Saturday, June 21, 2008

It all depends on on whose side you are

It is unfortunate as far as I am concerned that the current Euro 2008 football tournament is being played in the ealy hours of the morning. So far I had only watched two live telecasts. Last week it was the group game between Spain and Sweden. This morning it was the quarter final game between Croatia and Turkey.

I had been admiring the Turks since I was involved with them in performing our Haj pilgrimage in Madinah and Makkah. Their discipline really impressed me. So when the Turkish football team qualified for the quarter finals I had a reason to watch them playing. Fortunately their game against the much fancied Croatian team was played in a Saturday moning Malaysian time.

Although the Croats did most of the attacking the Turks defended well considering they were without seven of their regular players. In normal time the game ended scoreless. To decide a winner the game went into extra time. Croatia scored two minutes before full time. Everybody watching, me included thought it was the end for the Turks. But they equalised the next minute which was the last minute. So the game was decided on penalty kicks.

From my experience in watching football I knew that in a situation like this where penalty kicks decide a match the usual winner is the underdog team. The underdog team here is Turkey. True, they won the penalty kicks 3-1. They will meet Germany in the semi-finals.

The first thing I did when I woke up was look for my favourite internet football site. This is what they wrote "So cruel on Croatia". Had Croatia won I think they would write "Hail the Croation heroes" or something like that. They point here is the internet site gives more stress on Croatia's loss instead of Turkey's win. As I said it all depends on whose side you are.

No comments: