UKRAINE 2-1 SWEDEN

You've gotta' love it when the big stars perform.

If goals were awarded to players based purely on fame and reputation, this game would have ended Sheva 2-1 Zlatan the Brand. And so it was.

Prior to joining Chelsea - the graveyard of already world class strikers (Torres, Casiraghi, Crespo) - Andriy Shevchenko was arguably the most complete centre forward in world football. Quick, two-footed, good in the air, and cool as you like.

Ice cool.

Skip to 6:45 in the video below, and watch him impatiently waiting for permission to win AC Milan the European Cup:



He knows he's going to score. He KNOWS he's going to score.

Like all great strikers, there's not a sliver of doubt in the young Ukrainian's mind.

And maybe that's the thing. Maybe it's only the arrogance of youth that can fail to understand the ramifications of missing that penalty. Never has an Englishman looked so calm in a penalty shoot out. The fear of failure hangs over them like an enormous Pizza Hut advert in the sky, ready to rain money down on their retired selves. Perhaps this is something that plagues many footballers in their late twenties.

By this point of a player's career they will have tasted defeat, suffered the pain of failure, and not want to experience it again. Not now they're approaching their peak. Is that why so few players genuinely fulfill their potential?

And why, so often, top players enjoy Indian summers in their thirties? Because the fear falls away and they start to enjoy themselves again, just like they did when they didn't know any better. The brevity of their playing careers shifting from paralysing to liberating. I don't know.

What I do know is that Shevchenko is one of the few players in this tournament who's older than me. Which is probably why I like him so much.

THE STORY SO FAR

Match of the tournament: Poland 1-1 Greece

Player of the tournament: Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine)

Goal of the tournament: Di Natale (Spain v ITALY)