dot   Home     World     Europe     Germany  
Flag Germany

Germany

5 Conclusions: Germany U21 4-0 England U21

   

Before wrapping up the whole tournament again, factoring in the final as Nick suggested in the comments, it’s time for me to collect a few more thoughts on the final itself. Feel free to share your own analysis in the comments.

1. All is well that ends well. Well, at least the comprehensive and dominant victory over England added a glossy finish to Germany’s tournament performance. It was a team that had its’ flaws but discussing them is academic now. They won the tournament and you can’t one up that except for a few style points. It’s nothing to be concerned with for the future either, as this team will never play together again. A lot of players will be too old for the next tournament and Horst Hrubesch will go back to his U20 team, with Rainer Adrion taking over the U21 now.

2. Horst Hrubesch is part tactical genius and part lucky bastard. I have to give credit to Hrubesch for making all the right adjustments to the team’s tactics. Especially playing Hummels in front of the backline. He argued that he wanted to gain aerial dominance over England to counter their strength from set pieces, but Hummels did much more than heading away crosses and corners with his all around excellent defensive display. He also allowed Khedira to go forward, which really helped his game. Though, as far as Özil’s return to his natural midfield position is concerned, we probably have to thank Ashkan Dejagah for his second yellow, which partly forced this adjustment onto Hrubesch.

3. Mesut Özil is a midfielder. A great one at that already. Unfortunately he was as wasted up front in the previous matches as Theo Walcott was for England in the final. Walcott was showing touches of his great technical ability but always appeared to look for that final pass with nobody in the box to finish, and it was the same with Özil in the previous matches. Özil could have made a much stronger argument for player of the tournament, had he been allowed to run Germany’s midfield.

4. Sandro Wagner is a striker. One who hasn’t exactly taken the second division by storm at his club Duisburg. For about 80 minutes in the final he also appeared to prove why Hrubesch thought a great midfielder is a better target man than an average striker. But he made up for it in the ten minutes that followed by scoring two goals; a cool finish for the first one and a curled beauty for the second. As mentioned above, discussing the flaws of this team is a bit pointless now, but there was certainly potential for a less minimalistic approach in the earlier games.

5. Possession is overrated. Fans of Hertha Berlin or Chelsea know that already. For everyone else, this game was a good example how a team which had 12 minutes less time on the ball than England could still emerge as the better and more dominant team. I don’t know what the “territorial advantage” stat on the Sky Sports page is composed of, but it favored Germany with 56% to England’s 43%, while the possession stat was more or less the exact opposite. The same was true for the group stage game as well by the way. But that still means as much and as little as every other football stat of course. And that being said, possession is still something desirable. You can’t concede goals while you have the ball and you can look for ways to set one up on the other end. I’m confident that Adrion, with multiple times the time Hrubesch had, will form a team which isn’t sending speculative balls to the sidelines or the opposition’s players quite so often.


Subscribe

 

rss icon Germany World Cup Blog RSS Feed

Print

Share

  • Nick

    Jan, the 4-1-4-1 formation seemed much superior to the 4-2-3-1 the senior side plays. Maybe Jogi can think about using it in the future.

    There was an interview with Löw over at the DFB and I get the feeling he seems to be of the opinion that he won’t integrate the U21 players as soon as some of us might hope. Like in time to face off with he Soviets. (Then again he might submit to media pressure when we get closer to 2010.)

    I agree that the transition from U21 to senior team is big, but surely we need the U21 central defenders sooner rather than later. I am happy he at least mentioned the three big ones in the England game and honestly this and the Spain game was the best showcase of talent in that department. Yet still he seems to be sold on Tasci and Westermann.

    I really am not sold on Westermann. He is versatile and scores goals against crap teams, but his passing and alertness in defense as we have seen has been atrocious enough that the other players have gotten angry at him. I hope that Hummels and Boateng especially have good seasons because they are the most obvious replacement to the “versatile” Westermann.

  • http://bundesliga.theoffside.com Jan

    The 4-1-4-1 formation looked interesting indeed, although it was really only used in the final. I think a striker like Mario Gomez could perform well in such a system.

    With all the praise we give the defense, it’s worth noting that they only defended against other youngsters and not against the world’s elite. But Hummels, Höwedes and Boateng are still three candidates to join Mertesacker alongside Tasci and maybe Friedrich. Unfortunately there isn’t the same wealth of options available for the full back positions (as far as U21 and senior level is concerned), but I’m happy that Andreas Beck had a good tournament.

