I just arrived in Cologne and I'm looking forward to watching as many matches as possible with brothers and friends interested in and knowledgeable about soccer. As I did in the past, I'm creating this post to give friends on the Internet a chance to comment on and discuss matches and prospects with like-minded people.
However, I'll be leaving for Turkey tomorrow to go on a sailing trip until June 20 on my brother's boat, moored right now in Marmaris. I'm sure we'll have many opportunities to watch matches there, but I do not know how often I will be able to comment. I hope this will not deter any readers from putting their two cents in. To start things off, I'm posting an initial comment about the German team and the mood I perceive in the country.
Posts
Robert's Rules of Haka
21 hours ago
39 comments:
I think a fair characterization of the expectations here is "guarded optimism." "Optimism" because of the talent on the team, "guarded" because of the perceived strength of the competition, especially the South American teams with their home advantage, and because the preparation was less than ideal for the German team--it did not play a single really convincing match all year; one of their biggest stars, Marco Reus, is out with an injury; others are still recovering and and have a practice deficit; and there were some extracurricular incidents that left a bad taste in people's mouth.
A specific cause for concern is that Germany is the only side that has only one(!) real forward among its 23 nominated players, and he is 36 to boot. This is in striking contrast to all other teams I have checked, all of which travel with at least four forwards to Brazil. The unease is compounded by the observation that in the preparatory matches no consistent offensive tactic has emerged--whatever the Germans will try--it will still be some sort of experiment
But the overriding sense is that the current generation of exceptionally talented players finally has to win something if it isn't to go down in history as a "golden generation" that never completely lived up to its promise (the Czech teams of the early 2000's comes to mind here).
The referees, as usual, play a major part....
The rain may be a little bit easier to deal with for the Dutch.
We were able to watch Netherlands vs Spain last night in a bar at our marina--a historical match I'll never forget. The Dutch played themselves into what the Germans a call a "Rausch" (the ecstasy one might experience under the influence of alcohol or some drug)--some of their goal were just unbelievable demonstrations of technical skill and split-secong decision-making. Congratulations!
Thank you! We're watching England-Italy right now.
Today is the big day for our teams, Ulrich! I think this is the toughest group. And for Portugal, this game is the toughest of the group. I confess I don't have an expectation how well or not so well Portugal will play. It depends a lot if Ronaldo is OK with his injury. I must state that I think Germany is the favourite, and Portugal doesn't beat Germany since Euro2000. Just a curiosity : The game will take place in Salvador, whcih was the first Capital of Brazil.
Comfortable 2-0 lead for Germany, but the Mueller incident was not pretty on either side.
Congratulations for the victory of the German team, Ulrich. German team was effcient. Portuguese team hasn't played well. Apart from the incident of Pepe, whose action I reprove, there was also some lack of luck, e.g. two players accidentally injured during the match. Not a good day for Portugal. I hope the team can recover the moral for the rest of the competition.
I have not noticed messagesn were posted as anonymous: It was me, Pedro, who posted the previous comments refering the Portuguese team.
Nice for the US, scoring in the first minute!
the Referee helped the german Team to find the way to victory and he pushed the Ronaldo & Co into hell
I liked very much to see yesterday's match Brazil-Mexico. México has really surprised me, with the achievement of a fraw with Brazil, in such condition as in the opponent's home during WC. I liked very much to watch their goalkeeper, Ochoa, playing with amazing defenses. Obviously I think Brazil is passing to the next phase of the competition, but from what I saw yesterday, I hope México can make it too.
I'm now back in the marina from where we started near Marmaris in Turkey, and I should be able to participate in the discussions from now on. I have been able to watch some of the crucial matches in bars along the gulf in SW Turkey called Hisarönü Körfezi. I have been disappointed by Brazil both times I've seen them (do they have anything like a system or strategy?); I was tremendously impressed by the Dutch; and, truthfully, totally surprised by the Germans in their match against Portugal--sorry, @Pedro, that it had to be your team that got the Germans off to a good start!
