Have to agree with you on the case of Kuranyi. Oh well.

Nick, I know you have opinions of Kuranyi and his contributions to the national team. On a personal scale for me, Kuranyi had made me shattered my own general perception of people who goes by the name of Kevin (that being Kuranyi’s first name). Don’t ask me why I always associate anyone who is called Kevin is good in his studies, smart, intelligent and the like. It just happens.

Back when I was in primary school (it’s like elementary school in the US), I used to have a class monitor (it’s like being a representative of the class) who is called Kevin and he had always been consistently being top of the class for each school year. And it didn’t ‘helped’ he does wear spectacles as well, completing the sterotypes of studious male students. We were classmates for four years (the system in Singapore is that you have six years of primary school education). After primary school graduation, I didn’t know which secondary school my ex-classmate went but then I was being reminded of him again when one of my classmates in secondary school asked me if I knew him (she even asked me by using his full name!). I had no idea why she (the person who asked me was a she) asked me the question. I almost wanted to ask her how did she know the Kevin who was once my primary school classmate but she was gone before I knew it.

Sorry if I had launched into a soapbox. But then the moment I read of Kuranyi being AWOL without giving any explanation and how Jogi reacted (he even got the backing from the football federation president Theo Zwanziger), that was like…my personal assocation of someone being called Kevin, was shattered to pieces. Well oh well.

Nick, this is freaky. I did watched the match from start to end and in the second-half, I started to feel sleepy. I’m not sure is it because I was personally tired myself (the match began after 2.45am here for me and I didn’t take a short nap beforehand because I was joining in my father in watching the England-Kazakhstan qualifier beforehand) but then it happened around after the 70th minute. And then when Russia tried to push forward, I was awake of a sudden. A game of two halves for me.

‘Let hope he figures out things by Tuesday night.’
Wales is now second with six points from three matches. They beat Liechtenstein 2-0 at home, though they were made to work for the three points.

By the way, Kuranyi wasn’t even on the bench. I was reading one match report and his name wasn’t even there. Not even on the substitutes’ bench. And news agency AFP, quoting German sports news agency SID that Kuranyi had gone AWOL – http://sport.sg.msn.com/football/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1724211

The match report I was reading (scroll down for the line-up) – http://www.sportinglife.com/football/worldcup2010/reports/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=international_feed/08/10/11/SOCCER_Ger-Germany_Nightlead.html

Anyway. Judging by the second half, the team fell asleep. If it wasn’t for Adler and some good refereeing we would have been looking at the play-off spot. Adler was really good but I expect a bit more from him. Truth is though that the defense let the Anschlusstreffer in and after that the whole team more or less fell asleep.

Nonetheless I think our defense has improved. We mastered the offside trap and scrambled for some good clearances. Otherwise we still have a lot of work to do. We did quite well in midfield I heard but ended up too passive. Certainly Hitzlsperger contributed nothing much probably because he is NOT a defensive midfielder! Of course Jogi realized that only in the 87 minute. On second thought Adler is the reason we can head to Moscow not needing some outrageous win because without him a draw is the best we can hope for on current form.

I can go on but I will save it for the post. Jogi needs to work on those half-time talks and those substitutions. Let hope he figures out things by Tuesday night. At least he did not bring on Kuryani right?!

PS When I was scrolling up to finish posting to check Hitzlsperger name I re-read the lineup. I thought how could we be doing so poorly with such talent. Then I realized I was reading the U21 roster.

Nick, I had read that Adler will be used. At least that was what I found out on Eurosport. The translated version of the Eurosport’s German site, that is. If it’s Wiese, I’m probably going to tear my hair.

On Mertesacker, he had just recovered from flu and had knee operation recently. I only realised about that when it was reported that he was being handed the three-match ban for his sent-off in the Werder Bremen’s match against Hoffenheim (that 5-4 thriller). Here (from my local MSN service, where it got the report from AFP actually) – http://sport.sg.msn.com/football/bundesliga/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1705220

I heard Loew said Mertesacker was not fully fit. Does he have any choice but to use him now? With Lahm guaranteed to start at LB who will the CB be? Giving it to Westermann in such a big game with an uncapped keeper is a bad idea. Let’s hope at least Loew dows not use Fritz as one of the defenders.

=================Adler================
Tasci – Mertesacker – Friedrich – Lahm
=================Frings===============
====Schweini – Ballack – Trochowski===
============Klose – Helmes (Podolski)=