Football: Euro 2008 End With Spain beats Germany 1-0 to win Euro 2008 title

VIENNA, Austria: Fernando Torres finally lived up to his billing as one of the world's great strikers Sunday by scoring to give Spain a 1-0 win over Germany and the European Championship title.

Torres, who had been overshadowed by teammate David Villa all tournament, scored in the 33rd minute of the final to down the three-time European champions and earn his nation's first major title in 44 years.

Touching a sliding pass from Xavi Hernandez past Philipp Lahm, Torres turned and ran past his marker on the opposite side, collected the ball and lifted a shot over sliding goalkeeper Jens Lehmann and into the far corner.

"My job is to score goals,'' Torres said.

"I want to win more titles and be the most important player in Europe and the world.''
Spain's Sergio Ramos, center, and Iker Casillas, right, celebrates with the trophy after the Euro 2008 final between Germany and Spain in the Ernst-Happel stadium in Vienna - AP

Spain had more chances but the goal was enough to give the country its first title since the 1964 European Championship.

"Spain played very well during whole tournament. and they were technically excellent,'' Germany coach Joachim Loew said.

"They fully deserve victory.''

In the end, Spain was a deserved winner of the 13th European Championship.

Long known as an underachiever that peaked between tournaments rather than at them, the team reached the final at Ernst Happel Stadium with a string of beguiling attacking displays orchestrated by a vibrant midfield - and held true to its values in the highest pressure match.
Germanfan reacts after the defeat - AP

Xavi, Andres Iniesta and David Silva swapped positions constantly against a midfield marshaled by Michael Ballack and eventually wore out their opponents until it seemed Spain was simply counting down time until the final whistle.

Red-shirted fans started to greet each successful pass with cheers of "Ole!'' before erupting into relieved delirium on the whistle.

The overjoyed players gathered to throw 69-year-old coach Luis Aragones into the air in celebration, while the massed ranks of Spanish fans sang themselves hoarse with "Viva Espana'' as fireworks went off overhead.

"It is the most imporant day in Spanish football in many, many years,'' Torres said.

Germany, playing in its seventh European Championship final, had a strong appeal for a first-half penalty turned down but, despite Ballack's imperious performance, could not find a way past the Spain defense.

Ballack's tender right calf had meant that, until right before kickoff, it looked like he was about to add a missed European Championship final to the World Cup final he sat out in 2002.

But he took his place in the lineup and, against a team with even slightly less skill and passion, could have been the driving force in another German win.
A soccer fan with German and Spanish national flags reacts at the ' Fan-Mile', a public viewing zone in central Berlin, Germany on Sunday during the last minutes of the final of the Euro 2008 soccer championships in Vienna - AP

"We had a great tournament, but made one mistake too many,'' Ballack said.

"We were lacking of power against a great Spanish team, we couldn't keep up with them.''

Germany dominated the opening exchanges until a lucky break in the 14th gave the Spanish their first chance on goal and a boost that clearly lifted their play.

"We controlled the game for 15 minutes, but had no answer after Spain found to its rhythm,'' Loew said.

"Spain played better. We couldn't match their level.''

On a rare foray forward, Iniesta sent a cross into the box from the left and Germany defender Christoph Metzelder stuck out a boot to send the ball rocketing toward his own goal.

Only a diving reaction save by Jens Lehmann kept it out and prevented an own-goal. Spain never looked back.

Per Mertesacker had to dispossess Torres in the area with a well-timed sliding tackle before Torres found space for a couple of dangerous headers.

He put the first just over the bar before sending the second against the foot of the post with Lehmann beaten.

Germany then was left to rue its luck in what could have been the decisive moment of the match in the 29th.

Fullback Joan Capdevila mis-controlled the ball and it clearly bounced up to hit his hand, but referee Roberto Rosetti waved away the appeals.

Moments later, Torres showed why he is rated one of the best strikers in the world. With leading tournament scorer Villa absent because of injury, Torres was again the sole outlet in attack.

He took Xavi's pass and finished off his chance by flipping the ball over Lehmann and watching it roll softly into the corner for his second goal of Euro 2008.

Germany replaced the struggling Lahm with Marcell Jansen at halftime but Silva still got in a 54th-minute shot that right back Sergio Ramos almost deflected in with a back heel.

Ballack, who had already received treatment for a head wound and was railing against every decision in Spain's favor, shot past the post and almost set up substitute Kevin Kuranyi with a cross that goalkeeper Iker Casillas just tipped away.

