It’s hard to stuff this Turkey!
June 25, 2008
There’s 11 minute left in the semi-final between Turkey and Germany and Germany have just scored.
Putting them 2-1 up.
I was looking forward to watching the Germans after their superb win and performance in the last round I thought they would be super confident and break down a Turkish team who only have 13 fit players with comfortable ease. Turkey where bound to turn up and just kill the game weren’t they? Surely!
However I must say for most of the game Turkey have been the exciting, forward thinking team. Germany have found it hard to string together more than 2 passes at a time and apart from Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has been excellent in my opinion the whoile German teamn have looked less than average.
whoa whoa whoa…… Turkey have done it again, they’ve equalised!! 4 minutes left and it’s 2-2.
You have to say they deserve it and the Germans must have been idiots to feel they had this game won.
Turkey have done this 4 games on the trot now and you have to say that this time they thoroughly desrve to take something from this game!
It’s hard to stuff this Turkey!
June 25, 2008
There’s 11 minute left in the semi-final between Turkey and Germany and Germany have just scored.
Putting them 2-1 up.
I was looking forward to watching the Germans after their superb win and performance in the last round I thought they would be super confident and break down a Turkish team who only have 13 fit players with comfortable ease. Turkey where bound to turn up and just kill the game weren’t they? Surely!
However I must say for most of the game Turkey have been the exciting, forward thinking team. Germany have found it hard to string together more than 2 passes at a time and apart from Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has been excellent in my opinion the whoile German teamn have looked less than average.
whoa whoa whoa…… Turkey have done it again, they’ve equalised!! 4 minutes left and it’s 2-2.
You have to say they deserve it and the Germans must have been idiots to feel they had this game won.
Turkey have done this 4 games on the trot now and you have to say that this time they thoroughly desrve to take something from this game!
Croatia vs Turkey – 0-0 after 90 mins
June 20, 2008
The game has been a complete bore so far.
Croatia have tried to win the game but Turkey have closed the doors and seem to be happy to try their luck at penalties. An understandable ploy with the knowledge that their keeper is indeed a good shot stopper.
In fairness though you would have to feel for Croatia if they go out, as they are the only team trying to play some football.
I feel both of these teams would really struggle against a temam with any height in it though, but having said that, Croatia have already beaten Germany once and Turkey beat the Czech’s. Both of them boasting some tall players.
Roll on tomorrow when hopefully the Holland vs Russia game will be much better.
Croatia vs Turkey – could be the game of the round
June 20, 2008
Last nights game between Portugal and Germany was enough to wet the appetite of any one looking forward to the coming season of football.
Ballack was outstanding for the Germans and they thoroughly deserved the victory despite the Portuguese crying out for fouls and any other help they could get.
Tonight see’s Croatia take on an improving Turkey side. this game has not had any of the big billing that other games in the round may have had, probably due to the fact that neither team has what we would deem to be a superstar player.
What they do both have though are hard grafting team players, which Germany proved last night, can lay the brightest teams to the sword.
This is one of the reasons I am thinking this could actually turn into one of the games of the tournament.
Bilic has done what can only be described as an amazing job with the Croatia team. He always seemed to give 100% as a player and it is clear his players now look at him with huge respect. I guess he was one of the first players to emerge from Croatia into the big European leagues and the youngsters of Croatia who are now in his national team remember him as a man that helped put them on the map.
Let’s not pretend though that these guys can’t play football, their win over Germany was no fluke they where the better team fair and square. Whether they would have beat the Germany team last night is nether here nor there, as I don’t believe the croatia team would have allowed Germany to boss the game early on as the portuguese did.
Let’s not pretend that this is a walk in the park for croatia either.
Turkey have come good, and it wasn’t long ago they where world cup semi-finalists.
Their come back against the Czech republic was awe inspiring.
(I admit to turning the game off after Turkey went 2-0 down and switched it back on not too long after to see them win 3-2.)
I feel both teams want to raise their profile once again and I hope that the result will be an absolute cracker!
Swiss are the first team to roll! Euro 2008
June 11, 2008
Switzerland rolled out of the Euro 2008 competition this evening, beaten 2 -1 by the Turks.
On a water logged pitch, the two teams battled it out in the first half whilst it hammered down with rain. If this had been a league match it would of been called off after about 10 minutes but I think the referee was waiting to make a judgement at half time.
Unfortunately for him the Swiss scored and only a mad man would have denied them a chance to win. The home fans where absolutely bouncing and in fairness the Swiss where by far the better team. Even if the game did resemble a water polo match more than a football match at times.
At half time the groundsmen worked for the full 15 minutes trying to drain water off the ppitch and that may ultimately be what has sent the Swiss out.
The rain stopped and the pitch eased up a little which suited Turkey much better.
second half they where the better team and once they got back on level terms, despite Swiitzerland threatening on more than one occassion, I always felt Turkey would come out on top.
So Turkey live to fight another day and will fancy themselves to go through after this.
Portugal too good to win Euro 2008?
June 8, 2008
Well it’s started! Euro 2008 got under way with a better game than I expected actually. The Czech’s where a lot worse than I expected but the Swiss were spirited and it was an, as expected, even game. The swiss for me where the better team and I felt for them as they ended up coming from the game with nothing.
The second match saw Turkey play many people’s favourites Portugal.
I had tipped Turkey to cause an opening day upset, but from the kick off it looked very unlikely.
Portugal where too fast, too organised and overall just too good for the Turks to live with. There could have been several more goals against them with Portugal putting the ball in the net two times only to be dissallowed by the referee and they hit the woodwork I think three or four times.
They made it a good game Portugal, despite never really being in any trouble. They entertained and set
the bar high for any teams that where watching them looking at who is in with a chance and who’s not.
As I am writing this Germany have just scored against Poland. From memory I do not think Poland have ever beat Germany and from what I have seen so far here tonight, there’s little chance of that changing any time soon.
Germany are the tournament favourites. From what I’ve seen so far they don’t move as well as the Portuguese, they don’t pass as well as the Portuguese, they don’t seem to have the sparkling, twinkle toed approach as the Portuguese but they have something. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s just the knowledge that everyone still seems to dislike them, maybe it’s a certain amount of German ignorance, I’m not sure, but there is something there that tells me they look like they could win this thing!
You may ask yourselves why I keep overlooking the Portuguese, if they look so good why won’t I turn around and say I think they will win it? Well the answer is this. I think they are too good. I think recent history shows it’s not the best team in the tournament that wins it, it’s a bit of an underdog which is why, as I have said for the past few weeks I still think it will be Italy who win it. I wonder when the last time a team that is World Champions went into a tournament without even being amongst the top 5 favourites to win it?
So with half time approaching in the Germany Poland game I’m going to grab myself a beer and get ready for the second half and I reckon Germany could get another 2 goals yet!
3 days to go and counting!!!!
The opening day of a major tournament is quite often a cagey affair with no teams wanting to be the first to concede in a championship.
The opening games on Saturday are Switzerland vs Czech republic and Portugal vs Turkey.
I can’t see there being too much to get excited about in the opener and expect it to be a 1-1 draw, both teams have a couple of decent players but neither have anything that makes the pulse race and get me jumping off my feet.
The second game on that opening day of Euro 2008 though is a different story. Portugal are many peoples favourites, with the remarkable Christiano Ronaldo lining up to drive his country men on to greatness. Let’s not put them down as a one man team though as they are anything but. They have oodles of talent throughout in the likes of Deco, Nani, Gomes, Postiga and Carvalho and that is why I am thinking that perhaps the best time to play these guys is in the opening game. Hit them before they have a chance to get into their stride. A couple of games in they’re going to be hard to beat as players find their form and the team starts playing a high tempo, smooth passing game. Turkey therefore are in for a difficult opener but not an impossible one.
If they can hit the Portuguese early on and stun them with an early goal I fancy the Turks to cause an upset right there on day one!
Turkey, fresh from a 2-0 win against finland, are quietly fancying themselves to do a job on Portugal an I for one won’t be surprised to see them get that job done. My prediction Turkey 2 – Portugal 1
