Croatia v. Germany [R]

[Cris 09]

Goal difference also creates more attacking football, for the most part!

[ForeverRed]

Because they only need to draw Austria?

And who is to say they'll do even that?

I'm not taking anything for granted. The Austrians are motivated, have shown that they can play well so far in the tournament, being either unlucky and/or unable to capitalize on their chances. Its not impossible to imagine an upset. They need a bit of luck against us on Monday and for Loew to stubbornly refuse to make the right tactical changes and we're history.

[Buschkauz]

congrats to croatia, they deserved the win today!

[Reich]

i just came back from klagenfurt...oh my what should i say....

we played a terrible first half. no question
we never found our pace. i told all my friends right before the game we should play with our old wc06 defence. lahm-metzelder-mertesacker-friedrich
lahm is so much better on left and jansen...oh boy...i already saw it in the polish game. he is too weak in the defence (what should be his actual purpose) and always wants to play a 3rd forward or something. frings and ballack never came into their play.
but i don't think we are that bad. we deserved the lose today but we lost because of a luck goal so what?
i think it was good we lost today. germany is most dangerous when pushed against the wall. i can remember we lost 8:3 against hungary wc54 and wc74 1:0 versus DDR and later won the cup. anyway. if we don't win against austria we don't deserve it anyway.


the only thing that pissed me on was that we bought tickets and then we lose. i am not superstitious but wtf?? http://tekkenzaibatsu.com/forums/images/smilies/confused.gif


oh yeah...we were about 8m from the foul. ridiculous how the croatian player held his face and fell down like he was hit by a bullet...of course when you see it in slow motion you can say it's a red but i saw it in real close range and it was just pure staginess. a good ref maybe gives both yellow and leaves it at that.

[catenaccio_L'pool]

Great game Hrvatska...2-1 and Kranjcar missed 2 clear chances and a German dive robbed Modric of 3-1 (and earned him a yellow as well). Germany had nothing going for them, which I think is very impressive.
Bilic made a good team - I had my doubts but they did great - the group is won after only 2 games.
Pranjic was a beast...

[Cris 09]

Congrats to Croatia on their victory...










Now let's focus on Monday...!

[drahnier]

If Germany lose to Austria i'll have to stop following German football.

[cromagnum]

croatia outplayed the germans today..what i was most impressed with today's win is when croatia conceeded they still pushed to try to score a third goal..they didnt let germany just come at them..

[Cris 09]

croatia outplayed the germans today..what i was most impressed with today's win is when croatia conceeded they still pushed to try to score a third goal..they didnt let germany just come at them..

That would have been a tactical mistake with the German NT. Bilic knew the ball was safer under Croatian control on the other end of their post.

Sitting and waiting for Germany = getting tied in the 93 minute!

[squidward123]

That would have been a tactical mistake with the German NT. Bilic knew the ball was safer under Croatian control on the other end of their post.

Sitting and waiting for Germany = getting tied in the 93 minute!

I was disappointed that they started taking it to the corner with 5 mins and injury time remaining though.

Yeah, they did what they had to do within the rules to win the game, but I expected different of croatia.

[Cris 09]

Watching the game again...I have to say that before the goal, it was anybodies game. Germany could have scored a number of times, had good control and it was back and forth. Germany looked good and everything was in place. I think that they simply lost composure after that as desperation sank in and sloppiness took over.

Loew's tactical failure was bringing in Odonkor at half time...he should have made the Schweiny sub earlier taken out Jansen and put Lahm on the left instead.

Croatia did not play as well as I thought. They played a heck of a game, no discredit, but not as well as I thought when I fist saw the game.

Germany's enemy were themeselves. They did not have the mind frame to get back in the game.

Too bad! Anyway - it's over and done with!

NEXT GAME!!
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa221/crismerz09/germany_3_1600x1200-1.jpg?t=1213324312

Sorry for the reposts!











.

[fh 1]

squidward123, what do You expect from a match at world top level? That one team crushes the other? Matches like Netherlands-Italy are very seldom, usually such matches are so close that you know the winner only after the final whistle.
Croatia is a good team but they are no supermen who can totally outplay and destroy such teams like Germany or Brazil or whatever you ask for. In todays football it is even difficult to outplay Moldova and one is happy with a simple victory and 3 points.

I think the difference between Croatia and Germany today was - the coach!
Croatia always had high individual class but this time the team was also very disciplined and had a clear game plan. At every moment they knew what to do. While Germans looked sometimes clueless and unorganized. Odonkor played right back more than wing, he was useless in the offense, which is supposed to be his main duty. Bad sub by Löw. Also Klose and especially Gomez were nowhere. Jansen a weakness in the defense, Fritz invisible. But most important, the Croatians tactics and strategy was straight, while the Germans was unclear. It is mainly thanks to Bilic, the Croatian coach, who made the difference between not so much different teams in respect to quality.

