Comments on: Klose Draws Finland 3-3

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:47:40 +0000

Anna, watching Gomez’s few performances before the EM I did get the impression that he is a quality striker. Maybe a start might break his duck but that is just risky business. I think right now it would be better to start Helmes as a first substitute. Maybe even a pairing of Helmes and Gomez for a friendly? This might be a good alternative for the Klose plus blank pairing. Klose has pretty much the same skill he has always had. Good with headers, good at drawing defenders and creating chances. Other than that Klose lacks the energy and ferocity to be used up-front alone without a fully fit Ballack or awake Schweni. Then there is Podolski who is a better winger than a central striker.

Kuryani needs to be dropped. His performances at Schalke should finally see to that. On the other hand, our defenders need more time and experience. We do have alteratives like Castro and Höwedes but they aren’t world class yet either. There really is no choice but to use and rotate whoever has potential. It’s too early to tell and I don’t blame Jogi for retaining M

I also think Rolfes needs more time to settle in as we need to find a stable defensive midfield alternative or for that matter pairing to Frings. Hitzlsperger has not been bad either, but I think his abilities are rather limited. I still don’t understand why Dietmar Hamann was never called up by Klinsmann as he would have been a great alternative to Frings. In any event we do need a bigger presence in defensive midfield, someone who can marshal the defense. With Kahn and Lehmann gone and inevitably Adler and Neuer in goal this has to be Frings.

The bright side is the German youth level teams are pouring out talent. Let’s hope Jogi knows how to use it all and when.

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:39:30 +0000

I’m really fed up with all those untalented and lazy German born players too. Import more Poles! I’m sure you could negotiate a deal like: the Polish FA gets 20% of all national team material players. This way Germany will soon have a team full of talented and hard working players and Poland will still get a good margin of class players, who can improve Poland’s national team. A win-win situation.

By: Ruhl

Ruhl — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:23:21 +0000

We need more Polish born players. Klose, Podolski and Trochowski are simply not enough. They seem to work harder and have more talent than German born players only when they are trained in Germany. There are many young Poles in the Bundesliga. Lets cap them before Poland finds out about them.

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:05:01 +0000

2. I’d say give Gomez some more time. He does occasionally miss chances, also in Stuttgart, but there’s more to him. Of course it’d be ridiculous to demand a place in the starting line-up in the current situation, but I think this could be the key. If he has more than thirty minutes to find his way into a match, it’s only a matter of time until he’ll start scoring again.

4. Which players haven’t improved in your opinion? I’m just curious, who would you drop from the team if you were asked?

Oh, and I’d love to hear some opinions on Andreas Hinkel’s return to the national team. Anyone?

By: diana

diana — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:30:33 +0000

Headless chickens…Juliet, I have to salute you. I don’t know what to describe of those two performance in Helsinki.

I swear I almost screamed in front of the TV over the case of Gomez. Really. But I was actually watching the repeat telecast on Friday. I did watched this one live but up till around the 57th minute (that was when the Croatia-England qualifier was on another channel and I let my father watched that given he had already planned to do so).

What can I say of the match in Helsinki? Sure it was exciting (maybe at least for the neutral) but, if this continues, I will have to be convinced that the guys have not learned from the lessons of Euro 2008. They escaped the match in Helsinki by the skin of their teeth. Or rather, they got out of jail free.

By: Juliet

Juliet — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:09:53 +0000

Westermann and Tasci are good defenders, we know they can do this stuff, but they were like headless chickens this game. Perhaps a better defensive-mid would’ve been able to keep things orderly in the back, I dunno. I’m shocked by how insanely disordered the German defense looked on that first goal. I hope Schweini wasn’t the only one surprised to find himself the only guy defending on the right. I’ve long thought Fritz was a bad choice for that position.

Oh Mario, whither your shooting boots? I’m sure he’ll come out of this slump, I just wish it’d be soon. He’s got so much talent, it’d be so exciting to finally see it displayed on the world stage.