in Montréal keep going crazy and driving around honking madly for hours after any win. I’m rooting for a loss just so I don’t have to hear that. Or could they at least choose a road that’s not a block from my apartment? Please?

that I don’t particularly like is just how boring penalty shootouts are. Even hockey penalty shots are more complex. Kind of a letdown for the Spain-Italy game yesterday to end with a mediocre penalty shot.

The first weekend was disappointing, but it’s been gangbusters since. I agree with bengalred that Andy Grey really has been tremendous. He was fantastic in the Spain-Italy match yesterday calling out the Italians’ bullshit diving/stalling and the referee’s indulgence of same.

The thing I love about international soccer is the way you can watch a young player begin to dictate the outcome of a match. Players can do that in other sports as well, but soccer’s pace and style lends a certain inevitability to it.

I was reminded of this watching the first 70 minutes of the Netherlands-Russia match on Saturday afternoon (after failing to find the Yankees-Reds anywhere). Like many viewers without a dog in the fight, I initially was rooting for Netherlands to continue their exciting style of play into the finals, but, over the course of the first ten minutes, I was captivated by Andrei Arshavin and just knew that he would be instrumental in a Russia goal and would probably score one himself. It was so overwhelming that I immediately switched my fickle allegiances. He was instrumental in the Paulychenko’s goal and ended up scoring in the extra time, though I didn’t get to see it.

Turkey has been a team of Arshavins thus far.

The Wednesday game is chock full of political tension on top of being a high pressure match in one of the more major sports events in Europe if not the world.

Soccer can be tough to watch if you are fixed on scoring as the only thing interesting in sports. But as baseball fans, and Reds fans to boot, we know that scoring isn’t the only exciting thing that happens in a game. If you are new to the sport try watching to see how each teams style of play is different. In baseball, a teams strengths can be speed or power or pitching or fielding; obviously, championship teams seem to have it all.

In soccer, it is similar. On Wednesday you will see a skilled and disciplined German side that plays solid defense, play their positions well, and don’t make many mistakes. They are physically one of the bigger and taller teams in the world and score a lot of goals on set plays (free kicks and corner kicks). The downside of this is they often lack creativity. You won’t see many flashy plays in the style of the Brazilians but that is not to say they are not exciting to watch. They can string together crisp passes and finish nicely (see the first goal the scored last match against Portugal).

In the little I have seen of Turkey, they seem to be much more of a team that tries to hang on when they are often overmatched and wait for the perfect moment to counter attack (the other team will overcommit on offense and they will push forward quickly before the opponent recovers). They seem unusually good (and quite lucky) at succeeding at this. It will be especially difficult for them without some of their better players who are sitting out after accumulating too many fouls (two yellow cards worth) in the matches thus far, but at this point they cannot be counted out, even if they are trailing late in the match on Wednesday.

It should be a great game, followed by another good one, Russia and Spain on Thursday. Spain is the favorite but Russia is young, fast, and energetic- and probably playing the best soccer of any team left in the tournament.

In addition to playing Turkey on Wednesday, Germany has also already faced Poland and Austria. Needless to say, there were subplots, but that happens when you up and conquer Europe a couple times a century. In addition, Lucas Podolski, who was one of the Germans best players so far in the tournament, is a naturalized citizen who was born in Poland. A far-right member of Poland’s government went so far as to propose a measure that would suspend his passport. And in the ugly side of things, some German fans were arrested for chanting “Seig Heil” and “Deutschland Uber Alles” after a win. Racism in soccer is pretty bad, particularly in Europe. Cy alluded to it with the Terrible Turks.

The European soccer community is going to be dealing with a shift, now that two teams that are “European” in the loosest sense – Turkey and Russia – are into the semifinals. Russia especially is poised to become the next soccer power. They have lots of billionaires who are interested in sports and buying teams. Roman Abramovich bought English club Chelsea and added several top players to help them win the Premier League for the first time in ages (think the Yankees. Yes, they’re even worse and more soulless than Man U.). He also funds the Russian national team, which has Guus Hiddink as their coach. He’s a Dutchman and one of the best coaches in the world—and just helped defeat his native Holland on Saturday. Zenit St. Petersburg just won the UEFA Cup (the JV Champions League). Man Mountain already mentioned Arshavin, who is likely to go to one of the top clubs in the world after his performance in this tournament. I would expect Russia to host a World Cup soon (though they might not get a chance until 2022).

She’s a cutie too

She can play on my team anytime.

Their keeper apparently plays for the GCL Reds now…