ReiseReise

I don´t know if I was giving the US much of a chance in that group, but I am certain I have never seen a Group of Death playing out exactly like people thought it would beforehand. Just a few examples from the top of my head: 1996 EUROS had a group of Germany, Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic. Germany was coming from a surprise quarterfinals elimination in the 1994 World Cup, Italy were runners up in that very tournament, Russia were considered dark horses of the tournament and the Czech Republic were thought to be the underdogs in the group. Italy and Russia went home, while Germany and the Czechs advanced. EURO 2000 had the group of Germany, England (who seemed on the verge of regaining their lost football superpower status), Portugal (who had the golden generation of Figo and Co) and Romania (Hagi´s last spring). England and Germany were the teams eliminated from the group, Portugal winning all three matches and Romania beating England on the final matchday with a 3-2 scoreline. Basically every EURO since the EUROs became 16 team tourneys had one amazingly tough group, and quite often the "weak" team of the group performed well, sometimes even advancing. Even World Cups had those group of death surprises: The 2002 World Cup had the group of England, Argentina, Nigeria and Sweden. Nigeria was held in high regard, it was expected it was either them or Cameroon to perform big for Africa in that tournament. England qualified after the legendary 5-1 win in Munich and were considered a tournament favourite aswell as Argentina. Sweden was the team to deliver the points to everyone, but still considered tough opposition to the others. Sweden ended up winning the group, England advanced alongside them. Group of Deaths often aren´t what you´d thought they´d be in the beginning of a tournament.

Soooo... one more goal means Mexico win the group and Brazil will play Netherlands, right? EDIT Nevermind...

I guess that was kind of deserved. Croatia seem unable to break down El Tri and there is the second goal as I type.

I know that was almost two weeks ago, but I can´t get over the fact how different this group could be if Croatia hadn´t been robbed by the referee in the opening game.

I´m going to say it now. Even considering how many problems teams have getting good fullbacks, Dani Alves is still pretty crap for the level of competition he plays at. Happy Cameroon got a goal, simply because I have this weird sentiment that I want every team to score at least once at the World Cup finals. EDIT: Cameroon seems to win every header in the Brazilian box, which is quite the feat considering Brazil have Luiz and Silva, both of which are tall and good at that part of th game.

Love the stadium architecture. With every arena looking pretty much the same, this is a fine and refreshing sight.

That Dutch counterattack was awesome. I thought I saw a ghost when Dirk Kuyt was playing, had no idea that ugly bastard was still around. Still, glad to see him playing for the Elftal, I thought he´d be close to retirement or even retired already. I had the Dutch game on TV and Spain-Australia running on laptop, Australia didn´t do much and it was a really easy win for Spain. That Villa goal might be the best thing Spain did that World Cup, what a fine finish. Even in victory this wasn´t the usual Tikki takka though. Glimpses of it, maybe.

No worries, I laughed. Would have given a like, but I reached my quota earlier when liking almost all the posts of the US youth system postings. Today´s matches seem pretty pedestrian, but David Villa scored a fine little goal for Spain. Chile looks like the real deal, Holland seems to be relying solely on breaks to prevent a Round of the Last 16 match against Brazil from happening. Robben´s run was great, but not that much besides that imo.

That this discussion about US football was great, thank your for the insights into MLS and the workings of youth level football in the USA. The USA vs Portugal game was another really entertaining encounter in what has to be the most fun, intense World Cup I have seen so far. I actually thought Ronaldo, considering he was probably not at a hundred percent, played quite good, taking a few US players to school, keeping the ball and playing some really great passes. For a guy who quite often ignores his teammates (and quite often rightfully so, considering the level of their abilities), that was a refreshing sight. The US have shown some great comeback abilities in the tournament so far. That goal by Jones was a real stunner. Still, I have no idea how USA could beat Ghana with a defense like that. Both goals for Portugal came from huge defensive errors, and while last-minute-equalizer could be credited to playing in that horrible jungle-climate for 90+5 minutes, the first one was ridiculous. For the group finals, I have to say no one should expect USA to be getting thumbed by Germany. The Germans have proven for all of their last tournaments that they are not bouncing back immediatly after setbacks and have some trouble regrouping and coping with pressure, they will be playing careful and collected, not trying to steamroll Klinsmann´s boys. Considering that a draw would be enough to win the group, you can´t even the blame that approach. It will be a close game, like the other two USA-games. There is no way they are going to be playing for a draw right away like the "Disgrace from Gijon", with Loew and Klinsmann being friends and both Germans they know that would lead to a major major shitstorm neither of them wants to take. If they draw, it will be like Sweden v Denmark at the 2004 EUROs, a spectacular draw which leaves questions to be asked. (Expl.: Sweden and Denmark played a 2-2 draw, which in a UEFA tie-breaker style decision put Italy out of the tournament and helped both Scandinavian teams advance. Especially the second Swedish goal lead to a lot of questions)

