Again. I dont understand why everyone is bagging on Cacau. He brought nothing to the game? He was the provider in Oezil's one-on-one. If ozeil scores that, everyone remembers cacau beating the offside trap. Also he got back and played defense in the midfield on Ghana counter-attacks. Something Klose would never do. He also took the first shot of the game, sending the message that Germany were here to win it, and he had the power right footed shot to keep Kingston honest. So no he didnt score 3 goals, but I dont believe Klose would have either. personally i would like to see a klose-cacau partnership up front. Both, I think, would benefit from each other off the ball.
Nothing against Cacau, it's just that Klose fits better into this system because of the players it uses. His off the ball movement is superior to Cacau's and he instinctively plays the front-line, which is so crucial in giving Oezil, Mueller, and Podolski a target and objective to base their play around. Every time either went up they passed it back and forth not wanting to taek on the responsibility of shooting it seemed. If Klose was there, they would all have passed to him because he's known to put them away. His runs would benefit Oezil so much because the latter just loves those types of runs. Cacau plays far too deep and likes to be involved in the build up. When not, he drifts away and there is a huge gap in the opposition third instead of him being there.
No i totally agree, Klose fits the system much better. But to say Cacau was useless and brought nothing to the game is absurd... But i definitely welcome Klose back, if anything for his Clinical world cup finishing.
We miss him because he's the only option and best available. After three matches it's pretty much confirmed that Cacau isn't the striker that we are looking for, for this system.
The players that performed very well in this match have to be: Ozil, Schweini, Lahm, and Friedrich. They were all giving a lot of effort and made wonderful contributions. Ozil was very quiet in the beginning of the game, but started to pick up in the 2nd half and towards the end. Nobody should say anything bad about Schweini, as he was involved everywhere on the pitch. The only thing he did not achieve was a goal. Same goes for Lahm and Friedrich, but on a more defensive role. The players who did not perform were: Podolski, Cacau, Boateng, and Muller. Podolski and Cacau are the worst from the bunch. Podolski looked VERY lazy and didn't feel like playing. The only time he actually looked alive was when he took a shot or when the ball was given to him. Cacau in my opinion is not a good striker/frontman. He tends to move back too much, causing problems for the likes of the midfield because there is no one for them to target. I always said this: Klose is the best striker we have, no doubt! Boateng and Muller made too many mistakes, lost possession, and were out of position quite a few times. Need to step it up next time. The team needs to work on possession. I feel as if we lose the ball too much and too fast, without a fight. Once we do let the other team have possession, we tend to push back in our side too much, allowing the opposition to move deeper in our side and create their chances. Everybody knows that our defense is a bit shaky at times, so that's a major weakness in our system. Finally, the wingers/wide players are big problems. Rather than crossing the ball, work more on cutting in and feeding the ball in the center through quick ground passes or one-twos.
Something to add as well: While we haven't conceded more than 1 goal so far, our defense is sort of unconsistent. They tend to put themselves in bad situations, which either by pure luck or skill they get themselves out of probably 90% of the time. However, Lahm or Friedrich or Mertersacker or Schweini will not be there 100% of the time to save our butts! Think about all the chances Ghana had, and it was just ONE player who saved Germany from conceding the goal. The defense needs to work together as an entire UNIT, making sure to not allow oppositions the chances that may or may not concede a goal for us.
Thats because we didnt play any good attacking team so far.. this Germany team remind me so much of Bayern... its not even funny.. maybe at Bayern we just have better wingers... but other than that, its the same exact thing (good offense, bad defense)
Yeah, I'm really impressed with Khedira's off the ball movement. There's a lot more movement from him in midfield than there ever was from Ballack, who looked almost stationary in comparison. Khedira played a quiet but effecient game.
No, no, no! Do you seriously want Klose back? Cacau was solid tonight, shot from distance, dropped back into midfield, even won a ball in the defensive zone to snuff out an attack. He's got pace and lots of off-the-ball movement. He played a fine game. Keep him in there.
