Euro 2008: Lahm voyage, Turkey

"Totally crazy feeling. It was unbelievable. It was a crazy, incredible drama with all these goals in the final minutes." -- German coach Joachim Löw, on his team's thrilling victory over Turkey.

Day: Wednesday, June 25

Location: Joxer Daly's

City: Culver City

Game: Germany 3-2 Turkey

What I drank: Stella Artois

What I ate: Stella Artois. Yup, beer counts as food!

What in the world happened? Turkey's beyond-the-realm-of-the-imagination run to the Euro 2008 semifinal was nothing short of miraculous, and the underdogs from Turkey became the sentimental favorite for casual football fans. So, it came as no surprise that Culver City's very own Joxer Daly's -- a place owned by Culver City councilman Mehaul O'Leary (yes, it's an Irish pub, and that's always a good thing) -- was crowded at lunch time on a Wednesday for this colossal showdown that showcased feel-good Turkey against the country that has won more European Championships than any other nation.

The game was all kinds of exciting. Epic even ... and the second half had to be awesome. Unfortunately, nobody got to see a Germany goal to go up 2-1 and Turkey's answering equalizer just moments later due to lightning strikes in nearby Austria that wiped out all television broadcasts from the game. The world outside of Basel's St. Jakob-Park didn't see what was transpiring on the pitch. Thankfully, the world-wide telecommunications system got back online in time for fans to witness Philipp Lahm's game-winning goal in the 90th minute. Fortunately for fans of the Deutscher Fussball-Bund, there was no late-game Turkey rally for victory and Die Mannschaft advanced to the Euro 2008 finale (Sunday, 11:30 a.m. PT, ABC ... watch it!).

Still, one can't help but think that there's something very Heidi Game about this incredible European Championship semifinal.

The winner of Thursday's Russia-Spain tilt takes on ... Germany!

Still, hats off go to never-say-die Turkey and their storybook run to this moment. With somewhere in the neighborhood of seven regulars out of the lineup, Turkey made a run at a strong-across-the-board German squad that opened the Euros as the prohibitive favorites. Thus, creating a run and a finale that may never be forgotten by football fans, even if they didn't get to see it.