Haha, I wish I could have that confidence, but yesterday´s game and the first ten minutes of the Portugal game showed all the weaknesses I feared we would and hoped we didn´t have. In a normal match, we should beat the US, but imagine them getting a good result against Portugal, that would certainly give them another boost and they will play for their lives v Germany. I really hope it is true what was said in 2006, that it was Loew behind everything Klinsmann did and Klinsmann was more of a visionary and conceptualist while Loew was the actual coach and tactician. I know it was mostly reserves playing and a friendly aswell, but I all too vividly remember Germany losing to the US 3-4 after being down 1-4 last year. Algeria looked really disciplined against both, Belgium and Korea and especially against Korea they were deadly on the counter. I think Korea was really subpar when it came to defending, so that might helped. Performance-wise and compared to Algeria, Belgium looked like they´d be an easier and more predictable match up, but they won both their matches. Spain got a World Cup and their second EURO out of looking solid, but uninspired and with a predictable gameplan in their matches while ultimately simply winning their matches due to being full of class.

If we even qualify for RotL16, I´m not even sure if I´d rather win the group and play Algeria or become runners up and play Belgium. Maybe Russia can somehow get a goal Against Algeria and progress on four points? Well, as said before, if we manage to not mess up and advance ...

For 82 or so minutes Belgium looked every bit like a team that knew they only needed a tie and boy was it a snoozer, almost literally. Toughest viewing for me since JPN vs GRE That analysis is spot on I´d say. Winning it is essential for a successful campaign, Belgium wasn´t very convincing, but a win is a win and winning is progression.

Dear USA, please draw or beat Portugal. Regards, A fearful German This Belgium vs Russia match came alive during the last few minutes, which is good, since it was the drizzling shite before.

Mertens is looking amazing, thought he could be one of those players who is only good coming from the bench, but he is the only one really creating stuff up front and making good runs.

They do. I think there were a few instances were teams tried to sneak in a 20th (in the days of the 22-men-rosters) or 21st player for the field into the squads, which lead to the "3-keeper-rule" being firmly installed. I don´t really know when it happened. The early World Cups often had defenders as second goalies and only one official GK between the sticks. Bosnia gets robbed of a really nice Dzeko goal. Just as the refereeing seemed to improve.

I know I´m going to get a "Oh no you didn´t!" for this, but... that was klose. My perspective: Seriously, though, we had some good chances - despite a lot of terrible errors - to win this. If Ghana ever learn how to play a five or four on two, we would have lost that game from OUR corner kick in the 90th minute. Hoewedes prooved to be to slow. Phillip Lahm had the second bad performance in the cup and this time his crappy vision turned against us and nearly cost us the game. The "four-CB-idea" is a good alternative for the fitting opposition, it didn´t work well against Ghana though. If this was our ceiling, we will be lucky if we beat or draw USA, tbh. Question for you guys: I honestly would like to know if some of you saw positive aspects of our game. It is really hard, when you are invested, to judge properly. I thought that, in the first half, Oezil was actually the guy at least creating something up front. Goetze looked horrible at the start of the second half, then scored a goal out of nowhere and for some reason won man of the match. The German pundits talked about the second half as if it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I thought it might have been entertaining (not for me, I was suffeing through and through), but it was a real torture for me. How was it in the Neutral´s eye?

