Turkey (National Football)

Turkey had fought an uphill battle for the majority of the Euro tournament. Overcoming the Czech Republic late in the game to fight off elimination, defeating Croatia with the injuries and suspensions of seven players, and then facing Germany for the chance to compete for the European Championships for the first time.

Still facing the same roster handicap going into the semi final match, Turkey seemed confident. Having bested Croatia, who defeated Germany in the groups, Turkey had every reason to believe that they had a good shot.

This confidence showed as soon as the match started. Turkey was the dominant squad in the first half, scoring first and looking strong for the first 45 minutes. Germany wasn't going to take defeat lying down however, scoring only five minutes after Turkey got on the scoreboard.

The score remained even well into the second half. Germany looked like the stronger club in the back end, but couldn't hit the back of the net until eleven minutes left in the game.

Turkey is well known for late goals and come-from-behind victories, and the last ten minutes were very exciting to watch. Turkey was working so hard to tie it up that I believed this underdog team could actually come back and send this game into overtime. Then they did it, Turkey scored with four minutes left in the game.

The Germans had no desire to go home now, after fighting so hard to make it this far. They continued to use their momentum from the goal earlier, even after Turkey scored, to prevent this game from going into overtime. Turkey has won most of their games in the final ten minutes or later, and that thought probably motivated the German team to get this over with now.

That's exactly what Germany did. Philipp Lahm scored just as the game went into stoppage time to end Turkey's Cinderella story. It was still a great run for Turkey, making it to the semi- inals was a good milestone for the team to reach. 

I'm sure that the Turks will be back with the same motivation for the World Cup and the next European Championships after seeing their performance this year.

The Turkish side had so many more opportunities to score, getting fifteen shots on goal over the course of the game. Germany's goaltender Jens Lehmann did a great job stopping the shooting onslaught from the Turks to send Germany into the finals against Spain or Russia.

My money is still on Spain.

For the first time in Euro 2008, Turkey found out what it is like to get off to an early lead. Also for the first time, they found out what it is like to have that lead snatched away from them.

Right up until the final moment of the match, soccer fans dared to believe that something miraculous would happen—that the plankton would eat the whale.

Sadly for Turkey, harsh reality broke in to spoil the dream, courtesy of Philip Lahm's boot, and at the worst possible time. The irony was that Lahm may have been lucky to be there at the end to kick that goal.

Early in the second half, Lahm committed multiple fouls against Topal, but did not get carded. Indeed, the referee appeared to have a "look the other way" attitude, as he later denied a penalty appeal against Sabri by Lahm (this effectively caused the German bench to go ballistic, but the iron-hearted ref was not swayed one bit by the emotional outburst).

Turkey got off to an amazing start and clearly out-played the Germans for most of the match. This is what makes the result so agonizing. The final was so close; the Turks must have almost been able to taste it.

Five minutes in, Ugur Boral was pressuring the German defense, running the ball in from the left to attempt a cross, but the shot was blocked by Metzelder, who actually sent it toward his own goal—unfortunately putting it well over the bar!

The attack during these opening minutes was relentless.  Again and again the Turks took the ball into the German half, with three shots on goal within a span of three minutes.

Then, in the 13th minute, it looked like they would seal the deal against the floundering German team, when Colin Kazim-Richards fired home a mighty shot only to have it devastatingly hit the bar.

Moments later, Ugur Boral was once again poised to strike fear into the Germans, and this time he also struck a goal. The entire Turkish attack force was in overdrive, with Sabri, Kazim-Richards, and Ugur Boral running rings around the opposition and brilliantly assisting each other to set up the shot.

The goal itself was nothing flashy, but it put them on the board. Turkey 1-0 over Germany after 22 minutes. Amazing stuff!

Schweinsteiger was able to equalize four minutes later, then some good defensive work from Gokhan Zan helped ensure that Germany would not go into the half-time break with an advantage. 

Lukas Podolski had managed to get clear and set up a cross to Miroslav Klose, but Zan saw the move coming and intervened just in the nick of time.

By half-time, Turkey had fired at goal 15 times (11 of them on target), to a measly three shots from Germany.  The score was 1-1, but Turkey definitely had put a shock to the Germans, who so far were only just holding up under the pressure.

All that hard work during the first 45 minutes must have been beginning to punish the Turkish team. The pace of the second half had nowhere near the intensity, even if it did have moments of drama.

