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 ...
The Portugal goal was a team breakdown which would never have occurred had Bradley kept his head. He’s supposed to be the midfield general but after gifting possession in added time against Ghana that’s a mistake I wouldn’t have expected to see repeated. JMO.
The problem with Bradley is that, sadly, he doesn’t seem to make small mistakes.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28023882
“Chewy” Luis is out of the World Cup.
Also out for the first 9 games of the Premier League season.
I’ll wait for the game, Belgium routed them previously.
Argentina needed an own-goal to beat Bosnia and a partial ref to beat Iran.
The only thing more boring that soccer is baseball so suck on that.
Even before that, the US had the ball in the corner, and couldn’t even get a throw-in out of it, much less a corner kick.
They get a corner kick, they run out the clock.
Historically, Russia hasn’t done well against Germany but if they win this, good luck.
Steven Defour gets a Red Card against Korea, which means he won’t play against the US.
Don’t know if that would be a huge loss for Belgium or not.
Algeria ties.
But what the heck, looks like somebody was aiming a laser at the Russian keeper before the kick.
So as it now stands: Belgium and Algeria are through.
If Algeria wins and Korea wins, then Algeria wins the Group and plays the US.
The Argentine players play for teams all over Europe, so they don’t have much time to work together. They have gotten better with each match. They will do just fine in the knockout phase.
They will win in the round of 16, and should win in the quarterfinals. After that, anyone can win it all.
I wish the MLS would appoint a certain franchise to be the designated team for the best US players, so they can play together, so when they play for the Nats, they are already familiar with each other.
It’s basically what Germany does with Bayern Munich.
So we’re set...
Algeria vs Germany
USA vs Belgium
LOL. Who gives a sh#t what you think?
Well played :)
Yes, Argentina or Germany may well win. They are the choices of many people.
Bradley lost ball after ball on bad first touches against Germany. His defense was better, but he’s killing us on possession.
You read it hear first.
here
Maybe. Good luck.
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