from being childless. Our older daughter was late, and Mrs DC Trojan was scheduled to go in for an induction. She went to the obstetrician for a final check, and the baby’s heart rate was irregular, so she was promptly sent to the hospital. I had been wrapping some things up at work but bolted as soon as I heard about this. As I was making my way up 16th St and not entirely obeying the speed limit, this was what I was listening to, and it is inseparable from that moment. Thirty six hours later, after 24 hours of labor and an unscheduled c-section, I had learnt that my wife is made of even sterner stuff that I had thought, and I had been hit with an emotional freight train the first time I held my daughter. I didn’t think it was possible to love someone so much, so quickly, far less have it happen twice.

As it turns out, Edwin van der Saar was the difference, saving Anelka’s penalty in sudden death for United to win 6 - 5. Not German, plainly (no need to write in, Dutch readers!) so perhaps you need a majority of Germans for a guaranteed win on penalties.

I think that I may have split the F5 key trying to keep up with what was going on.

The Champions League final has just gone to penalties. If football is a game played by 22 men and the Germans win on penalties, who’s going to win this one? I think Chelsea has the only German in the form of Michael Ballack. Perhaps Dutchman Edwin van der Saar might be close enough?

We wait in eager anticipation.