Deutschland uber Alles

Last night we cooled off after dinner by watching the first Euro 2008 semifinal between Germany and Turkey. I treated myself to a giant bottle of.....erm, Heineken from the corner shop down the way. Much to my surprise the Turks started off on the front foot while ze Germans were sleepwalking through the first 20 minutes.

Germany survived one scare when the erstwhile Sheffield United waster Colin Kazim-Richards, now restyled Kazim Kazim (having chosen to play for Turkey through his dual citizenship) took a nice cutback from the byline first time and thundered it off the bar. A couple of minutes later Turkey worked a nice throw-in and again Kazim Kazim popped up to hook the ball acrobatically over the creaking Jens Lehmann (age 146), onto the bar, and down to the predatory (!) defender Ugur Boral, who comically miskicked straight at Lehmann--who succeeded only in falling over the ball and fumbling it into the net. Germany 0 Turkey 1. The Germans awoke and equalized soon after when a low driven Podolski cross from the left was neatly deflected by Schweinsteiger. Germany 1 Turkey 1.

The most entertaining stretches of the 2nd half were duly missed by everyone in Italy (and I presume elsewhere) thanks to a satellite foul-up in Vienna. Or so we were told. Instead we were treated to the spectacle of the talking heads on Rai Uno fidgeting embarrassedly as they sat there while everyone listened to the radio feed filling in for the lost video.

Reputedly Miroslav Klose headed in for 2-1 with about 15 minutes left, then Turkey equalized in dramatic fashion in the 86th minute (this I DID get to see a replay of). Sabri (I think?) made a mug of the hapless Philipp Lahm out by the touchline, turning him with a move that 10 year olds don't even fall for. He got to the byline and crossed low for Semih to nip in and poke past the statuesque Lehmann, who once again looked badly short of international quality.

Undeterred, Lahm made amends in the 90th minute, just when extra time looked certain. A delightful one-two put him in alone on Rustu with the Turkish defenders looking vaguely confused and appealing for offside. He scored adeptly into the top near corner to make it Germany 3 Turkey 2, whereupon the video once again fritzed out and we missed the final whistle and celebrations. Except for the broadcast interruptions, a very entertaining semifinal, infinitely better than the goalless borefest between Spain and Italy that sent our current host nation packing on penalties a few nights ago.