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10 Conclusions: Germany 3-2 Turkey

June 26th, 2008 | By: Jan | 34 Comments »

Jens Lehmann 1. Turkey had a great game and dominated the first half, while Germany at least could get a grip on the game in the second half. Turkey were the better team that night but Germany deserved to win nonetheless. At the end of the day, if you count the clear cut chances both teams were quite even. If you take the match highlights picked out by 101 Great Goals, you come up with 5 vs 4 chances in Germany’s favour actually. If you then give one of Germany’s goals to Rüstü Recber and one and a half of Turkey’s goals to Jens Lehmann, you still end up with Germany beating Turkey 2-0.5. And the quality of Schweinsteiger’s and Lahm’s goals was top notch.

2. The old adage about the offence winning games and the defence winning championships could be disproved should Germany win on Sunday. They will have won despite their defence. Conceding four goals in two knockout games and still advancing to the finals is quite a feat.

3. Michael Ballack’s contribution to the game was to speak to his players during the first half with little effect and then cause a free kick from a dangerous position in the final moment of the match. Player of the tournament material.

4. Philipp Lahm has lost more one-on-one situations in this match than he did all year at Bayern and with the national team. Yet, his goal earned him a man of the match award.

5. Especially in the first half Turkey played some excellent forechecking and killed Germany’s game in a way that would have made Slaven Bilic proud. The fact that Germany’s players had the tendency to receive all their passes with their back to Turkey’s goal helped their cause. Turkey’s players basically got two chances to snatch the ball. The first one when the German player receives a pass and the second when he had to turn around to go forward. And if that didn’t help they doubled up. Quite why Germany’s players decided to keep their distance and don’t do any forechecking themselves remains their secret. This team doesn’t have a winning mentality. They have a good offence and an attitude problem.

6. Football without Jens Lehmann would be so much less enjoyable and so much more predictable.

7. The referee was a bit of a big game bottler. He didn’t give a free-kick/penalty after a clear foul on Lahm and then made a make-up call, when Lahm excessively pulled Kazim’s shirt in the box.

8. Jogi Löw only needs substitutes to waste time. OK, he subbed Rolfes for Frings but then waited for the 90th minute to add a third fullback with Jansen for Klose. Inspired substitutions so far really. It’s good to know that Löw picked a bench of useless players.

9. I’m happy about our offence, still optimistic about our midfield and I have given up hope about our defence and goalkeeper.

10. Turkish and German fans got along in a very friendly party atmosphere without major problems. That’s good news. A group of vandals hooded in black to conceal their identity demolished two kebab shops in Dresden though. Those criminal acts seem to have been timed to coincide with the match.

Tags: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Euro 2008, Germany, Jens Lehmann, Jogi Löw, Michael Ballack, Philipp Lahm, Turkey

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 34 comments.

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By sweet | June 26th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

Turkey will win the tourney :X

By Nick | June 26th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Diana, I would not say Germany did not deserve to win, they had luck that was for sure, but it took determination to finish the game in 90 minutes. All the teams Turkey beat went behind and never recovered. (Also remember what happened to the Netherlands?) With that in mind Germany were certainly not outplayed. The two German goals alone redeemed Germany in my eyes somewhat. These were not set pieces, these goals were something Germany have not been able to do since 1996. Even compared to the 2006 team, Germany looks stronger and more competent in offense (maybe not so much in defense).

As for Turkey… all those comments about Turkey’s B team and whatsoever are irrelevant. Going on the assumption that Germany’s A team is rubbish, it must be noted that Germany’s B team got Germany qualified FIRST. What does that make them? It’s irrelevant because the coach and players know where their limitations are no matter who is played and thus can and must adapt their game accordingly.

After all it was a bruised and injured side who won the 1996 EM. Just as importantly no one who makes it into a semifinal is a pushover. In fact I would say Turkey had an advantage (especially with Tuncay on the bench) . This is because when you don’t have a choice (as Turkey clearly did not), you have to focus on your strengths (and not squander chances), you are more focused and more determined. Even Russia or Spain would have been caught off guard.

It must be said Turkey played well and were deserved semifinalists but that is it. They did a commendable job and they will be back again stronger. Unforutnately for them they got too caught up in destiny that were playing Geramny and there was more than enough time to get back. (They must have thought Germany were going for penalties.)