The tv-stations (roughly a German PBS-thing) which has the World Cup games in Germany don´t show commercials after 20.00 h, which is relevant for 2 out 3 games during the group stages. However, the first Germany game had one of the greatest commercials I ever saw, I think even without knowing German you will get the idea, the catchphrase is "everybody´s here!" and it is for a huge grocery store chain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPaejRmx-EE

He was injured before the tournament, but stated himself he was at a hundred percent and had no idea why the coach didn´t start him against USA. Probably the coach wasn´t to happy hearing about that. As for Lahm, my biggest issue with him is that he can´t do no wrong in German sports media, but apart from that he is a great fullback, maybe even among the top five fullbacks in the world. If this "all center back" - backline becomes a permanent thing against fast, counterattacking teams with strong forwards though, there doesn´t seem a spot for him on the FB-positions. The move into CDM seems to be a permanent thing and with Schweinsteiger not being in top form and Gündogan´s and Bender´s injuries I´d guess it´s kind of okay to play him, although he hasn´t convnced me that he is as great as some claim he is on that position. If we go back to fullbacks that are actually fullbacks, it will hopefully be Durm on the left and Lahm on the right which judging from the little testing they had with that could work aswell. Khedira is vital and I´m very happy he already had some tough collisions which didn´t seem to affect him in testing matches and in Germany´s World Cup opener. He is (you can add Mueller to that mix aswell and to a degree guys like Podolski and Klose I´d think) one of those players who scratch and claw their way into a game if necessary. You need someone like that in a collective of guys having great technical abilities and a good eye, but sometimes lacking severely in the "spirit department".

Agreed there, really hope it´s not just a break so the refs can cough up in essential games. I have decided to leave gut feeling and the like out for this post on today´s Germany vs Ghana match and try to be as analytical as possible, without any predictions. Last time I did predict (and relied heavily on gut feeling) I made quite the fool out of myself. The German team: Hummels doesn´t seem to be fit. Loew allegdly brings in Mustafi, who was subbed on for Hummels against Portugal, to defend on the wing like Hoewedes will do aswell on the left hand side. Boateng will play Center Back, which is his usual position after all. Basically, we have four at the back, all of them CBs, which worked well against Portugal. Lahm will play right in front of the defensive line, Kroos and Khedira will be Center Mids, Oezil, Goetze and Klose will play the kind of hybrid midfield/winger/strikers they tried to play in Germany´s campaign opener. Will be interesting to see if this plays out as good as it did against Portugal. Quick thoguhts about Ghana: Ghana is a different opponentl, a stronger collective than Portugal, with very fast and very physical players, although none of them of the same quality level as Cristiano Ronaldo. Their playing style is more straightforward than the one of the Portuguese. Turnover like we had in the first ten minutes of the game would be very costly, so just play the ball back instead of throwing yourself on the ground letting your opponent go through on goal (looking at you, Phillip Lahm!). They will probably play for the win, since a three pointer will keep their hopes well and alive in their own hands while a draw most certainly means they´d have to hope for the other teams in the group helping out. This might lead to same space for our attack, which we didn´t have for the majority of the 2010 group stage encounter and which made Ghana really difficult to break down. It is not clear yet if the manager will play K-P-Boateng, but from what I read it is quite possible Essien is going to start. Expections from the game (as in general thoughts, not withstanding possible early goals an the like): - lots of one on ones, probably quite a lot of fouls aswell - Ghana trying to use speed and power to break through, probably crossing a lot and probably putting in quite the offensive effort - Germany using quick passes up front after slower passing build-ups in midfield , mostly attacking through the middle Special treat of the game: Per Mertesacker, that big old giraffe, makes his 100th cap for the Germans.

Does anyone know the Asterix movies? He reminds me of the guy who helps them do Caesar´s tests to see if the Gallic people are Gods. Just with open eyes.

"Another of this CET-Midnight-matches... I´m tired...not going to watch unless it´s fun, I give it half an hour." The footballing gods won´t let me sleep.

That Giroud header makes me overthink my judgement of FIFA 14 headers. And France wins the game 18 minutes in, Switzerland didn´t look good, can´t see them coming back.

Well, it´s not that England has been pummeled and been thrown into the pool, they lost two competitive games, which equals being eliminated after two games. I think Costa Rica, so far, has been the real sensation of the tournament. I heard quite a few say they expected Chile to do well, still them beating Spain the way they did was amazing and a surprise. Costa Rica making it to the round of the last sixteen, possibly even winning the group, that is something else, though.

Incredible, how many of the "big" teams have trouble after a very good start. Holland barely beating Australia, Brazil 0-0 against Mexico, Italy losing to Costa Rica. Suddenly starting with a 4-0 doesn´t sound that great (superstitious pessimism mode).

I don´t get it, yet I would like to have one of those.