Post-match: WC M2 (group stage) Germany Vs Ghana June 21

Ghana played a full gegen press until 75mins

Amazing physical beasting of the game.

Khedira was really not in peak physical shape for this and was routinely bested in midfield

Things look better later with extra passing and movement via Schweini

The front 3 created a huge amount of chances but there was great defending at times.

Entertaining game which Germany should really have won in the last 10 mins

 

He and Kroos really struggled with that level of physicality

Personally I though Germany were a bit naive to try to go toe to toe in midfield

Ghana came very high up the pitch in possession - Germany might have better focussed on trying to create transitions in the low block rather than in central midfield.

 

He failed to get any control on the game in midfield

Not really surprising given his age.

 

The trouble is that defence coughed up 2 goals

As predicted the issue is not the attack but the brittle defending which concedes too many soft goals.

 

Maybe the game looked different in America but FWIW I watched with a large group of Germans and no one thought he played well.

Opinions in southern germany may vary.

He isn't used to being physically bossed like that, though he coped better than Khedira who lacks the technical quality for these kind of games.

Overall it was all just a bit naive.

Getting sucked into a physical battle instead of letting the ball do the work.

But Kroos is only 24 so you would not expect him to dominate games in that way just yet.

Personally I think he is playing too deep to be very effective

 

Have these guys ever played a game where the other team adopts gegen pressing until the last 15 mins?

Kroos, Khedira and Lahm looked quite uncomfortable against such a relentless high press.

The thing is though - you normally ride it out for 25, 45 or maybe 60 mins at the outside (e.g. Barca)

Ghana did not drop into a medium block until 75 mins when they seemed done in and quite demoralised about the equaliser

That is an insane physical output.

Yet nevertheless Ghana did fall off badly in central midfield when Germany starter to pour through - really the win was there for the taking if not for some bad missed in the last 10-15 mins

Amazing stuff though.

On the other side of the coin - Ghana routinely had 3 attackers on the last shoulder waiting for the cross - so the big backline helped with that - save for the disaster on the first goal

And that really says it all.

A bad blunder lets Ghana in to the game.

That really is germany's weakness

 

Genau.

 

It really was amazing how high up the pitch they played both with and without possession.

Germany struggled to deal with that due to the difficulty in playing longer out balls.

It really wasn't until Schweinsteiger came on that you saw more intelligent midfield play to work the ball around the make the defenders run