"We wanted to come back in the second half, but we just couldn't do it,'' Ballack said.

"For us, to reach the final was a great achievement. We have to be satisfied with that regarding the quality of the other teams competing.''

But aside from isolated passages of play, it was all Spain.

Ramos sent a diving header onto the bar from Xavi's deep cross, Iniesta almost scored with a near post shot that Torsten Frings just managed to block, and Senna just missed a cross in front of an open goal in the 82nd.

It was a dramatic change from the start of the match, when all the attacking had come from Germany.

Exploiting space left by Ramos, who was pushing forward down the wing and leaving captain Carles Puyol to cover, Miroslav Klose, Lahm and Ballack all found openings.

Klose could have had a shot in the third, but his poor touch took the ball out for a goal kick, Lahm sent a cross too far across the area, and Ballack beat Puyol before the recovering Ramos got a toe to the cross to deflect it from danger.

"We will analyze the next couple of days what went wrong and work on that for the near future,'' Loew said.

"Overall, the team had a great result, considering the other contenders, like Italy, France, or the Netherlands.''

Lineups:

Spain: Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila, Xavi Hernandez, David Silva (Santi Cazorla, 66), Marcos Senna, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas (Xabi Alonso, 63), Fernando Torres (Dani Guiza, 78).

Germany: Jens Lehmann, Christoph Metzelder, Per Mertesacker, Philipp Lahm (Marcell Jansen, 46), Arne Friedrich, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Hitzlsperger (Kevin Kuranyi, 58), Torsten Frings, Michael Ballack, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose (Mario Gomez, 79). - AP

European Championship Champions

2008_Spain

2004_Greece

2000_France

1996_Germany

1992_Denmark

1988_Netherlands

1984_France

1980_Germany

1976_Czechoslovakia

1972_Germany

1968_Italy

1964_Spain

1960_Soviet Union

Euro 2008 Finals Special Tips

Euro 2008 Tips for the Semi Finals this week in the Germany v Turkey and Spain v Russia matches are pretty straight forward to call. We are predicting that the final will between Germany and Spain as Turkey will hardly have eleven to select from following their injuries and suspensions. Germany have a real knack for winning these tournaments but we think once they get past Turkey they will have a much more difficult job in taking care of the Spanish in the Final at the Weekend. Spain were far superior to Italy but the Italians did what they do best and defended for a penalty shoot out and they got their just rewards with a defeat.

So a Germany Spain final await us and we have no doubts about who will take the Euro 2008 championship title. Spain have the class to finally come good as their seems to be a real harmony in the Spanish camp this time around and this will see them through, any team that can afford to leave out Fabregas has to be the winners of the competition.

It is simply incredible how each four years EURO brings unexpected results, promoting outsiders to favourites. In Portugal on EURO 2004 Greece were the squad no one expected to score a single goal, let alone advance from the group stage, and even the most optimistic fans didn’t even dream of winning of the tournament. The miracle has happened, and the Greek showed that nothing is impossible and brought hope to all future EURO participants that they can get the title.

The championship in Austria and Switzerland could end similarly. Only two weeks ago, even after the opening matches, few people gave chance to Turkey and Russia that they can achieve anything. Two weeks later, Turkey and Russia are playing in the semi-final and there aren’t many bookies ready to completely rule out the duels against Germany and Spain.

Russia vs Spain head to head stats:

Last 5 Russia matches:
21.06.2008	EURO 2008	Netherlands-Russia		1:1
18.06.2008	GROUP D	Russia-Sweden		2:0
14.06.2008	GROUP D	Greece-Russia		0:1
10.06.2008	GROUP D	Spain-Russia		4:1
04.06.2008	FRIEND	Russia-Lithuania		4:1

Last 5 Spain matches:
22.06.2008	EURO 2008	Spain - Italy		0:0
18.06.2008	GROUP D	Greece - Spain		1:2
14.06.2008	GROUP D	Sweden - Spain		1:2
10.06.2008	GROUP D	Spain - Russia		4:1
04.06.2008	FRIEND	Spain - USA		1:0

Last 5 Russia home matches:
18.06.2008	GROUP D	Russia-Sweden		2:0
04.06.2008	FRIEND	Russia-Lithuania		4:1
28.05.2008	FRIEND	Russia-Serbia		2:1
23.05.2008	FRIEND	Russia-Kazakhstan		6:0
17.10.2007	EURO Q	Russia-England		2:1

