Türkiye ya! Türkiye surprises the Croatians

By Colum Brummet,
All This Is That Sports Editor

On our first night in Istanbul, there was a huge semi-final game in the Euro league soccer tournament—Turkey vs. Croatia. It was the best soccer game I have ever seen. Croatia scored the first goal of the game in the second overtime with 3 minutes left in the game. Turkey's team was on a mad scramble up the field to score a goal and force a shoot out. Once again, Turkey had scored a last second goal. It was amazing!





Turkey's penalty shootout victory over Croatia in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 at Ernst Happel stadium, Vienna on Friday


The bar in Istanbul erupted and people were running around giving cheers and high-fives. I had never been so excited over a team I knew nothing about. I could not even name one player.


Now, Turkey still had to win the game! It went to a shoot out and Turkey pulled it out for the victory. As soon as the shoot out was over, a Turkish victory song started blasting in the bar and everyone was celebrating and dancing, shouting "Türkiye!"


We walked out to the street to see the celebration. There were thousands of people walking up the street waving flags chanting "Türkiye Türkiye Türkiye!" It was extremely crowded and almost felt like the beginning of a riot. Everyone was walking towards the main square.


When arrived at the main square, people were lighting flares, throwing beers through the air, and doing anything to express their happiness. Del and I hung out there for a while and realized that these people were going to be out all night going wild, so we decided to call it a night.
---o0o---