On June 29 2012 09:12 wherebugsgo wrote: Damn I was hoping for Germany vs Spain! (with Spain crushing face)
Guess it's gonna be a boring final lol
lol if the final is gonna be boring, it's gonna be thanks to Spain. Italy has played the most entertaining football in the top 4 and in my opinion the top 8 as well.
On June 29 2012 09:53 Tazza wrote: guess germany still can't get past the semifinals hump. I remember 2002 wc, 2006 wc, 2010 wc where they all got dumped in the semis, and now i guess too
They got to the final in 2002 wc. They had one of the easiest path too, Paraguay in ro16, USA in ro8, South Korea in semi.
Ur totally right. How the f*** did I forget that Germany beat us during that magical run? Major brainfart on my part
Enjoyable game. Those long long passes by Pirlo and Montolivo are pure gold. Germany played a good tournament although looking at all the expectations the offensive midfield did a pretty poor job most of the time. Podolski was weak or maybe worse, Müller did nothing special, Özil had a few moments but no phenomenal perfomances. Schürrle was weaker than he was in the preparation games. But the defense who everybody feared could fall apart every second was doing a really good job sans a few mistakes yesterday.
On June 29 2012 16:42 smr wrote: Enjoyable game. Those long long passes by Pirlo and Montolivo are pure gold. Germany played a good tournament although looking at all the expectations the offensive midfield did a pretty poor job most of the time. Podolski was weak or maybe worse, Müller did nothing special, Özil had a few moments but no phenomenal perfomances. Schürrle was weaker than he was in the preparation games. But the defense who everybody feared could fall apart every second was doing a really good job sans a few mistakes yesterday.
On June 29 2012 16:42 smr wrote: Enjoyable game. Those long long passes by Pirlo and Montolivo are pure gold. Germany played a good tournament although looking at all the expectations the offensive midfield did a pretty poor job most of the time. Podolski was weak or maybe worse, Müller did nothing special, Özil had a few moments but no phenomenal perfomances. Schürrle was weaker than he was in the preparation games. But the defense who everybody feared could fall apart every second was doing a really good job sans a few mistakes yesterday.
Let's hope for a great final.
Conceding 6 goals is not a good job.
If you look at it this way you're totally right and I might have remembered the games from a wrong perspective (and I wasn't able to watch the denmark game so did not think of what happened there). For me it felt like: The offensive is what makes Germany a contender for the championship -> They seemed to be extremely weak especially because Löw wanted to win in beauty or something... On the contrary almost everybody felt that the team could go out of the tournament early because of the lackluster performances of the defense in preparation games. And atleast against Portugal and the Netherlands which were thought to be the important games to advance they outperformed these expectations (of course there was luck involved - pepe first game- but that is the same for every team now and then)
This result doesn't surprise me at all. Germany have played the best or second best football at this tournament, World Cup 2010, Euro 2008 and World Cup 2006 but when it comes to the crunch games vs the other powerhouse nations they consistently come up short. Germany are a team who are great at crushing teams who can't defend (Holland, England, Argentina, Greece, Australia etc...) but when they play a well organised top class back four with good holding midfielders who shut down Ozil and Schweinsteiger like Portugal, Italy and Spain they really struggle to break them down and create chances.
Germany still lack a striker that isn't a complete useless waste of space when it matters.
It's funny how for all the hype Schweinsteiger has as one of the worlds best midfielders a 33 year old Pirlo showed the world what a real world class midfielder looks like.
Germany were also incredibly arrogant this tournament and seemed to think the trophy was their's from the minute they realised Spain weren't playing particularly well. Nice to see them put in their place.
On June 29 2012 17:11 lefix wrote: It would not have been a good job, if they were playing a defensive style. The way germany is playing, conceding a few goals is inevitable.
Rubbish. Italy have conceeded two goals all tournament and they play attacking football.
Germany's defensive problems are that A) Badstuber and Boateng are rubbish. B) Hummels is a great talent but makes mistakes because he's young and learning and C) They field 4 players every game who contribute literally nothing to the defensive effort plus Schweinsteiger who I think lacks a lot of the positional skills in the middle that Xabi Alonso, Pirlo and Xavi have as a result of being a winger for most of his career
On June 29 2012 06:33 sharkie wrote: I am so sad for Klose... Such a great player like him doesn't deserve to retire without a title... :'( He always works so hard even if he has a bad day.
He was never great. What would have been crazy is him breaking WC goal record - individually hes just not that special.
He's one of the hardest working strikers I've ever seen, that's why I always respect him and he'll always be one of my favorite players to watch, especially compared to guys like Gomez
Klose knew how to be in the right place at the right time, all the best goalscorers have that sixth sense. He may not have the physical ability of say, Balotelli, but he was always effective, no doubt about it.
So youre saying hes Inzaghi? Is he even Michael Owen or Andy Cole? Look at his club career.
This guy is all-around mediocre to above mediocre player who was lucky to play for Germany. There was no other forward that could challenge his role (a shame, really) so he was/is the usual goalscorer. That team is known for collective effort and absolute majority of his goals were logical result of nicely orchestrated attacks where ball was ending up being delivered to Klose on a silver plate.
That is complete bullshit. You describe the exact situation that Gomez is in; the man can't control the ball well, doesn't create anything for his team, and can only finish (sometimes) when he his handed the ball perfectly. Klose, on the other hand, fights for every inch endlessly, creating opportunities on the field for his team. You demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge of the German team by saying what you did.
lol
guy scored most of his goals against teams that likes of Gerd Muller didnt even know existed, like I said if he breaks the record it would be meaningless because he simply doesnt belong on that list. Some guy above said he doesnt have Balotellis ability, well, from historical perspective thats a definition of nobody (little harsh, but close to reality)
blame my knowledge of football or w/e, that doesn't change a thing. Ive been watching it before you were born lol
btw, Gomez is a better player already. Not for Germany, but all around.
