I watched the Turkey vs Czech game. Wow. I thought I was watching a dead Turkey after Czech dominated the first half and lead 2-0 well into the 2nd. Then, Turkey scores a goal. No big deal, not much time left. Then, the Czech keeper drops an easy ball (because of the rain) and that huge mistake gave Turkey their 2nd goal. WOW!!! They just tied the game with 2 minutes left!! We are going to penalty kicks... right? Nope, in a fast paced counter attack, the Czech defense thought they had caught the Turkey captain in an offsides, but he was just barely in play and he scored a beautiful goal! Turkey fans are going wild, Czech fans are in disbelief. Then, well into stoppage time, there are no more surprises, right? Wrong. The Turkey keeper gets a red card and they have no subs left, so a regular player needs to play as keeper! Czech couldn't capitalize on that and Turkey takes the surprising win, and the trip to the next round. God, I love futbol. BTW, anyone know why the Czech keeper wears a rugby helmet?
Well Portugal and Germany in the quarterfinals should be a dandy. The dutch starting lineup today is their supposed second string...pfft. Robben Van Persie Huntelaar are up front, any team in the tourney would be thrilled with this. I am looking forward to a tie and Romania coming thorugh.
Goal Italy. Now the situation if Fra-Ita tie and Romania lose is simple - Italy advances on goals scored head-to-head.
Some really good matchups in the quarters. Portugal vs. Germany, if you can't get excited about this one you aren't alive. Spain vs. Italy, should be a good one and some elbows will be thrown. Netherlands vs. Sweden (Probable), rematch of last Euro quarters.
Whoa, I didn't expect to have Russia get through over Sweden but I will take it. I doubt the Russians can hang with us.
i barely got to watch germany/portugal today but from what i hear it was a great match. germany seemingly came out of nowhere, many still had portugal as the odds on favorite to win it all. lots of goals too. having schweinsteiger in the starting 11 really made a difference for the germans
This match SCREAMS FOR INSTANT REPLAY in soccer. The goal that ultimately was the game winner absolutely should have been called off. If it were American football, what Ballack did would have been called "Offensive Pass Interference". If it were basketball, it would have been called "Over The Back". Germany had a free kick from about 35 yards out towards the sideline. The service was beautiful and there was a man marking Michael Ballack. As they were both moving towards the goal, Ballack pushed the guy in the back to make space and to ensure that the player wasn't able to get a head on the ball. Then Ballack headed the ball in to make it 3-1. If the defender had been Italian, he would have fallen on the ground and rolled. It would have been ridiculous, but the foul would have most likely been called. But because the defender was just trying to defend, what the ref didn't see was allowed to stand. Goals are far too important to allow cheating to be overlooked by 3 referees. Hockey would have checked the monitor. Why can't soccer? PS- It appeared to me that a Portugal goal that was disallowed for Offsides should have been allowed. The flag went up for an offsides player that never was part of the play. That should have been allowed and then the ref should have checked the monitor to see what he felt was the right call. The technology exists. It is a disservice to everyone who dedicates their life to the game only to allow mistakes to occur than could so easily be prevented.
My head tells me ze Germans are going to smash an undermanned and happy Turkey squad with crisp, precise play. My heart tells me the same.
Somewhere RyanUT is either crying, drinking heavy, already passed out or kicking kittens. Sorry dude. That has to sting badly. Brutal game but Russia played their hearts out and I think the Netherlands just got bamboozled and could not recover in time. They were out of form but you cannot take away what the Ruskies did. What a fantastic Euro this is.
the problem is, and I'm not counting out Russia or Turkey just yet, is that after such a good tournament so far we're edging closer to a Germany / Italy final.
Another fantastic game...I swear it doesn't pay off for a team to dominate early on in this tournament it seems. Seem like a case of everything being too easy and at the first sign of adversity...don't know quite how to react.
Note to self: Get that man a kitten, STAT! Dude, I totally thought about you when that game was officially out of reach by the Ned Nederlands. I knew that wherever you were you were miserable. Having been there I hoped that somebody was buying you some beers to console you.
Ha. Ya I actually shed a few tears with the family. Had a good group of fans at 3rd base. Some were nice enough to buy us beers. I must have had 5-6 shots of tequila...
