In all honesty, who the hell are the Turks gonna put on the field against Germany? Well, we won't worry about that for now. But Evrim should be lacing up those boots and that knock off #6 Rosicky jersey he wears. Actually Evrim should be banned from soccer.
Its amazing how much two minutes can change the entire complexion of a game and how you'll remember a game. Up til the 119th minute I think it would be fair to say that this was the most uneventful, stagnant game of the competition so far, at least that I have watched. But when that trainwreck of a Turkish keeper finally got that half a chance he'd been waiting so patiently for to make the costly blunder that he surely must have thought would see Turkey out of the tournament, he took it. Dale Johnson of soccernet most accurately described the keeper's actions as some kind of a safari walkabout. I pray that they revoke the suspension of their real keeper so we don't have to watch that guy play a game again. Horrendous.
The whistle could have easily gone at 122minutes, especially when you consider that the referee blew the whistle to stop the first stoppage when the full fifteen minutes hadn't even expired. But the ball fell kindly to their sub-striker, who will most definitely feature in the semi, and he buried it in the top corner, assuring the game of penalties.
But up to that hectic two minutes, these teams were admittedly disappointing. Neither played with that reckless abandon we saw in the previous rounds, especially the Turks who had flashes of creativity, but were mostly poor. Their defense is bad, both full backs are inconsistent, I thought Croatia should have tried to play some more over the top balls to really test their center backs too because that Emre Asik guy is slow as shit. At least my Ugor Baral finally got on, but he played as an attacker, while in the Champions league he was Fenerbeche's left back. (that'll tell you something about Fenerbeche).
Anyway, if you look at the penalty shootout, you can't help but feel for Croatia. They were probably still in shock from that equalizer, and the magnitude of that goal might not settle in for quite some time. But Turkey were the much calmer of the two teams, and lets be honest, if 2 guys aren't even making old man Rustu make a save, you're probably not gonna win. I really like Modric, but you could see the Spur in him already. Love it. And Rakitic is a nice player too, but I just wonder why you don't let some of your veterans take penalties, especially the Kovac brothers, (I can only assume Niko was #5 taker).
So Turkey moves on, their third come from behind win on the trot, what a run. Remember in the beginning of the tournament when one of their assistant coaches said that they would "put their trust in allah, and let him decide their destiny?" Look how far its taken them. Most people predicted them to come in last in their group, and look at them now. Its a shame that their team will be so hampered by suspensions and injuries. They'll have a few extra days to recover, but Arda Turan will be out as will Tuncay, as will seemingly their entire defense...too bad.
Man of the Match: The Croatian left back (Prajnic?) He's been solid all tournament, and he's just a little energizer bunny over there too. Some big club will likely make a move for him as his stock is soaring.
Gaffe of the Match: Well, do I need to say it, two days in a row, two horrible keeping decisions.
Lady Luck of the match - The ref not blowing the whistle and giving the Turks a chance. You have to ride your luck in this tournament, any Greek will tell you that, although they may not be so happy on the shittier half of Cyprus tonight.
Again, this is a really rough loss on Croatia, and lets not forget that they were missing their star striker, poor old Eduardo, who has seemingly been forgotten by everyone. They at least proved that their England win was no fluke, and they have a good enough core of young players to stick around the European scene for years to come. By the way, my 3-2 scoreline was obviously the penalty prediction, lets not kid ourselves. Tomorrow should be a GREAT game. I don't know who I'll be rooting for, although its hard to root for Russia...ever.
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