.... and his heart is as big as they come !
The Germans are coming ! The Germans are coming ! And they've arrived in the Final of Euro 2008 with the winning goal against Turkey from the best right-footed left back in the world.
Take a bow, herr Philip Lahm.
You could make a case that he's the best left back in the world, period. Or the best right back in the world too, for that matter. But we won't get into that. He's definitely one of the most effective attacking full backs in the world. And he can defend well too, unlike a certain Mr. Roberto Carlos.
And finally the Turks are out. After multiple late goals and accompanying fight backs, this was one mountain too high for them. You know, with all their late rallys, Turkey were actually beginning to resemble Germany. And the Turks did manage one late equalising goal in the 86th minute. But the Germans also managed a late goal via Lahm in the 90th minute. I guess you could say that the Germans out-Germanned the Turks !
And check out the stats : Turkey had 22 shots to 9 for Germany. The Turks were actually the more dominating team. Which leaves us with that famous statement from the esteemable Gary Lineker :
Football is a simple game : 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win.
As for me, I'm having fun watching Germany progress. They don't have the best players when compared to some other teams but they do have a focus and mentality which enables them to progress far in tournaments. This is the case again in Euro 2008 where their center backs are a far cry from the likes of Beckenbauer and Jurgen Kohler of teams past.
I can only think of two other teams who are comparable tournament teams : Italy and Argentina. Brazil doesn't qualify because, really, they depend more on the sheer abundance of talent dribbling around on their streets.
On a side note, there are 2 million German citizens who have Turkish roots, so they were going to celebrate either way. This would include Mehmet Scholl, a former stalwart of the German national team who has a Turkish father. Turkey also fielded 2 German-born players in the Euro 2008 semifinals against Germany.
On another note, the Germans also approached Owen Hargreaves to play for them as he qualified under residency rules (Hargreaves had joined Bayern Munich at the age of 16). He chose England instead. He really could have chosen better.
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