Though, this defeat is not that harmful for the Germans because they will qualify for the quarters anyways and that's deserved (can't imagine Austria scoring to Germany with such incapable strikers, while Austria being a positive surprise for me so far, concerning quality, btw, Poland is also more than OK).

Germany is a very good team, besides all weaknesses (who doesn't have some?), they belong to world's top class, don't fool Yourself. Portugal may be individually better and favorite on paper, but if Germans play disciplined, self-confident and aggressive enough, as they can do, the match will be very close, I don't dare to predict the outcome.

[Cris 09]

squidward123, what do You expect from a match at world top level? That one team crushes the other? Matches like Netherlands-Italy are very seldom, usually such matches are so close that you know the winner only after the final whistle.
Croatia is a good team but they are no supermen who can totally outplay and destroy such teams like Germany or Brazil or whatever you ask for. In todays football it is even difficult to outplay Moldova and one is happy with a simple victory and 3 points.

I think the difference between Croatia and Germany today was - the coach!
Croatia always had high individual class but this time the team was also very disciplined and had a clear game plan. At every moment they knew what to do. While Germans looked sometimes clueless and unorganized. Odonkor played right back more than wing, he was useless in the offense, which is supposed to be his main duty. Bad sub by Löw. Also Klose and especially Gomez were nowhere. Jansen a weakness in the defense, Fritz invisible. But most important, the Croatians tactics and strategy was straight, while the Germans was unclear. It is mainly thanks to Bilic, the Croatian coach, who made the difference between not so much different teams in respect to quality.

Though, this defeat is not that harmful for the Germans because they will qualify for the quarters anyways and that's deserved (can't imagine Austria scoring to Germany with such incapable strikers, while Austria being a positive surprise for me so far, concerning quality, btw, Poland is also more than OK).

Germany is a very good team, besides all weaknesses (who doesn't have some?), they belong to world's top class, don't fool Yourself. Portugal may be individually better and favorite on paper, but if Germans play disciplined, self-confident and aggressive enough, as they can do, the match will be very close, I don't dare to predict the outcome.

I agree that Bilic read the game very well and inspired that to his players but Klose and Gomez were not lost...they were there and had good chances! They missed and blundered shot that should have gone in. They were just off their mark. The ice cold finishing was luke-warm.

After the 2nd half Croatia was able to stay calm and composed after they scored while Germany's reaction was amateurish to say the least.

I am guessing Bilic had a much better talk to his team than Loew did with ours.

The whole second half for Germany until Schweiny came on was terrible! Scheiny added a little bit of danger, motivation, and fighting-spirit that lacked before.

[squidward123]

fh1...I will respond to your comment, but I am about to go watch the replay in a few mins

cris, your analysis on watching it again is a lot closer to what I saw than to what you initially analysed. did you just watch the whole thing? I am sure its not been an hour and a half since you said you would.

[Cris 09]

fh1...I will respond to your comment, but I am about to go watch the replay in a few mins

cris, your analysis on watching it again is a lot closer to what I saw than to what you initially analysed. did you just watch the whole thing? I am sure its not been an hour and a half since you said you would.

I'm at the 50' minute minute - I fast forwarded the half time beak (dishes can wait).

I don't think I will watch much more...it just gets more depressing from here and I think I got the right idea in my head already... ;)

[fh 1]

Agree with "Schweini", he and Lahm were the best and most dangerous Germans players.
Ballack and Frings were so la la, but Klose and Gomez were in my eyes too static.
Maybe this is due to good Croatian work in the defense. I mean especially R.Kovač and Joe Šimunić, who were great again.

Whatever, maybe we meet again in the semis, good luck :)

[squidward123]

niko and robert should be playing for germany :p

just kidding mate, see you in the semis maybe

[Cris 09]

Agree with "Schweini", he and Lahm were the best and most dangerous Germans players.
Ballack and Frings were so la la, but Klose and Gomez were in my eyes too static.
Maybe this is due to good Croatian work in the defense. I mean especially R.Kovač and Joe Šimunić, who were great again.

Whatever, maybe we meet again in the semis, good luck :)

Yeah, for the most part, your defense got the job done! I guess putting constant pressure and giving the strikers very little room to work has to do with their poor ability to control the ball.

[ForeverRed]

I was disappointed that they started taking it to the corner with 5 mins and injury time remaining though.

Yeah, they did what they had to do within the rules to win the game, but I expected different of croatia.

Why risk it though? Especially against Germany? If Germany did this leading Portugal in the 90+ minute I would certainly approve.

[ForeverRed]

I am guessing Bilic had a much better talk to his team than Loew did with ours.


Nah, he probably just told them, "if you don't go out there and beat them, you'll all be attending my shows after the tournament"

-RYg8Dy3xk4