UEFA Euro 2012 Group B (NED/DEN/GER/POR)

[Basti]

YES SIR!!!

[Slava]

Ronaldo put a couple of chances on a platter for Valera and Nani and they screwed it up. With the kind of attention Ronaldo gets its hard to do much on offense than being a decoy until someone else steps up.

Meireles had a good game as well apart from Coentrao and Pepe.

[cgf]

Ballack suggests Schuerrle for Podolski. He's not going to be a Podolski fan this life

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwbvePRe5Co&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Honestly. Ballack's arrogance aside, he's right. The team has looked better with Schuerrle in for Poldi, he's a more creative player, his shot is on form right now, and he works back better than Poldi. I think that the biggest problem we have is that Gomez needs play making much more than Klose, who's running and passing create better opportunities for himself and others than does Gomez' brute force in getting himself in position to finish if the ball is played to him perfectly. If we keep going with Gomez we need creation from our midfield more than we do the goal scoring of Poldi, so I'd actually not mind seeing any of Schuerrle, Goetze or Kroos taking his place. But I am still hoping we're just letting Klose get some extra rest while we give Gomez some confidence, and soon it'll be Miro starting and Gomez coming off the bench when we need to shake things up. In that case you'd want a goal threat out wide so you take your pick of Poldi, Schuerrle or Reus, Poldi being the most experienced and Schuerrle having the best form.

[BelgianMagic]

Yeah, but you gotta admit Poldi has hardly ever disappointed for the Mannschaft .. He didn't play a great game, but I'd let him out there ..

I also agree Klose should play more .. Just like Poldi, he's always there when it matters on a Big Tournament

[Mr Grant Hill]

Boring game, super important win.
Germany 3
Denmark 3
Netherlands 0
Portugal 0
From a German perspective it's PERFECT.
Portugal was just standing around in their own half for 75 minutes, pretty disappointing, their only chance during these 75 minutes came from a CB after a corner (Pepe). Ronaldo was in the stands, right? Lol, haven't seen much of him.
We can talk much about Germany's problems - but the most important thing Löw won't change: Lahm on the left. Lahm needs to play on the right. If he plays on the right he'll be better offensively, Müller will be better offensively and it won't affect Podolski on the left because he'll do his own thing anyway. But Löw won't change it... probably because he feels that there's no alternative for the left. But he could just field a CB there, Höwedes, Boateng, no problem. Müller-Lahm was the best axis at the WC. But okay, Löw is overrated anyway...

[Point forward]

SCHLAAAAAAAANNNDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!



We did something very German and yet very atypical for recent German teams: we won a game with an ugly 1-0. Grind it out, hustle, suffer - but in the end, the W was ours. I am very impressed by our defense: Lahm, Boateng, Badstuber and Hummels only allowed a few chances. Just keep it up boys!!

[treiz]

That German back four put in a shift today, can't believe people say that's their weakness.

[Point forward]

That German back four put in a shift today, can't believe people say that's their weakness.

You didn't see the 3-5 spanking the Swiss gave us last week! Hummels and Mertesacker made Derdiyok and Shaqiri look like Figo and Zidane

[BelgianMagic]

That German back four put in a shift today, can't believe people say that's their weakness.

You didn't see the 3-5 spanking the Swiss gave us last week! Hummels and Mertesacker made Derdiyok and Shaqiri look like Figo and Zidane

Yeah, but this is meaningless .. If it would've been the other way around, that woulda been disturbing ..

Most important thing is that they showed up and did their job today. Let's hope they can keep it up

[Massimo]

Impress with the defense?????

They had at least 6-7 chances after Gomez scored.

[treiz]

That German back four put in a shift today, can't believe people say that's their weakness.

You didn't see the 3-5 spanking the Swiss gave us last week! Hummels and Mertesacker made Derdiyok and Shaqiri look like Figo and Zidane

I actually didn't, but they did play well today. You have to give them that

[treiz]

Impress with the defense?????

They had at least 6-7 chances after Gomez scored.