    I guess though that the most we can hope for for the World Cup qualifiers is a second half substitution to bring on Özil. I think Löw will stick to Tasci/Mertesacker in central defense and choose between Adler and Enke in goal. So no room for the U21 heroes there. :-/

  • Arminius

    Jan: Good reasoning, I suppose.

    As for defence, B o a t e n g is the most promising one and therefore has the biggest chance to become part of the standard crew.

    If Ö z i l is given a chance to act as a striker there will be thin air for some presumed offense governors. For example, can’t imagine K l o s e to play a big role any longer unless he displays a second spring. And
    G o m e z’ ascendancy might easily be followed by a new cruel solstice.
    P o d o l s k i has yet to prove himself a a striker of international clibre, too.

    I dare say that – though with all his team’s glamour he was one of the ‘losers’ of the tournament – M a r i n has got so much potential that his future looks fairly bright nevertheless. Rarely have we had a striker with such amazing dribbling skills – and speed. I may of course be grimly wrong yet I have got a hunch he might turn into someone like a new Littbarski(y?) at his best.

    Anyway: Euro Champions at U 17, U 19 and U 21 level at the same time is
    something many will envy us for. No guarantee of future glory, to be sure,
    but a comfortable basis. Just think of poor England, for example.

  • http://republic-flag.com Triple Check

    I agree Boateng is the most promising. I love it when he celebrates at the end of the game with a German Flag. Simply the best

blog comments powered by Disqus
 

MORE EUROPE BLOGS

france
France World Cup Blog
993 articles | 12,643 comments
 
croatia
Croatia World Cup Blog
201 articles | 1,850 comments
 
czechrepublic
Czech Republic World Cup Blog
196 articles | 322 comments
 
england
England Football Team World Cup Blog
1,035 articles | 5,228 comments
 
germany
Germany World Cup Blog
687 articles | 5,278 comments
 
italy
Italy World Cup Blog
1,023 articles | 32,761 comments
 
netherlands
Netherlands World Cup Blog
2,510 articles | 63,214 comments
 
poland
Poland World Cup Blog
489 articles | 7,787 comments
 
portugal
Portugal World Cup Blog
547 articles | 9,427 comments
 
serbia
Serbia World Cup Team Blog
208 articles | 1,511 comments
 
spain
Spain World Cup Blog
347 articles | 3,327 comments
 
sweden
Sweden World Cup Blog
225 articles | 385 comments
 
switzerland
Switzerland World Cup Blog
270 articles | 452 comments
 
ukraine
Ukraine World Cup Team Blog
119 articles | 998 comments
 
greece
Greece World Cup Blog
204 articles | 217 comments
 
russia
Russia World Cup Blog
110 articles | 365 comments
 
scotland
Scotland World Cup Team Blog
129 articles | 124 comments
 
ireland
Ireland World Cup Team Blog
112 articles | 166 comments
 
norway
Norway World Cup Team Blog
16 articles | 8 comments
 
turkey
Turkey World Cup Blog
49 articles | 314 comments
 
romania
Romania World Cup Blog
78 articles | 281 comments
 
austria
Austria World Cup Blog
111 articles | 118 comments
 
denmark
Denmark World Cup Team Blog
72 articles | 149 comments
 
albania
Albania World Cup Team Blog
4 articles | 8 comments
 
belgium
Belgium World Cup Team Blog
49 articles | 59 comments
 
wales
Wales World Cup Team Blog
62 articles | 17 comments
 
bosnia
Bosnia World Cup Team Blog
52 articles | 112 comments
 
israel
Israel World Cup Team Blog
33 articles | 28 comments
 
slovakia
Slovakia World Cup Team Blog
18 articles | 20 comments
 
slovenia
Slovenia World Cup Team Blog
43 articles | 133 comments
 

CATEGORIES & ARCHIVES

 

 
Closer

Bundesliga News
Bayern Munich Shirts
Bayern Munich
Werder Bremen
Mesut Ozil
Tournaments
Euro 2012 Qualifying
Africa Cup of Nations 2012
UEFA Champions League
Europa League

Follow WorldCupBlog on Facebook   Follow WorldCupBlog on Twitter  
World Cup Resources
World Cup History
World Cup Legends
World Cup Memorable Moments
World Cup Photos
World Cup Videos