Last 5 Spain away matches:
18.06.2008	GROUP D	Greece - Spain		1:2
14.06.2008	GROUP D	Sweden - Spain		1:2
17.10.2007	FRIEND	Finland - Spain		0:0
13.10.2007	EURO Q	Denmark - Spain		1:3
08.09.2007	EURO Q	Iceland - Spain		1:1

Russia vs Spain head to head stats:
2004	EURO Q	Russia - Spain	0:1

Spain vs Russia head to head stats:
2005/2006	FRIEND	Spain - Russia	0:0

This Season Russia vs Spain head to head stats:
10.06.2008	GROUP D	Spain - Russia	4:1

Malaysia Oil Subsidy Analogy

Something I received from email on "subsidy" analogy. How true ???? may be economist will understand it

The story about "subsidy"…

A man called Maha owns a farm which can produce 10 apples every day.
He has 5 workers to operate the farm.
Each of them eats 1 apple daily and it is enough to keep them operating the
farm normally.
The remaining 4 apples, the landlord sells them at RM10 each and he earns
RM40.
He uses the RM25 to improve the farm operation and facilities.
He gives RM2.00 to each of his workers and he keeps the remaining RM5.00 as
profit.
Day by day, the farm is well developed and all of the 5 workers are happy
with the money they can save.

When Maha passed away and there is a new landlord, Abdul comes to continue
the farm operation.
He says to the workers:" We need to improve the farm quality and redefine
our way of thinking.
From now on all of you only need to pay RM1.00 for each apple you eat.
It is very cheap as the price is RM10 each outside the farm."
The workers have no choice but to pay RM1.00 for the apple they eat daily.
Their earning decrease from RM2.00 to RM1.00 per person.
As usual, Abdul sells the 4 apples and he gets RM40.
He uses RM25 for farm improvement and pays RM10 to his 5 workers.
He gets RM5.00 as profit. On top of that, he gets another RM5.00 from the
apples that he sells to his workers.
In total, he gets RM10 as profit every day.

Soon, the apple price increases to RM20 each.
The new landlord gets a higher profit as he gets RM80 for the 4 apples he
sells daily.
Then, he decides to give the farming improvement contract to one of his
close friend, Samy.
Samy says:"Apple cost naik, improvement cost also misti naik."
So, the farm improvement cost increases from RM25 to RM50.
In actual, the improvement only cost RM30.
The remaining RM20, Abdul and Samy share evenly among themselves.

Let's calculate how much Abdul gets daily:

RM10 (from farm improvement cost)
RM20 (Net profit by selling 4 apples: [Gross profit, RM80] - [Improvement
cost, RM50] - [Wages RM10] = RM20)
RM5 (from selling apples to his workers)

In total, Abdul gets RM35 daily compare to RM10 initially when he takes over
the farm from Maha.
His profit increases RM25 and the workers are still getting RM1.00 daily per
person.
The greedy Abdul does not want to stop there.
One day, he says to his fellow workers:" You see ah, the current market
price for one apple is RM20 and you are only paying RM1.
See how lucky you are! I have to SUBSIDY RM19.00 for each of the apple you
buy and total I need to SUBSIDY RM95.00.
This will greatly burden the farm and we might get bankrupt if we continue
like this.
In order to avoid bankruptcy, I need to increase the apple price that you
buy from RM1.00 to RM1.50 and I will bear the remaining RM18.50 per apple as
my subsidy to you all. "
So, greedy Abdul adds RM2.50 to his current profit and the number becomes
RM37.50.

After you have read the story, I am sure you have already understood the
meaning of "SUBSIDY" given by the government.

The RM95 subsidy never existed in the first place and so was the RM52
billion fuel subsidy generously "given" by the government

Cutting fuel subsidy is actually just a reason to steal money from your
pocket.
Are you gonna stand there and let them rob you

Disquiet >Of subsidies and corruption

SUBSIDIES are on everyone’s minds these days.

Even as the rakyat is faced with the bleak prospect of a more difficult future as the reduction of subsidies impacts on their lives, the government has to figure out how to go about unraveling subsidy frameworks that, though attractive when introduced, are now threatening not only the competitiveness of the nation but also its sustainability.

There are risks — social, political, economic — that need to be confronted in an environment not necessarily conducive to objective and rational consideration of the very crucial issues involved.

Though complaining, and vehemently at that, is tempting, it will not get us very far. The fact that to a large extent the subsidy problems we face today are the result of poor economic management in the past does not help address the situation. Political consequences will follow; we have to deal with the issue.

