Yup, if there's a team that can actually turn on another engine and win when it matters, it's Germany.
So now that all the friendlies have ended and we've seen the teams in action,do you still stand by who you picked to get out of the group. For me it's still Germany and Mexico. Germany historically under perform in friendlies leading up to big tournaments and then turn it on when it matters. While Mexico seem to be rougher spot than usual, I still pick them to get out of the group because their quality should be above that of Sweden and S.Korea.
Denmark 2-0 Mexico. What did happen to Mexican team? Sweden is little stronger than Denmark. Get it together as soon as possible.
This group is one of the more challenging ones i find.. my prediction is as follows: round 1: Germany v Mexico - Germany win Sweden v S.Korea - Sweden win round 2: Korea v Mexico - Mexico win Sweden v Germany - tie round 3: Korea v Germany - Germany win Mexico v Sweden - tie Germany - 7pts Sweden - 5 pts Mexico - 4 pts S.korea - 0 pts Is this at all that farfetched?
I believe Sweden benefits greatly playing S.Korea 1st, being given an opportunity to start off with 3 pts. I do not envision Mexico beating the Germans in the 1st game (tho possible). This would allow a team like Sweden who plays solid defence and has shown a challenge offensively to bunker down the following 2 games and play for two ties, which is more then possible in my mind against both Germany and Mexico. If Sweden is able to apply this strategy, Mexico has no choice at all but to get on the plane home.
To be honest, this is the worst Swedish team I have ever seen. In addition to solid defense, and disciplined midfield, Sweden of the past always had something exciting to provide in the attack: Brolin, Dahlin, K. Andersson, H. Larsson, Zlatan... And now? Toivonen... I have picked Sweden to qualify above Mexico, but after seeing their game v Peru yesterday (and Mexico v Denmark), I actually think Mexico stands a good chance now. I know, friendly, but Sweden didn't even bunker well yesterday, they didn't move their formations well, and in general looked disorganized (very un-Swedish) and uninterested. Mexico at least showed some good offensive capabilities, and interesting play in midfield. On the other hand, I agree that fixing synchronization and organization is probably easiest for the team like Sweden, and the game schedule slightly favors them over Mexico, just as was mentioned before.
Originally I had Germany and a toss up between Sweden and MExico. Seeing Sweden fans thinking they won't advance and Mexico fans thinking they won't advance persuades me to pick Germany and Korea to advance.
You quite right. I am sure Sweds, Peruvians and Koreans are thinking, that it is quite pointless to play for the second place in the group, since they have to play Brazil after, so they will loose regardless... We will see all three teams deciding to stay home and save on tickets instead.
People were saying how this group was the group of death LOL. I knew it wasn't the case and I thought we had players to compete, but NOOooo, our managers want players that can fit into his philosophy (doesn't have any). Then two of our most important players get injured and our manager and KFA just don't want to scout the J-league which is the league outside of the K-league with the most Koreans. Now here we are. I've said this on BSK but if we had Suk Hyunjun (not picked), and Kwon Changhoon (injured), we might have created a pretty decent offensive unit. Have a quartet of Son Heungmin, Kwon Changhoon, Suk Hyunjun and Hwang Heechan we would have had players that scored 36 goals and 11 assists in European top 5 leagues and European competitions. But NOOooo our manager just has to pick a useless player named Kim Shinwook. A big/tall mother fcker that doesn't offer anything because he plays like a small man, has zero mobility, too slow can't really jump, can't really finish. It's like playing with 10 men. And then our manager picks Moon Seungmin who is a Swedish league reject, but because he played in that league he needs to be picked. With that logic, why not pick Ji Dongwon, a player that played in Germany for 6 years. Yeah he can't score goals but at least he does other things pretty well. Also he does score for our national team. In midfield, our manager for some unknown reason just doesn't start Koo Jacheol, a player that has been contributing for his Bundesliga team. But NNOooo he just doesn't fit into his philosophy so he needs to be benched. Fck his none existing "philosophy" and just start the best best players available. Stop starting shitty K-league "defensive midfielders". For defence, our managers love to scout the same old players. If our players are playing shit, it means trying to find a better player. But NOOooo, he needs to prioritize the K-league because he got hurt when our old manager didn't give any of them chances.