Das Martina-Upgrade: Sickle Cut Into Your Defense - Road to WWC 2019 [R]

Is it you, White/Blue??

 

long live Hrubesch!

 

Germany holds steady at #2 in new FIFA rankings
The FIFA Women's World Ranking - Ranking Table - FIFA.com

 

China, Spain and South-Africa then...

 

Well, Euro-teams Germany and Spain should advance from this group, but China and South Africa are not a blank.

 

My thought
Maybe it's clever to settle for a second place actually as the winner in this group is very likely to meet the US in the quarters...

 

...
I've repeated the same sentiment for what feels like a long time now, where I speculate the DFB has done nothing but set this team up to fail no matter who they faced during the WC group stages.

I mean everything I've seen over the past 4 years says the senior German wnt is basically irrelevant when it comes to any serious discussions concerning potential tournament winners.

So I feel it's probably best people stop expecting common sense results when it comes to assessing this team, when the reality of recent coaching decisions means they could EASILY struggle with an unknown factor team like South Africa, failing to beat tactically superior teams like Spain, and China.

 

Germany hasn't beaten the US since 2003. I've only watched the games of this decade, but whether it's friendlies or tournies, it's been US 6 wins/2 ties. Unfortunately it's been the predictable style of Neid & Jones that's at fault, Their insistence of playing the ball from the back & going straight up through the middle with their short combo passing game falls right into the trap of what Americans do best; an very intense, high press. There's is though an achilles heel to this, to make it easier to press, they condense the field by bringing their back line all the way up to mid, So one nice high ball over it would have the American side scrambling back in disarray. But if you remember the last game, Jones stubbornly refused to do this even tough she had the 30 miles per hour winds on her side, she instead kept going with the short passing, ground game in the 2nd half which got them pinned down for most of that half

Oddly enough, the one team that has it over the US(at least tournament wide) is Sweden(in the same group). Their former coach, Pia, knows a thing or two about Americans since she used to coached them as well, lol. I'm sure she still works with whoever is currently in charge to figure out a way to beat them again(so no guarantee the US will their group)

 

...
Pretty sure Germany hasn't actually showcased a legit mid-field game plan for a very long time versus... anybody; so it's probably not that strange to once again see you suggesting it's actually Germany's persistent implementation of a genuine tactical strategy.., that's currently at the root of there senior team truly competing with the US lol.

I mean the moment Germany's senior team actually finds it's tactical/stylistic identity again, I wouldn't be shocked to see them beating many of the sports best wnt's as a highly impressive footballing unit.

And when this starts to happens, I doubt many of these games will see a close margin of victory too. As the long time FIFA ranked #2 have produced nothing but completely uninspired football during their 15 year hiatus of being anywhere near the quality of a WC finalist/champion.

 

Seriously... if Germany have to be this uninspired/terrible for other wnt's to compete and beat them, I can only imagine how abrupt the change will be for everybody once their positive, producing good winning football again.

And no, unfortunately I doubt this will happen any time soon, with MVT the DFB allowing persistent failures to lead the program. So....

 

I mean, last time Germany met US in a competitive match in a tournament was in WC 2015 and lost in like the most ridiculous way ever
Yes US had 2-3 chances more and they weren’t an undeserved winner but how many times in football do we witness that the team producing a couple of more chances lose? Lol
So I wouldn’t think too much about their statistics against the US. And btw Jill Ellis isn’t that great either, so I wouldn’t be surprised if US doesn’t progress that far into the tournament

 

the 2015 WC game. was just the same old, same old. like all the other games, a hard fighting German team, but refusing to take advantage of the US achille's heel' that a well timed long ball up field to to their runner on top will find the US almost defenseless.
Similar game was played out over the at the other semis, where England pushed their back line way up & high pressed, but Japan made two quick counters via long balls that got them the two goals,
These coaches are notorious gamblers & unfortunately Neid/Jones didn't want to call the US bluff. I bet Ellis got the head job when she was interim coach after the departed Pia, & went on to win the 2013 Algarve Cup vs in the final a German team that had just about everybody on it(Kessler, Kulig, Alushi), but got hopelessly pinned in it's own half do to their play-it-from-the-back through short passing(which is the same thing that happens game after game when these two teams meet).

