News: World Cup Thread S Africa 2010 (R)

Yup...the did what they do best...patiently held on to the ball until the right moment - in this case, a set piece but it could have been 2-0 for Spain by then.

 

I thought the match of Germany vs Argentina was actually going to end up like the match vs Spain, honestly, especially after watching the friendly last March. I was amazed how Argentina controlled Germany. Granted, it was only a friendly, but I used it to visualize the things to come. I really thought that the way Spain played us, was the way Argentina were going to play us in the QF, but we played them off the park most of the time. Germany failed to have any sort of a Plan B... in Munich, just like we failed to have one back in the final of 08. Or maybe we did have a Plan B, but Plan B was simply not any better than Plan A...

But we beat Argentina in the WC several months later, and by 4 goals - wow. And before that? England, again with a fantastic scoreline with the team scoring 4 goals as well.

Both England and Argentina were favorites in my books. I have faith in my team, but I also understand the talent that play in the squads of the lions and the Albi-celestes...and i expected us to get caught with our pants down -both times.

Mean time, on the other side of the bracket, Spain were winning all their matches 1-0, 1-0, 1-0...and not very convincingly either.

During the match vs Germany, they took control of the match right off the bat...from the get go!!! Germany tried to play their game, but they could not. Germany tried to hold the ball up, but Spain was there to intercept so many of the lazy passes coming from Germany that might have been playing with just a little fear and out of focus. The fluidity and understanding was no longer there like it was in the last few matches. No Thomas Mueller??? Was this the missing key?

I am not sure this was solely because Spain did so well to manage the midfield and press down on the German players - some of these passes from Germany just lacked understanding.

I actually do believe that Germany were their own worst enemy at times during the match...without taking any credit to Spain, that aside from a few missed sitters, played an almost perfect game.

Germany's subs? Khedira out for Gomez would have been the one I would not have made. I would have taken out Khedira and placed Marin in there. Kroos could have moved back to Khedira's spot and Marin could have moved up to the RW, were Kroos came in for Troch. A little more width and a few more alternatives.

Were Spain that good? Yes, but they have lost before...TWICE, in like 50 games, to the US and the Swiss - so why could they not lose to us? Because this time, they didn't feel like it.

And the end, it was because we could not score. We've all heard the, "Well, if Spain scores first, Germany are done, because they only beat England and Argentina because they scored 1st". Anyone who says Germany did well vs England and Argentina because we scored first, is partially correct, as we should look at the stats and see that the vast majority of the winners in all FIFA WC matches have come from the team that scored first - this is not something that only works for Germany, this is something that just works!!!

But anyway...let's play another 3rd place match and I guess be happy with not winning the whole damn thing - again.