Tonight, we'll be watching Spain vs Chile at our home marina, which the Spanish basically have to win, but they have been there before. The question is, did the Dutch look so good against the Spanish bec. the Spanish were so bad, or were the Spanish so bad bec. the Dutch were so good? The Germany vs. Portugal match poses similar questions, albeit not with the same clarity. Anyway, I'm excited about the World Cup to the degree I have been able to follow it.
I'm feeling pretty well today, Ulrich!
Congratulations!
This is shaping up as one exciting World Cup! With the Spanish, I had the feeling that they never considered the possibility that they could lose and were mentally unprepared when it happened--there was no Plan B and they were unable to adapt during a match--except for 15 min at the beginning of the second half yesterday, when they played the Chileans dizzy--without achieving anything, they appeared stunned.
OOOF! Last night's match betwenn Germany and Ghana was a bit too exciting for my nerves...
I wonder if the German coach will reconsider his decision to put Philipp Lahm, one of the best outside backs in the world, into midfield, given that we have more first-class midfielders than outside backs. In fact, all starting backs yesterday were central backs by training/preference!
As well as Ghana has played (in my opinion it is by far the most talented African team today), it is likely to be eliminated.
I'm so far impressed by the following teams:
1. France who have shown they can play at the highest level during their match with Switzerland
2. Germany who have shown character and discipline in their two matches, particularly against a brilliant game by Ghana.
3. Costa Rica: fearless and exciting
4. Mexico: solid and very disciplined.
5. Holland: Confident and without any apparent weakness
Otherwise, I'm not impressed at all by Brazil, Argentina or Italy. I would be surprised if they reached the semi-final playing like that. In fact, I'm hoping Italy gets eliminated at the group stage today, unless they realize they can longer play defense against these fearless and hungrier teams.
I did not have the chance to watch all teams during my recent sailing trip, but for those I did see, I have to agree with you, especially when it comes to Brazil. I also shared your sentiments about Italy until last night's game--no team deserves to go out that way, i.e. with a referee committing a double whammy against them--a red card that should not have been given and a red card that should have been given against an opposing player (with rabbit teeth that apparently need something to bite into!), but wasn't.
Anyway, I enjoyed the Ivory Coast/Greece match much more and was totally surprised by the Greeks--I have never seen them play that way--determined, attacking, technically quite good. Or perhaps my expectations were so low after the first match I've seen them in (on a Greek island BTW)...
Meanwhile, we have a never-ending discussion here in the media about what to do with the German defensive mid-field, with Khedira and Schweinsteiger not in their best form and Lahm unexpectedly playing below his usual capabilities. So, everyone is holding their breath for the match against the US.
So, probably this will be my last comment with my National Team, Portugal, on the tournament. For our side, it will be very hard to go to next phase. Portugal has to beat Gana by 4-0, while Germany has to win the US by 1-0, for example, other combinations can be done though. It is possible, but not probable of happening. As I read in the news, only possible by "miracle". I have to say I am not very confident this time. But let's see...
We (Robert Ries' family and I) are watching the US vs Germany game, which seems to be quite a big event in the US. Both teams are likely to advance to the next round, but the game is not very exciting as they preserve energy.
Overall European teams have been quite a disappointment, and a team from Latin America seems likelier to win. Hopefully Switzerland will do a little better against Messi&Co than they did against France...
@Pedro: I haven't been following the Portugal team closely before the tournament started, and given that they were ranked 4th by FIFA in the world, I was surprised by their performance. Will they learn the right lessons from this?
@Georg: I completely agree. I hope you're right that the slowness of the play was more the result of tactical considerations than an unintended consequence of the temperatures, which will not improve in the next weeks. Still, the large number of bad passes by the Germans is worrisome. I also had a general sense that the last degree of concentration was missing on offense, which may the result of everybody knowing that a tie would suffice for everybody (and no, I do not want to bring back the ghosts of Gijon)...
...and give my regards to the Rieses!
@Ulrich: I wish they learn the right lessons from this. For Portugal, it was a big disappointment.- there was a certain hope in playing a tournament in Brazil, due to cultural closenness.
In my oppinion, I think the team has an exceptional player, Ronaldo, but the rest of the team is not as good as it should be. Although he hasn't done a good WC, in my oppinion, it is mainly because of Ronaldo that we have been qualified for the tournament -among others he scored 3 goals in the playoffs against Sweden.
