Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey

Moderators: kdawg32086, magik9113

User avatar
Point forward
Head Coach
Posts: 6,200
And1: 285
Joined: May 16, 2007
Location: Eating crow for the rest of my life :D

Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#1 » by Point forward » Fri Jun 20, 2008 11:21 pm

On Wednesday, a full scale intense-but-100%-friendly civil war (euphemistically known as "Euro 08 Half Final match I") with strong intra-German influence will take place between following combattants:

ImageGERMANY aka KRAUTLAND
QF win vs Portugal 3-2; W vs AUT 1-0; L vs CRO 1-2; W vs POL 2-0
Image

ImageTURKEY aka KEBAPLAND
QF win vs Croatia 5-2 a.P.; W vs CZE 3-2; W vs SUI 2-1; L vs POR 0-2
Image

KEY PLAYERS
ImageImage
Germany will rely on the power soccer of Chelsea's Michael Ballack to set things straight. He the heart and soul of Germany and a defensive and offensive dynamo. Always clutch in big games, and single-mindedly thirsting for the first international victory of his career. The second key player is Bayern Munich striker/winger Lukas Podolski, who is a versatile and dangerous left footed attacker.

ImageImage
Turkey will miss several key players (see below), so Podolski's Bayern team mate Hamit Altintop (right midfield) will be vital for them. He is a versatile playmaking winger with a hard and precise shot. Striker Semih Senturk is theman for the important goals, scored the vital 1-1 vs SUI and the life-saving 1-1 vs CRO plus a penalty.

EDIT: I originally listed Nihat, but he is also injured now, duh!

X FACTORS
ImageImage

Germany's X-Man is Bastian Schweinsteiger. Horrible in the first 2 matches but superb in the QF, he is the German ace in the hole. Incredibly inconsistent, but if he swaps his usual ball hogging and bad crosses for unstoppable dribblings and deadly shots, he can decide matches alone. On the Turkish side, goalie Rustu Recber is like Two-Face: jaw-dropping lapses mix with moments of sheer genius. He can also single handedly decide matches – both ways.

MISSING PLAYERS
Man oh man, Turkey is hit HARD by injuries, red card and 2nd bookings. Goalkeeper Volkan, winger Arda Turan, defender Emre Asik and playmaker Tuncay Sanli will certainly miss the game b/c of yellow and red cards. Defenders Emre Belozoglu and Servet Cetin are injured and at least highly questionable. Gokhan Zan is playing through injury, too. On the other hand, midfielder Mehmet Aurelio will return. EDIT: Nihat is also injured and is probably done for the tourney. Backup guys who are injured, too, are Tumer and Emre Gungor.

Germany is much better off. Midfielder Frings has broken ribs, but could play… but IMHO his sub Rolfes did a great job last game.

QUESTION MARKS
Germany is the quintessential KO round team, but the defense Metzelder/Mertesacker has been looking shaky so far. Also, Germany has difficulties if they have to dictate the flow of the game, they rather let the enemy come and counter like vs POR. Turkey is so heavily hit by injuries and cards that they can hardly field anything resembling a defensive line. But as you all know, Turkey has been the master of turning games around in the last 300 seconds.

RECENT HISTORY
Barring games from prehistoric times (i.e. when Turkey played the West/East Germanies), the score is surprisingly even. In the qualification campaign for EC 2000, Turkey beat Germany 1-0 after a blunder of Oliver Kahn, and clawed themselves to a goalless draw in the return game. In 2005, Germany won the hiterto last game 2-1.

MISC INFO
I think it is time to elaborate the special relationship between our two countries. When Germany's industry thrived during the 1960s, they massively recruited foreign workers ("Gastarbeiter"), and the majority were Turkish. For a long time, Germans chauvinistically looked down at them, but just as the South Americans integrated themselves into the USA and made it a better place, the Turks integrated into Germany and made it a better place, too. Imagine a game between Caucasian U.S. Americans and Hispanic U.S. Americans, and you about know how we feel about this match here. Man, are we fired up!!

