What a lot of people wrote about, Germans have no technical skill, they only fight, their game culture is only compact and so on. Remember how the Germans shot the goals and see the whole scenes before they score. The German players have whole technical skills and they play like a team and they are compact. AND THAT IS MODERN FOOTBALL. Not to run like rooster over the pitch and do the catwalk. What SONICMASD wrote was a good comment. The line up. Before the match, I would bet Almeida or Meira are in the team. They know the German players. But nothing against Scolari, he makes Portugal to a world wide feared team. And never forget, a Euro quarter final is harder than a WC quarter final. Now here in Germany, we await the next in the half final. And there is 50:50 again. On with the flags, on Wednesday we strike again.
That's not correct. Of course have the Germans good technique, all of them are professionals! And of course they do not only fight but can also play football very well. But that's not the reasons Germany won today and had so much successes before. If it was only technique, passing and playing marvelous football, Germany would never make it to the finals.
But football is a team game. And Croatia knows like Germany kows it. Croatia have one Tower - or Star - and Germany have one Tower - or Star - in the team. But both heroes play for the team, and the team for them. That's the difference I mean.
Yes, football is a team game. But Portugal also tried to play like a team. I mean they had almost 60% possession of the ball, this tells You something - but not all! The point is - in my opinion - that in Contrast to Portugal, Germany is a compact team. Their defense is not great but good. Their forwards are nothing special, but when getting a scoring opportunity, they are there. Their midfield is, with exception of Ballack, average, but absolutely not weak that one can hope to take control over them in this part. On the other hand, Portugal has some great advantages, they have better individual players, superior technique, excellent passing, fantastic midfield, you know all this, but they also have a second class defense, no top scorer and especially are physically hopelessly inferior. They remind me of the Arabs, who also play nicely the ball around but when it comes against Germany they lose 0:7 or something, the Germans simply push them away like children and score. This physical inferiority is a huge disadvantage, also in psychological regards.
What was up with Poland at the Euro. To lose vs. Germany is not a shame. But the game vs. Austria, the tie was a present for Poland. One of the strongest teams in the qualification excuse, f... off so? Really, I didn't await it.
I think Portugal have one world class player, Ronaldo, the rest is good (Don't speak about the goalkeeper). Germany have in the mass better players (World Class for Ballack), but for the average mass, the quality is higher on German side. And this decide the game tonight.
It seems to me you are saying that past german teams that won trophies did not have excellent technique and did not play great football. Rather that they played like this year's team have for more than half the tournament. I'm just making a passing statement. I'm not up for a big debate about it. Just wondering - how many Germany matches in the last 2-3 years have you watched?
The Germans conceded crosses from the flanks in order to shut down the Portuguese attack up the center. The Germans were always going to be favorites to win if they managed it and they did. Aside from the one nice flick Cristiano Ronaldo was marked out of the match.
The soccer in Poland and in Germany are too different worlds. Tell me what post-communistic country the size of Poland have had any real success in soccer history?
Did anyone noticed that the 1st and third goal of Germany come from great goal opportunities from Moutinho and Pepe respectively?...wonder what would happen if they scored. A curious note. Call me a sore loser but Steiger shouldn't even play that game due to reasons we all know. I'm not troubled though, stubborn as Scolari is our defense would show its weaknesses sometime later... Scolari was outclassed tactically because of set pieces and exploring our left wing...it was so agonizing simple that he should of seen it coming no matter what. F. Meira instead of Petit for the physical aspect and the left defender was for a long time an issue...P. Ferreira was never fit to it...god, i would have preferred a quick CB there. It'll be curious to know Chelsea fans views because he can certainly create union out of nowhere...but lacks the Mourinho factor. He won't succeed there in my opinion and somewhat I'm glad he's gone...merit in team spirit and consistent performances but fails tactically in decisive moments. Congrats to Germany. Not a believer that any team will win the final from group A or B...
Agree about set pieces - that 2nd goal was some sad defending - why did they play it one-on-one in their box - 4 Germans vs 4 Portuguese - defenders needed numerical advantage and in such a situation you let your offensive player cover the best German?! Dubious coaching decision. And you just take away the speed and trickery of Ronaldo by playing him as a striker. Also agree on Petit 100%. By the way, Portugal are too good a side to have Nuno Gomez as their sole attacking option - he's not that dangerous and was very lucky to score today. Just saw that 1st German goal again - simply perfect...
I just watched that part of the game and the 3rd didn't come right after pepe's miss. It came about 2 minutes later. Before Pepe's miss, hitzlsperger had schweinsteiger open 5 metres to his right with literally half of the penalty box free on that side and instead shot himself and missed. pig got a 1 match ban..what more do you want for what was only a push to the chest? portugal's defence was gaping open for 2 of the goals but remember, portugal's first goal came from mertesacker's really bad positioning to have such a gap between he and c.ronaldo, and the second when the game was petering out and without full concentration on the match. And it always helps a lot to watch the match for a second time to properly analyse the flow of play and what really happened.
A funnny match. Awful defending from portugal on set pieces. Embarassing ( and known since years ) lack of a centre forward worth that name from Portugal. And of a goalkeeper too. Ronaldo can't win matches alone, and he propbably had a supporting cast tha best Portugal will ahve for many years to come. Germany with a solid match. Good "pressing", no frill defense, good plays by the wingers. A solid mifield which combined great physical qualities with more than sufficient ball controlling skills. A deserved victory. Good refereeing save the foul on the third germans' goal, but the defender was so soft... You can't go "soft£ ike that in the box... You have to go for the ball when you have that advantage on the attacker, you have to attack the ball. Amateuresque play by the defender, he couldn't even fall down to make the foul evident. At first I culdn't see it. I needed slo-mo...
Whew, horrendous set-piece defending by Portugal. Third goal could have easily been caught by Ricardo if he had stayed on his line. I would have loved to see that happen, because a penalty shoot-out between Germany and Portugal would've been awesome. Instead, Portugal gives up two soft goals and loses in 90. Weak.
Glad to have to come here and admit I was wrong to have doubted the German team. In my opinion, they did to Portugal exactly what Croatia did to them. Got in their faces for 90 minutes and didn't back down. After the first four minutes, I told my friends, "Damnit, I made the wrong pick. Germany is going to win this match as the Portugese aren't strong enough to take control and Germany will keep the match at this pace for 90 minutes." As I went to bar to have dinner and watch the match with some friends and co-workers here in Garmisch, I couldn't post during the match and I was too drunk afterwards to do so. Many of my non-German buddies complained about the Ballack push, but I told them it's not cheating unless you get caught. I told them that Ronaldo acting job was the epitome cheating. Germany simply beat Portugal. No "what-ifs", "shoulds", "coulds" or "buts" about it.