Euro 2008 semi-final: Germany vs. Turkey

Germany is set to play against Turkey in the semi-finals of the Euro 2008 football championships.

The game will be played in Basel, Switzerland, and starts at 8.45pm on Wednesday June 25.

Turks are the largest ethnic minority in Germany. There are nearly two million Turkish citizens living here. They form 26% of all registered foreigners and 3% of the total population.

UPDATE: Germany won, 3-2.

I know I will be lockin myself in and will not go outside.

I've always noticed that, when not playing each other, Germans root for the Turkish and the Turkish root for the Germans. Both feel a sense of identity due to the obvious social/cultural mix.

Germany's team is kick ass, Im impressed. but I dont expect a high scoring game...rather two very good teams facing off, boring, dull, long and then germany will win in shoot-outs.

Ku'damm will explode, regardless of whomever wins. late to bed that night, I fear.

Where can I buy deadbolts for my house and movement alarms for my neighborhood?

I'm going to remain neutral on the matter and will symbolize this by publicly consuming large quantities of kebabs and beer.

Happened to see the front cover of Bild on Sontag yesterday. Sorry to see it's not only the British Sun that's capable of horrible xenophobic headlines when it comes to football games. Scum.

No way I can ever support Germany, but after the incredible amount of noise in my 'hood last week after the Turkey victory (they finally stopped beeping at 2:30AM FFS) I don't wanna see Turkey win either.

Surely the "Schadenfreude" would be greater though, don_riina, if Germany were to win this game and then lose in the final?

Losing to Holland in the final would have been just perfect. But sadly that's not going to happen now that Holland are out.

I'm hoping for a blowout, either way. Nothing eases tensions like a three-goal deficit by the half. But if Turkey pull off another last-second goal to win it (which they've done a shocking three games in a row), look out.

whichever way it goes Munich's Lindwurmstrasse, Goethe Strasse etc are going to have endless spiralling car chains all sounding theiir horns. I'll have to remember to buy earplugs.

I'm hoping Germany win (*cringe*) tonight but then lose in the final against Spain (assuming Spain beat Russia) cuz I have a bet on and will be raking it in if so

Happy to not be in Germany this week.

Huge Turkish community in Kolbermoor so it's bound to kick off one way or another.

Yup, too bad Holland lost. Was in Amsterdam watching them lose, the Dutch are one of the 'nicest' football fans I have ever seen. Lot of them walked over and shook hands/hug the Russians who were celebrating in the square. I couldnt help but visualize Wednesday evening, especially in my town!

Note to self: No taxis around town on Wednesday!!

!!!

Erm, you've not seen their bad side then. Probably on a par with England for hooligans.

If you put a Turkish flag and a German flag on your car, will it be safer?

Why not just sit on the fence some more and put all participating flags on your car? So you can always be friend, instead of foe. hmmm, reminds me of Switzerland.

the germans have started to drive around with flags and horns after games. some 'ironic' expression, or copying the Turks, Italians and Croatians? At least they follow the rules and stop before 12.

The safe bet would be to drive around with a Italian flag.

I am wondering what the folks with 2 flags will do? There are a lot of cars in my area with both German & Turkish flags, i'm wondering if they will keep them both on or rermove one of them?

You get laughed at with an Italian flag, but the safe bet is driving around with an England flag.

I was in Austria last week and there was a tv company running an add about how you can stay at home like England if you buy their movie package. Sweet.

They didn't last Thursday.

oh geez, guess I'll have to shut the windows and pray for cooler temps. We're surrounded by turks, germans and italians in this neighborhood. It's been noisy enough lately and late at night. Why couldn't they start this game earlier so we can get some sleep when it's over? Man!

That's not new, i remember the same after winning the EURO 96. It got more though. Totally established in 2002 i'd say.
for club teams that's a normal thing.

I'm with Don on this one. I guess there's no way they can both lose... And I'm still trying to work out a strategy to avoid the worst.

I am coming back from the airport at 10pm and have to pass Leopoldstrasse... I might consider another route at that time...

I'm coming into Hauptbahnhof at around 9pm. I expect my train to be empty and the streets to be deserted then...

haha NICE picture.

Well my flight leaves at 5pm on Weds - been a long time since I've actually looked forward to a business trip. A long time.

If Germany and Spain both lose, we'll have a "European" cup final between Turkey and Russia.

Why not? Support the country you're living in, not so strange, is it?

I always at least try and support Scotland, but hasn't really helped recently.

Fraid i'm the same as the Don, i just couldn't bring myself to do it.

me neither...think it´s genetic.
despite my bet and the tidy sum I get if they come second, it will be hard to ´support´ them on wednesday.
I shall view it as supporting the lesser evil, & will try to think about the money.

