Germany 4-0 Kazakhstan: Quick Thoughts and Goal Videos

March 26th, 2011 | by: Anne | Comments Off

Goals: Klose (3′), Müller (25′), Müller (43′), Klose (88′)

I don’t have time at all to write an in depth review, and I’m not sure this match merits it anyway. Three goals off set pieces, one late tap-in from Klose, and a solid win, done and dusted. There was some tiredness, some complacency. Schweinsteiger seriously needs a summer vacation. The defense still has question marks scribbled all over it. You can feel free to hash over these things and everything else in the comments. For my part, I’m going to focus on the positives. We finally got goal-scoring Müller again, for the first time since the WC, and he scored a brace to boot. Klose continues to be unstoppable and got the “framing brace” that I predicted in my (correct) 4-0 tip. Khedira and Özil were both excellent and continue to grow in their time with Real Madrid. Götze got his first competitive debut and impressed with his very first involvement, nearly setting up Klose for a goal. Lahm was brilliant, attacking constantly in the first half, and nearly had a glorious goal that went just over the crossbar. Fundamentally, it was a routine qualifying win over a weak side. I believe it’s much harder to dazzle against lesser opponents, so I’m not offended that we didn’t see some double digit demonstration of the beautiful game, especially with players exhausted and distracted by club drama. In the end, Germany now has a flawless 15 points and stays on course to qualify for EURO 2012 ASAP.

Notable development: Klose now has 61 goals and seems set to overtake Gerd Müller’s all time record of 68. He’s also on the verge of  earning the second-most caps – he’s on 107, one behind Klinsmann with 108. Lothar Matthäus is of course in a class of his own with 150.

Incidentally, Tomas is the lucky (?) winner of some delicious brownie points and a lock of, er, Gomez’s hair. He called a 4-0 with a Klose brace and goals from Müller and Poldi. Few people tipped a Müller goal, and no one two, so well done Tomas. You can comfortably claim to be awesomer than all of us.

Goal videos: