WWC Review: Germany 1-0 Nigeria

July 1st, 2011 | by: Anne | Comments Off

Written by guest blogger Clarissa

Germany won their second match of the World Cup against Nigeria by one goal to nil. That result means that Germany progresses to the Quarterfinals. The last game is against the rampant French (4-0 victory over Canada), and will decide who tops the group. Nigeria and Canada are already out and will play out their last game as a friendly.

Coach Sylvia Neid put the same starting eleven on the field, which also started against Canada, and again with mixed results. The Nigerians played an exceedingly physical game, constantly whacking at shins and ankles, having their elbows out, putting in body checks and jumping knees first into German players. This really put the German team off their game, and the situation was not helped by an extremely lenient referee. Anyways, while Nigeria did not have any real chances on goal, the strategy effectively destroyed Germany’s build-up play. Additionally Melanie Behringer had to be subbed out after about 20 minutes with an injury.

In the second half, Germany took the fight back to Nigeria, led by the excellent Simone Laudehr, the woman of the match. It was also Laudehr who scored the only goal after some defensive mix-up in the Nigerian penalty box after a German free kick. After that, Germany went on to hold that goal advantage relatively well, since Nigeria were quite harmless going forward. A special mention goes to the excellent Annike Krahn, who kept the defense together. The most disappointing player on the night was Birgit Prinz; she just isn’t doing it currently, and the system with her as a lone striker up top is not working. Perhaps it is time to bench her, as hard as that might seem?

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