WM Spiel 1 - Deutschland gg Portugal - 16 Juni 2014

Put aside the results. In the match was no pace compared to the Spain - Netherlands one. I agree with Kirsten19, against better opponents with better defense chances won't be as much.
And like I mentioned, when Portugal had the ball, Germany was too conservative, I hardly saw any pressing probably because to spare energy. This is why I came up with a contender like Brazil who's really focused of winning the title, not even thinking to rest at any time during the game. I wouldn't want to happen them outplaying Löw's team. Aside from the results, the Brazil - Croatia match looked like a match between a contender and a weak team. Germany - Portugal looked 50/50 with one side beeing tactical superior. If Germany really wants to win this tournament they need to show footballing abbility and not just trying to outsmart opponents.

 

You are not making any sense. You play every game to win it, that's the objective. It is not about showcasing what you would do if you were playing brazil... We, on purpose, slowed down in the 2nd half coz the game was won and the objective was met and also to conserve energy for the next games. While you and Brazil might be looking at things from a game to game perspective, most elite teams look at it from a tournament perspective and what is needed to win today's game and the games that come next. That's why teams like Germany are knows as a tournament team.

 

That's why Germany lose in semi-finals. They don't have enough time to accomodate to see how they could possibly beat the opponent. It's good to look what's needed to win but what you need is improvisation which requires a lot of footballing abbility. Something Spain had in 2010. Brazil was just an example, it could be basically any team in the end.

 

3 WCs and 3 ECs means Germany is one of the top 3 most successful NTs in history. That's on top of all the finals and SF appearances, which you somehow try to label as failures.

 

Philipp Lahm aka "the onemanwall"

 

If Germany won't win after 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 where they have beeing consistent and close, it's a dissappointment as well.

 

This isn't much different from the stretch from 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988 without a title.

 

woke up this morning to a 3 pages of nonsense ... yay.
i would say i didnt miss a thing!

 

I have no idea why this should be an argument when both Loew (after Armenia friendly) n Mueller(after the Portugal match) have both said we should have finished a lot better and scored a few more.

Against Portugal, I think they have a very weak defense and have exposed too much space for Germany, so we have more chances created. But against better team? (@Jordan Khamra said Portugal rank 5th? So? FIFA mean shit, u honestly think Portugal are better than Italy, Holland, Argentina, Belgium just because they are ranked higher by FIFA?)

No. Against a good opponent, we can't afford to miss easy chances which Oezil has been doing. Lets face it, he is a sub-par finisher and isn't suited as one of the threes forwards interchanging up top. Against Italy, Brazil or Belgium, we will have less chances than what Belgium gave us. We can't afford to miss 4 sitters a game. That's a big problem when u have bunch of midfielders playing up top, finishing is a big issue when Thomas Mueller is the only scoring threat in the rotation. When he is having a bad day, we can only hope for our bench to play well

And don't be silly guys. Holding back a little in the 2nd half doesn't mean you miss 3 easy chances and 2 are inder one-on-one situation. You don't miss those easy chances because you wanna save stamina


And yes, Oezil and Goetze both up top. Finishing and converting chances into goals is a problem. Loew needs to find a balance between

 

Considering that the 1999- up to 2006 period was one of the darkest periods for the NT ever, coming in 2nd in 2002, 3rd in 2006 was actually an over achievement. Coming in 3rd in 2010 was as well. What people may forget is that most of the 2010 players where unknown and the team was rocked with the Ballack injury. EC08 was not bad considering the loss came against one of the best NT ever. EC2012 was a disappointment, not in terms where we finished (SF is a success) but more in terms of how we played against Italy and how we showed little fight.

 

So even after he plays very good u still don't want him in the field. Because he missed a chance? So we bench ozil and goetze next game?

 

The movement and combination play between Oezil, Goetze, and Mueller was sublime. The three of them have a tremendous understanding that can break down just about any defense. I don't want to break up that trio.

 

So because we dominated Portugal it means they are not a "better opponents"? They can be a huge threat to anybody. So u really don't make any sense. You sound like and old German. Before the game we all agreed this one would be tight. Maybe even a 0-0 draw. So what are u whining about? Who did u like on the field if goetze and ozil were useless?

 

Walking race world record for 10 km is 37.17 minutes by Roman Rasskazov. In 90 min he would cover around 25 km

 

Welcome back to life.

 

Considering Germany has dominated Portugal, I think we can't tell yet if they a "better opponents". Sure, on the paper Portugal is one of the best teams in the world, rightly 4# ranked in the world. But remember 2012, Netherlands was awful. From what I saw Portugal was absolutely terrible yesterday except in the opening 10 minutes. So except just ranking teams by names you also should watch their perfomance.

 

Obviously no one wants to miss chances, but in the context of this match, those misses don't matter much. It's frustrating to hear people go on and on something that will happen in every single match from every single team. Is there a team out there that has a 100% conversion rate of chances presented? You guys just wanna heehaw about something, anything.

 

A recap show here in Buenos Aires just showed goal highlights from Germany's openings games from the last four years. It is indeed a pity that Klose didn't get the opp to score here against Portugal. He made a header in all the other matches. Maybe too sentimental, but would have been nice to see him go four in a row.

 

Saw some post about this game not having the intensity and pace of the game between Spain and the Netherlands. There are multiple reasons for that imo:
1) The style of play of the teams - Spain played the possession game while the Netherlands bunkered an countered at pace. The Germany - Portugal game was a bit more evenly matched in style and they were playing identical formations.
2) This match was played at noon, the other match was played at night. You could see that the players were having a tough time.
3) With Portugal down by two goals and a man by the 35th min, Germany didn't have to press much; all they had to do was retain possession and take advantage of the tired opponents, which they did.

 

Also smart of Löw to train at same time of match. Prepared everyone so we never looked bothered in general.