Turkey 2, Switzerland 1: Co-hosts Crap Out

2008-09-10T06:59:52-04:00

2008-06-11T17:43:52-04:00

2008-09-10T06:38:35-04:00

2008-06-12T11:53:02-04:00

DriveC

Madison 210470

Czech 2 - Turkey 1 Baros will score and be involved in the second. He showed great activity against Portugal and it will pay off for him. 1963651

2008-06-12T04:17:12-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/198/766/thumb/PCWork.jpg 136 NY

FCBarca

New York 199066

Tough loss for the Suisse...Good match after all...Yakin will be thinking about that miss for a long time...Kuhn has to shoulder some blame for not involving the youth more as they were toothless without those subs...Shame, they were better than the results, IMHO...Magnin, cannot believe he left his man unmarked like that for the header but the keeper did poorly on defending it...Looked to go right through his hands...How do you miss that??? 1960863

2008-06-12T03:40:23-04:00

shut up kook

Minneapolis 274660

Not only is the headline fantastic, but did anyone notice that Young Boys were scheduled to play against Finnish side MyPa? Somebody has to be making this stuff up. 1960833

2008-06-11T22:48:41-04:00

colpesik

Auburn 439479

If I remember correctly, Turks have never beaten Czechs. So, Czhecks will a psychological advantage. On the other hand, Czechs were a dissapointment. In the first game they were lucky to pull out a victory against the Swiss. It could be a boring game as none of the coaches will risk his team. I expect this game go to penalty kicks due to new rules. 1960140

2008-06-11T22:39:31-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/306/70/thumb/cartman_as_dog_2.jpg 912 TX

naxself

Fort Worth 30770

Yinka: what an awesome headline. Props to you for bringing that to my attention. I laughed out loud, literally. As for the Swiss, I think it was a pipe dream to think they could go deep. They simply don't have the horses to compete with the big boys (or even the medium-sized boys). 1960131

2008-06-11T22:14:15-04:00

273

no_trolling_please

No City 128849

Czechs are showing age. They had a great team once but there is nothing growing up after the current generation. They aren't as fast as they were once. Jan Koller isn't a thread anymore. IMHO it looks like they are loosing against Turkey - hopefully to rebuilt the aging team afterwards. But they are playing against Turkey. A team capable of bombing out dramatically. A team whose worst enemy is itself. So we have to wait and see. 1960009

2008-06-11T20:15:06-04:00

Yinka Double Dare

Chicago 178357

Grant, not only does he play for a team called Young Boys, but said team plays in a stadium called Wankdorf. It led to this classic headline (sorry, it's on your competitor, but since it's to laugh at them I hope it's ok) http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=270580&cc=5901 1959513

2008-06-11T19:46:48-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/365/74/thumb/sp11.jpg 1571 CA

Big Chaco

Los Angeles 36694

I knew the Turks have it in them. And Altintop has yet to play a good game. Too bad his twin brother isn't there either 1959338

2008-06-11T19:33:56-04:00

UnlikelyFan

Los Angeles 439391

Hey Grant, The Czechs and Turks are now in line to be the first to implement the new rule change: if they draw, they will be deadlocked on goal diff and total goals, so at the end of there game there will be a shootout to see who advances. GREAT new rule. Thanks for the blogs, keep it up. 1959366

2008-06-11T18:08:00-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/286/29/thumb/images.jpg 1291 CO

j11forbes: Go Jo-Jo Go!

