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Euro 2008 Quarterfinal Chat: Croatia vs. Turkey
2008-06-20 10:45
by Bob Timmermann

Croatia dominated Group B with convincing wins over Germany, Poland, and Austria. Turkey sneaked into the quarterfinals with a miraculous comeback late against the Czechs, winning 3-2 with two late goals. Today's match will kickoff at 11:45 am PT in a little Austrian city called Vienna.

The Riesenrad

Man was I bummed when I went to Vienna to find that amusement park closed for repairs.

Croatia's most notable figure is its coach, Slaven Bilic, who is a frantic figure on the sidelines. In his spare time, he fronts a popular Croatian rock band called Rawbau. Bilic has the Croatians playing a free-flowing and fun style so far. Bilic starred for Croatia in 1996, which was the last time the Croats made it to the quarterfinals.

Turkey will be without its starting keeper Volkan Demirel, who was red carded at the end of the Turks last match.

Croatia leads the brief (because Croatia hasn't been an independent country all that long) series 1-0-2.

Comments
2008-06-20 11:52:39
1.   underdog
That player "showed the persistence of an Istanbul carpet salesman in the last game..." Not sure whether that's offensive or if I should enjoy the analogy.
2008-06-20 12:02:17
2.   Bob Timmermann
I think a match between Turkey and Croatia in Vienna needs a Habsburg monarch in attendance.
2008-06-20 12:06:10
3.   Ken Arneson
Crossbar! Oh, how did that dude miss that wide open goal?
2008-06-20 12:08:13
4.   underdog
At the very least while watching I feel like I should have my feet up on an Ottoman.
2008-06-20 12:08:35
5.   underdog
Yikes! How, indeed!
2008-06-20 12:09:11
6.   Bob Timmermann
Out of curiosity, is the ESPN360 feed behind real life?
I'm at 19 minutes now.
2008-06-20 12:14:27
7.   underdog
It's at 26 mins now, a few mins after your post. Seems as if, yeah, it's a few minutes behind.
2008-06-20 12:15:26
8.   Bob Timmermann
I was wondering about the guy hitting the crossbar and just when that happened.
2008-06-20 12:26:05
9.   Ken Arneson
Someone needs to score so this game will open up. Until that Turkish shot right there, this game has been almost utterly devoid of any interesting scoring chances.
2008-06-20 12:33:22
10.   underdog
I see 2-3 goals in the 2nd half.
2008-06-20 12:41:40
11.   Bob Timmermann
I see checkerboards.
2008-06-20 12:51:53
12.   underdog
I see dead players, er, people.
2008-06-20 12:57:13
13.   underdog
That was bizarre. Like soccer underwater. Too bad for Croatia they had no other forward up to tap it in.
2008-06-20 12:58:02
14.   underdog
And I still don't know what that yellow card was for against the Turkish player -- was it for his delayed fall? Looked like he was hurt but he did take a few seconds to realize, looked fake.
2008-06-20 12:59:14
15.   Bob Timmermann
Excuse, while I learn how to say "Dang nabbit" in Croatian.
2008-06-20 13:03:01
16.   underdog
Rats, I have to go to a meeting now. Guess I'll Tivo the end here. I am rescinding my prediction of 3 2nd half goals. Unless that happens, in which case I stand by it.
2008-06-20 13:06:57
17.   Bob Timmermann
The internet has taught me how to say a vulgarity in Croatian.

I will wait for the appropriate time.

Or maybe I won't have to use it.

2008-06-20 13:21:59
18.   Brent Knapp
When one of the teams just did a substitution the stat that they showed was team average km and his km. Is that how much he had run during the match? If so, how do they calculate that?
2008-06-20 13:25:38
19.   Bob Timmermann
That is how much the guy ran. There are computer programs that track each player now.
2008-06-20 13:27:10
20.   Penarol1916
Is all extra time subject to the golden goal now?
2008-06-20 13:29:18
21.   Bob Timmermann
The golden goal is gone and not coming back.
2008-06-20 13:33:44
22.   Bob Timmermann
The golden goal tended to decrease scoring because teams were so afraid of letting up at all on defense that they just packed it in and waited for penalties.
2008-06-20 13:43:28
23.   Bob Timmermann
Slobodno nogomet!
2008-06-20 14:12:34
24.   Ken Arneson
Turkey's set pieces have been terrible.
2008-06-20 14:15:34
25.   Ken Arneson
Oh, huge mistake by the Turkish goalie there. Got way out of position.
2008-06-20 14:18:02
26.   Ken Arneson
Oh. My. Goodness.
2008-06-20 14:18:23
27.   Bob Timmermann
Yee haa!
2008-06-20 14:18:46
28.   Ken Arneson
That was 118 minutes of pure boredom, and two minutes of miracles. Amazing.
2008-06-20 14:21:42
29.   Penarol1916
This is going to be an easy game to watch tonight.
2008-06-20 14:21:47
30.   Bob Timmermann
Stajne!
2008-06-20 14:23:38
31.   Bob Timmermann
The real winners today are diacritical marks.
2008-06-20 14:25:02
32.   underdog
I was following the end of this via Yahoo and their live blogger wrote:
"Bilic is freaking out as the fourth official won't let him bring Leko on, Rustu launches it long and the ball lands on the edge of the box AND SEMIH HAMMERS IT INTO THE ROOF OF THE NET! INCREDIBLE! 1-1! WHAT DRAMA! Bilic is furious, as that was past the one minute allocated and he wasn't allowed to bring his sub on!"

Uh, in case anyone else missed it...

2008-06-20 14:27:54
33.   underdog
29 Hah hah. Yeah, it will take about 10 mins of Tivo fastforwarding to get to the good 2 minutes or so.
2008-06-20 14:28:14
34.   underdog
Oh jeez.
2008-06-20 14:28:51
35.   Ken Arneson
Un. Be. Leivable.
2008-06-20 14:31:13
36.   nofatmike
The Lakers blow a 22-pt. lead at home and now this. Jeez.
2008-06-20 14:31:21
37.   underdog
I take it that penalty kicks aren't Croatia's strong suit?
2008-06-20 14:33:45
38.   Bob Timmermann
Stajne!
Stajne!
Stajne!
Stajne!
Stajne!
Stajne!
Stajne!
2008-06-20 14:36:24
39.   underdog
38 - A rule 1 violation on the Croatian version of Dodger Thoughts.
2008-06-20 14:39:09
40.   Bob Timmermann
Now we get to look forward to the Germans beating the crap out of the Turks.

This may or may not be a soccer match.

2008-06-20 14:48:14
41.   underdog
Maybe I'll just watch the Fatih Akin film "Head On" (Gegen die Wand) again instead.
2008-06-20 15:00:10
42.   yankee23
41 Kebab connection isn't half-bad either, very tongue-in-cheek, though.
2008-06-20 15:14:02
43.   underdog
Indeed! Yes! I'd forgotten about that one. Quite a funny film.
2008-06-20 15:37:02
44.   Zak
You would think scoring the go ahead goal in the 119th minute would NOT be the worst thing that could happen to you. Croatia would have been more focused had they gone to penalties 0-0. That turkish goal must have felt like a dagger in the heart.

Great end. I felt bad for Turkey, then bad for Croatia and then I just felt good. Germany - Turkey will be interesting. The height disparity will be something to watch. And if Germany is defending a one goal lead with a few minutes to go, watch out!

Netherlands-Russia tomorrow. I have a feeling this will be a pretty entertaining game and Russia will cause some problems for Netherlands. My prediction for final score... 4-3 in regulation for Holland.

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