10 Conclusions: Germany 4-0 Liechtenstein

1. This was the best ever result for Liechtenstein against Germany. It was achieved by a Liechtenstein team missing five starting XI regulars, who were forced to work the weekend shift by their day job bosses – presumably. There were no reports of Liechtensteiners flooding the streets and mountains and partying all night long in the wake of this historic 4-0 defeat though. Germany didn’t lose any sleep over this result either. Jogi Löw’s big kiss and make up tour needs convincing victories over more accomplished sides to succeed anyway.

2. England has the same national anthem as Liechtenstein. Or is it the other way round?

3. There is room for improvement in Germany’s passing game. The timing and accuracy of passes was overall a bit off – especially over long stretches of the first half. Not that Liechtenstein could take any advantage and Germany usually managed to keep possession anyway, or win the ball back a couple of seconds later. But I had the feeling that a better opponent could have once again frustrated Germany like Norway and England did. A little bit more creativity could have helped offset some inaccuracies, though unless you equal an abundance of back heel passes with creativity, there was also room for improvement in this area of Germany’s game. All nagging aside, the team also strung together this great move to score the third goal:
 

 
4. Mario Gomez can’t even score against Liechtenstein and that’s just sad. He also had the most chances of any German player to score, which makes everything even more depressing. The fans in the stadium eventually started booing him, which again is plain stupid. A player in severe need of a confidence boost gets singled out and booed by the crowd in a rather meaningless game against Liechtenstein – what’s the point? Anyway, for shits and giggles here are the combined club and country stats for the current 2008/2009 season:
1. Miroslav Klose – 42 games, 23 goals, 12 assists, 0,83 scorer points per game
2. Mario Gomez – 44 games, 25 goals, 9 assists, 0,77 scorer points per game
3. Patrick Helmes – 35 games, 21 goals, 5 assists, 0,74 scorer points per game
4. Lukas Podolski – 30 games, 11 goals, 5 assists, 0,53 scorer points per game

5. Lukas Podolski can score against Liechtenstein. But that has never been his problem anyway. He’ll probably would have been better off not scoring, since he is always accused that his impressive goal tally for Germany is all down to the bi-annual games against the tiniest of football nations. He has now scored 32 goals and equalled Klaus Fischer’s Germany record. Though the latter played 16 fewer games and earned his hall of fame status with his overabundance of bicycle kicks resulting in goals like this one (vs. Switzerland 1977) or this one (vs. France WC semi-final 1982). He also scored them in the Bundesliga or when they weren’t given by the referee or when he was already 40 years old. Podolski might soon leave him behind in the rankings, but he still needs to do a few more special things to earn the same status as Fischer.

6. Michael Ballack had a good game, while taking into account that it was still only against Liechtenstein, and that he also racked up a good amount of bad passes. But overall he really pulled the strings and ran the show in midfield and also scored this spectacular goal:
 

 
7. When I was talking about the improvable passing and creativity I was also thinking about Thomas Hitzelsperger. He could have scored a great goal with a volley from a Schweinsteiger free kick, had Michael Ballack not given the ball the wrong deflection. But otherwise I was a bit disappointed by his effort. He had few ideas, and the few he had usually ended up in interceptable passes through the middle. He couldn’t really take advantage of Frings’ absence.

8. Marcell Jansen started in midfield for a change, where he is currently excelling at Hamburg. He scored a goal and hit the crossbar and overall confirmed his good club form. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of co-op action with Philipp Lahm though, but that might have also been just because Lahm decided to take it easy that evening. I was still overall more impressed by the recent Lahm/Trochowski/Marin combos on the pitch. I would still like to see him get another chance against Wales.

9. Andreas Beck got another chance to stake his claim on Germany’s deserted right-back position. He obviously had little to do defensively and was a bit uninspired going forward, albeit very motivated and active. He currently doesn’t have a lot of serious competitors on his position though, unless Lahm suddenly decides that he rather wants to play as right-back again.

10. Bastian Schweinsteiger had a valid penalty claim, one which certainly nobody will remember, unless maybe Germany misses out on qualification by a single goal. Apart from that, he also had a lively game and the fact that Lahm and Jansen didn’t really connect, meant that for once Germany’s right flank was the more dominant one.