Denver 28709

I'd take the Czechs, but Turkey is one of those squads you never want to bet for or against. They are always capable of pulling off the unpredictable. And in all fairness to Pnaucci, not a whole lot of time passed between when he was clobbered by Buffon and the goal was scored. I don't think him lying prone beside the goal was a willing refusal to go on with playing the game. 1959096

Three thoughts after Turkey’s 2-1 win over Switzerland in Basel, eliminating the Swiss from Euro 2008 and putting the Turks on three points in Group A, even with the Czechs and behind group leader Portugal (six points and guaranteed a spot in the second round): • The Turks have some massive cojones. Down 1-0 at halftime and on the verge of elimination, Fatih Terim’s team showed some serious resolve, bagging two second-half goals, including Arda Turan’s stoppage-time winner after yet another classic counter-attack in a tournament that’s becoming known for them. Turkey was clearly the superior team when the field wasn’t playing like a swamp--what's up with the drainage at St. Jakob-Park anyway?--and fortunately for the Turks the rains subsided with enough time in the second half to use their skill advantage. Have some sympathy for the winless co-hosts, and especially Swiss defender Patrick Müller, who had not one but two deflections on the play that led to the winning goal: one on the shot itself and another on the counter-attack pass seconds earlier between Semih Senturk and Tuncay Sanli. • Yet another defender hurt his team by not getting on with it and playing soccer. For the life of me, I have never understood the soccer custom of defenders raising their hands when they think an offensive infraction has taken place instead of just concentrating on the game. Case in point: Turkey’s equalizing goal, in which Swiss captain Ludovic Magnin (who should know better) raised his hand appealing for offside and turned to stare down the side-judge, only for Magnin’s man (Sehmi Senturk) to leave him in the dust and score on a wide-open header. Dumb, dumb, dumb. The fact was that the Turks were kept onside because Swiss midfielder Tranquillo Barnetta (who had a terrible game) was too late to step up on the opposite side of the field. It’s a game of inches, folks, and the Swiss were on the wrong side of it today. Magnin now joins Italy’s Christian Panucci and Greece’s Sotiris Kyrgiakos as defenders who’ve killed their own teams by not playing the game while the other team scored a goal. • Will the co-hosts lose all their games? Looks like it sure could happen. Switzerland (0-2) has only one game left (against Portugal), and Austria (0-1) has to face Poland and Germany. Having covered a few major tournaments, I can tell you there’s no atmosphere quite like one in which the host team goes deep (see France ’98, South Korea ’02, Portugal ’04). Doesn’t look like that’ll be happening this time around. Through-balls: My Man of the Match: Turkish captain Nihat, who did great work throughout the game and especially with his assist on the equalizing goal ... When it’s raining as hard as it was in the first half and water is standing on the field, you almost have to play as if you’re playing beach soccer (i.e., almost entirely in the air). Talk about a weather change that helped the Swiss ... Swiss forward Hakan Yakin put his team up with a swamp-aided goal, but the sitter that he missed a few minutes later is one that will haunt him for a long time ... If I was Kuhn, I would have brought on Johan Vonlanthen earlier for Barnetta, who brought nothing to the table today ... Does Hakan Yakin really play for a Swiss club called Young Boys? And how would you like it if the team you rooted for was NSFW? (Then again, this is the country that gave us the team Grasshoppers) ... On a bloody day, the Brian McBride Bloody Pulp Award goes to Portugal’s Paulo Ferreira and Turkey’s Emre Asik and Hakan Balta, who had some serious gushers ... My fervent hope is that Young Boys someday meets Argentina’s Newell’s Old Boys in the FIFA world club championship ... Why on earth is it being announced now that Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is taking the Chelsea job? For a guy who’s trying to minimize the distraction of Cristiano Ronaldo’s potential move to Real Madrid, adding a distraction of his own making seems like lunacy. (For that matter, what happened to Big Phil's fear of the British media?) ... Separated at Birth: Swiss coach Kobi Kuhn and the actor John Lithgow; Switzerland’s Ludovic Magnin and SI.com’s Pete McEntegart. Who do you like in the final group-game showdown between the Czechs and Turks? I’m leaning toward the Czechs, but it’s shaping up to be a belter. Please post your comments below, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning ... 1340 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/194/315/thumb/wahl_grant.jpg 11 MD

Grant Wahl

Baltimore 194615