The boys gathers at Aussie Rod's place for the first Euro 2008 semifinal between Germany and Turkey. 

I asked Steve and Ronjon NOT to tell me the score during the day.  I purposely avoided checking the score.  If I saw a red shirt (Turkey's color), I covered my eyes and walked the other way.

Turkey had nine men out to injuries and suspensions.  What an opportunity for a second unit player to play for a contract with a major league club in the Premiership, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, etc. 

Turkey scored in the last minute in their previous three matches against Croatia, Czech Republic, and Switzerland.  Thanks for JH for the final two Turkish victims.

Ugur Boral of Turkey strikes first blood in the 22nd minute through Lehmann's leg.  Whoa!

Schweinsteiger equalized with an awesome finish off the outside of his right foot in the 26th minute.

Podolski had a nice run in 34th minute.  But his upper body was leaning back like Italy's Roberto Baggio's on a penalty kick over the goal into outer space in the 1994 World Cup Final against Brasil.

After a 39th minute collision, both sides try to stop the their bleeding players like boxing cutmen.  Check that, the Turkish player is getting stapled on the top of his head.  OMG!  You leave it all out on the pitch.  Pain is temporary, pride is forever.

It was 1-1 at half.

JH and his brother Brandon make a good points about Turkey's freshness and looseness.

Nick's wife has negative interest in soccer but she told Nick the score during halftime.  Our future karaoke duets for her and me are in jeopardy.

Turkey continued to attack in the second half.  But Germany should have had a penalty kick after Lahm was tackled just inside the box.

We're watching the Fan Zone outside the Stadium as ESPN has technical difficulties.  James asks for the radio feed.  The Swiss had a power issue for a few minutes. 

Klose scored for Germany in the 79th minute during another Swiss power outage.  The Turks equal with Senturk in the 86th minute.  You've got to be kidding me.

James demands the BBC line-by-line Internet feed.  The power finally comes back on Lahm scored the go-ahead goal in the 90th minute.

A nice cutout to the crowd with ladies with Mrs. Lahm, Klose, etc.  Mrs. Jeter, Wright, and their American counterparts have nice competition.  Das fraulein!  

Three strikes and another power outage.  We find out Germany won 3-2. 

ESPN gets burned.  I thought they learned from World Cup 2006.  Their commentators watched and commented from the ESPN Studios in Bristol, Connecticut.  Talk about cost cutting but this is ridiculous.  So much for the world wide leader in sports.  I nominate the six of us to cover the next soccer match for ESPN.  James and Nick with the radio commentary, Brandon and JH with insightful analysis, Aussie Rod keeps the referees honest, and yours truly blogs it from the Stadium.  I'm serious about this.

Congratulations to Germany!  They meet the winner of Russia-Spain on Sunday.

Posted by The Tank reporting live from Aussie Rod's awesome apartment in Manhattan.

Football (Soccer)

Thursday, June 26, 2008 1:02:49 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Comments [0]  |  Trackback Related posts:
Do All American Citizens Sponsor Manchester United?
Will the 44 year Spanish Football Championship Drought End?
Spain's June 22 Curse
The Red Army Rolls in Moscow
Manchester United Versus Arsenal
Buying a Soccer Team