As a side note abou tthe last goal (Honestly Kazim would you have kicked the ball out when you were through on goal for a spot in the final? And surely diving in the German box earlier didn’t make your calls for help any more believable.)

In the end Germany do have a winning mentality, but it had better not be during a European Championship final when they wake up to the fact that they do have talent, they do have tactics, and they do have what it takes to win the trophy.

Let’s hope whoever wins between Spain and Russia today does so resoundingly, that would play into Germany’s hand all too well. It is good to be the underdog again.

By Chris | June 26th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

Well, we played very bad and still won. I’m not satisfied with the way we played but I’ll take the win. I hope we play against Spain because they have less of an underdog image (even though being considered chokers) than Russia so our players hopefully will be more motivated and determined. I just wished that we would do more than what is absolutely necessary to win a match and started winning convincingly. Our players could do it, I’m sure. Well, at least this time they started to fight back and actually got some results, as opposed to the Croatia game. But that may have been due to Turkey fielding their B-Team. Who knows.

By diana | June 26th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

Nick, that comment you are referring to was not mine. I don’t know how that came about. It’s weird!

Posted from Singapore

By PoorMe@Work | June 26th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

It’s all about winning. How? Not always as pretty but keep in mind when you speak about Germany just being lucky that this ist their thirteens time in a final, shared between the Euro and the Worldcup. That’s a lot of luck. And the so-called-better teams get eliminated? Gimme a break.

Posted from United States

By PoorMe@Work | June 26th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

Andreas, I didn’t see the game but I think both teams used their heads and sometimes even their feet.

Posted from United States

By diana | June 26th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

Spain has beaten Russia 3-0 (all goals coming in the second-half).

It will be Germany versus Spain in the final.

Posted from Singapore

By Karl | June 26th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Good for the german play. Now they’re underdogs and play some good football again.

Posted from Germany

By rkg | June 26th, 2008 at 4:20 pm

you must be joking
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5125/adszau9.jpg

Posted from Turkey

By Jan | June 26th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

Shots on goal don’t equal chances. Turkey placed quite a few harmless long range efforts on Lehmann’s goal, while overall more dangerous efforts by Podolski and Hitzelsperger weren’t on target.

By Karl | June 26th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Better watch the game next time, instead of the statistics.

Posted from Germany

By diana | June 26th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

Karl, whenever they are the underdogs, they play better. Like they did against Portugal.

Posted from Singapore

By Karl | June 26th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

… that’s what I said.

Posted from Germany

By Juanes | June 26th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

Geramyn are dogs VIVA ESPANA

Posted from Germany

By FengFeng | June 27th, 2008 at 1:11 am

Well so many assholes I have to see them on the Net this week.
Firstly, the disgraceful turks fan (not all of them, of course)
Secondly, the f*cking stupid bullsh*t liar Kazim Richards who moaned about his diving.
And now, another asshole from spain (not all of them, again). Well I am so frustrated that those guys have the nerves to speak thier bullsh*t loudly.

Anyway, Weiter Deutschland. I can smell it in the air now. The Cup . Only one more to go. Don’t disappoint me again!

Posted from Australia

By Jan | June 27th, 2008 at 1:48 am

Well as long as they don’t violate the house rules they are free to say what a bunch of losers Germans are. There are/were Germany trolls as well, who were fabricating stereotypical bullshit over on the Italy blog or who tried to provoke people over on the Dutch blog.

People who hate German football will continue to hate it and they’ll just wait for the moment, when Germany plays bad and wins to try and sell their stereotypes as eternal truths. They’ll wait for Germany to lose to rub it in our face and tell how this team of average players was always overrated. They’ll wait for Germany to play a great game and win to come up with their theories how referees fixed the game in ze Germans favour, how the Germans dived and cheated and they will downplay or plain ignore any decisions that went against Germany.

Maybe the best practise here would be just to ignore it. This frees up time and energy to discuss what actually happened on the pitch. Why Germany played so topsy-turvy this tournament, why Ballack has a tendency to go missing when nothing works, whatever happened to Mario Gomez, how Philipp Lahm scores very few but very awesome goals etc.

