Per Mertesacker having a nightmare today v. Ghana. He and Mustafi beaten handily in the air by Ayew. Maybe go with Wondo v. Germany?
Mertesacker can be beaten more easily to driven crosses. He's big but not agile; Ayew beat him by getting between him and the ball. If we're playing two up top, the second striker is the one we want to force Mertesacker to mark.
I would also suggest that Ayew is freakin' awesome. That he did not do more damage to us is amazing. That guy can play.
They forgot to jump Bosnia looked completely gassed at the end of their game. Playing in heat and humidity just doesnt agree with Europeans, the only bad news is we have 7 Europeans on our roster but more of them have an idea having lived/played in the states or CONCACAF.
Wondo is not as good as AJ in the air. Go with AJ and Dempsey up top. Throw on Zusi to provide service. He can head the ball when he gets a good cross.
I dont know how Mertesacker starts for Germany, he's tall but he must be the slowest professional soccer player. Slower than Xabi and Demichelis
Mertesacker was marking Gyan and ball went over him. Mustafi was more on Ayew but it was a good cross. If Ghana could have put in more quality crosses like this they might have scored more. Most of their crosses were terrible.
No. It was Mustafi ... although, "beaten" is a loose definition, as the guy didn't even jump. Now, I assume, he'll get his ass nailed to a bench. PS. Mertesaker, it can be argued, took a wrong angle on the pass to Gyan for the second Ghana goal.
Yes, Per and Mustafi are the 2 ducking, as if they don't want anything to do with the ball. And yes, it looks as though Mustafi was marking Ayew initially from behind, but the ball was dropped in closer to Per as he was tussling with Gyan, but he inexplicably lets it by without jumping:
The funniest part of that is how many tries it takes Podolski to hit that barn door. That tweeter was actually correct with that one.