Turkey Laid Low

And no, the headline does not refer to the German coach's naughty habits in the barnyard but to another lucky German win.

How do they do it? I really can't believe it, they only had about four decent attacks in the whole game. Maybe if Turkey had thought about defending at all - as their backline was awful for all three German goals.

Still, at least we got lucky with the venue - after a weekend on not managing to get in anywhere we actually planned ahead and booked for the Istanbul Meze Bar.

It was amazing - some of the lovely cold meze starters can be seen on the left and the staff were very friendly and welcoming, plying us with beer, bread, meze and tender charcoal-grilled meat.


This man attempted to set the world record for the most number of kebabs on the grill simulatneously:


Unfortunately Norris McWhirter had opted to attend the Bavarian Beerhouse so the record did not stand.

The crowd were passionate but knowledgeable. You could tell who the real Turks were by three signs:

1. They all ordered melon and took it easy instead of wolfing down meze then half a kilo of meat.
2. They all smoked - the place was deserted at half time.
3. They were all drinking Raki by the bucketload rather than the 23 bottles of Efes lager that we got through

When their second goal went in the place erupted:


and we all sensed there might be "something on", especially given the undoubted quality of the goal.

Sadly it wasn't to be and when the keystone cops resurfaced in the Turkish defence the Germans took full advantage.

Who can stop them? Probably no-one but I'd fancy a well-organised Russian team over the temperamental and dubious defending Spanish.