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France vs Germany @ Maracana

12PM ET, July 4

Revenge for 1982. Again.

I think this is where it ends for us.

Vallbuena will run circles around Höwedes and it will be interesting to see who'll be able to control the midfield.

My gf is rooting for France so them I guess

The French wingers should cause some havoc against the German 'full backs'

I think this is where Germany finally gets exposed for their horrible defense. France 2-1

I'm betting on France. If Pogba and Matuidi turn it up, it'll be difficult for Germany to win this midfield which is crucial for them. Unless they start Lahm at RB.

So many arsenal players , going to go neutral on this one and whoever wins is the team I want to take it all

Mustafi has a muscle tear in his quadriceps, his WC is over. On a personal level, I feel sorry, but on a soccer level, this actually improves our D. Seeing him at RB (a position he simply cannot play, he is a CB) makes you stab your eyes out.

Heart says 2-1 for Germany, but head says 2-1 for France. Worst case scenario:
* Löw benches Müller for yet another CB
* We get outplayed for 90 minutes
* Our "fullbacks" disappear like MH370
* Kroos, Özil and Götze combine for 7346932 passes but 0 successful crosses
* Both French goals are counters after a German corner, with Benzema going Balotelli on us
* Meaningless consolation goal in injury time, creates illusion that game was close
* Löw smiles about an "unlucky loss, and that we didn't play enough CBs"
* Bierhoff grins that Löw signed a new contract until 3017
* Löw publishes book: "(If) I Sabotaged Our Team"

Why are Germans always so negative

bbms wrote:I'm betting on France. If Pogba and Matuidi turn it up, it'll be difficult for Germany to win this midfield which is crucial for them. Unless they start Lahm at RB.

I've read this post like 5 times and it still makes no sense. Our only chance at winning the midfield battle is not using Lahm as part of it? That makes zero sense, if we want to win the midfield battle Lahm has to be at the 6 behind Schweini and Khedira.

Unless jogi has the courage to play both Durm and Grosskreutz valbuena and griezmann will rip us up on the run, but as long as we keep Lahm were he's most needed and play both Schweini and Khedira in front of him, we should win the midfield battle.

Fully agree with cgf (and basically all others in this thread). The midfield will not be the problem. We should actually have no problem with it.

But France will expose our wings. Additionally, we will have problems with the build up play, because our pseudo full backs are not used to make the game wide.

Edit: If we somehow can fix this issue, we should take this one home.

No_20 wrote:Why are Germans always so negative

Experience, man. Let's look at our recent runs:
2006: Klinsmann has no answer for Italiy's sudden 4 ST attack (Gilardino, Iaquinta, Del Piero, Totti)
2008: Löw gets owned by Tiki Taka, 1:0 loss is actually flattering (in his defense, SPA was favorite)
2010: Löw gets owned by Tiki Taka again, 1:0 loss is actually flattering (in his defense, SPA was favorite)
2012: Löw has brillant idea to sub red hot Müller/Klose for dull Kroos/Gomez, gets hammered by "Pirlotelli" (This time, we were favorites)
2014: ?

Point forward wrote:

No_20 wrote:Why are Germans always so negative

Experience, man. Let's look at our recent runs:
2006: Klinsmann has no answer for Italiy's sudden 4 ST attack (Gilardino, Iaquinta, Del Piero, Totti)
2008: Löw gets owned by Tiki Taka, 1:0 loss is actually flattering (in his defense, SPA was favorite)
2010: Löw gets owned by Tiki Taka again, 1:0 loss is actually flattering (in his defense, SPA was favorite)
2012: Löw has brillant idea to sub red hot Müller/Klose for dull Kroos/Gomez, gets hammered by "Pirlotelli" (This time, we were favorites)
2014: ?

Would be considered the best international football period in most countries.

Point forward wrote:Mustafi has a muscle tear in his quadriceps, his WC is over. On a personal level, I feel sorry, but on a soccer level, this actually improves our D. Seeing him at RB (a position he simply cannot play, he is a CB) makes you stab your eyes out.

Löw probably read one of Massimos posts where he praised Serie A defenders and thought "wow, I need to introduce Mustafi to the starting XI.

5DOM wrote:Would be considered the best international football period in most countries.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Germany is like the Arsenal London of FIFA soccer.

Gut feeling says France will win this. Not been overly impressed with Germany so far.

Point forward wrote:

No_20 wrote:Why are Germans always so negative

Experience, man. Let's look at our recent runs:
2006: Klinsmann has no answer for Italiy's sudden 4 ST attack (Gilardino, Iaquinta, Del Piero, Totti)
2008: Löw gets owned by Tiki Taka, 1:0 loss is actually flattering (in his defense, SPA was favorite)
2010: Löw gets owned by Tiki Taka again, 1:0 loss is actually flattering (in his defense, SPA was favorite)
2012: Löw has brillant idea to sub red hot Müller/Klose for dull Kroos/Gomez, gets hammered by "Pirlotelli" (This time, we were favorites)
2014: ?

Eh, we didnt get owned by tiki taka in 2010, if ozil had gone down like a proper star we'd have had a penalty shortly before the half with it still 0-0. Assuming we converted, with how deadly our counters were that year, we very well may have seen the result home and been the ones who kept the Dutch from a WC title. That year I dont blame Jogi, we just got really **** luck in a crucial moment.

You look at all the bad results.

But then forget 4-0 against Messi's Argentina, 4-1 against England, beating Ronaldo's Portugal in 2008, 2012, 2014 etc.

Both teams advanced while leaving a lot of doubts. Its impossible to predict this game, but as a TEAM France seems better just because they have much better wings.