crinkly_ears | Mesuty News: Hugo Almeida On The Group Of Death, Sevilla, Christmas Lunch & Turkish Goals! (Reply)

Mesuty News: Hugo Almeida On The Group Of Death, Sevilla, Christmas Lunch
& Turkishly Delightful Goals!

Mesut with Hugo Almeida, at Werder Bremen

The Group of Death

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 2 weeks you'll have heard that Mesut and Germany will encounter Portugal, Holland and Denmark (in that order) in the Group Stages - opponents one normally would expect to play at the quarter-final, semi-final and final of a tournament.

It's been called "The Group Of Death" - the words for "Germany" and "Dead" began trending world-wide in Dutch within moments of the announcement on Twitter (Ha!) and when Germany was drawn to complete the group a wave of spontaneous laughter and jubilation swept the spectators who had been invited to attend - for obvious reasons. Three tournament heavy-weights and two of the favourites in the same group means less panic for everyone else.

Joachim Loew after the draw with enemy coaches of Group B.

There's even talk of the winner of Group B becoming an automatic favourite for the title.

What it means of course is that Mesut will likely meet up with not only Crispy Ronaldo, Fabio Coentrao, Pepe and (possibly, since there's talk of recalling him after September's scandal) Ricardo Carvalho, but with old teammate Hugo Almeida, now of the Turkish league, once of Werder Bremen.

This is worth mentioning not only because Hugo Almeida used to give Mesut the most tender bear-hugs after Mesut set up goals for him, but because Almeida was interviewed on the 14th of this month on the subject of meeting German.

His comments in the interview are worth noting in this community.

"We Have To Stop Ozil!"
11Freunde
December 14, 2011
Interview conducted by Kristian Sommer
LINK TO THE GERMAN
Excerpted and translated by me,

jenny_jenkins

Were you shocked?

To be quite honest, it couldn't be worse.* It's absolutely the group of death. Whoever survives it is bound to be in the final...

Germany is thought to be one of the favourites, along with Spain. What do you think of that?

I don't worry about it. Has there ever been a tournament in which Germany hasn't been one of the favourites?**

The German National Team has rarely ever been so good, most especially in the attack. How will you stop Miroslav Klose or Mario Gomez...

To be honest, Gomez or Klose won't be that important if we can stop Ozil. I was able to experience at Werder Bremen just how important Mesut is for a team. If we can stop him we're half-way there.***

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*Too fucking right!

**A Penetrating and observant man of keen insight and intelligence!

***Almeida had the misfortune to spend half a season at Werder Bremen after Mesut left. Simply put: Mesut was conspicuous by his absence.
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Sevilla: The Fuss Dies Down (Slightly) & A Turkishly Delightful Goal Is Scored!

Mesut, on the bench, listening to words of wisdom from Sami Khedira!

In Jose Mourinho's post-match press conference following the game against Sevilla (on December 19), he said the following in response to a question about why no play-maker was fielded against Sevilla.

"It's sometimes important to surprise your opponents. Sevilla expected a different game and another positional #10 like Kaka or Ozil. They are my number 10s, unless I decide to use someone else due to the nature of the game. Playing di Maria paid off and both Kaka and Ozil are as happy as those who played the game.

Hamit's ears seem as irresistible as Sami's!

Quite aside from Mourinho's attempt to calm down press speculation that Mesut is headed off to Liverpool, (or Juventus, AC Milan, Inter, Manchester or Bayern Munich) dear friend Hamit Altintop provided some excitement by scoring the team's final goal in a 6-2 demolition of Sevilla, away.

Mobbing Hamit Altintop: This post's utterly gratuitous photograph of Sami Khedira's Greek-God physique.

To say that Mesut was thrilled would seem to be an understatement, judging from his ecstatic reaction. He even called out to Hamit from the bench.

Indeed, everyone was thrilled. Of course, anyone who has observed videos and photographs of training sessions will have realized by now that Hamit Altintop seems uniquely popular among his teammates, even though he struggles to communicate with them and has only recently joined them. Since he's a lovely personality this is scarcely surprising.

The Christmas Lunch

And on the subject of Turkish delight... (With a bit of Tunisian thrown in)

Mesut always pays such close attention to Sami - who is always talking!

Real Madrid has their Christmas lunch two days ago. Mesut, Sami Khedira, Nuri Sahin & Hamit Altintop all sat at the same table. Sami was handsome, Hamit was preoccupied, Sahin was serious and Mesut was looking even more than peculiarly sweet - as he always does on these occasions. Just look at that shawl! The close-fitting sweater! Those lovely earrings! With apologies to mimsicality (who said it first) - he wouldn't be safe in a lesbian bar. Fights would break out (and I'd be first in line, so get behind me bitches).

Not to worry however! Mesut has Hamit to protect his virtue!

Jenny has a shawl just like that.

And Mesut was looking as fond of Hamit Altintop (whom he's known all his life) as ever -

Some fashion notes: Sami's scarf/shawl is rather similar to Mesut's - but the effect is rather different. Hamit Altintop's German-tax-payer subsidized dental care is about as flawless as Mesut's, and candidate for over-all best-dressed-at-the-luncheon Nuri Sahin's wife probably picked his outfit.

Hamit also said something amusing, which led Mesut to lean his head on his shoulder - as he is wont to do! Sami seemed far more amused by Mesut's reaction than by anything Hamit said.

Mesut's head (x) + Shoulder (y) = Irresistible Attraction (z)

Mesut and Sami were then dispatched together to one of the hospitals in Madrid to visit the sick children who are forced to spend the holidays there.

Cringe-worthy videos of the boys wishing their fans a Happy Christmas are due out any day now.

Facebook Notes

Just before the game against Ponferradina in the Copa Del Rey, Mesut sent his followers a lovely Facebook message of himself, checking his own Facebook page, looking quite adorable.

Mesut, looking adorable.

His message to his fans:

I look forward for todays game, which is the last game for 2011. Afterwards i will spend some time with my family and friends, similar to you guys, hm? Enjoy holidays and talk soon.”

“Heute steht mir das letzte Spiel für 2011 bevor. Danach werde ich entspannen und mit meiner Familie und Freunden die Feiertage verbringen, wie ihr sicher auch. Also, feiert schön und bis bald!” Mesut

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A match spam for Ponferradina, in which Mesut assisted twice and played a lovely game, will go up tomorrow.

Love and boundless affection for andriy_7, researcher, and purveyor of high-quality gifs and pictures - who is home visiting his family! Enjoy yourself and have a safe trip sweetheart!