My word.
Everybody on the planet expected a cakewalk for Germany over the Turks, who have been defying the odds more or less since their first match at Euro 2008. I for one thought that the Germans, who looked pretty damn good against Portugal, would run right through the Turkish team weakened by injuries, suspensions, and generally punching above their weight. Well, that storyline wasn’t to be.
Turkey owned, absolutely owned Germany in the opening twenty minutes, rattling the woodwork once (should’ve been in) and scoring another. (Which also begs the question—when exactly did Mad Jens lose it? He’s been awfully shaky this tournament, although this hasn’t been a tournament you could use to advertise organized defending and sturdy goalkeeping.) Of course the Germans, being Germans, struck back almost immediately through a nifty chip by Schweinsteiger, who has been Germany’s best player by a country mile. The second half opened with more German domination and, ho-hum, when does the German goal come to finally knock this second-string Turkish team out?
Well, the goal comes in the 80th minute (tragically missed on TV by a global network outage) and it’s another German win. Except it isn’t, because in the 86th minute Turkey scores (another massive flub my Lehman and also tragically missed on TV by another global outage), and you just have to shake your head. Like Lazarus, there’s just no keeping Turkey down.
Unless of course you’re the Germans and you bury a #%$ing dagger into the heart of an entire nation when your left back romps up the field and friggin’ roofs the ball in the 90th minute (which gloriously was televised live).
Can you believe this tournament? I certainly can’t. Even if the other semifinal and the final turn out to be dogs, this has been the best tournament I have ever watched in my life. Eleven goals in four quarterfinal matches? And now five in a semifinal. Folks, that’s just unheard of. This game, like nearly all of the others, was played in an open, honest, and attacking fashion. Rhetorical question time: why can’t soccer always be this good?
Current Mood: Not Believing What I’m Seeing | 
3 Comments
why can’t soccer always be this good?
Two words: Sam Allardyce (and his ilk). (Okay, that’s five words, but the question was rhetorical, so who’s counting?)
Schweinsteiger rocks. Even his name is fun to say: Schweinsteiger. Jens Lehmann, well, he doesn’t rock, and his name is not fun to say. This has to be the last time we’re going to see him. Surely, SURELY, there is another German keeper who can be at least as confused as Jens. I thought this one would be pretty obvious from near the beginning: either Turkey’s luck would run out or the Germans would throw a gear. But it didn’t happen in the first half hour, or the first half, and then they just kept going at each other. Then I worried that they’d play until someone made a stupid mistake, but Lahm just came out of nowhere. I’m getting excited just remembering it. 100% Pure Alpine Awesome–no additives or artificial flavors.
His name is fun, even when I spell it incorrectly (now corrected).
I don’t follow the Bundesliga and therefore only know many of the German players via the German side, but I developed a bit of a man-crush on young Philipp Lahm in the last World Cup (as stated in these posts) and the love has only grown. I’ve seen him play a few times for Bayern in the Champions League and he’s quite a useful lil’ fella. For a left back to have that much composure to take his wide-open chance in the last minute of a semifinal is remarkable. His technique to open his hips and make it look like he was going far post, only to smack it high and hard into the near corner was a think of beauty to behold.
Echo all the above sentiments entirely, the games have been so outstanding. Schweinsteiger is energizing Germany through the tournament. His name translates to “Pig Climber” in German and I love him regardless. We watched the game last night downtown on an outdoor big screen in a crazy packed plaza, the hundreds of Germans lost it when Lahm scored, I mean they LOST IT! Then they sang and danced for the next hour. Unreal, so incredibly fun. You must seriously consider attending Euro 2012 wherever it is, I think the atmosphere beats the World Cup.