What is worring me is that he is getting old, and I do not see promising young players...
When I told one of my brothers before last night's Brazil vs. Chile match that I thought Chile would win, he said, "The soccer gods will not allow it" (that Brazil will be eliminated early in the elimination round). The way the match unfolded made me indeed believe in soccer gods--I mean, the match was really there for Chile to win.
The first half was wild, but the second half was subdued--perhaps the coaches had instructed their teams to step on the brakes and play it safer--a few determined counter attacks may have won it for Chile. But they seemed unable to launch one, actually seemed physically exhausted. And then came a penalty shootout riddled with errors on both sides, with the gods tipping the scales for Brazil in the end.
Anyway, I hope Brazil will be done for in the quarterfinals--I'd like to see more exciting teams! (I can't believe I'm actually writing something blasphemous like this!)
Hello Ulrich and others, this is Robert Ries. Patty, Emma and I are watching the proceedings with George Suter which means we are not missing much of the action nor the pre- and post-game commentary. It has been an interesting learning experience. ESPN has Michael Ballack, Alexi Lalas, and Ruud van Nistelrooy post-game. Regarding the Arjen Robben late foul, Michael Ballack said it was a justified foul, Lalas introduced the concept of "... cumulative penalty..." which means it was not only Robben's foul but an aggregate of previous violations that lead to the penalty. van Nistelrooy's view was (paraphrase here) "...if the leg (of the defender) is there, you must use it." I guess the hope is that the Dutch have the legs to go all the way to the championship. We are anticipating tomorrow's Switzerland-Argentina game. Those discussions often end with Messi's left foot. We will be watching Germany later today and looking forward to the post-game comments.
@Robert et al. Greetings to all of you!
I assume you are talking about the late foul against Robben that lead to the penalty. The commentators here are more or less in agreement with Ballack in the sense that such a penalty CAN be given. I'm totally puzzled by Lalas, though. Yes, cumulative fouls can lead to a yellow card, even a red card (I guess), but I have never heard of a "cumulative penalty"--it's given for one and only one foul committed in the penalty area. But then again, this is not the first time I heard Lalas spout nonsense--the smirk he had on his face when he predicted the US would beat Germany certainly looks silly now.
...oh, and I do like RvN's comment!
This is the situation: Germany started extremely well in this World Cup and then played worse in each successive match (with match 2 and 3 possibly equally uninspiring)--the opposite of what one expects from a team in a tough competition. If one extrapolates, the next match will be our last...But extrapolating has its own pitfalls, and France, our next opponent, didn't exactly shine against Nigeria--so, there remains a glimmer of hope.
Our manager certainly knows a great deal more about soccer than I do, but I cannot help second-guessing him along the lines I already outlined in my first comment. It may be time to move Lahm back to the position where he has been world-class year after year, at outside back, where Germany has a clear deficit, and not to ask the defense to stand as "high" as it did in the first half against Algeria, which, combined with the inexplicable festival of bad passes (I don't know the English term for German Fehlpass) by the German offense, allowed the Algerians time and time again to get behind the German defense with just a couple of touches, forcing the keeper to assume the role of libero in one kamikaze mission after another (as one commentator put it on German TV).
Speaking of missed passes: That was already a problem against the USA; it grew to almost catastrophic proportions against Algeria. And these are technically perhaps the best players Germany ever fielded! Yes, the Algerians did not pass much better, but since they were standing "deep", losing the ball did not immediately result in the threat of a defensive breakdown.
All of this amounts to one thing: Germany has to make adjustments, both in tactics and in how players are being assigned, if it wants to get past France. Another idea: Try not to head or kick each ball directly into the arms of the keeper!!!
It's been an interesting experience to watch World Cup on ESPN. We enjoyed funny live blogging from DER SPIEGEL to compensate for annoying ESPN announcers.