CONCLUSION
Germany is the clear cut favorite. Turkey is so heavily hit by losses that they would lose 9 out of 10 matches against GER… but only 9. Let’s see if Cinderella can do it one more time, but the odds are heavily stacked against them if they play the KO match masters Germany.

Here in Germany, we erupt in civil war, but in the most positive way. NOBODY will even THINK of NOT watching this match. MAN O MAN, this will be the most FUN match EVER. I expect oceans of German black-red-gold and Turkish red half moon crescent flags on the streets at Wednesday evening, and huge masses of people shouting and screaming in happy anarchy. If TUR should win, then they should win it all, but I OF COURSE firmly think that GER will end the Turkish highflying with a 2-0 win. Right, Gulcan? :lol: (small German-Turkish insider joke)

Image
Jogi Löw to Mario Götze wrote:Show the world that you are better than Messi.
User avatar
El Turco
GOTB Fantasy Basketball Ultimate 2x Champion
Posts: 52,133
And1: 20,560
Joined: Apr 11, 2007
Location: Frisco
     

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#2 » by El Turco » Sat Jun 21, 2008 12:02 am

Great thread...

This is probably going to be most intense game in recent european football in terms of fanfare, it would ve been that much better if we could put out a competitive squad out there but you cant have it all i guess :). I would ve loved, LOVED, to be in Europe cheering along with my people, you Germans are quite lucky. Celebrations should already be underway and will continue rest of the way and at the end this game should unite people like no other game in history. My uncle and aunt are German nationals married to Germans and living in Germany, they are pretty torn but you wont see sad faces at the end of the game.

As for the game, i would ve given us at least 50% chance if we had a full squad but we lost almost all of our defenders and midfielders and already shown some fatigue against Croatia. I dont expect a W but i expect my boys to put out a fight and bow down gracefully.

Anybody knows the UEFA regulations/rules regarding injury replacement call-ups? i would love to see Yildiray Basturk and Halil Altintop out there against Germans.
TheLowlySquire wrote:Wow, Arda! Huge!


Howard Mass wrote:Arda is not a terrorist. Arda is a good person.
User avatar
Point forward
Head Coach
Posts: 6,200
And1: 285
Joined: May 16, 2007
Location: Eating crow for the rest of my life :D

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#3 » by Point forward » Sat Jun 21, 2008 12:17 am

This will be a GOAT game from GER-TUR point of view. Flagwaving will reach a new level here in Krautland :)

IMHO you can additionally nominate extra GKs if you lose 2 goalies, and extra players if your available player count drops below 17 (11 plus a 6 man bench). When we won Euro 96, we were so badly hit by injuries that we only had the starting 11 plus reserve GKs Kahn and Reck plus Schneider, Häßler and Bierhoff, so we could additionally add Todt to make it 17.
Jogi Löw to Mario Götze wrote:Show the world that you are better than Messi.
User avatar
BlackMamba
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 16,297
And1: 81
Joined: Jun 20, 2004
Location: Cd. de M
         

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#4 » by BlackMamba » Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:37 am

i agree, it's going to be a very very intense game. we could be within days of experiencing one of the best games in recent times.
User avatar
kandiking
Sixth Man
Posts: 1,551
And1: 1
Joined: Jul 21, 2007

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#5 » by kandiking » Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:59 am

I'm sure that the intensity will be extremely high. as an american one of the most memorable experiences of my life was in the florence town square when italy won WC 06.
Vindicater wrote:KWSN-Men is by far my favourite poster on realgm. He just takes so much punishment and just keeps coming back for more.
User avatar
El Turco
GOTB Fantasy Basketball Ultimate 2x Champion
Posts: 52,133
And1: 20,560
Joined: Apr 11, 2007
Location: Frisco
     

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#6 » by El Turco » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:42 am

Image

apartment building in Cologne :lol:
TheLowlySquire wrote:Wow, Arda! Huge!


