If you listen closely during football matches, the sounds of the game can paint quite the vivid picture. Especially when you have a game like we had on Tuesday evening. The stage was set like the footballing gods had handcrafted it; the game playing out to a background of everything you want from a sporting epic.
Heavy downpour, water cascading loudly down the gaps in the great stadium roof. Two sets of fans committed to the cause, and possessed of a strong dislike towards each other, supporting two teams that almost everyone else had dismissed as fillers. 22 players on the pitch who seemed to radiate with the energy their fans were transmitting, a stadium seemingly purpose built to do just that working perfectly. Flares and drums and horns.
For an hour the sounds of the Turkey vs Georgia oscillated between glory and agony and ecstasy. Turkey scored the opener via an absolute cracker from Mert Muldur, a volley that was somehow both thunderous and measured at the same time. Georgia equalised through Georges Mikautadze, the nation's first goal at a major tournament. Chances were missed at both ends. A Turkish goal was ruled out by VAR after it'd been given on the field. Tackles flew in. Dribbles were attempted through improbable gaps, shots taken from impossible angles. The football went from end to end and back again. No cared about control or inverted pyramids or subtle tactical nous. The Dortmund air crackled.
There are some moments, though, that elevate even an epic like this. And it's the sound that accompanies it which often underlines it.
Four minutes and fifty seconds past the hour one such moment happened. That's when 19-year-old Turkish playmaker-in-chief Arda Guler got the ball off a tackle-that-became-a-pass from the battling Kaan Ayhan.
Go back to the highlights if you can and check it out. Tune out the commentary, close your eyes (or look away) and let the sound speak to you. Until then, tackle included, the stadium has been loud, filled with that singular block of noise, a buzz that somehow transmits nervous energy, fear, and palpable excitement. You've heard it all game. From before kickoff till now, it's been incessant. On that 64:50 mark, though, the pitch of that buzz increases abruptly... the feeling is more or less the same, but there's an added layer. Roughly translated that higher octave says: 'a footballing prodigy has the ball at his feet, and anything can happen now'.
There's nothing on for Guler at the exact moment he controls the accidental pass on his thigh, he's far away from goal on the right flank... but the collective footballing consciousness of the crowd has sensed something. On controlling it, he turns immediately and with a touch moves into space. He's still far away, ten yards or so outside the Georgian box. But the sound has changed. The crowd have realised the touch is perfect, not too heavy, not too soft. As soon as he takes that touch and moves inside with the ball, there's loud intake of breath "oooooo" that starts high, before dying down into a low, expectant murmur just as his left foot connects. The next thing you hear? A gentle thwack, like it's coming from very far away. And almost immediately, an explosion of noise, a release of pressure that's joyful and filled with wonder at what they've all just seen. Even the pained near-silence of the Georgian section sounds amazed.
Arda Güler's goal captured from the stands... ������#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/6ptEfGv6dc
- Euro 24 Hub (@Euro24Hub) June 18, 2024
The magic of the game captured in high-quality audio.
It's a great goal, and it needed to be to beat Giorgi Mamardashvili -- arguably the goalkeeper of the season in La Liga -- who'd brought his A-game to the party. The ball was placed just far enough outside the far post to be out of the big keeper's reach, but just close enough to curl inside at the last moment.
It was a hit that took power and precision and no little imagination. This was a Real Madrid wunderkind, the next great Turkish superstar announcing himself at one of the biggest stages of them all. Oh, and breaking a Cristiano Ronaldo record as he did it (youngest debutant to score at the Euros). And it was all accentuated by the Westfalonstadion BGM track that played out as it happened.
From first touch to celebration, all of this took place in under five seconds, and the fluctuations in noise are easily missable at first glance, but nothing spoke to Guler's genius more than the sounds of those few seconds. The higher pitch. The intake of breath. The low buzz. The explosion... the sounds of the near unconscious acknowledgement of his brilliance.
The goal made it 2-1 and Turkey would add another in the last seconds of the game, Mamardashvili having left his goal unattended as he joined the chase for the equaliser at a Georgian corner. Turkey won 3-1, Guler won Man of the Match and the best match of the tournament ended as it had begun, in brilliant chaos.
For his bit of genius, meanwhile, Arda Guler also takes our Moment of the Day from day 5 of Euro 2024.