Turkey 2-3 Germany

Dang. I just caught sight of something I wrote on here last Tuesday or Wednesday about making the effort to get out to all the remaining games now that the tournament was coming to a head. So much for that.

 

Germany – you jammy bastards! I’m really feeling for Turkey right now, yet again they played a key part in one of the tournament’s most dramatic games, making the most of their limited resources that were even more depleted than usual through injuries and suspensions brought on by lung-busting efforts in previous games.

And bloody hell did they push Germany hard tonight. In fact, for a long time, the tournament favourites barely saw the ball. Turkey could already have been ahead before Boral knocked in, and when Schweinsteiger equalised there was a strong sense of it coming against the run of play. Klose gave them the lead following Rustu’s cock-up, but you almost knew that there was another twist – Semih making it 2-2. Shame there was one more twist after that, as Lahm compensated for a poor game defensively by scoring with a great finish.

What were Germany doing? They looked absent in midfield – even when Frings came on – shaky in defence, anonymous in attack and spent more time kicking the ball long and into touch than they did with it under control. Turkey have few stars but once again maximised what they have. Two seasons ago I watched Colin Kazim-Richards playing well sporadically for Sheffield United; now he was starring in a European Championship semi-final.

Metzelder and Lahm at the back seemed intent on defying my inclusion of them in a team of the tournament – the former in particular keen on whacking it straight through to Rustu at every opportunity. Friedrich looked like a chump of a right-back and Mertesacker looks like a penalty waiting to happen.

Yet despite all this, I don’t agree with most of the BBC pundits’ assessment that the Germans are an average team filled with average players. I thought there was a healthy dose of jingoism or the usual anti-German sentiment creeping in there. True, Germany were poor, but they weren’t horrendous. Turkey played well above themselves – probably the best they’ve managed so far – and Germany played below par. The result was still three goals and a win for Germany. Alan Hansen’s comment that their only star is Ballack is just more typically lazy Premiership-centric punditry. As good as Ballack is, many have played as well for them this summer – Podolski and Lahm to name but two.

The BBC. Christ. If only there hadn’t actually been a storm that cut off the picture, if only that had been an excuse – I was mentally penning a ferocious tirade against that bloody organisation. Something along the lines of “maybe if they’d invested my licence fee in some decent cabling instead of a fucking jolly for Jacqui Oatley and friends to produce another shit, tenuously-linked tedious piece of crap about Austrian history to fill the half-time break because Hansen, Shearer and Lineker are too busy scoffing at each others’ two-tone shirts and shiny brogues that they can’t be bothered to earn their six-figure salaries and actually make an interesting, insightful comment on the game they’re supposed to be watching, then I wouldn’t be sat here staring at a red screen and listening to Alan Green whinging about how bad a game it is or listen to Chris Waddle say the word ‘pelanty’ for the nth time”.

But no. God concocted a storm. Thanks a bunch.

Nonetheless! Motson and “Lawro” drove me bonkers again. Lawrenson – look, pal, just because people refer to you as “Lawro”, it doesn’t mean they like you. It’s just that when people spend so much time calling you a tosser, they develop a certain amount of familiarity if not affection.

Motson: “It’s really getting dark overhead, isn’t it Mark?” IT’S CALLED NIGHT YOU MORONS.

There was one gloriously awesome moment when the pictures returned post-power cut, the Five Live commentary stopped, and we were treated to 10 beautiful seconds of crowd noise before Motson came back on. BBC Interactive offer the choice of picture with Five Live comms, but they’re still missing a trick in not offering the opportunity to turn the commentary off altogether and just live off the atmosphere in the stadium – as though you were actually there.

If it’s good enough for Pro Evolution Soccer, it should be good enough for the Beeb.

Anklewatch: I’m hopeful of being mobile enough to get out of my house for the final. Regardless, I can now confidently say that despite my best intentions, I’ll have gone the whole tournament without supporting the Germans.