Argentina v Germany

[alpine_saint]

Could have been a blessing in disguise

 

Indeed, probably would have been another member of the Chelsea School of How to Undermine the Squad and Manager, this years valedictorian being John Terry, of course....

[Dark Munster]

Ok, only Spain left to support now. Don't want Paraguay, Uruguay, Holland or Germany to win. Still at least England managed 2 goals v Germany even if one of course was ridicously not given.

Being half-Dutch, I'm half offended by that.

 

Come on you Oranje.

[alpine_saint]

Accounting for the expected Spain win tonight, I am following Holland from now on.

 

The Krauts have had their fun, and given me the laugh of kicking the Argies out in humilliation.

[Gorgiesaint]

Being half-Dutch, I'm half offended by that.

 

Come on you Oranje.

 

Being half-Dutch, I'm not. I'll never hear the end of it from my relatives if they win so no thanks.

[chrisobee]

Being half-Dutch, I'm half offended by that.

 

Come on you Oranje.

 

Lol, I have Dutch ancestry as well albeit going back about 500 years ! They were my "second" team until a a few Dutch louts decided England losing was just about the funniest thing in history and this in spite of my support for Holland until that point. Fair to say I hated the Dutch winning last night!

[chrisobee]

Being half-Dutch, I'm not. I'll never hear the end of it from my relatives if they win so no thanks.

 

Ok, that's two who are half-Dutch. Double Dutch anyone

[dubai_phil]

That was an enjoyable second half of football. Good shout from Hoddle at HT who said Germany could murder them on the break

 

Now this football malarky isn't that difficult is it, so how come THEY can play like that and we

 

 

Oh

[Dark Munster]

Being half-Dutch, I'm not. I'll never hear the end of it from my relatives if they win so no thanks.

Well, if your other half is English, that half has no hope, so you might as well embrace the half that has at least a half a chance of winning.

[RonManager]

That was an enjoyable second half of football. Good shout from Hoddle at HT who said Germany could murder them on the break

 

Now this football malarky isn't that difficult is it, so how come THEY can play like that and we

 

 

Oh

 

It's all in the head. Why Brazil and not Equador? - why Holland and not Scotland or Belgium (small population examples)?

[david in sweden]

The Germans play so intelligently though, don't they..? I can't fault them. They get so many players into the right positions at the right time, and know instinctively when to press, when to play simple, when to be fast, when to slow the game down.

 

4-0. Lawrenson: This is counter attacking football at its best.

 

Deutschland, Deutschland öber allas !!!! 4 - NIL against ARGENTINA.... How on earth did they let the Argies get NIL ?

Maybe it was the hand of Gott!......if so he was holding all the Aces.

[St Landrew]

Deutschland, Deutschland öber allas !!!! 4 - NIL against ARGENTINA.... How on earth did they let the Argies get NIL ?

Maybe it was the hand of Gott!......if so he was holding all the Aces.

 

While I was watching, the phrase did cross my mind too, David.

[sadoldgit]

All this talk about lack of technique...the problem with our side is lack of football intelligence. Rooney in particular plays like a kid in a playground. The Germans play it simple and easy and are showing everyone else up. We lost our discipline early on and lost our heads soon after.

[Johnny Shearer]

The Germans play so intelligently though, don't they..? I can't fault them. They get so many players into the right positions at the right time, and know instinctively when to press, when to play simple, when to be fast, when to slow the game down.

 

4-0. Lawrenson: This is counter attacking football at its best.

 

They're so unselfish as well. Go for the pass to a team mate who is in a better position rather than going for goal themselves and trying to smash it.

[Lord Duckhunter]

All this talk about lack of technique...the problem with our side is lack of football intelligence. Rooney in particular plays like a kid in a playground. The Germans play it simple and easy and are showing everyone else up. We lost our discipline early on and lost our heads soon after.

 

Correct.

