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Terim: takes on the picky fourth official
For all his theatrics, Fatih Terim was incredibly sporting at the end. He sought out every single German player and congratulated them before exiting the stadium and the tournament with his head held high.
Martin Tyler
b>Martin Tyler has put off his summer holidays to head to Austria and Switzerland for Euro 2008 -and he'll be sharing his experiences right here on skysports.com.
While England's flops are spending the summer on beaches across the globe, Sky Sports' voice of football will be taking in the colour and excitement of the European Championships - and you can read what he's been up to in his exclusive Euro 2008 diary.
Entry number six rounds off the semi-finals, where an unlucky Turkey team went out in dramatic fashion at the hands of Germany and a brilliant Spain side comfortably overcame Russia...
I got a text on Wednesday afternoon as I was walking back from the St Jakob Stadium asking me if I had got wet yet.
Given that we had not seen one drop of rain, I thought it a little bizarre, but I had no knowledge of the trauma going on 1,000km away in Vienna.
The storm, which I am sure you all saw, made an absolute mess of things, to put it bluntly. It was a very difficult night for the broadcasters indeed. I think Austrian TV lost most of the game while from what I've heard, only the Swiss and Al-Jazeera had sufficient back-up to keep beaming out live pictures... Richard Keys to the rescue!
It really was some storm and I have to say it has sparked a huge inquest into what went wrong at the International Broadcast Centre in Austria. Basically it seems there was just not enough technical back-up but I am not going to be too harsh on the backroom people.
Even after 30 years commentating, I still marvel at beaming live pictures around the world just as I do when I see an aeroplane taking off... it remains a minor miracle in my eyes!
I wasn't commentating on the Germany-Turkey game, so did not have to cope with the loss of pictures but I was privileged to a little tempest of my own. My seat was right behind the Turkish dug-out, which gave me a close-up and uninterrupted 90 minutes' worth of Fatih Terim.
And it wasn't a disappointment. I sometimes take to the Kingstonian bench and when I do next season, I will certainly have a few more gestures and expressions to use! Fatih was as entertaining as his side proved to be and had a few words with his assistant and more than a few with the fourth official, who I have to say was a touch picky and continually told whoever was standing up to sit down.
It was just a shame that Fatih won't be going to the final, because there's no doubt, Turkey were the better side. Germany scored a wonderful winning goal through Philip Lahm of course and that was about as 'German' as it got. They don't seem to carry the tag of favourites very well and I presume they will be pleased that Spain showed up so well as we head for Sunday's final.
There is not even the sense of them getting better and better as the tournament goes on, which we have come to expect. But they are good at taking advantage of what help they get and Rustu's error for the Miroslav Klose goal - which I understand you didn't see live back home - was typical of that.
And as good as Lahm's winner was, Turkey were out on their feet by then, their defending down the right weakening by the moment. Don't forget they had 14 men fit for the semi-final, they had lost two captains to injury in Emre and Nihat, had a midfielder Mehmet Topal at the back and although self-inflicted, had their second-choice goalkeeper in.
Ear-bashings
Even when Lahm set off for that winner Colin Kazim-Richards' knee gave way and he had to come off, bringing a premature end to what has been a very good tournament for him. When you think he was knocking about at Brighton and Bury not long ago, I thought he did tremendously well and looks as if he's got a bright international future ahead of him - and may well have done as an Englishman as well.
Of course, one of the downsides for Colin was, playing down the right, he was subject to one or two of Fatih's ear-bashings. Whether they were in Turkish or English I could not tell, but I am sure like all of us, Colin got the gist of what his coach was trying to say!
For all his theatrics, Fatih was incredibly sporting at the end. He sought out every single German player and congratulated them before exiting the stadium and the tournament with his head held high.
The German celebrations went on long into the night, but there seemed to be a sense of relief about them. I guess experience might have seen them home in the end, but as I say, they are definitely my underdogs heading into the final.
In fact, there had been a strange feel about Basel all day. To be honest there was a lot of political correctness going on and compared to the previous game when more than 100,000 Dutch had turned the city orange it was very subdued. The police were out in force, obviously expecting trouble, but I've got to say, German-Turks are grateful of the chances they have been given in Germany and from what I have seen, most will continue to support Germany come Sunday.
Hamit Altintop had been criticised by a German politician in the run-up and was told he owed everything he had got to the country he was lining up against. All it seemed to do was inspire him and on a night when I think Turkey impressed us all, he really did catch the eye.
Hummed
It was only after the game that the storm really affected me. Our train to Vienna had to take a two-hour detour from Salzburg to Innsbruck which meant, having left at 6.30am, we didn't arrive in the capital until 6.30pm on the day of the second semi-final.
It was cutting it fine and the sort of occasion you have to call upon all your years of experience to keep calm, but I was not alone, because the train was packed with broadcasters, a real media wagon. And if you are going to be delayed two hours, there's no more scenic place than Austria - I swear you could hear 'The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Music' being hummed under everyone's breath!
And at least the trains are smoke free. I have been shocked at the lack of no-smoking laws out here in Austria and Switzerland, in particular, not just in restaurants and bars, but at the stadia as well.
The media seats are supposed to be non-smoking, but I can tell you plenty of my fellow commentators do smoke and at no stage on Wednesday was the ban likely to be adhered to.
It seems strange when Uefa won't let you bring a certain brand of energy drink into the ground, but will allow smoking in a no-smoking zone. I suppose at future tournaments they will have to smoke approved sponsors' cigarettes.
My last diary predicted that Russia would not lose 4-1 and I was right, technically! But as much as I had not expected Germany to win the way they did, I had not expected Guus Hiddink's team to lose they way they did.
And I had done my research. Before the game I caught up with a Russian female radio host to get some background on the players, such as who were the brighter ones and who were those who were, shall we say, born to play football.
Inexperience
She told me one player - who shall remain nameless - had done a two-hour slot on her show and got better and better the longer he was on air. She put that down largely to the companion he brought along, namely a bottle whiskey!
It's worth remembering they have always scored the first goal when they have won here and I do think we saw their youth and inexperience tell once Xavi had scored a very Russian goal in fact.
And then when you have to contend with Cesc Fabregas coming on for an hour, it doesn't help matters. I thought Andreas Iniesta had his best game of the tournament so far, but really the Arsenal midfielder bestrode the action for the time that he was on.
There is no doubt they missed Denis Kolodin at the back, but he is not the only one who's tournament was cut short. Remember the game against Holland when Lubos Michel showed him a second yellow only to let him stay on after the linesman adjudged the ball to have gone out?
Well Michel has been reprimanded by Uefa - who say because the card was shown, the sending off should've stood - and even though he was given the Manchester United-Chelsea Champions League final, will not be officiating again at Euro 2008.
But Luis Aragones marches on and as sad I was to see my old friend Hiddink go out, credit must go to the Spanish coach. He had his team prepared perfectly, tactically and physically and while hauling off Fernando Torres with 20 minutes to go still sends shockwaves around the Premier League, Daniel Guiza came on and scored.
Pretty much everything went perfectly for Spain, while Holland were left to reflect. I did bump into Guus on the way out and he actually flicked me with a towel. All I could do was wish him well for the future and thank him, like Fatih, for the memories...
Comments (1)
Robbie Gomez (Liverpool fan) says...
thankyou for bringing the warmth of football to me martin
Posted 10:23 30th June 2008