Turkish Song of the Damned – The Pogues
Turkish March (Rondo Alla Turca) – Oleg Gitlin
My mother’s side of the family is Turkish, which I have to admit doesn’t have a particularly big influence on my daily life (apart from providing me with a Turkish chin dimple), and I certainly don’t identify as Turkish. That said, I do feel a little bit of nationalistic pride when it comes to soccer.
So you can imagine my excitement that the plucky Turkish side which no one thought would amount to much of anything in this tournament has progressed to the semifinals of Euro 2008, where they will be facing Germany later this afternoon. And it also doesn’t hurt that they’ve done it in absolutely spectacular fashion, with three come from behind wins. In one they scored three times in the final 15 minutes to pull out a miracle against the Czech Republic and advance to the quarterfinals. And then, in that game, they held Croatia 0-0 for 119 minutes only to give up a goal in the waning moments of extra time. They looked done and dusted but somehow managed to snatch an equalizing goal with literally seconds remaining, and then went on to win in penalties.
It’s all the more astonishing given the injuries they’ve suffered and the players they’re missing from red and yellow cards. All of this comes to a head today as they’ll be playing Germany without their first string keeper, their best player (Nihat), the guy who almost carried them singlehandedly at moments in this tournament (Tuncay), and a number of others. It seems impossible to imagine they could beat the Germans. And yet…nothing that’s happened yet has seemed all that probable either.
If you like soccer and haven’t been watching this tournament, you’ve missed some absolutely stunning games. Not just the Turks. Across the board, this is easily the best (in terms of quality of play and in terms of story and excitement) tournament I’ve seen.