Deutschland rampages to quarters

Thomas Mueller celebrates his brace with the Mannschaft after putting in the 4th torpedo

Despite both camps trying to downplay the hype that is surrounding the match, it turns out to be living up to its name. The sequence of events unfolded in the most dramatic fashion ever with controversies and exciting football combined together in one lump sum. In one of the most exciting match-ups in this World Cup, a lot emphasis has been placed on the historical meetings between both sides. Both coaches have stressed that there has to be dissassociation from political and military rivalry and focus more on the football. Deutschland v England is more than just a knock-out match as it involves bragging rights and a revelation of the current state of the national teams for both sides, particularly England.

Deutschland stormed off to draw first blood with Klose beating the English defenders in a run-up and slid in the ball into the goal before Calamity James had a chance to get to it. Another break in the 32nd minute allowed Podolski to smash in his 2nd goal of the tournament. Two nil up and the game is as good as over for England. However, one can never rule out the English determination in attacking to regain back lost ground. The Germans had a concentration lapse while defending a corner which resulted in Matthew Upson clawing one back for England. The German lapse continued and minutes later, Lampard smashed a ball in but it ricochet in and out of the goal mouth. The referee refused to allowed a goal, prompting a furious barrage of appeals from the English. It's a repeat of the Caroll incident. Videos replayed had showed that the ball had went past the goal line and the English were indeed unfairly denied. The score remained 2-1 in half-time and I do agree that England should have gotten the goal. However, I did hope that in the second half, Deutschland would at least score one more or keep the goal margin above 2 goals to nullify the effect of the controversy and to emphasise the fact that the Germans do deserve to go through based on the football they were playing.

My wishes were answered in the 2nd half as the Germans went on to score two more via Thomas Mueller, the man who incidentally scored one of the Bayern goals to boot Man Utd out of the champions league..lol. The 2 goals in the 2nd half were the result of a counter-attack move by the Germans after the English had pushed up too deep into German territory in desperation to get the equaliser. In fact, the first two goals in the 1st half were also products of a counter-attack break. The pace that the Germans were running were terrifying, and their accuracy on goal was ruthless. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Germans are teaching the Brazillians and the Dutch on how to play counterattacking football in this tournament! The speed of the Germans in approaching the English defence ripped whatever gameplans Terry and Co may have in mind. Truly awesome football from the Germans.

The English may argue that that their team may stand some chance in winning the game in that they won't push so deep recklessly for the equaliser if they had been given earlier. But that's an absurd argument because it's an equalizing goal..it wasn't a winning goal. The score may just stay 2-2 and in the end, they may end up on the penalty shoot-out platter with the Germans winning over all the same. Much has to be said about the state of the English players in the tournament. Wayne Rooney ended the World Cup campaign with zero goals to his name, a far cry from the young wonderkid that announced his arrival in the 2006 World Cup. Emile Heskey was almost non-existent in the match itself, it's a big wonder why he is still in the team-sheet. The English defenders were not fit at all and were half the time chasing and struggling to keep up with younger German legs. The midfield is rigid, clumsy and running out of ideas to break the opposition defence and attacking play (note Barry especially). Perhaps to some extent, they missed having an effective anchorman to help out with the defence where in 2006, they had Owen Hargreaves.

Compare this to the Germans who did some renovation of their team from 2006 and took some risk in including internationally unproven young players in the Bundesliga. Gone were the more established names like Ballack (from injury), Metzelder, Frings, Schneider and Borowski and in comes the German kids like Thomas Mueller, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Badstuber and Jerome Boateng. Ozil and Mueller in particularly had impressed in the tournament and were clearly the creative lifeforce of the rejunevated German team and they played as if they had came from Brazil. With experience coming from Schweinsteiger, Lahm and Klose, Deutschland had a good balanced mix in the team. Honestly, the Germans do not boast the individual star power that is present in England. None in the German team I would say is regarded as worldwide superstars like Lampard, Gerrard or Rooney. Their most publicised team-member is probably Ballack and he's not even in the team. But the most admirable features of the German team are that they play as a cohesive unit and seem to operate with communication and understanding with each other. This makes them as a more formidable force in short-term cup tournaments because these competitions are won with the effort of 11 men working together and not solely on individual flair. I would say, Deutschland deserved this victory thoroughly even in the face of the controversial goal being denied simply because they were the better side at the end with the better footy work.

On a side note, I noticed that 2 footy adverts were strangely accurate about the turn of events. The first being Adidas' Jose+10 World Cup 2006 ad where Lampard was chosen to mimick a parody of the 1966 Final 3rd Goal with Oliver Kahn and here he was 4 years later debating such a goal in South Africa. And remember Nike's Write the Future? It turns out to be a reality and Rooney can become the bearded man in the trailer eating canned food, much to the delight of Fabregas and co..haha xD

Next stop - A rematch from 2006 World Cup - The Argentinians are next and hopefully, there are no post-match melee encounter afterthat involving Heinze..lol