Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Germany/Turkey 2nd half running blog

Yeah, I know, where was I first half? Duty and the paying job called. Now I'm back - just in time to catch Reece Davis making a horrid "Thanksgiving in Turkey" pun. Eeach. Foudy does a better job breaking down Turkey's goal. Tommy Smythe is enthusiastic about Germany working itself back into the game, even if he's not completely coherent.
Foudy makes a comparison with Turkey/Russia "nothing to lose", plus, she knocks Spain's psyche a little.
Davis swings in an "Achtung, Baby" in the bump to commercial. Why? It just seemed really pointless.
46 - Rolfes and Akman knocked heads in the first half, Turkey's medics just staples Akman back into the game. Germany may not have had the same equipment or they tried to use stitches, because fixing Rolfes took much longer.
48 - Turkey has shown verve and surprising skill, given their absences. It's taken Germany by surprise.
49 - Lahm whistled for a foul. Turkey FK. Lehman catches.
50 - Turkey in the box!, but the final pass is missing.
51 - Lahm on the edge of the box - gets taken down. Gray thinks it's a PK, but the ref waves play on. Wow. No replay yet. Boos rain down.
53 - Ooooh, that did look like a foul on the replay. Sheesh. Turkey had a big escape there.
55 - What Turkey has lost here, though it was the ref's fault is the good will of the crowd. Germany fans were mostly silent, now they're horribly indignant and booing every Turkish touch. That might rattle the young team.
56 - For that matter, Germany are showing better resolve and possession. Hitzberger and others are teeing up on Turkey's backup keep, Rustu.
57 - Now Ballack goes down - Gray doesn't think it's a foul, but it was definitely from behind and he caught the right leg. Ballack doesn't do much with the FK.
Screen goes black. Great. They're showing the fan zone, of all things.
Rae finally admits technical problems. Gray is asked if he's been to a fan zone. He hasn't I have, during the world cup. There's a lot of beer and good-natured cheering. It's hard to see, there's nowhere to sit, and lots of carnival-type food is sold. In Germany, that means sausage on a stick.
Well, there's apparently a power outage. Joy.
Smythe, Foudy and Davis are desperately discussing the game even as it continues. Lame. This is horrible People are getting fired, right now. As they should.
Or maybe not - as it turns out lighting hit the TV tower - the signal went out worldwide, turns out.
66 - Well, no goals scored during the interim, at least.
67 - Turkey still battling, moving forward, but that final pass still isn't happening.
68 - Germany more organized than earlier, but concede a corner just now. It bounces high, gets headed about, until Sabri serves it back into the box - dangerous-looking, but no red shirts are there to make something of it.
69 - Kazim Richards gets his shirt tugged by Lahm and goes down in the box in hopes of something - hey, if the ref isn't calling a PK for Lahm at the other end, K-R isn't getting this one.
73 - Boral with a shot - Lehman catches. Going right back the other end, Hitzberger fires wide.
75 - Rae promos the MLS match tomorrow - the Texas Tussle between Houston and Dallas. Ok, Rae doesn't really say Texas Tussle. That was me.
77 - Great - the screen is blank again. Damn.
Davis wants us to sympathize with German fans who can't watch the worldwide feed. I'm not generous enough to feel their pain in addition to mine. I need chocolate to soothe my nerves.
Shit on a stick and crapola - Klose just scored, apparently. I'm cursed. This game has three goals and I've missed all of them. Damn the lightning. Foudy and the desk seem to think the game is over and Turkey can't come back. Oh, well, I guess I can't see anything to disagree with them about that. I mean, it's not like I can watch the game.
See this is where technology sucks - I mean, if Rae and Gray were at the Euros, they could call the game, radio style, but they're apparently in a studio watching the feed. Or not watching the feed, as the case is right now. Foudy got ready (for the third time, to do her call of the Turkey goal - the insight of "ballwatching") Klose's goal was apparently a header. The announcers are talking about it. We still see nothing. Now they're talking German politics. What the heck does Davis know about that? I don't trust what he says. They're showing the Klose goal - Rustu was caught out of position. As they roll the video, Turkey scores, apparently again. The cameras catch a bit of celebration.
Now they show the video. Sabri gets in behind Lahm, serves in a great ball to Semih, who pokes it in past a frozen-to-his-line-then-leaning-in-too-late Lehman. 2 -2 all square.
90 - Hells bells! I finally see a goal, and it's from my favorite German player, little Lahm, who has actually had a horrid game mostly. He gets a pass from Hitzberger as German players crash the goal and he roofs the ball emphatically. Dang that was a strong finish - his first international goal since the beauty that he struck versus Costa Rica in the 2006 World Cup. 3-2 Germany. (Hey, this match is like a Galaxy game, but with Lahm finishing better than Beckham.)

The greatest game of this tournament and we've missed about half an hour of it - Brutally cruel.
Full time, it looks like.
Germany move on, but Turkey goes home with their heads held very high. Amazing. Smythe gives Lahm a lot of credit for his strike. Foudy gives props to Turkey. Davis says something about Germany being soccer-mad, well, duh, all of Europe is. Davies says it like it's unusual or something.
Foudy, previewing Russia/Spain - wants Lucky Guus to be "damn good Guus". Hey, they say it's better to be lucky than good. I'm just saying. No real prediction, though, from the desk and finally, coverage ends.

11 comments:

truth said...

Why is Reece Davis shouting? It's annoying to listen to him. And he knows nothing about Germany, Turkey, soccer, Euro 2008; just a waste of airtime.

CACuzcatlan said...

WTF!!!!!!! I could have avoided even trying to watch the game and saved money on lunch. This better not happen tomorrow. Shouldn't they have a backup plan? Buy a feed off of BBC or some other channel? I don't care if its not in HD, I just want to watch the game.

Dylan said...

The BBC feed was down, too.

CACuzcatlan said...

I didn't have volume where I was watching and posted while still angry. After reading the running blog, it sounds like the feed was out worldwide. Amazing.

Anonymous said...

Davis and Foudy are nicht gut. Let's hope this is the end of them with regards to broadcasting for ESPN.

--Matt

A.C. said...

They have both their fans and detractors - heck, so do I, so I guess I know a little of what that feels like.

Anonymous said...

la FUUUUUUURIA roja!

Anonymous said...

GLORIOUS game! Lahm certainly was living up to his last name for most of the match. (it basically means; lame in German)until he smashed the Turks dreams into a billion pieces!
Reece Davis is a complete asshat. if I have to hear him call Schweini 'Swine-steye-grr' one more time I'm going to vomit.
BTW-save for his retarded red card, Schweini is having a great tournament.

Anonymous said...

@cacuzatlan- there is only 1 video feed for everyone. That's how FIFA and UEFA package their big tournaments so pretty much everyone is screwed when they have an 'f'up.
They do it so they can charge a larger premium on rights fees and save money in production costs.
Of course when this crap happens, well, the people get restless.

Amy said...

Davis was full of crap when saying that the entire feed was down and no one in the world was watching the game (aside from those in the stadium and the fan zones). My boyfriend, who is in Glasgow, was watching the game, the entire game, and MSNing me what was happening. So all the feeds were not down.

A.C. said...

Yeah, I got an email saying the feed to Germany cut out only briefly - then they switched to a Swiss feed (not the one that went down in Austria) and were fine.