MVN - Most Valuable Network

EURO 2008 — The Cardiac Kids: Cardiac Arrest in Switzerland

In the 2008 European Championships, TURKEY were dubbed ‘the Cardiac Kids’ for their three consecutive come-from-behind victories in their trio of matches leading up to Wednesday night’s semifinal in Basel, Switzerland…  

When they tied Germany at 2-2 in the 86th minute once again this night, it looked like the fourth such instance could be taking form, one where overtime - and perhaps penalty kicks - would be forced to decide who would go on to Sunday’s Final in Vienna.

Turkey, an underdog team in several matches they played here, had never given up…  

However, on Wednesday night,  Germany had some of its own last-minute drama with which to answer;  it was a 90th minute strike from Philipp Lahm - only his third international goal ever - which sealed the deal for Germany, and the clock finally ran out on Turkey for this match and tournament.

Almost as big of a story as the strike that sealed Germany’s victory was the Viennese lightning strikes occurring throughout the match.   Centered over the Austrian capital, a major electrical storm knocked out the international satellite feed, on which most of the world depended for their live pictures… 

For much of the second-half, those in the stadium and in the immediate region watching on Swiss TV were practically the only ones who saw the live telecast.  This turned out to be a major issue, as the last three goals all came in the last 15 minutes of the match - when there was no live picture the entire time.  Even those in the designated ‘Fan Zone’ in Vienna attempting to watch on big screen TVs in the public square saw nothing.  These fans were even braving the storm to watch the match, a storm which did not affect the weather at St. Jakob-Park, where the match was being played.

Germany, who won the title already 3 times (twice as West Germany, and most recently as Germany in 1996), will meet the winner of Thursday night’s semi between Spain and Russia. 

The Final can be seen live in the U.S. on ABC, beginning at 2:30 pm EDT.

Match Report from the official event site,

“Germany strike late to seal final place”

Read the BBC Sport Match Report here

VIDEO -

Official match highlights from ESPN, (5:19 min.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 10:13 pm and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.