The referee made several highly controversial decisions in this half. Failing to penalize Lahm for his blatant foul against Topal, then denying Lahm a penalty of his own, before awarding a totally undeserved yellow card to Semih Senturk.

There was no let-up in the dramatics, as a power cut caused mayhem! For a full six minutes, there was no television coverage of this all-important match. 

Agony!

Shortly after this, the power once again went off and during the two or three minutes that only those at the stadium had an opportunity to see, Miroslav Klose headed in Germany's second goal, putting them in the lead.

Turkey, as usual, didn't let the pressure get to them. Within three minutes, they had leveled things up again. Sabri Sarioglu teased the ball around Philip Lahm and found Senturk, who tipped it into the net in the 86th minute.

It seemed that once again Turkey was going to follow the script that had seen them get through to the semi-final. With only four minutes remaining in regulation time and the score level at 2-2 (this, in itself, a remarkable achievement), extra time loomed ominously.

Then the unthinkable! On the very last tick of regulation, Philip Lahm made up for all his blunders by engaging in a steamy duet with Hitzelsperger down the left side of the field, outsmarting Rustu Recber to land the ball cleanly in the net.

Although the ref was feeling generous and added three minutes of injury time, the game was effectively over.

Turkey, who had put so much heart into all of their games, had lost to Germany. Notice, that I do not say they were beaten by Germany, because it is perfectly clear that although Germany won the match, they clearly did not "beat" Turkey.

To lose to Germany would have been disappointing anyway. To lose under the circumstances, with Germany being the clearly inferior team, able to snatch a lucky break to steal the victory, was devastating. 

Nobody, not even the Germans, should feel good about this result.

Turkey, decimated by injuries and suspensions, had taken on the full-strength German team, outplayed them, and still lost.

For the Germans, this victory will not sit easily. They have shown they are not the team they should be. Can they, on this form, beat either Spain or Russia?

Logically, no. But perhaps that oh-so-irritating German luck will come to the rescue once more.

A few months ago, Halil Altintop sent out a warning that bordered on prophecy.  Nobody, it seems, cared to listen.

"We are not at the same level as Germany, France or Italy," he said. "But on a good day, we're capable of beating anyone."

That simple statement sums up a good part of the reason why Fatih Terim's squad have had so many "good days" recently. They simply do not concern themselves with what has happened in the past, not only in terms of history, but even within the space of a 90 minute game.

The fact that Turkey entered this tournament without a record that even comes close to rivals such as Germany did not put them off. What mattered to Turkey was that they were there. Plenty of teams with better long-term records, England, for example, are not.

Such issues as whether Turkey is better than England are completely irrelevant. Because Turkey is playing, while the English can be involved only as spectators.

Here's another thing: Turkey are still there. And again, there are plenty of "better" teams who are not. Italy, Holland, France and Portugal have all been dismissed, yet all would start as strong favorites in any bookmaker's market against Turkey.

Starting the tournament with a 2-0 loss to Portugal also didn't faze them enough to prevent them from bouncing back to win their next match.

Being behind early in the past three matches didn't dent their spirit too much either, as on each occasion they have rallied back for a dramatic win.

Turkey, more than any other team, has been plagued with injuries and suspensions, yet even this has not crushed them. 

Now they hope to achieve their fourth straight win when they face Germany. History suggests that Germany should have no trouble defeating Turkey. Recent events, however, tell a quite different story.

Despite their misfortunes, Terim's team is confident, and even if Germany win the match, they must do so the hard way. The Turks are not about to go out quietly without a fight.

"We have courage and believe in our chances," says Terim. "We respect Germany, but we are not afraid of them."

Who can say if Halil Altintop's words of so many weeks ago were prophecy or mere bravado? Regardless, one thing we must all have learned during the past two weeks is that Turkey does not need a miracle. All they need is a good day.

I was carefully reading through the college football page on ESPN.com to see if I had somehow missed anything interesting to read, and luckily for me, I had—a great article by Pat Forde about the dead zone that is the month of June in college football, and Mark Schlabach's uselessly early bowl prediction...both of which apparently had been recently added or went unnoticed the last time I checked the site.

I also re-read Schlabach's preseason top 25, which has LSU at No. 12.  That doesn't bother me, given the quarterback situation and the tough road schedule.  What does bother me is that Clemson and Texas Tech are ranked ahead of the Bayou Bengals.

Not to discount the...ahem...other Tigers, or the Red Raiders, but when is the last time Clemson actually lived up to preseason expectations?  And really Mark?  Texas Tech?  An adequate QB in a spread formation with a flashy wide receiver and a supposedly "improving" defense doesn't impress me.

