TV RCMNDTN: The Euro Cup

By John de Guzman on June 27, 2008 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) |

Sometimes there are TV shows that are really, really good that few people watch, and I feel compelled to draw attention to them. Now I have a blog to power that drawing. I drew attention to Arrested Development sans-blog and it, single-handed, pushed the show's canceling back by about 4 minutes, which is like a year in TV time.

Granted, this is an odd time to recommend this TV show, because it's been going on for three weeks and only has two days left, but HAWT feels compelled to slip the recommendation in on the 11th hour. There is a game this weekend that merits your attention.

So, the Europeans fill the void between World Cup Soccer championships by throwing their own European Cup Finals smack between World Cups. They are called the Euro Cup "Finals" because, like the World Cup, there are a couple of years of games to just qualify to be in the games. The competition just to get into the Finals is brutal. England didn't make it. Ireland didn't make it. Ouchers. This year, Euro Cup 2008, is being hosted in Switzerland and Austria, and because it's exclusive to European nations, it's almost like every match-up is a long-seeded rivalry, which is... well... delicious.

It's gonna be hard to recap the entire month of soccer, but I'm gonna try. Played like the World Cup, it starts off as groups of 4 with a little round robin, then the bracket is built (top two for each group going through) and played. We're down to the last game, the finals, on Sunday. At 2:45 PM, EST, we'll see Spain and Germany go at it like animals.

The month has been loaded with the kind of drama that leaves you breathless. Gawking. Blown away.

Take Turkey, for example. In the last game of their round robin, they had to win to go on in the tournament, and they were down 2-0 in the second half against the Czech Republic. With fifteen minutes left, Turkey scored. With three minutes left, Turkey scored. With one minute left, Turkey scored. I fainted. Highlights? It's almost 10 minutes of balls hitting the post, goals being scored and people losing their minds

They moved on to the quarter finals where they met Croatia. The game, tied 0-0 after regulation time, went into two 15-minute overtime halves. Croatia scored with 1 minute left in overtime. Surely the game was sealed, but Turkey responded by scoring in the second minute of stoppage time in the overtime. Holy. Moly. It went to penalties and Turkey won (miracle)... only to meet Germany in the semi finals. These highlights are just from the overtime... so this happened after 90 minutes of insanity.

That footage is madness. By the way, if any of the YouTube links are down, please email john@HAWTaction.com so I can find new ones. UEFA's pulling them down as quickly as they go up.

Turkey vs. Germany. Semi-finals. Turkey scored first and Germany responded 6 minutes later to tie. With 11 minutes left, Germany took the lead. Turkey responded 7 minutes later to tie the game. With only 4 minutes left, on Turkey's goal, it looked like another overtime was in our future. Germany, though, scored in the last minute to win and go to the finals.

And that's just Turkey's story.

As some people say, sports are the original reality tv. And, oh, how passionate we Europeans are! This month has exceeded all expectations.

I'm going to wrap up this this TV RCMNDTN with photos from Euro2008.com and to tell you to check out this weekend's game (ABC). Remind yourself why it's the most popular sport in the world, eh? For those in NYC, HAWT's writers will be watching this game at La Nacional on 14th St. between 7th and 8th Ave. We'll be the sober ones wearing the ol' Spanish red.