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10 Conclusions: Germany 3-2 Portugal

June 20th, 2008 | By: Jan | 10 Comments »

Podolski, Flix and Trix

1. This was a game after which you could roll out the clichés about how you should never write off the Germans. The turnaround still came as a surprise to me though. I wonder what triggered it? Maybe Löw’s suspension worked as a little extra motivator (in which case: thanks Manuel Mejuto)? Or the sense of occasion, or Frings’ injury or… Anyone got a theory?

2. While Lukas Podolski seems to play his best football when he’s with the national team, Bastian Schweinsteiger seems to play his best football when he’s playing against Portugal. Each to his own.

3. Germany will play Turkey in the semi-final. I guess most had tipped Croatia to make it and it would have been a great chance to make up for the group stage defeat. But the match against Turkey should be interesting as well. There’s also a large Turkish community in Germany, so I hope there’s no bad blood afterwards.

4. One Frings is worth two players. Simon Rolfes and Thomas Hitzelsperger took over in midfield for Frings and looked quite nervous in the beginning. Fortunately the same applied to Portugal, so there was a bit of time to get into the match. Hitzelsperger tried some long range shots and was wrongly flagged for offside in one promising counter attack. Apart from that, he was happy to play his part compressing space around the Portuguese in midfield. Rolfes was a bit more adventurous and was involved in some promising build up play. I would expect Frings to replace Hitzelsperger, should he be fit for Wednesday’s semi-final. Jogi Löw could still chose to change his tactical formation again though, to accommodate Turkey’s 1-1-8-1 or whatever Terim needs to play to get enough players on the pitch.

5. Jens Lehmann’s trick to stop Ronaldo, which he supposedly told Arne Friedrich worked.

6. Thanks to Michael Ballack, Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger for that beautifully crafted first goal. Or like a comment on the BBC blog put it: you couldn’t programme it better on a NASA mainframe.

7. While Portugal bemoaned their defensive incompetence, Germany’s central defence with Mertesacker and Metzelder was a mess as well. The stuffed midfield did most of the damage to Portugal and helped to quickly double up on their players. Friedrich and Lahm did well on the flanks, though Lahm got a bit careless after a while. Jens Lehmann definitely needed match practise, as he seems to have found his rhythm again. In the end Portugal defended badly. Germany defended badly. Germany won.

8. The third goal by Ballack was controversial and you can discuss on our main page whether it should have been disallowed. The wrong offside call against Hitzelsperger in the 32th minute should come in handy, in case you run into an argument how the ref influenced the outcome of the game in favour of ze Germans though.

9. Michael Ballack made quite a drama out of a slap to his neck while Ronaldo did the same after a foul by Friedrich. So that makes it 1:1 in terms of silly play acting, though Ronaldo was more successful as he put Friedrich on a yellow card. Jens Lehmann also had some time on the ground, but I give him credit that he was actually hit harder.

10. Miroslav Klose has overcome his Euro curse and scored a goal. And while he was the lone striker due to the tactical changes, it felt very much like Mario Gomez was on the pitch with him.

Tags: Arne Friedrich, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Christoph Metzelder, Euro 2008, Germany, Jens Lehmann, Lukas Podolski, Michael Ballack, Miroslav Klose, Per Mertesacker, Philipp Lahm, Portugal, Simon Rolfes, Thomas Hitzelsperger, Torsten Frings

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Comments

By Intan | June 20th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Heh, I think Ballack defended better than Mertesacker and Metzelder did. =/ But hopefully this excellent form the Germans have found would continue on when they face Turkey in the semis–Turkey may be the under-underdogs and hit with tons of injuries and suspensions, but they have this crazy and dangerous knack for last minute goals…

Last time in WC06, Germany lost to Italy in semis due to the Azurris’ last minute goals. I hope this won’t happen again–defence must never ever get complacent!

By mukhe | June 21st, 2008 at 12:15 am

I agree with point 6. bastian seems to have a better game with portugal.However, his play was lackluster in the dying momments.

By diana | June 21st, 2008 at 6:42 am

Jan, regarding No.1, I wish I know why as well. Even I myself is struggling to find an answer. But I think one of our newspapers got the answer. I can’t find any possible link online so I will just paraphrase what I was reading today. Not sure if you know about it though. It was revealed by someone who know Jogi for over 30 years (and both coming from the same town) and is working here.

This goes back to after the 2-1 loss to Croatia. Jogi allowed the players’ families to visit the training camp for a few hours. His explanation was that the players needed their families and he already promised that their families could visit for a few hours. Many questioned why he did that. But he made the decision even before the match. And this made the players respected him even more as he kept his word.

So in the end, I am not surprised I was reading the post-match reactions (the Portugal-Germany match, that is) in the papers today, Lukas Podolski was saying that they had to respect UEFA decision (for Jogi not allowed in the dugout for that match) but they want to win the match for the coach.

Regarding Jogi’s friend who’s working here…he is working as a coach in one of the football clubs in our local domestic league. I only know that our newspaper wrote that the two still kept in touch.

‘Last time in WC06, Germany lost to Italy in semis due to the Azurris’ last minute goals. I hope this won’t happen again–defence must never ever get complacent!’
Agreed, Intan. Watching how Turkey managed to fight back to the very end…I was already expecting Croatia (after Ivan Klasnic scored the goal to break the deadlock) to face Germany but it’s Turkey instead. I almost swear I was speechless when Mladen Petric’s penalty was saved by the Turkish keeper. It ain’t over till the final whistle has been blown.

Posted from Singapore

By kamikaze | June 21st, 2008 at 9:06 am

Germany were lucky they didn’t pick Mario Gomez again. He should be given an award for managing to hit the narrow upright with the goal gaping like an abyss before him from one yard out.

Posted from India

By Wnuck | June 21st, 2008 at 9:41 am

.. that’s not luck. thats tactics.

Posted from Germany

By kamikaze | June 21st, 2008 at 10:07 am

By the way, move aside Rafeal van der Fart, did anyone notice Jogi’s quest for glory within his nostrils within the privacy of the VIP box ?

Posted from India

By Horst | June 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am

eh… I’m sure you never did. How does this concern the game or sports at all?

Posted from Germany

By Ulvi Ahmadov | June 23rd, 2008 at 2:10 am

That was amazing!!! Go Deutschlang go!!! Be Champion!!!

Posted from Azerbaijan

By patrick | June 25th, 2008 at 2:37 pm

So much glorious words i read here about Germany,i truly don’t understand why.their football sucks,if we can call that football, it seems more a fighting ring…they only won Portugal because of the mistakes of the refferee,the third goal was a fault.just like that germany can win games and be where it is .

By Karl | June 26th, 2008 at 3:27 pm

.. get over it. It’s getting boring.

Posted from Germany

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