Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Euro08 Coverage from Nabil Othman: Turkey vs. Germany

By: Nabil Othman

Despite a Turkish side that has made three impressive comebacks in the tournament, a 90th minute goal hit home by Germany’s Phillip Lahm was enough to elevate his side to a 3-2 victory.
To German and Turkish fans, the game was a cliffhanger. Around the 65th minute lightning struck at the site of the match in Basel, Switzerland, disabling the electronics that broadcasted the match to rest of the world. At that time the score was 1-1. While crews worked to fix the broadcasting problems, Miroslav Klose headed in a Bastian Schweinsteiger cross to put the Germans ahead in the 78th minute. Turkey, famous for their late comebacks, was not done just yet. In the 86th minute Semih Şentürk tapped a cross from Kazim Kazim past Jens Lehmann to even the score at two. Keep in mind that no one outside of Basel saw the goals. Although ESPN reported the goals on television, everyone, including myself, was on the edge of their seats, waiting to see if Turkey had one last trick up its sleeve; like the winning goal scored in the 92nd
minute by Turkish forward Nihat Kahveci against the Czech Republic in the quarterfinal.

With everything on the line, and no way to know see the game, millions of people worldwide waited on the edge of their seat for ESPN to report any late goals--and it did. In the 90th minute Phillip Lahm slotted a shot past Turkish goalkeeper Rüştü Reçber. Everyone in the world waited for another Turkish comeback, but it never came. Turkey had used up the last of its magic in Euro08. Although Turkey’s tournament ended, they earned a special place in European Championship history as being the only team to come from behind three times--one to tie and two to win. It was also Turkey’s first trip to the semifinals of a major international tournament. Along the way they earned respect as a team who would never accept defeat.

The Germans advance to the finals, playing the winner of the other
semifinal game between Spain and Russia.

Spain v. Russia will be on June 26th at
2:30 pm on ESPN.

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