Shit!
by Aaronstampler
on Mar 27, 2008 1:19 PM CDT
in News
Well this wasn't pleasant news to wake up to. Hamit Altintop, midfielder for Bayern Munich and one of Turkey's three or four best players, broke a bone in his foot during a friendly with Belarus and is now doubtful for Euro 2008.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=520345&cc=5901
I AM NOT HAPPY.
You people don't understand. I've almost been looking forward to the Euros more than I am to the Spurs playoff run. This is the first significant soccer tourney my homeys will be a part of since the '02 World Cup. And now we have to go at it with out Altintop (literally translated his surname means "Goldenball" - Turks are weird).
In fact there is a small chance that the Turks and the Spurs could play on the very same day once or twice. But the Spurs would have to make it to the Finals I think for that to happen. Such a thing would probably lead me to having a heart attack.
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Re: Shit!
I'm excited about the Olympics, myself. Sub-22 football can be interesting, and nowadays there'll be some great stars that are younger than that and able to play, like Messi.
by LatinD on Mar 27, 2008 7:53 PM CDT 0 recs
Re: Shit!
i do not follow soccer very much at all - and this was the year i figured to give it a try. a try which lasted one game.
way worse than NCAA hoops.
by bones on Mar 27, 2008 8:35 PM CDT 0 recs
Re: Shit!
The midfielder freely admitted the next day that it was a flop, all proud of himself and said that they practice it all the time and the grace at which they do it is just representative of how Brazil plays the game more beautifully than anyone else.
It didn't really affect Turkey's tournament though. They made it through to the second round and beyond, partly thanks to Brazil laying the smack down on Costa Rica 5-2 in the third and final group game.
The two teams met again in the semifinals, with Brazil winning 1-0, and I have no complaints about that, it was a deserved result and I really don't remember us having too many chances. Turkey went on to beat South Korea in the 3rd place game and Brazil went on to beat Germany for the title that year.
As far as the comment about "well did they really have a chance?" goes, in soccer stranger things have happened, especially in the Euro tournament. In 2004 NOBODY thought Greece would do anything. Nobody. Manolis is Greek and he wouldn't have a bet a dime on their chances.
But they shocked Portugal in the opening match 2-1, (the tourney was in Portugal and maybe the hosts thought they'd win easily and weren't prepared) and got a 1-1 draw against Spain, which was good enough to get them 2nd place in the group and on to the elimination round.
From there, they went on to a hat trick of stunning, 1-0 boring defensive wins, upsetting, in order, France, the Czechs, and host Portugal to take the title.
I'm telling you, before the tourney started, the experts thought Greece was maybe the 13th or 14th best team out of the 16. And they won it behind an impenetrable defense. I think in '96 Denmark ended up winning the thing behind goalie Peter Schmeichel. Like hockey, a hot goalie can take you a long way.
In the World Cup quality always prevails, for whatever reason, but all-Euro tournaments are different animals. Even in basketball. Fucking Russia won the Euro basketball tournament last year, beating a Calderon and Gasol led Spain, in Spain.
So, yes, I think Turkey has (had) a shot, like anyone else with a ticket in.
by Aaronstampler on
Mar 27, 2008 9:53 PM CDT
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Re: Shit!
i happened to be blowing off work to watch the game with a work friend of mine who was from turkey. poor bastard was going into conniptions at games end - though i am not an expert of this football, i could easily tell that he was correct in his thinking. the fix was in.
i do seem to remember something of my friend telling me of the brazilian comments after.
wasnt this also the year that a guy from south korea scored the winning goal against italy only to be fired from his italian professional league teamfor doing so?
by bones on
Mar 28, 2008 6:33 AM CDT
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Jerseys
by Gino20 on
Apr 1, 2008 2:57 PM CDT
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Re: Shit!
Both Italy and Spain should've absolutely pulverized South Korea, but the Asians upset both of them in the round of 16 and the round of eight respectively, thanks to many, many terrible calls, goals called off-sides when they clearly weren't, that kind of thing.
It's a complete mystery to me why the refs didn't treat my Turks similarly in the 3rd place game, or in their own round of 16 game against Japan, who hosted that WC along with South Korea.
by Aaronstampler on Mar 27, 2008 9:58 PM CDT 0 recs
Re: Shit!
That has to be one of the most unique outcomes in football right there (topped by Uruguay's Maracanazo and some other crazy games) because you know as well as I do that usually defensive-oriented teams lose in the end. When you focus on defense in football you give up the ball for long periods of time, and good teams have all the time in the world to find holes in your defense and breach them. Even packing full the penalty area and throwing the ball in the goal's general direction can be dangerous.
Sooner or later that kind of team always loses, especially in competitive tournaments. Unless you're Greece, I guess?
Anyway, regardless of all that, best of luck. I hope Turkey proves me wrong - I really have no love for European teams. At least England's a no show.
by LatinD on Mar 27, 2008 10:11 PM CDT 0 recs
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