Howard Mass wrote:Arda is not a terrorist. Arda is a good person.
User avatar
El Turco
GOTB Fantasy Basketball Ultimate 2x Champion
Posts: 52,133
And1: 20,560
Joined: Apr 11, 2007
Location: Frisco
     

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#7 » by El Turco » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:45 am

some gems from BBC...

why the presumption that, because turkey are missing a number of players, they'll automatically lose to germany?
of course they won't. okay, they might concede two or three goals, they might look dead and buried by the 87th minute, but they'll still win. they're like the b-movie monster that keeps getting back up, no matter how many times you kill it.


I think a smart strategy for the germans in this game is to not score goals against turkey

[quote]
TheLowlySquire wrote:Wow, Arda! Huge!


Howard Mass wrote:Arda is not a terrorist. Arda is a good person.
User avatar
bacid
Ballboy
Posts: 23
And1: 0
Joined: Jun 15, 2008
Location: Vienna

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#8 » by bacid » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:34 am

Ok the german "bild Zeitung" is already writing that it's gonna be a easy win against the turks. But I think that the german team is very scared of Turkey even with all the red cards and injuries. They have to make sure they that they have 2 goals more than us in the final minute. Then they can start celebrating :lol:

Go TURKEY!!!!!
User avatar
Sleepy
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 5,589
And1: 68
Joined: Jul 08, 2005
Location: The Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt.

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#9 » by Sleepy » Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:32 am

Jogi Löw will order some silver bullets to hand them out to our players... those turks are hard to kill.

Some guardian bits, as the other thread is already locked:

GOAL! Croatia 1-0 Turkey (Klasnic 119): Poor old Rustu. A Croatia attack down the wing, the cross is deflected and it's dribbling toward the dead-ball line. Inexplicably, Rustu chases after it, Modric beats him to it, chips it back across and Klasnic wins it in the air to nod home. Croatia are heading to the semi-finals!

GOAL! Croatia 1-1 Turkey (Semih 120) Er, eh? Rustu lumps a free-kick forward, the ball drops on the edge of the area and Semih lashes it home. An utterly remarkable finish to an entirely unremarkable game. And that's it, we're going to pens.

[...]Penalties[/...]

An object lesson in how not to take penalties from Croatia. Well, with no England there someone had to do it.

So it's Turkey v Germany in the last four. And Turkey, so the BBC commentator tells us, have been in the lead for around two minutes of the 390 they've played in the tournament so far.


Another random observation: Most, if not all, Turkish Shops and Döner Restaurants I passed today were closed... go figure :wink:
Image
User avatar
Basti
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 37,470
And1: 3,678
Joined: Sep 07, 2005
Location: Æ ha en ståkukk!
   

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#10 » by Basti » Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:01 am

as I said it in the other thread, Berlin (especially the Central-Berlin) will be HELL but a positive hell. damn I'm reeeeeeaaaaaaaally excited.
tkb
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 10,759
And1: 198
Joined: Mar 19, 2005
Location: Norway
   

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#11 » by tkb » Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:32 pm

Nice thread. Turkey has made an impressive run in this tournament. I'm supporting Germany in this game tho.
User avatar
BlackMamba
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 16,297
And1: 81
Joined: Jun 20, 2004
Location: Cd. de M
         

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#12 » by BlackMamba » Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:59 pm

turkey will be missing 9 players?
User avatar
b-ball forever
General Manager
Posts: 7,737
And1: 498
Joined: Mar 17, 2006
Location: So long Jason Kidd

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#13 » by b-ball forever » Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:36 pm

I live in the Turkish/Indian quarter of town, and the whole area went friggin ballistic last night...