By Intan | June 27th, 2008 at 5:03 am

No 9 was actually what I thought of right after the match, and it nearly matched your sentence word for word, Jan!

Now that we all know it would be a(promising exciting) Deutschland-Espagnol match, I was actually pairing the German and Spanish players one by one. On paper, the Spanish team (always bloated by world class talent, they are) are clear favorites–and that’s good, since we all know how much the “underdog” tag can push the Germans to play at their best (everyone I know has written off Germany, based on tournament performances so far).

But the German defense has to be the achilles heel for this team. Spain has Puyol and the always excellent Ramos among many other stars who have proven themselves in the tournament. Not only that, Casillas has been doing world class saves (except for the Russia game–he could leave the goal unattended and Spain would still win). Meanwhile, the entire German defense has been inconsistent and Mad Jens himself is the king of inconsistencies (although I thought he did pretty well during the Turkey game). The German defense has let in 6 goals so far while the Spanish defense 3 (not counting the penalty shootout) throughout this tournament.

Posted from Singapore

By stefan | June 27th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

the germans pulled it off but certainly looked a bit shaky out there. as the writer points out, if they win the championship it will have been in spite of their defense. i hope they prevail on sunday but against spain’s form and passing it will be quite a challenge.

i wrote about the cultural issues in germany leading up to the germany/turkey match on my blog for anyone who’s interested.

peace

Posted from Germany

By maarten | June 28th, 2008 at 3:53 am

Too bad Turkey didn’t win. They were the team that took the inititive, took risks and played like they actually enjoy the game. Of course if you’re german, you hope for a german victory, but for the sake of football, it’s too bad that the Turks didn’t make it.
You’ll probably see the same in the final. Spain will be creative and pressure the Germans to speed the game up, the Germans will try to ‘kill’the game as soon they see a chance. Just because of this, i hope spain will beat germany. Just because they kept attacking after they made 1-0 against Russia. Compare that to Germany – Turkey. The moment Germany was ahead, you’ll find them lying on the grass, complaining to the ref, and no offensive intentions.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 28th, 2008 at 4:48 am

Germany kept attacking after they went 1-0 up against Portugal. Germany kept attacking after they went 2-0 and were unlucky with an offside call. Otherwise Germany could have been 3-0 up before Portugal could even reply. They weren’t mentally in the Turkey game, always a few seconds too slow. It was a bad game and they won. Netherlands lost their bad game. I admire the Dutch for being fair sportsmen and losing when they play bad – have to admit can’t really say the same about the German team – at least not always.

It was a topsy-turvy campaign for Germany. You can be disappointed in them for not being mentally prepared for the Turkey game. It’s like in domestic cup competitions where underdogs often do very well against on paper superior teams. That’s part of football. When the Netherlands beat Luxembourg 1-0 in the qualifiers I didn’t want them to qualify for the Euros, after seeing how Germany put 13 goals past San Marino. Or something like that.

Spain has definitely been the most consistent side in this Euro, played some good at times great football and I can understand that you root for them.

By Monte Carlo | June 28th, 2008 at 5:31 am

The Only reason why Turkey lost this game is F****** RUSTU. He is such a stupid Goal keeper. I will never forgive that bustard. and also Volkan because of that stupid red card. That was so close We could win that cup. But I think Spain will get the cup.

By Monte Carlo | June 28th, 2008 at 5:34 am

Hey FengFeng If You really think Germany will win against Spain. You really dont know shit about football.

By Arminius | June 28th, 2008 at 8:24 am

Spain will get the cup.
The cup of tea to calm down after failing.

Saludos from Germany

By Nobody You Know | June 28th, 2008 at 9:28 am

Go Germany! Get that Cup (again)… Would’t you agree with me Monte Carlo. If only football experts were able to predict the outcome of a game, why even play? Leave it up to the experts, right Monty. The rest of us, who don’t know the game have to guess, and hope, and wish. Do we at least have a 50% chance to predict the outcome? You tell us, Monte Carlo, you are the expert. You are the only one who knows the game. What will it be?

By Nobody You Know | June 28th, 2008 at 9:30 am

What does that mean knowing “shit about football”? One you do in the bathroom (I hope) and the other one takes place on the field. Hope you don’t get that mixed up, Monty!

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