I'm not saying they don't deserve to be in the Top 25, but they aren't in the same league of talent that division rivals Texas and Oklahoma inhabit, while LSU most certainly is.

Anyway, back to Schlabach's bowl predictions.  He predicts Georgia and Ohio State (ugh) for the national championship game.  He also thinks LSU will play Texas in the Cotton Bowl, which I think is an accurate estimation of what both teams should expect this year: good, but one win short of a BCS game.

Check out the links of the day for the articles mentioned, or go to the college football page on ESPN.com and look for "midsummer night's dream," " revised top 25," and "bowl predictions."

In other sports news, Germany will play Turkey tomorrow (or I guess today) at 1:45 in a Euro 2008 semifinal.  It's either on ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC. I've lost track since apparently ESPN and ABC are the same channel (if you don't know what I'm talking about, look for the channel logo on the screen during the game tomorrow—you'll see what I'm talking about).

This game is interesting because of the Turkish squad that will not go away.  In the group stage of the competition, they were the only team to come from behind to win in a meaningful game, beating host country Switzerland with two second-half goals after being dominated in the first half.  (Spain did it to Greece in their last game, but Spain had already won their group and Greece had been eliminated.)

They followed that up by climbing out of a 0-2 hole against the Czech Republic with three unanswered goals, two of which came very late.  This knocked the Czechs out of the tournament and secured the Turks' spot in the next round.

They played Croatia in their Quarterfinal matchup.  The two teams went scoreless through 90 minutes of normal time and 29 minutes of extra time before Croatia scored what appeared to be the game-winner with less than a minute to play.

But in soccer the clock never stops, so a thing called stoppage time is added on to the end of the game to make up for the lost time when the ball goes out of play or if there is an injury.  So in this game, some time was added on to the end to make up for the lost time because of the Croatians' celebrations.

During stoppage time, the Turks pressed to tie it up, and so the ref undoubtedly decided to give them one last chance when the ball was cleared by the Croatian defense about a minute in.  The Turks took advantage by scoring on what would be the last kick of the game, sending the game to penalty kicks.

Turkey won the PKs easily and completed their third straight come-from-behind win, in a sport that rarely sees lead changes...check out the vids at the bottom of the page to see highlights.

With all that said, I'll be rooting for Germany...heh.

With so many "experts" declaring that Germany will wipe the floor with Turkey, it would be easy to forgive the Turkish side for being a little awed at facing their toughest opponent so far in Euro 2008.

But according to Semih Senturk, a striker from Fenerbache who has already kicked two goals from four matches in this tournament, Turkey are not intimidated by such predictions.  In fact, they are feeling more determined than ever.

"We will be confident in ourselves against Germany. We know what we have achieved and we are proud of it," he said.  "I think Germany will have some fear playing against us, because it is a one-off match and the loser will be going home."

Such confidence is not completely misplaced.  The German team has struggled in this competition so far, and have only won once by more than one goal.  Against Portugal, they were able to make use of a height advantage to complete some good technical set-pieces.  They have no such advantage here, however.

Semih Senturk himself is 1.83m tall, only a fraction shorter than Michael Ballack, and actually taller than most German players, including Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.

At the other end of the field, Turkey have Recber Rustu (1.86m), the hero of the match against Croatia.  In that game, he made six saves, proving that being 4cm shorter than regular keeper Volkan Demirel was no handicap.

In between, they have several other players who are taller than 1.8m, and one worthy of particular mention is Hamit Altintop (1.82m), who will play at mid-field.  What makes him so important to Turkey is that he is a member of the same Bayern Munich team that many of his opponents in the semi-final belong to.

This means he could possibly provide his team with valuable insight into the tactics that might be employed against them. Altintop has played well in his four matches, having assisted with two goals. 

It may be tempting for Fatih Terim to risk some of his injured players in this clash, but hopefully he will resist the urge.  There are many other Turkish players who have the talent and passion to take a strong game to the Germans, and they should be given their chance.

Yes, it is true that Turkey are battered and bruised.  But if Tiger Woods can win the U.S. Open standing on one leg, then Turkey can potentially overcome their "handicap" and continue their winning streak.

Semih Senturk is one of many eager to go into battle.  They have something to prove and nothing to lose.  And in the words of Senturk himself: "Everybody thinks Germany are favourites against us, but it is only motivating us even more."