The Turks have been impressive as hell so far, they're unconscious, but this shud be where the fairy tale ends. Don't see how they can beat the Mannschaft with so many casualties.
Germans better not sleep on the Turks still, gotta keep that loss vs Croatia stuck at the back of their heads!
Image
User avatar
Point forward
Head Coach
Posts: 6,200
And1: 285
Joined: May 16, 2007
Location: Eating crow for the rest of my life :D

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#14 » by Point forward » Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:44 pm

And the Turkish injury woes go on. Nihat injured his leg and is probably done for the tourney. :(
Jogi Löw to Mario Götze wrote:Show the world that you are better than Messi.
User avatar
El Turco
GOTB Fantasy Basketball Ultimate 2x Champion
Posts: 52,133
And1: 20,560
Joined: Apr 11, 2007
Location: Frisco
     

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#15 » by El Turco » Sat Jun 21, 2008 4:40 pm

UEFA needs to let us call up injury replacements or we are going to watch one boring semi final in what has been a hell of a tournament. Us playing without Tuncay, Arda and Nihat is like Boston playing Lakers without Garnett, Pierce and Allen.
TheLowlySquire wrote:Wow, Arda! Huge!


Howard Mass wrote:Arda is not a terrorist. Arda is a good person.
Captain_Obvious
Lead Assistant
Posts: 5,704
And1: 930
Joined: Apr 02, 2006
 

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#16 » by Captain_Obvious » Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:47 pm

Expect a very boring game for an outsider pov. Turkey-Croatia was one of the most boring games until the 120th minute and everyone saw the inability of Turkey NT to even shoot at the goal much less make a goal-scoring chance. The game will be slow paced, Germany will defend with eleven man on every Turk possession and will try to get good freekick positions or corners on offense. Rüstü will be exposed, header-experts like Ballack, Klose etc will at least score 2 times with that joke of a keeper inept of coming out of the goal and intercept crosses. Now with even more injuries to Turkish starters the only two players who could be factors are Altintop and Kazim. But they will face Lahm there, and he is too quick for both.
Everything can happen in football, but the chances for an upset are as slim as it gets IMO.

Ger 3 - 0 Tur
User avatar
blues_man5
Junior
Posts: 283
And1: 13
Joined: Jun 15, 2008
Location: B.B King - RIP
 

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#17 » by blues_man5 » Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:24 pm

Awesome game thread. Turkey has been the surprise of the Tourney. Just by watching their comebacks, I want Turkey to win this match. I think Germany is going to underestimate Turkey. Either way, I'm predicting a 2-1 Victory for Turkey.
User avatar
El Turco
GOTB Fantasy Basketball Ultimate 2x Champion
Posts: 52,133
And1: 20,560
Joined: Apr 11, 2007
Location: Frisco
     

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#18 » by El Turco » Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:44 am

i just remembered Joachim Low coached in Turkey with Fenerbahce. He gave us much memorable footage of him eating his booger on the sidelines, on national tv nonetheless :)

Interesting tidbit, 3 of the 4 semi finalist coaches coached a Turkish club one point in their careers. Hiddink and Low coached Fenerbahce and Terim coached Galatasaray. If Spain goes through, quartet will be complete as Aragones expected to take over Fenerbahce after the tournament.
TheLowlySquire wrote:Wow, Arda! Huge!


Howard Mass wrote:Arda is not a terrorist. Arda is a good person.
User avatar
Basti
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 37,470
And1: 3,678
Joined: Sep 07, 2005
Location: Æ ha en ståkukk!
   

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#19 » by Basti » Sun Jun 22, 2008 9:29 am

wow this is sad for turkey. 9 players injured/locked? damn. if they should advance it would a helluva cindarella story
User avatar
Sleepy
Retired Mod
Retired Mod
Posts: 5,589
And1: 68
Joined: Jul 08, 2005
Location: The Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt.

Re: Euro 08 Semi Finals: Germany vs Turkey 

Post#20 » by Sleepy » Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:44 pm

Turkey are so decimated by injuries and suspensions for the Euro 2008 semi-final against Germany that deputy keeper Tolgan Zengin may play outfield.
Coach Fatih Terim has nine players from his squad unavailable for Wednesday's clash in Basel.
And he said: "He could come on towards the end as a sub as last man in defence or a centre forward."
Terim added: "We can't allow ourselves the luxury of players choosing where they want to play."


You there, go mark Podolski
But coach, I am a goalie
Did I ask for resume... get your ass moving. And dont you dare and let him score...


:lol:
Image

Return to The General Soccer Board