Group D: Friendlies prior to the WC

According to Planet World Cup....

The oldest starting line-up in a World Cup game was fielded by Germany against Iran in 1998. The average age was 31 years and 345 days. That record is closely followed by Belgium whose average age against Mexico the same year was 31 years and 304 days.
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Ah that sprightly young team from 98. And to think that the dark ages were just beginning.

I think Matthäus has to count for half of their age.

 

Are they not teams as well? Since when is 26 goals in qualifiers not good enough, I'm pretty sure only 2 teams scored more than Germany during that time, I know Spain being one of them. There are quite a few players that play to a different level between club and national team, this applies to Podolski's lazy ass in particular and Schweinsteiger until last season. Klose is also getting one last chance to impress I assume against Australia, which I'm not against.

This German team isn't about the main striker scoring only, any of the midfielders can put the ball in the net. What I want from the main striker is lead the line and hold 1-2 defenders constantly to give more space to the midfielders, as well as putting hopefully 3-4 goals in this tournament.

I'm sure Schweinsteiger & Podolski agree with you, considering one had an average season and the other a terrible one while they were Germany's best offensive weapons once Euro 08 started. What does that tell you?

 

What does the effectiveness of the midfielders scoring have to to with the form of the strikers?

Didn't this get started when I mentioned the strikers not being in decent form based on league play? To which you responded that league play did not matter. And then we got on the issue of form and the lowliness of the teams that the strikers have scored against at the national team level. The issue has been strikers, not midfielders...remember?

 

In your post, you say you can keep the score low.. the front line is not in good form. I state Germany's midfielders can put the ball in the net, so the front line needing to score every match is not that big of an issue if they do other things right like properly lead the line & constantly keep the CB busy to give space to others.

 

Good point. So they've still played against Russia, Wales and Finland 2x , which means they've scored 10 goals in those 6 games. And that may not be a very encouraging goals/game ratio.

Doing the same for Spain, I've exclude games against Armenia and Estonia (the bottom two teams in their wcq group) , Spain have scored 16 goals in the other 6 matches against Turkey, Bosnia and Belgium.

England too have scored 17 goals against the top 3 teams in their group- Ukraine, Croatia and Belarus.

Now, suddenly I'm a little depressed

 

Damn, now THIS is a website for the WM...

http://www.marca.com/deporte/futbol/mundial/sudafrica-2010/calendario-english.html

Evrything in one freak'n spot...

 

DAMN....that is awesome!!!

 

Bookmarked. Thanks.

 

What a cool design! Thanks!

 

Did not know where to post it so I created a thread in the general FIFA WC section so others could see it. I thought it was the best schedule ever regarding the WM. Literally ANY way you wanted to see the data, boom, it was there.

Kudos goes to my friend Terry....thanks for sharing you, Jungfrau, you.