Euro Cup 2008 draws audience of IU international students

Soccer fans all over campus are keeping a close eye on the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2008. IU students and faculty, especially those with European ties, congregate around television sets in the Indiana Memorial Union and Leo R. Dowling International Center each afternoon to watch the games. \nThe semi-finals begin Wednesday and will decide Europe’s champion of the sport that Brazilian legend Didi called “the beautiful game”. One of the four teams remaining in the tournament of European nations is Germany. Fritz Breithaupt, an associate professor of Germanic studies at IU, was born and raised in Germany and admits he can get pretty excited during matches.\n“I can’t help it,” Breithaupt said. “Its funny, when I was living in Germany I did not watch soccer ever. I was not getting into it.”\nThe urge to support one’s national team while absent from that country is not exclusive to German fans.\n“When it comes to national soccer, virtually everyone I know will fall back to their home team,” Breithaupt said.\nAccording to Breithaupt, the most exciting teams thus far have been the Netherlands, who were eliminated yesterday by Russia, “...and obviously Turkey.” He was impressed with Turkey’s win against the Czech Republic June 15. “It is very rare that you can come back after being down two goals. The last few minutes of that game were fantastic.”\nMehmet Akif Demircioglu, a grad student in public affairs and president of the Turkish Student Association, was a huge soccer fan growing up in Turkey and has followed the tournament run closely. \n“In Turkey, soccer is the most important sport event,” Demircioglu said.\nTurkey earned their spot in the semi-finals by virtue of three thrilling comeback victories, the most recent of which was a penalty shootout win over Croatia in the quarterfinals. After a scoreless 90 minutes of regulation play, Ivan Klasnic gave Croatia what looked to be the winning goal in the 119th minute of play. In miraculous fashion, however, the Turkish goalkeeper booted the ball downfield and forward Semih Senturk trapped the ball in the penalty area and placed it in the back of the net. This tied the game and forced a shootout.\n“Oh my god, I couldn’t believe it,” said Antony Miocic, a recent IU grad who was born in Croatia. “(Croatia) played like such an amateur team. They scored and then were celebrating like it was over and Turkey scored right back. They weren’t even trying by that point, unbelievable.”\nFortunately for Demircioglu, however, one fan’s despair is always another fan’s delight. \n“This showed one more time again, never give up until the end, it really pays off. Three times in a row. Now everybody is talking about the secret of Turkish success,” said Demircioglu. “I didn’t give up. I lost my voice after the game.”\nBreithaupt advises those who do not have European roots and are interested in watching the tournament to pick a team at the start and stick with it.\n“If you watch a sport and don’t care about one or the other side then it gets boring,” he said. “But if you decide up front or during the game that you want this specific team to win, then, suddenly, you are emotionally involved. You see the game through the eyes of one side, and that’s when you really enjoy the game.”\nThe semi-finals will be played on June 25 between Germany and Turkey, and on June 26 between Russia and Spain, who beat Italy on penalty kicks 4-2 Sunday. The winners of those games will play in the championship final on June 29.