We just saw the both German trained WOB & it's opponents play a host of different styles in the last 3 games as shown on the DBF streaming site. So that's all I;m asking; why not for once play a different style vs the US?
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Ellis has her pro's & cons; on the pro side; training her team to be expert pickpocket-ters, might not feel like it's 'the beautiful game', but it's still part of the game(and a very effective one at that as surely Ewa Pajor will tell ya vs Elsig the other week). Then I do like the way she can switch the point of attack fro the left to right & vice versa in a whim's notice(I mean, long ball it vertically as well); compare this to recent men's WC final where Croatia only attacked on the left side the 1st half(which failed) than had the bright idea of attacking on just from the right........... why I like woso more than the bros version.

Ellis cons; she likes to keep the same lineups/rosters, thus depriving other , possibly better players from getting a chance on the NT. Plus she doesn't get that much chemistry out of the ones she does use, leaving sometimes an un-sensational impression of how the US plays out there & then again ,she does gamble(you just got to call her bluff, which the then French coach did so perfectly at last year's SBC)

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my dad was from Holland, so definitely cheering for them! But they had a tough time trough WC qualifiers. But that's the thing, nobody right now is looking that phenomenal. Obviously #2 Germany is having horrid problems,same with oddball coaching from England & France, #5 Canada is way overrated & so on down the line......

I would say right now the US are favorites. They got more depth than any other teams out there. Seeing the Bundesliga starting to decline, I would say now have the advantage of the most well balance, if not arguably the best league in the world(in previous decades the US had to make do without even a pro league).

But I do like to see woso grow, so for that someone else would have to step up

 

@hotjam2 Don't let this hurt your feelings lol, but I think you really underestimate just how little Germany's wnt program cares about the USwnt, or the short term need for their senior side to focus all it's attention on beating them.

For better or worse, the German wnt has just adjusted more of it's attention to the threat of European and Asian rivals. And to be honest, it's probably made the most sense considering just how little actual historical contact they've had with the USwnt at senior international tournaments.

I mean, for all of the underwhelming performances from the German wnt, they were only a PK miss away from potentially forcing themselves into a WC final, became Olympic champions for the first time the following year, and had to be woefully bad to leave the Euro's early versus an eventual finalist Denmark.

So if a semi functional team can be a potential threat, and a woefully bad team necessary for rivals to compete on equal ground, I can only image the nightmare
a professional well coached German wnt team would be, without the blind focus on needing to beat the USwnt.

 

don't want to hurt your feelings either, lol but I was answering poster. Thomsen asking thoughts on a potential US/Germany match up! Maybe if some one asked about a match up with your beloved Japan. than I would of answered(to the best of my knowledge)that one instead

but the German's MEN's side supposedly was the more professional coached, or at least, way more money spend on it. yet suffered it's worst showing in WC history, as well got last place in group play at the more recent Nations League..
being an obviously outsider on the problem's I would just say horrible 'obsolete' tactics were at fault at the losses in Russia

so here is a good chance for the women to redeem German soccer, just asking to stop being so stubborn & switch tactics vs the #1 team in the world, cause if they do, as well as scout other NT's & play accordingly. both me & Thomsen still feel that the German ladies can win the WC(though not actually meaning to speak for Thomsen/he might have his own thoughts on it)

 

I mean, I would like this team to progress far into the tournament but these days I believe that a QF would be a good result lol
but seeing the draw, a SF is within reach

 

Do you know who Germany will play in the quarters if they ,do win their group?