Oh boy, I don't even know where to start. Despite the win I am just devastated. I knew our boys were young and inexperienced, but I didn't know we could be this bad. Or defense is shaky as always (thank God Ghana didn't score on us first) and now we literally have very little offense to speak of. We did control the midfield thanks to Schweini, but all we did was passing the ball around until it got intercepted by the Ghanian players. Man, our players were so damn slow and uninspired as if they didn't care. We are doomed, I am telling you. England is going to crush us Sunday. I guess my only consolation would be seeing the English getting crushed by Argentina. To quote Alexi Lalas, we are simply "not that good". I hope our boys will learn from this excruciating experience and truly excel in 2014 and show the world what we are capable of. Go Germany!!
we pretty much turned to shit in the 5 days leading up to this game. I'm not sure about much for 2014 either. Imagine the thought of having to play that tournament in Brazil's backyard, where even England and Argentina would quiver.
ROFL! So...going by your opinion we should just throw in the towel before the game? We havent even played and you are already starting with the doom and gloom crap. Come on! This is ridicoulous. Yes, we may not be that good, but no game is lost or without opportunity if the ref hasnt given the final whistle.
The people bagging on Cacau is because he doesn't know what he's doing on the pitch whatsoever in our system. Running back to defend all game and turn into an attacking playmaker in a 4-5-1 when you are the leading striker is not a good thing, it's nothing short of a tactical failure. A lot of the time the players would bring the ball up but didn't know who to pass up front to because Cacau doesn't have the intelligence of a poacher striker.. he doesn't know where to run or how to position himself. A lot of the times he made some solid runs but at ridiculously difficult angles. The only good thing all match that Cacau did was the pass & a long range shot that tested the keeper but would have never went in anyways. Running back and defending is a tactical mistake to do all freaking match for a main striker in our formation, his positioning was average, he lost the ball half the time and played as a midfielder as the kiddies had no clue who to pass to. He's a good sub player, we should keep it at this. If Klose sucks vs England, I'm certain the Stuttgart boys in here will come in and say Cacau would have done something. If Cacau hypothetically were to start for Germany, it should be as a RW in our formation. Otherwise, he is a super-sub. Maybe Klose might not do much more, but he is as good at passing as Cacau as well as having experience & arial ability.
An out of form Klose does nobody any good. The entire argument rests on Klose getting his mojo back which he hasn't up to this point. So if you think you've scored some kind of moral victory for blindly backing a personal favorite of yours, think again. All this is a result of us having such poor options in the striking department.
No there wasnt. Some are just too negative here. People seem to forget that this was a knock out like game for us, and the team went in with a knock out game mentality. It was never going to be free flowing adventurous football, We had to be patient and cautious because if we conceded one goal from a counter attack we would have been out. The only thing to complain about are Mertesacker and Podolski both had bad days, and starting to look like major liabilities. Hopfully they can bounce back, or maybe Löw plays Jansen ahead of Poldi (wont happen though). People who said Boateng had a bad game, should look at how he completely neutralised Ghana's RW (who was their best player in the past 2 games). If Badstuber was playing, he would have been beaten by the guys speed and trickery every single time.
Another point which doesn't seem to bother anybody is that people from Ghana are called Ghanian or Ghananian. This probably is the only exceptional case where an extra 'i' is added to the name while make it an adjective. For example, people from Uganda, Rwanda, Botswana are called Ugandan, Rwandan and Bostwanan. Can't think of any other country which has a consonant and a the letter a as its last two letters and has an 'i' in the adjective form. Its just in the case of Ghana where an exception is made. Strange, this English language.
Why was Kewell given a red card and a penalty against Australia and Lahm and Germany got off with nothing? Exact same thing I would've thought.
lol? Why should Lahm got a red? His arm was next to his body and he stopped the ball mostly with his chest. You know, something like an arm is sessile to humans and the ball would never crossed the line anyway Nobody is complaining about, not even the English or Italian who are very fast to be badmouthing on Germany.
lahm didnt handle it....it barely hit his arm...maybe an inch or so of it. The ball also wasn't going in.