Photo: UEFA U21 European Champions 2009

Excellent news! The reports mentioned Neuer didn’t have a save to make all night, which makes me wonder about the toothlessness of England’s attack and hope for a bright future for the senior squad’s defensive prospects.

Regarding the youth hattrick — sounds like I’m going to need to go for the full ticket bundle for Brazil 2014, since Germany are going to sweep it.

Posted from  United States

We did it Hrubesch for Bundestrainer! Hummels was immense. Neuer needed to be more authoritative, but for now we have got a good selection for every position ahead of 2010. If only someone…

German bbs own Europe. Congrats

Master stroke putting Hummels in midfield, the kind of inspired tactical switch that Loew showed vs Portugal with his 4-2-3-1, England were made to look very poor indeed.

In terms of who will graduate to the senior side, i think Neuer,Beck,Höwedes, Khedira, Ozil and Marin will make the grade. Hummels could do so as well if he continues his form with Subotic.

Apart from that, there will be no drought for the German team with regards to a wide selection of talent to pick from comapred to 1994-2003 when there was nothing coming out in quantity. Just to think of the players that never got called up like Kroos-Bender twins-Gebhart etc, the future looks good!!

Nice to smash 4 past England makes the victory even sweeter!

Posted from  United Kingdom

Jan, I think the victory calls for a new tournament wrap-up. I hope Löw was taking notes and actually comes through on his promises to promote some of these guys instead of calling up Hoof, Trash, and Westermann again. (I couldn’t think of a clever one for the guy who conceded three against Finland.)

Hummels looks like he would be better than Rolfes, Jones, or Westermann at DM. Khedira would probably be just as good as Hitzlsperger at CM.

Finally, I am quite surprised as to who is pursuing Tasci. I would think that Höwedes woudl be a better target. I mean how many solid young CB are there in any league these days?

P.S. Hrubesch should replace Löw. Although I don’t trust the former completely on tactics he has shown that he is at least capable of turning things around at the half and making the right substitutions. Things which Löw simply has not been able to do outside of 2006.

Maybe this has to do with the players too. That 1-1 against England looked soooo much like the senior team. They at least had an excuse – all they needed was a tie and 5 yellow cards of 11 starters.

Anyway what concerns me is that even though Löw has a lot of experience as a coach, his only good run was with Stuttgart and he was fired from that too. This suggests he’s tactically stubborn, makes ineffective substitutions, and naturally does not command the respect of a Beckenbauer, Völler, Klinsmann, or a Hrubesch.

Seems Loew is getting his excuses in very early!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jun/30/loew-training-facilities-2010-world-cup-south-africa

Posted from  United Kingdom