 

to answer my own question; the path to the semis shouldn't be all that shabby!......provided they get 1st place in their group. Otherwise 2nd place will get you for round of 16 opponent, the F group winner, which likely be the US. But if they do get 1st place for their group, their next opponent would a 3rd place group finisher, then in the quarters, the projection would be either Brazil or Norway. From watching Brazil their definitely ailing these days & besides GER has a perfect win record against them. If it's NOR in the quarters; well Ada don't seem to be coming back; word has it she blocked Caro from her twitter account, a big deal in social media, lol.

At least the semis should get GER qualified for the Olympics, we should give MVT a longer/better chance to get things organized than she'll have for the WC.

one thing that makes me wonder with MVT; she started up to 3 teens in those WC playoff failures. Yet former NT's but still active vets like Moser, Abbe & Bernaur are still playing for Zurich FC. So you got to wonder if MVT kicked them of from the Swiss NT fro younger ones, or did they just quit on their own accord cause they didn't like MVT's coaching? (anybody knows?)

 

None of this changes the obvious fact Germany's senior wnt hasn't cared about it's record versus the USwnt for a very long time, or felt the need to completely re-focus all it's attentions on making any kind of major short term change's to potentially effect that record anytime soon.

So constantly referring to the US as your measurement for Germany's past and future is kind of pointless, no? And this because Germany's wnt program has already accomplished many amazing results by following it's own plan.

Meaning even if the current system for the German women completely broken, the chances of the DFB reverting towards a path of following another footballing association like the US, is nothing but comedy knowing the completely different footballing cultures of both nations.

 

Here's some advice... stop trying to parallel the form of the men and women, as if this calculated analysis of the two will find some intrinsic importance/connection for Germany, that no other football association has with it's male and female programs.

Germany's women win back to back senior WC's, nobody cares how badly the guys are doing. And when the men are doing great, even less people seem to care about the struggles of the women.

So why are you now constantly highlighting the form of Germany's male and female teams, when no other nation can even come close to showcasing the same level of sustained historical success across their two programs...?

I could understand this way of thinking if the German women had access to the same Title IX rules of their US peers, but it's not even comparable. This really isn't about the German wnt being stubborn, or them suffering the same current fate as the men.

 

Good times and bad, the men ARE vastly more professional than the women. This isn't some kind of speculation, but a mere fact of ALL German football teams.

Meaning the German wnt program will always see, and need, some kind of organizational overflow from the men's successes and failures; but the idea the German wnt replicating the USwnt, being the ones to "redeem" the DFB and German football is ridiculous.

Your not being honest, or realistic, of the various scenarios for men's or women's football if your trying to push the narrative of the German wnt program leading all German footballs redemption lol.

And any real US fan should 100% understand the truth of the money, and time, it takes for men to potentially win a WC, being so much more astronomically bigger than it is for the women.

 

And I'm talking about a game where the men can be in a tournament where a 50th placed Japan will realistically compete with 1st place Belgium during a WC knock out match.

While many find it shocking to see a 22nd place Iceland beat 2nd placed Germany during the women's WC qualifying stage...

LOL, in the century long existence of the men, I think the German national team has only lost two WC qualifying matches. So what are we even discussing here..

 

I mean, I'd say it's a natural thing to focus on beating the US for once, but I agree that the team shouldn't solely focus on this quest lol

But Germany has it in their hands to get in the SF - and therefore qualifying to the OG, although I'd take a WC than an Olympic Gold medal again...

 

"redemption" what I mean't is next door neighbor. the Dutch, even though men'a WC qualifiers were going on, they all ready knew were way behind in their group to qualify. So the Dutch threw so hardily their support to their women to a point now that even one year later, they have had sell out crowds at all their NT home games.

though perhaps lesser success stories, Italy seen a crowd increase at their homes games as well. England(an traditional under performing men's side) has seen a huge surge of crowds in recent. yet after finally somewhat success in Russia, attendance has in their women's pro league