I'm working with a smartcard (DESFire) that supports both TripleDES and DES. In the specs it is stated that both modes of operation use 16 bytes keys. When the first 8 bytes in the key are identical to the trailing 8 bytes, the DES mode is used. Otherwise, the TDEA algorithm is selected.

This is a shock to me since it was my understanding that Triple DES uses a key bundle of 56bits*3 = 168 bits (21 bytes). What kind of Triple DES encryption could it be supporting?
Is there some other way to select a key for TDEA so that it behaves as single DES, apart from selecting a key bundle k1k2k3 where k1=k2=k3?