Sheva, Azzurri top Euro 2012′s early bravura list

One round of matches down at Euro 2012, and two show-stopping performances to show for it.

Andriy Shevchenko brought the curtain and the house down Monday night in Kiev, a day after Italy warmed up the Gdansk crowd.

Don't underestimate the ripple effect of Sheva's two goals, his first brace in a Ukraine uni in eight years. He's given his side hope, and this tournament some wings. No host had won a Euro opener since 2000, and nothing unnerves a home country showing itself to the world like a first-time-out faceplant. The Opta chalkboard mapped it out, but seeing it, and especially that flashing near-post header that sealed a 2-1 comeback against Sweden, was as timely as it was stylish, after co-hosts Poland had blown a 1-0 lead against 10-men Greece on Friday.

[Dirty Tackle: Andriy Shevchenko: Remember this name]

Sheva. The Azzurri. You'd think we were back in the halcyon days of six or eight years ago, when the Euro wasn't all about austerity packages and bailouts.
As for Italy, it's a stretch to call them a darkhorse at any time, but they are the one team that caught my eye as exceeding expectations, their 1-1 opener with champion Spain better than the scoreline suggests. For one thing, it was more than their usual slow start, which was taken to a ridiculous nadir at the 2010 World Cup - they never really started at all - or the 2008 Euro, when as world champions they scraped into the knockouts and were promptly made to look ordinary by Spain, who they in turn made look quite average on Sunday.

Unlike 2010, Pirlo is healthy. Cassano is in (because Lippi 2.0 is long gone, replaced by Cesare Prandelli). Mario Balotelli is (barely) walking the straight line (and I mean walking, his nonchalant shuffle on a breakaway attempt he created all on his own recalling Leon Lett at the Super Bowl, and neatly showcasing the contrasting push pins of the combustible Balotelli grenade), and his sub Di Natale's finish off the Pirlo supply chain may well send him to the bench.

Converted midfielder Daniele De Rossi played the bedrock at the centre back of a shuffled 3-5-2, a gamble by Prandelli that paid off (De Rossi, along with Denmark's Simon Kjaer and Germany's Mats Hummels, get my vote for top defenders so far).
But resolute defending and counterattacking can be expected of Italy. Predatory finishing from a 35-year-old flickering star playing out the string and written off in many pre-tournament reckonings as an indication of a bare Ukraine cupboard is another item entirely. The Ukraine suddenly are first out of the gate in a group, and on a side of the draw, that always looked to be more open. Italy get a pivotal game against group leaders Croatia on Thursday that will confirm or deny their rebound status. Ukraine gets the chance to put France on life support Friday. It's about as decent a start to the tournament as you could expect.

[Martin Rogers: Who is Samir Nasri trying to quiet?]

A couple more random thoughts from here as we head into the formative stages:
-- Full marks to TSN's Jason De Vos for correctly and quickly explaining the offside rule as it applied to Croatia's second goal v Ireland. It's a tough thing to do, that. De Vos and newcomer Darren Anderton are meshing nicely as Canada's studio strike pair. Meantime, TSN reports a TV audience of 1.1 million viewers for Italy-Spain to top the early returns. The cable network's first four days averaged 707,000 - the CBC, by comparison, was at 956,000 average for the first round of the 2010 World Cup.
-- On the down side, a drop of the international feed on opening day led to a brief switchover to the ESPN broadcast, where Kasey Keller dropped this clanger on the Czech Republic's fading chances: "They're never going to get back into the ballgame doing that." Uh, I'm no Eurosnob, but "ballgame?"

Twitter: @HighParkCy.