Football world cup Group D discussion (Ger/Aus/Ser/Gha)

[AdamTheGreek]

This Australia-Serbia match is absolutely nuts.

[kwamebargnani]

So Ghana advances right?

[and1GS]

Flipping between the end of match reactions from each game was interesting. Ghana/Germany were cool with the results while Australia/Serbia were absolutely devastated.

[j127]

So Ghana advances right?

Yup.

Ghana looked horrible. Uncrisp passes and just an overall don't-care attitude.

[milehigh]

Ghana - USA
Germany - England

[El Turco]

they should just pit Latin American teams against each other rest of the way because rest of the teams ranged from bad to unimpressive.

now that i said this, watch for the Italy-Germany final

[Stretch82]

So Ghana advances right?

Yup.

Ghana looked horrible. Uncrisp passes and just an overall don't-care attitude.

Despite all that they got Germany in some trouble and exposed some defensive weaknesses ... actually I expected Ghana to be worse than this.

[pass first]

Flipping between the end of match reactions from each game was interesting. Ghana/Germany were cool with the results while Australia/Serbia were absolutely devastated.

haha big surprise

[5DOM]

That was a pretty good finish.
I kept cheering for different teams every 10 minutes

[and1GS]

Flipping between the end of match reactions from each game was interesting. Ghana/Germany were cool with the results while Australia/Serbia were absolutely devastated.

haha big surprise

I just thought it was funny. I was watching the germany game and when it ended everyone was just walking off the pitch, no big deal. Then I switched channels and the Aussies and Serbs were writhing in agony 5 minutes after the game was over. I lol'd.

[pass first]

Flipping between the end of match reactions from each game was interesting. Ghana/Germany were cool with the results while Australia/Serbia were absolutely devastated.

haha big surprise

I just thought it was funny. I was watching the germany game and when it ended everyone was just walking off the pitch, no big deal. Then I switched channels and the Aussies and Serbs were writhing in agony 5 minutes after the game was over. I lol'd.

Well come to think of it the contrast of not cheering is pretty funny. Ghana of course lost, and Germany have to keep their composure, i.e it's only Ghana lol.

Australia and Serbia also weren't exactly that close, although for the Serbs they definitely had better hopes before the 2nd half started, and the Auzzies got their hopes up of course. Losing in the World Cup though it's always a major shock. You hardly see more agony by a losing team than there. In any sport that is. Only the Olympics compare imo. For athletes. But soccer is every nation's national sport during the World Cup especially, so the impact is huge. Now that some matchup's are already known and some down the line I'm really starting to feel the buzz of the elimination phase nearing... and that includes fear of red and yellow and silly mistakes and penalty lottery series and missing chances. lol. Hopefully the goals and wins make up for it this time. There will be tears shed a plenty in the next two to three weeks lol.

EDIT: noticed you're a Portugal supporter. I could for example still get upset about all the (coaching) mistakes from 2006 that helped cost us that game and perhaps the cup (we had a decent side, and the tournament was weak. Italy winning was a testament to that.) The agony, lol. So I can only imagine that players/coaches have the same thing.

[Point forward]

Typical German win. We sucked donkey balls and still won 1-0. So what else is new

[cgf]

A nice game from germany with some thigns that made me quite happy. Number one was us playing Jerome Boateng, he's just so much faster and athletic than badstuber that he's a much better fit on the outside, he can keep up with speedy wingers and doesn't need the game to come to crawl for him to get forward. Thought he played quite well and although I was hoping we'd be starting him inside with Merte he is also a good fill on the left, although personally, I've always prefered Lahm coming up the left and cutting inside onto his right foot.

In the midfield I love Schweini, he's like a quarterback sitting around there in the middle spraying passes around to launch our attacks. Plus he's been a lot better defensively than he was 4 years ago. Khedira is a skilled player who's just not quite there, a little better timing and touch and his runs would be much more devastating.

On the attack I thought Oezil was disappointing for quite a while as he seemed to get quite frustrated with himself and the same can be said for Mueller. I started hoping that the two of them would combine to score our first goal so that they could get a confidence boost heading into the knockout stages and five minutes after I had that thought, Mueller found Oezil in the middle for that beautiful strike. Mueller's definitely starting because he's a major pest and does a great job of tracking back, but he's not offensively inept/mediocre like Govou and has nice eye for passes and crosses and when he ends up in front of net he's a pretty solid finisher. I've been hoping for more Marko Marin getting time on one of the wings, but Mueller is a better fit as a starter to exhaust and annoy defenders while Marin's a better fit coming in with fresh legs to really push the game. Poldi was Poldi, stood around a little too much, took a number of long range shots and showed his talent but couldn't find that final ball.

Cacau disappointed, he did well running around and dropping off and creating space, but I think like Marin, he'll be more efficient coming off of the bench when teams are a little tired as he seemed to grow tired and frustrated as the game went on. I still wish we had stuck Keissling in there just to see what would happen, he's not as good at wasting chance as Gomez but he's even bigger and stronger with a less brutally overpowerful touch. Oh well, with Miro coming back looks like we won't find out what Keissling could've done and Cacau will return to the bench.

PS Neuer looked quite well, kid's really active back there with a field players sense for the game and when he was challenged he stopped the ball well. Still wish we had Adler healthy but I'm very satisfied with what we've seen from Neuer so far.

[Basti]

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!

that's all.

[and1GS]

EDIT: noticed you're a Portugal supporter. I could for example still get upset about all the (coaching) mistakes from 2006 that helped cost us that game and perhaps the cup (we had a decent side, and the tournament was weak. Italy winning was a testament to that.) The agony, lol. So I can only imagine that players/coaches have the same thing.

You a Portugal fan too? That would be awesome if we had another supporter

I still can't believe we lost to France, that tourney was wide open. I doubt we would have beaten Italy though to be honest. We had a lot of trouble scoring goals in '06 and that would have only gotten worse against Italy (I'm Italian too so it all worked out ). The big problems there were that our striker combos were ineffective and Cristiano didn't really know his place yet in the squad. He seemed a bit confused and as a result never penetrated into the 18 (at least not in my recollection). If we had him taking more shots or getting the ball in stride we would have put a few extra goals up during the knockout stages.

I guess a part of that problem was because he was basically just playing LM instead of an attacking wing position. We didn't really take advantage of his strengths because I doubt our coach really understood what he had in Cristiano.

[and1GS]

Jerome Boateng was dope. Had some very nice distributions, he really surprised me with his wide skillset.

[Foye]

Jerome Boateng was dope. Had some very nice distributions, he really surprised me with his wide skillset.

IMO he's easily the best all-around defender we have.
He's better than Friedrich and Mertesacker (who sucked badly yesterday).

Game vs. England will be very hard. Right now, we're ineffective up front and instable on defense. If we don't manage to fix that England will beat us 1-0 on Catenaccio style.

[southern wolf]

Nice way for us to go out I guess, that Holman goal was awesome. It was always going to be a big ask after the Germany game, and I thought they fought out the last two games really well, all things considered. Now I need to catch up on some sleep!