Pre-match: (EURO 2016 - Semi Final!) Germany vs France 7.7.2016 [R]

I thought this was clear? Plays CF from now on and all the 10 other players will just let crosses fly into the box. We'll be unbeatable for years!!!!

 

This time around its all on Jogi and the extremely kind Referee...
We simply could have crushed these chumps...as i said simple text book football.But no we complicated the game to the point that we couldn't even see 2 feet ahead and where we going with the ball...what a shame to have all this quality and experience and the best combo of aged players mixed with young world class talent..yet to hide behind a conservative game plan scheme and tactic and tossing the ball around like there is no tomorrow vs getting in their face and breaking them down ...we had everything in our arsenal to do so....and see where we at now???

 

Low does such a terrible job at mentally preparing his players.

 

It's not on Jogi. The team was dominant for most of that match. But failed at the final shot. They had every opportunity to crush France with the personnel and tactics they employed, but sadly the goals didn't come. They were doing all the right things. You can't tell me that France ever looked the better side during that match. Still, sometimes it just doesn't go your way.

 

I blame the Schalke pillow cover.

 

Speaking of Schalke, I thought Höwedes performed really well tonight. It's meaningless now that the team is out, but I was surprised by how much he stepped up. Another missed header in an important match, though.

 

It was about as obvious a penalty as the one in the 2002 World Cup quarter final, that was not called.

 

Remember Henry's handball against Ireland.

nuff said.

 

I hope Portugal kicks their ass.

And may France's winelands be devoured by locusts.

 

If Portugal wins then they're no better than Austria right? since they couldn't score against them.

 

Sure. Three times this tournament.
Sure. First time ever.

 

Clattenberg

 

Joachim Löw: "Those who risk a lot are in danger of losing. Those who risk nothing have already lost."

Manuel Neuer: "I don't want to say that we were better. But 0-2 was not a fair result."

 

Luck is involved, obviously, and France were fortunate in this game. But Germany were at least as fortunate in 1982, 1986, and 2014, which were more important games.

 

No, we were better. That doesn't mean shit though.

 

2014?

 

And Italy's curse still strikes. We lost Khedira, Gomez and Hummels (because of a dive, of course) against them and all of them played crucial parts for our game plan. I won't go on about naming a ref for a game like a semi final against the team that just eliminated your home country. The penalty was stupid but has to be called, of course, but overall I'll just leave it at saying he didn't have his best game.

Two unsurprising lessons from this tournament:
- You need the luck of having your key players stay injury free for 7 matches over a month
- It is hard to win titles when some players are either no-shows (Götze wtf?) or despite their efforts almost useless.

I still think that Germany played the best football of all the teams and I am looking forward to seeing the youger guys grow into this team. It's also about time that Reus and Gündogan get to play meaningfuls parts in an international tournament.
A real CF would have helped today to create more scoring opportunities instead of all these passes, but all in all, it was at least nice to watch this team play. If you want to see negative, boring bunker football, check some of the other teams. I wouldn't want that that to be the future of football.

 

We were playing against a very strong team at their place. Missed key players.

But damn Muller and Goetze are sooo bad, it hurts my eyes!

I didn't even see Goetze playing at all!

No striker, mistakes, unfit Schweini.

For me Kroos is the player of the tournament. Defense was also solid for 95% of the time.

Ozil was okay.

Mentality sucked, you could see that how we shot the pens against Italy.


Hector and Kimmich solid. Howedes also, solid players.

Draxler solid. We missed Reus though.

Moving to 2018/

 

Loew decided to rely on the false #9 scheme and had no choice but to bring Gomez with him coz he had an outstanding season. He decided to bring a single #9 knowing very well that Ozil, Kroos, Khedira, Bastian... are not scorers. Reus is a scorer but got injured. Loew should have known that Mueller scores most when he is not a CF and when paired with a #9. He sees something in Goetze that no one else sees and built a scheme around a toothless system. The ineffectiveness of the false 9 became clear pretty early.

Loew should have worked on integrating strikers into the team after Klose's retirement. He should have ditched the false 9 scheme a long time ago. He should have brought 1 more striker - the squad is of full of midfielders that saw very little time - 1 could have made way for a striker. Sane is a different type of player. Loew should have used him in the early stages to develop another option instead of giving Schurrle and Poldi playing time.

 

DONT TAKE ME HOME

 

Yep. Only goal of the game came from a free kick awarded for a non-foul.