As in other countries, change is necessary. The question for us really is what changes should be made and how they are going to be managed.

We pay taxes in various forms; they are the principle source of revenue of the nation. It is mainly these funds that are used to pay for the operating costs of a given year.

In the social democratic framework that we are supposed to have, some of this money is to be used to provide for basic needs such as healthcare, schooling and essential infrastructure such as a reliable police force, efficient and effective regulatory frameworks, electricity and clean water, and roads. This is not just about building hospitals and schools; it is also about maintaining them and ensuring that the services provided are of sufficiently high standard. The same goes for roads, water and so on.

This is how it is meant to be in theory. If implemented, many of the basic needs of an average household would be taken care of, without the need for additional expenditure. A significant amount of the monthly earnings of the average householder would be freed up, making it easier to face the prospect of increased prices from the reduction or even elimination of subsidies.

The reality is, however, very different. Those who can, choose private schools and private hospitals, use toll roads, and employ private security guards or live in gated communities. Do not just take my word for it — ask the average minister what his or her lifestyle choices are.

These choices are not necessarily prompted by elitism. It comes down to confidence, or the lack of it.

The truth is that the public services are worryingly deficient, if not in levels of competence then in resources, to an extent that for many they are no longer a viable choice.

This is especially true where children are concerned. Parents want to give their children the best, often at great personal sacrifice.

In some cases, there is no question of choice. The privatisation of water, electricity and energy production and the steady increase in their pricing have had a domino effect that has left many having to manage increasing expenditure on shrinking earnings.

Too slowly, Malaysians have woken up to the painful realisation of how everything happening on the macro level around them has a direct bearing on their lives. The widening poverty gap is leaving us poorer by the day.

Which is why being able to depend on public services is so crucial. As we have however seen, that is not something we can do. What we are paying taxes for then?

It is indisputable that corruption has to a large extent pushed us into the corner we are. We are paying the hidden costs. Things are that much more expensive or that much more inefficient because somewhere, at our expense, someone is making a gain or someone who was not good enough is being given a contract.

And the reality is that when someone makes a corrupt gain in the millions of ringgit, that is our money being handed over. That is our right to development that is being denied.

It is a sad truth that many of us will suffer the impact of a removal of subsidies, and suffer badly for it, because we have been robbed of the means to face these challenges by endemic corruption.

We stand alone purely because the money we invested over the years to weave our safety nets has been stolen from us. There are no nets.

Managing change as such must involve increasing integrity, accountability and transparency.

Corruption cannot be a part of the equation. Improving public service, regulating effectively and efficiently where it is needed and ensuring that things are priced based on their value rather than the private needs of a fat-cat official, will make it easier for Malaysians to deal with increased prices where those are really needed.

That is the least this government can do for us. It will save a staggering amount of money from cutting back on subsidies, money that can be deployed more effectively and equitably. Money that leaves no room for excuse.

FENG SHUI YOUR BUSINESS CARD

Maybe you don't really give much thought to the design of your business card although you use it almost every day. To many people, a business card is just a little bit of cardboard, on which is printed their name, telephone number and other details about their company.

But don't overlook the significance of your business card. It may be one of the smallest items you carry around with you; yet, if the design of your business card is inauspicious, then it can wreak havoc on the running of your entire operation.

So, how do you Feng Shui your business card?

Begin by using auspicious Feng Shui dimensions. At least one side of your business card should be less than 5.1 cm (2 in). This is because anything from 5.1 cm to 16.5 cm (6� in) is inauspicious. The business card Lillian Too uses is less than 5.1 cm in both width and length. It's supposed to bring in an abundance of wealth.

In devising your company logo, you may be as creative as you like; but please be advised that designs with sharp, pointed or angular shapes are not favorable. It is much better to use rounded and curved shapes in your design. If your company has an inauspicious corporate logo then you must make sure that none of the sharp or angular parts are pointed directly at the company name or your name.

Besides that, you should always try to use harmonious color combinations which are auspicious as well. Since black printed on white is better than black printed on beige, white business cards are preferred over beige ones. Other auspicious color combinations include black with green, black with brown, black with blue, and black with all metallic colors. Avoid inauspicious color combinations such as black with red, black with orange, and black with yellow.

Lastly, aim for a well-balanced design for your card; since, Feng Shui is actually all about achieving balance and being in harmony with your surroundings.

So you see, when you Feng Shui your business card, you generate more luck for your business as well.