You know someone doesn't have the feintest idea about football when he thinks a useless lump like Gomez is better than Klose was at his peak. Total drivel. You have clearly never played the game at any serious level.
It's also hilarious you mention Muller because clearly you haven't the feintest clue about him. Gerd Muller was basically Miroslav Klose only better and he did it for his club too. Muller was the exact same kind of player who appeared to not actually be good at anything on a football field and yet he scored a fuck load of goals. Muller took the exact same kind of flak Klose does and even know despite his phenomenal scoring record Muller is rarely mentioned amongst the greats of the game.
On June 29 2012 16:42 smr wrote: Enjoyable game. Those long long passes by Pirlo and Montolivo are pure gold. Germany played a good tournament although looking at all the expectations the offensive midfield did a pretty poor job most of the time. Podolski was weak or maybe worse, Müller did nothing special, Özil had a few moments but no phenomenal perfomances. Schürrle was weaker than he was in the preparation games. But the defense who everybody feared could fall apart every second was doing a really good job sans a few mistakes yesterday.
Let's hope for a great final.
Conceding 6 goals is not a good job.
If you look at it this way you're totally right and I might have remembered the games from a wrong perspective (and I wasn't able to watch the denmark game so did not think of what happened there). For me it felt like: The offensive is what makes Germany a contender for the championship -> They seemed to be extremely weak especially because Löw wanted to win in beauty or something... On the contrary almost everybody felt that the team could go out of the tournament early because of the lackluster performances of the defense in preparation games. And atleast against Portugal and the Netherlands which were thought to be the important games to advance they outperformed these expectations (of course there was luck involved - pepe first game- but that is the same for every team now and then)
Portugal was the only team that really tested your defense before Italy... You didn't outperform against NL, NL massively underperformed against any team both offensively and defensively.
On June 29 2012 16:42 smr wrote: Enjoyable game. Those long long passes by Pirlo and Montolivo are pure gold. Germany played a good tournament although looking at all the expectations the offensive midfield did a pretty poor job most of the time. Podolski was weak or maybe worse, Müller did nothing special, Özil had a few moments but no phenomenal perfomances. Schürrle was weaker than he was in the preparation games. But the defense who everybody feared could fall apart every second was doing a really good job sans a few mistakes yesterday.
Let's hope for a great final.
Conceding 6 goals is not a good job.
If you look at it this way you're totally right and I might have remembered the games from a wrong perspective (and I wasn't able to watch the denmark game so did not think of what happened there). For me it felt like: The offensive is what makes Germany a contender for the championship -> They seemed to be extremely weak especially because Löw wanted to win in beauty or something... On the contrary almost everybody felt that the team could go out of the tournament early because of the lackluster performances of the defense in preparation games. And atleast against Portugal and the Netherlands which were thought to be the important games to advance they outperformed these expectations (of course there was luck involved - pepe first game- but that is the same for every team now and then)
Portugal was the only team that really tested your defense before Italy... You didn't outperform against NL, NL massively underperformed against any team both offensively and defensively.
Reading some newspapers and different sites before the first match it seemed almost sure that Ronaldo alone is going to score 5 times against Germany. Several teams in the tournament had a better defense yes, but it depends which expectations you are looking at. I would say that Greece tested a specific part of the German defense almost as well as Italy did. Both teams performed good, fast counter-attacks which the defense struggled against. Didn't really matter against Greece because their defense was even worse...
Yesterday Italy played the best football they where capable of, aldo we saw in the last 20 minutes what our team is like without balotelli, those 2 gools where of a fuoriclasse(true soccer talent). Also people lets not forget the great performance of Buffon. Goolies never get proper credit for their job, he saved at least one made goal and went close to saving the penalty kick. The reason Italy wins and advances so many times is because imo Italy has one of the best defences in the world. Holland for example does not have a good defence despite having a good team, and thats why they loose often. Defence and ball-possesion are keys for football.
Looking foward to the final and comon guys, LETS BREAK SPAINS CURRENT TITLE-HOLDING!!!!!
I personally feel there is only one thing to say. You can play all the great offensive football you want, a team that wants to win a championship cannot concede 6 goals in 5 games. Our defence and goalkeeper are extremely overrated. Neuer is fucking good, but he did not save a single "unsaveable ball" (don't know how this is said in english) this tourney. Every shot he saved this campaign, you would also expect from a 2nd division goalie. So he performed ok, but nothing more. And you just don't see the kind of mistakes from our defense when watching Spain or Italy, hence they are in the finals with 1 and 2 conceded goals. If Germany wants to win a title with this generation, we have to tighten up our defence, we won't fail because of limited offensive options anytime soon.
For me in that particular game Germany lacked a real captian and/or a leader to bring them back into the game. Sure Lyow (or howevet it is spelled) made a great team with a lot of potential, much better than on the previous championships, however, not every game goes according to the plan, sometimes shit happens such as power house like Italy to put you 2 in 20 minutes and in such moments you need leaders to bring you back. Leaders like Balack was, like Efenberg, like Kan, now Germany has none of those, Lam is not a real captian he has some moves he doesn't have what it takes to lead the team in crisis. Also the infamous german spirit cannot be sustained with players like Kedira, Yozil, Podolski, they may be good, but their generations are just not germans yet, so there is this trade off that Germany had to do, they pick good players in the team, but when there is crisis they cannot count on them, so they really have to find their leader or they will never make it to title, except if they have the chance to have a championship where every game goes by plan. Overall, Italy outplayed Germany and they never managed to get back in the game after the two goals deficite.