germany-spain

I should make a list of all the stupid things I think about when it comes to soccer. The most relevant for today’s match was: When You Care Who Wins, the Quality of the Match Is Irrelevant. You’ll have to look elsewhere for solid analysis of the match. All I know is, I had a feeling of dread the entire time. Oh, and Pedro had a great match, but holy fuck, man, pass the ball!

OK, I’ll try some elemental tactical analysis. Germany played defensively, but not in an annoying way. They were capable of turning it around at any moment, and in fact were always waiting for the killer counter attack. This wasn’t a bad team trying to stay in the game by killing it, this was a very good team playing to their strengths. Granted, the result wasn’t much different than if they sucked from the start, but that was due to Spanish excellence, not German fear. The Germans rarely got a chance to counter attack, because Spain kept possession so efficiently. The Germans did well to stifle the Spanish attack, giving them plenty of room to pass the ball amongst themselves until they got close to the goal, at which time the Germans would close them down. Mertesacker was tremendous, I thought, stuffing holes on the rare occasion that they appeared. I think it was telling that the goal came from a free kick corner … for all of Spain’s dominance on the ball, the Germans never let them in. Through passes didn’t get through, crosses were dealt with.

Germany seemed to be coming to life offensively in the period before the goal, and for some time after that they continued to push forward. But by the end of the match, they seemed resigned to their fate, and even I lost my feeling of dread.

I can’t help but mention this little factoid. I have little confidence in my tactical analysis, although I’ve learned quite a bit during this World Cup. As I was writing this, I saw the headline to Jonathan Wilson’s analysis of the match: “German counterattack negated by Spain’s dominant possession.” This is surely the first time in the tournament that I agreed with Wilson before he posted, rather than after. That’s progress for me.

None of the above mattered to me as I watched, though. All I cared was that Spain won. Spain did win. Therefore, it was a good match. I have no idea how the neutral saw it. I do know that every four years, I pick Spain to win it all. This is the closest they’ve ever come.

Comments

[Sean]

It was a corner, not a free kick.

I thought it was interesting to read that the only time Germany lost (before today) was when Mertesacker was matched up against another big man (Zigic of Serbia). The height-challenged Rooney, Messi, Tevez, et al were all negated.

Busquets, for me, was a very solid MOTM candidate. His role and positioned seemed to throw Ozil off (bar a couple runs, wow that kid is fast), he really wasn't able to make an impact.

I'm not sure having Muller would have made a world of difference.