No they didn't, other than the Varela chance, Neuer didn't have to make any worthy saves. Hummels and Bastuber dealt with everything in the box, Postiga was useless and Oliveira tried but couoldn't do anything. Ronaldo was played pretty well by Boateng, always played him outside and made sure he didn't cut in, if I recall Ronaldo only had one shot from cutting in, and also that last ditch tackle.

Nani was probably the only player for Portugal that was able to do anything in the end, he was getting the best of Lahm at times and managed to get some crosses in but like I said, dealt with comfortably.

[5DOM]

I thought Nani was rather poor tbh. He didn't look 100% understandably
It's only been two days, but it looks like it might be a second major tournament in a row that EPL players are not really performing. Hopefully Torres and Mata play well if they are given chances tomorrow

[Slava]

Nani got behind the back 4 regularly and got better off Lahm when they were isolated. Ronaldo (though pressured more) only did it twice or thrice the entire game.

Nani did waste that one big chance though.

[Sleepy]

Bad game, but I'll take it. With the surprise loss of the orange boys vs Denmark, the group looks pretty good. A desperate Holland vs a counterattacking Germany should be a fun game.

Hummels played well, good decision to replace Mertesacker. He still struggles to build the game up from the defense, but that was mainly because Schweinsteiger played pretty poor. He's nowhere near his best after the CL final and all the injuries.

Lahm had a complete blackout at that last big chance that Neuer saved and lost Nani a few times, was solid otherwise. Boateng really strong against Ronaldo, like this kid. Should pick up another yellow against Holland and sit the Denmark game out.

Gomez scored, but I still like Klose better. Our game is so much more flexible and quick with Klose distributing the ball from the center instead of Gomez. Start Klose and sub Gomez in after 70 minutes if we need a goal, not the other way round.

Podolski was meh (as always), Özil also struggled, Müller was also not very impressive. Khedira worked hard and filled many holes in the center, probably the our most valuable, if usually overlooked player.

[cgf]

I think Klose's still not fully fit, so they're slowly bringing him back in while building up Gomez's confidence so that he can go to the bench. I agree that we're much better with Klose out there who can interchange and create for the attacking players and not just wait for service like Gomez. I think against the Dutch Klose comes on earlier and gets the start against Denmark. Or at least that's what I'm hoping for cause otherwise we need to replace Poldi with a mroe creative player so we can set Gomez up enough times.

[Det the Threat]

Good 'ol German football.

Playing like crap, having quite some luck and still winning the game. That's what it was yesterday and we should just take it and hope that we'll keep getting better and confirm our reputation as a tournament team once again.

To me, Hummels was the best player, followed by Neuer, Khedira and Boateng.

Lahm was a total joke. He didn't support Podolski on offense, which forced Lukas to play a lot 1 on 1, which is not his strength. He also pretty much lost every 1 on 1 with Nani and even made some dumb runs that created open lanes for the Portuguese players. I really hope he regains his form from the end of the Bundesliga season pretty quick.

Gomez scored but you can't play football with him and it showed, as it forced Muller and Podolski to play a lot one on one and didn't help Ozil as well, as he had no one to play the ball to. I really hope Klose regains form and starts ahead of Gomez. Though, that would make Gomez useless, as he's not a guy you can bring off the bench and be rewarded with an imediate impact.


Whatever, Germany won and the Netherlands lost, which makes it a good day.

And that should also make it really interesting for Wednesday with the dutch guys having to win the match to stay alive in this group.

[Whiteman]

A desperate Holland vs a counterattacking Germany should be a fun game.

I'm scared.

[treiz]

Lahm was a total joke. He didn't support Podolski on offense, which forced Lukas to play a lot 1 on 1, which is not his strength. He also pretty much lost every 1 on 1 with Nani and even made some dumb runs that created open lanes for the Portuguese players. I really hope he regains his form from the end of the Bundesliga season pretty quick.

I don't think you can really blame Lahm, he played ok but Nani was getting the best of him after the sub. With the obvious threat of Nani you can't go bombing forward and leave him unassigned, I just think he was being very cautious and with good reason.

[Point forward]

LOL at random headline about the Denmark win: "Team Lego > Team Ego"