Euro08 coverage from Nabil Othman: Spain vs. Russia

By: Nabil Othman

Today soccer fans witnessed a match much different match than the semifinal between Germany and Turkey. The Spanish easily defeated Russia by a score of 3-0.

The match saw few chances for the Russians who had their hands full stopping a lethal Spanish attack led by Cesc Fabregas, who came on as a 34th minute substitute for an injured David Villa.

Until Fabregas entered the match, both sides were evenly matched in possession and shots. However this would not stay the same. From the 34th minute on the Spanish relentlessly attacked the Russians resulting in goals from Xavi Hernández, Daniel Güiza and David Silva. Fabregas assisted on Güiza and Silva’s strikes. He also fed the ball to Andrés Iniesta, who assisted on Spain’s first goal scored by Xavi Hernández.

This was an uncharacteristic game for the Russians, who up to this point in the tournament showed they could contend with the traditional soccer superpowers. Today they came out flat, and were outplayed. Even though Russia has a very youthful squad, none of the energy they displayed against Sweden and Holland was shown. Russia is in no way subordinate to the Spanish, the Spanish simply came to play; the Russians did not. Although Russian was eliminated, their semifinal finish is the best the national team has achieved since the fall of the USSR. They defeated Sweden, Holland and Greece: the winner of Euro04. Euro08 undoubtedlytaught the young Russian squad a very important lesson: victory is earned by the team which plays the best on the day of the match, not given based on past accomplishments.

The finals between Germany and Spain will be played on Sunday, June 29th at 2:30 on ESPN.

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.