 

Look at Gerrard, he has all the tools to be our own Schweinsteiger,but he's ill disiplined in defence and chases about all over the place. He then gets shifted out to the left or played "in the hole" behind the strikers. Rafa didn't trust him to hold his position and break at the right moment and neither did Capello.He's a far better player than Fat Frank and could be better than most of Europes centre mids. However he lacks the intelligence to play the position. He doesn't seem to make the right judgements, when to pass quickly, when to play it short or when to burst forward. Far too many "Glenn Hoddle" passes which end up giving the ball away.He gets away with it in the Premiership, but wont at international level.

 

How many years have we been talking about Lampard and Gerrard playing together. If you took 2 German players who were exactly the same, they'd have sorted it out years ago.

[Thedelldays]

agree..im just fed up with the fact that 4 or so players will play no matter what, regardless etc...

 

why do we always have to fit in lampard and garrard...why does rooney always have to be on the pitch no matter what....and when on the pitch, why cant stay as a striker instead of chasing the ball all over the park..

 

time for joe hart to be given an extended run in the team

time for dawson to be given an extended run

lets get rodwell, adam johnson, huddlestone in the squad

 

james, lampard, rio, heskey SWP need not come back

[ohwhenthesaints]

One thing I've noticed with the Germans is the quality of their passing at the most crucial times. Like a neat little ball over the top to set someone through or an inch perfect pass across the box to set up an easy tap in. It's all so simple but so precise, and combined with their intelligent movement, it makes them pretty damn impressive.

[Dark Munster]

All this talk about lack of technique...the problem with our side is lack of football intelligence. Rooney in particular plays like a kid in a playground. The Germans play it simple and easy and are showing everyone else up. We lost our discipline early on and lost our heads soon after.

Not just on the pitch, but off it too. Compare us to the Germans: who spent 6 months using the new ball in their league to get used to it? Who has perfected the art of taking penalties under pressure? Who takes a winter break to give players a chance to recover? Who learns from past mistakes? Not us.

[chrisobee]

Not just on the pitch, but off it too. Compare us to the Germans: who spent 6 months using the new ball in their league to get used to it? Who has perfected the art of taking penalties under pressure? Who takes a winter break to give players a chance to recover? Who learns from past mistakes? Not us.

 

Why did the PL not use the new ball ? Because it had a contract with Nike and couldn't, how typical ! Then to make things worse back in the Spring the FA contrived to LOSE 25 of the new balls sent to them and never did have a clue where they went:rolleyes:

Algeria were another country who used the new ball for months!

Just a side note though, there were complaints ( as there seem to be at every WC) about the ball in 2006 most notably from Oliver Kahn who stated " The Teamgeist" ball (is) built in favour of the strikers." That ball was developed in Germany, it took 3 years, the Jabulani ball was tested extensively at Loughborough !

[Dark Munster]

Compare this to the Sweet FA's approach to youth football:

 

http://www.klikfc.com/article/139292:1/world-cup-2010-how-germany-planned-a-flair-revolution--paul-hayward

 

Niersbach says that after his country's early exit from Euro 2000 "the German FA has invested an annual €20m [£16.5m] earmarked for talent promotion in the widest sense of the word. At grassroots level, a nationwide network of 366 training centres has been set up, mostly using the infrastructure of local clubs with above-average facilities, where 14,000 youngsters aged 11-14 receive extra tuition by way of a weekly two-hour training session imparted by a DFB-appointed coach. This is in addition to the training they do with their respective clubs. It is more than likely that some of them will feature in the German national team eight years from now.

 

"Further up the line there are 46 club academies. Twenty-nine German further-education schools have been designated Elite Football Schools. Students receive a perfectly normal education, up to the Abitur granting university access, but also benefit from plenty of football as part of the curriculum.

 

"Finally we have made sure that all the DFB's junior national teams, from U15 onwards, benefit from basically the same level of support, the backroom staff including a sports psychologist, a physical fitness coach, as well as first-rate doctors and physios. An extensive database has been set up, allowing our coaches to access information – medical data, physical test results, performance analyses, personal characteristics – for every player. Obviously, the underlying purpose of all of this is that no player with good potential shall be allowed to slip through the net."