You could almost say "Klose, but no cigar" but that would be wrong ;)
Congrats to the Americans for hanging on to advance & the Germans for their determined play… Good Luck in the knockout rounds!
Posted on 06/26/2014 7:23:27 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
Can two defensively suspect teams settle on a needed draw? If Team USA and Germany simply equal each other’s goal tallies, both sides will go through to the knockout rounds. In most cases, it would be expected that the two sides should line up in highly defensive formations and show little adventure, committing only the minimum number of men to any attack. If both sides play defensively, the draw will come regardless of any conspiracy.
The problem is, neither side is built to play the sort of boring, unadventurous soccer such a fixture requires. American fans are well aware of the struggles of Team USA to secure a back line, and Jurgen Klinsmann has settled on a system which uses two deep-lying and mostly defensive midfielders in Jermaine Jones and Kyle Beckerman to protect that back four.
Similarly, Germany is not the Germany of soccer legend, solid and hard-working and just good enough on set pieces to score one more goal than its opponent. Instead, under Jogi Loew Germany has been transformed into one of the most innovative and exciting attacking teams in the world. Playing a 4-3-3 without any true forward, the German system arguably includes either two or three false nines. As Mario Götze, Mesut Özil or Thomas Mueller drops out of the forward position and drags a defender out of position with him, one of the others or a midfielder like Sami Khedira will see the space that opens up and make a run toward the danger zone. These runs have produced many big chances already in the tournament, and the Germans have averaged three goals per match.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Three CONCACAF teams in the final 16.
That should assure them at least four spots for the next WC.
Believe me, today boring was good.
We’re better than the Brits and they were the leading football power in Europe in the 19th Century.
To make it to the end, Team USA has to step up its game. We’re going to be playing a tougher team in Belgium and if we survive the quarterfinals, it would be a miracle
You could almost say "Klose, but no cigar" but that would be wrong ;)
Congrats to the Americans for hanging on to advance & the Germans for their determined play… Good Luck in the knockout rounds!
You have to remember the opposition. Germany is among the top three or four teams in the world. Losing 1-0 is a result we can live with. We emerged out of the Group of Death. Very few pundits, if any, anticipated that.
Yep, Belgium kicked our tails pretty good about a year ago.
Germany always shows up in the big games. They have appeared in 16 World Cups and have gotten to the round of 8 15 straight times—a record. The next longest streak, Brazil with 5. Never underestimate the Germans. They should be in the semifinal against Brazil.
Great result to get out of a tough group and we avoided a heavyweight in the next round. Really, couldn’t ask for anything more.
Boring? I guess you might find a 1-0 pitcher’s duel to be boring as well. We achieved our objective to get out of the group stage, but it was touch and go for quite a while in the second half. It was a nail-biter.
I think we can give Belgium a bloody nose and win. Assuming that we do, I don’t feel so good about playing Argentina (most likely) in the quarters.
That’s the Brazil that drew Mexico and was awarded a gift penalty kick against Croatia? Okay.
They are talking about expanding the World Cup to 40 teams. They want to bring in more teams from outside South America and Europe. CONCACAF could get an extra slot.
19th Century?
Good point, Germany couldn’t beat Ghana and had to reach into a bag of tricks to beat 10 men Portugal.
I’m not sold on Brazil. If this WC was elsewhere they’d be in serious trouble. Chile won’t lay down for them and Colombia isn’t a slouch either.
GO HOLLAND - BEAT THE SNOT OUT OF MEXICO!!!
Brazil is a lot like Italy when it comes to doing just enough to advance. This year, Italy just fell short.
“The win keeps Jozy Altidore’s World Cup alive. The United States and Sunderland striker injured his hamstring against Ghana.
It had looked like his tournament could be over but coach Jurgen Klinsmann confirmed this week that he could be back for the last 16.”
http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/football/27461622
So Altidore a possible maybe!
We’ll see, I don’t want to step on the toes of any country, I say good if we see brand new countries in the World Cup finals instead of the same old teams.
Also part of the fun is seeing whatever countries show up, Greece, Costa Rica, they will face each other in the next round but good for them. This is the part of the sport I enjoy, not just seeing Brazil or Germany or Argentina play.
If that’s what one is interested in, so be it.
This sure isn’t a Brazil when they have had so many greats, Romario and so on.
There still is an outside chance we could face Algeria, if they beat Russia, and Korea beats Belgium.
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