Euro 2008: Day 17

Germany vs. Turkey

8:45 pm

Ahhhhh. That was a nice two-day break from football. But now I'm ready to get back into it, and tonight's game is going to be a doozy.

Here's a pretty cool story from the New York Times about this match-up and how it's affecting the nationalistic loyalties of Germans and German Turks. The whole thing is pretty interesting, but here's some important infos relevant to tonight:

The Turkish side will need everything Altintop can give it, with the team whittled down by injuries and suspensions to just 15 players — 11 starters and 4 potential substitutes. The possibility that one of the team’s backup goalies could play forward has added to their underdog appeal.

Wow. I knew they were getting low on men, but I didn't know it was that bad. Are they going to bring in Pommerdoodle to play defense for them? (You know, in the universe where Pommers is American, Canadian, and Turkish. That traitor.) Still, Turkey has shown many times that they thrive in the role of underdog and spoiler, so I wouldn't let this count them out.

In other news, German Derek Roy is devastatingly adorable.

[Getty Images]