Croatia vs. Germany
Thursday, 12 June 08, 01:28 PM · Comments(4)
I know that all the news papers will blasting the Germans into pieces with their words, over appreciate the class of Modric and how he will help the Scum to glory. It happened when Italy lost.
It will happen again today. I agree that Croatia were great tonight. gThey were well oranized, disciplined and fought well all the 90 minutes.
Croatia won "because" the Germans were bad. Just too bad. Misplaced and over hit passes, lack of cohesion in the team, wrong choice of players contributed to their loss. I will try to analyse
what the problem was. The Croatian fans contributed a lot too. Looked like it was anti-German all over the stadium.
In the Attack, Mario Gomez was utter rubbish. He was isolated and looked like he belonged to a 3rd team. Never linked up with any of the team. He need to time his runs better than
he did. I say, he's not ready for international football.
I did not understand why Miroslav Klose was playing in a deeper role. With less pacey defenders to face, Jogi decided to go with young legs and thus pushed Klose into a support role. He was
confusing and did not look confident. He also missed a couple of half chances in the first half and lacked motivation.
In the defence, Jansen in the left flank did not do well. For the first goal, he had Srna covered until the ball dipped in. For one second he had no idea where Srna was and BANG!
Srna scored with his leg stretched from behind Jansen. What's with the left footers ? He could have easily swung his right foot and cleared the ball out of sight. Instead, he decided to go with
his strong left foot, lost his balance when the ball was coming in and was in a totally awkward angle to defend any kind of attack from Srna. The cross was tremendous anyway.
As for the second goal, it was very lucky for Croatia. Deflected cross going into the goal, blocked , hit the post and fell to Olic who was left with a simple task to tap the ball into the net.
Lehmann could have done better dealing with the deflected cross. He was solid until then.
The goal that didn't really matter in the end came only after Schweini was brought in. There was a gibberish mix in the positions at first half. With Jansen removed,
Lahm went to the left, Fritz moved to right back and Odonkor was placed at right midfield. When Schweini came in for Gomez, Podolski took his place and Schweini played in the left midfield.
Schweini and Lahm combined well with Podolski. For about 5 minutes, 3 of them linked up very well and bombarded the Croatian defence. A Great volley by podolski. He's now 3 goals away from
equalling his international goal tally ( 28 ) with his club football goals (31) I half expected the Germans to bounce back and snatch a point. But, all my hopes were smashed when Schweini got
sent off. Hard luck mate. I knew he would do this some time. He's too aggressive. Additionally, he was frustrated. Ballack shouldn't have got himself booked. Too risky. He might get booked in
their final group game and he would miss the Quarter Final. Probably against Portugal because I don't see Portugal losing to the swiss or Croatia losing the Poland.
Fritz is better than Jansen. So, I think it would have been better if Germany Started like this:
Lehmann
Fritz - Metzelder - Mertesacker - Lahm
Trochowski/Hitzlsperger - Frings - Ballack - Schweinsteiger
Klose - Podolski
The Lahm-Schweini-Poldi combination proved good in the world cup. We also saw today glimpses of what it could accomplish. But, now it's too late. Schweini would be better for the German Army
considering his short-tempered nature and great punching ability. He wouldn't play another 3 matches(?)
The Croats were perfect. They were lucky to score their second. The Germans were poor. Disappointing. Didn't create enough chances. But, I hope Jogi will motivate them well for the final group
match against Austria in 4 days time. I hope they qualify. The road is now relatively smooth for Slaven Bilic's men who will face either Czech Republic or Turkey in the Quarters which would
easier compared to facing Portugal. I wish either Croatia/Germany wins the Euros.
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Wooo! cool down. I support Croatia too. I also admitted that Croatia played perfectly. But I think you were lucky in terms of the second goal.
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ok....ok you´re forgotten...greetings from Croatia!
4 Comments · Add yours
Hey the second goal was a freak one man .... it took a large deflection off podolski (i suppose ) .... but still lehmann should have done better
YOU ARE JUST FULL OF CRAP. YOU JUST HAVE TO ADMITT CROATIANS WERE FAR MORE BETTER THAN GERMANS, AND NOTHING COULD CHANGE THAT BECAUSE WE ARE JUST BETTER AS A TEAM.AND WE ARE GOING TO BE CHAMPIONS,YOU´LL SEE....PROUD TO BE CROAT....