Hmm, yes, actually, it is. You can share in the excitement when they do well and even be pleased when they win. But international sport and personal identity are so closely linked that it would be strange to support a country just because you happen to live there.

It gets fuzzier if you're permanently settled in a foreign country (fuzzier - but still not clear-cut), but 'living in' doesn't imply that.

Admetus, dude, you've gone far too deep there man - I just won't support the krouts because they're the krouts. Living here has nothing to do with it really.

Corcaigh, awesome picture!

Did you actually take that? If so, where?

Don't understand this attitude to be honest. maybe I'm not patriotic enough. But then again patriotism is crap anyway...

You are not a footie fan. You just pick a team out of the hat and think "Ooooh! They wear nice tops! And that centre forward is a nice lad apparently. Yes. I will go for them".

England Germany rivalry is as old as the hills and is the reason why it is nigh-on impossible for us to support the Germans even if we do live there, which is, by the way, one fucked up point of view.

Well, they have been allies in WW1. After World War II Germans contributed a great deal to the medical industry and the hospitals in Turkey, and have built schools and universities, and in many universities, there are a lot of German professors and German faculty.
German companies invest a lot in Turkey and plus there are about 10,000 Germans who have immigrated to Alanya, the new Mallorca or "Malloka".

Alanya

So let me get this straight.

Americans constantly get an earful about how their "socially unjust" society results in wanton crime and sensless destruction ... to the point where it becomes part of the curriculum.

But now suddenly everyone in Germany is seriously talking about having to bolt their doors and garaging their cars over the potential outcome of a stupid football game? I thought they'd confiscated all the weapons, educated everyone in racial sensitivity and left us all living in Kumbaya land.

So, someone please remind me who has the more violent society, because I've clearly lost the plot.

It's not about the football game, Expaticus. Wednesday is Detroit Cultural Appreciation Day.

Thanks for the clarification. So, despite everything I've ever read, Germany has a lot more "12.874752 Kilometers" than they'd like to admit once the sh*t hits the fan(s)!

Its not that, it is the fact that too many males get their machismo via their soccer teams. They overly identify on a personal basis. It is an illness here.

Well ... when people are so emasculated in every other realm of normal human life, I suppose football becomes really important.

I'll try to remember that the next time someone tries to corner me with the proposition that Americans are "anti-intellectual". Compared to what!?

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Same here, arseholes. No respect. I see a general lack of respect from the young Turkish people here towards the rest of society... really fu*ks me off!

One young twat was on the bus today, full of attitude... decided to start picking on some shy, defenceless girl, then two of his cronies decided to join in... Couldn't just sit there and let them bully her and had to step in - put me in a fu*king bad mood today.

That was followed by a group of gobby Turkish girls in the S-Bahn with awful music on full blast from her mobile phone and all screaming. One female passenger complained and she just got a mouthful back, so I decided to join in and informed them that playing their mobiles loudly was forbidden on public transport anyway. They then decided to sing really loudly since "singing was not banned" - fu*king twats!

One of the Turkish community here in FFB also punched a guy I know (who wouldn't hurt a bloody fly!) and told him that if he went to the police or told anyone, he'd have his throat slit... obviously the guy is pretty afraid to do anything. He is a part of a larger mob here, who also have a Turkish Imbiss - which has had to close down (serves the fu*kers right!!).

All that before my job interview - great! :-}

Have others the same experiences or is it just here out in the sticks?

(Just realised that I am giving Gordon Ramsey a run for his money with my language! LOL)
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I am also gonna lock me doors and have an early night on Wednesday I think, and hope Germany wins... :-)

I sat amongst the Croatian fans on Friday at the stadium in Vienna...that was really scary.

How do you know they were all Turkish HydroSkater?

Errrr... the ones on the bus and S-Bahn were talking Turkish - quite obvious really! (mixed with German Hood-speak :-) )
The other is well known in this small town...

We have a croatian neighbor who just went home to spend her summer in her ancestral croatian village.

Before she left, she said 'I hope Croatia doesn't win, because if they do, they'l all be out firing guns in the air." I asked her what happens fi they lost ... and she said "they'll fire guns up in the air anyway."

Someone pinch me when all of these European football fan anecdotes stop sounding like 'you may be a redneck if ..." jokes.

Critical difference: The smug, moral superiority one continually gets over here ... unless there's a football game involved!

A lot of people don't know the difference between Arabs and Turks or Persians and Turks. A lot of people assume that the Moroccans are Turkish, cause they also act very anti-social, and when they talk they also mix it up with the weird wannabe ghetto slang.