@Ulrich: you are right about the analysis of Germany's game. Neuer was more of a field player than goal keeper, which seems very risky, but he reads the play quite well. Although Germany deserves a lot of criticism for their performance, Algeria did not take advantage of their errors either. Their offensive game was uninspiring. The same can be said of Nigeria against France. So although European teams did not convince (including Netherlands), their victories were well deserved. Now they all need to step up to stay in the tournament.
After a historic Federer-Wawrinka quarter finals matchup at Wimbledon became reality today, there is no doubt that Swiss sports fans can relax now to watch the upcoming Argentina-Switzerland match ...
A courageous performance by the Swiss! I was impressed by the way in which they kept Messi out of the match through double- if not triple-teaming him, which requires tremendous discipline and readiness to run bec. it necessarily leaves other areas open. I felt they may have won if they had pursued the counter chances they had in overtime more determinedly--were they physically exhausted?
Quote of the day: "If you create more opportunities (to score), you also create more missed opportunities." (Thomas Müller, in response to critics who deplored the large number of missed opportunities in the match against Algeria)
After all the excitement generated by newcomers, we are back to the usual suspects, and I'm not sure what to make of this...
Congratulations to Germany for ruthlessy taking advantage of Brazilian defenders running around like headless chicken. The score may well have been 8:0... The second semi-final was very disappointing. Germany definitely deserves to win the Cup now.
Thanks, Georg!
So much has been written about this "historic" event in Belo Horizonte that I don't want to add much to the clutter. But I want to make one comment that reflects why I actually predicted a German win in the semi (albeit not of those proportions, of course).
I remember a World Cup (I think it was 2006) when England predicted before-hand that they would win it--and were sent home with their tails between their legs. I was reminded of this by the relentless boasting of the Brazilians before and during the tournament. Scolari said before the semi "We are only two steps away from heaven." and an assistant coach predicted they would beat Germany 4:0, when in fact, they had played poorly all along (see my comments above). Players who hear this crap are not prepared when things do not go as expected and reality hits. And guess what Pele said after the disaster? "We will win the cup in 2018." Some people never learn!
Contrast this with the Germans: Even now, they do not say "We will win now." They say "We want to win now." Big difference bec. it signifies a completely different mind-set, one that stresses focus and hard work and is grounded in reality.
Ah yes, after seeing last night's bore of a match, I'm tempted (only tempted!) to say "We will win this!"
Interesting analysis. The Brazilians were certainly too emotional, which put them under too much pressure. I found the crying and Neymar shirt-holding before the game strange, and it showed that they were not focused on the right things. As Oliver Kahn said: it's just a game, folks!
I'm fascinated by the commentators and comments in the English-speaking media that I've read: They give the impression that the only team in the final with a problem is Germany, and the problem is Messi. Did it not occur to them that Argentina, WITH Messi, failed to score for an entire 120 min? And that Germany never failed to score so far? Apparently, that is not considered a problem for Argentina.
Two things impressed me most in last night's final:
1) Argentina came to play soccer. My fear that we would have a repeat of 1990, where they were nothing but destructive from the first to the last minute, were unfounded. The result was an immensely suspenseful final played at a very high level--chapeau!.
2) The way Germany dealt with what could have been a fatal blow: Khedira, one of the key players in the rout of Brazil, who had finally found his form after a prolonged and severe injury, injured himself again during the warm-up and had to be replaced at the last minute. In other words, the players had to retool mentally in an instant w/o any help from their coach. And then Khedira's substitute Kramer, who had played admirably in spite of his being thrown into the water w/o much preparation, received a blow to the head and had to leave the match with a possible concussion. With that, Germany's contingent of defensive mid-fielders was exhausted. Schürrle, an attacking mid-fielder, came and with that, the Germans had to re-organize again. The way in which they took all of this in stride was truly impressive.
@Ulrich: Congratulations Ulrich for yesterday's victory! It was a very good match to watch. I think both teams played very well in yesterday's match, and any of both teams, Germany or Argentina would deserve to win the game, and could have won the final. But overall speaking, when analysing all the matches done in the World Cup, Germany has made a better tournament.
We have been blogging from a few Championships ago, and this time, I give you my Congratulations for the World Cup!
@Pedro: Many thanks! Let's see how Portugal and Germany will do in two years!
Post a Comment