Singular Spanish kill

Puyol is mobbed after scoring the sole winning goal with his head

Paul was right afterall, to the dismay of all the German fans around the globe. I would say he's in grave danger of ending up in one disgruntled Deutsche dinner plate very soon..haha. Trivialities aside, it's time to dissect to see what went wrong for die Mannshaft this time. From the start, it looked to me that Deutschland is gonna be in plenty trouble given the amount of Spainish possession. The Spanish wasted no time in laying siege to the German goal and pushing the Germans to their own half. Such was the domination of the Spanish that Deutschland had ZERO shots within the first 30 minutes and they did not have any opportunities to venture out of their half. It's not that the Germans were bad at their game because they intercepted and defended quite well at times, but the Spanish had taken offensive and forced the Deutsche players to play at the Spanish tempo. Spain dictated play for the majority of the game with their fast-paced quick passing and the Germans struggled to keep with such a tempo. The Germans were made to look sluggish once again like how they did during the Euro 2008 final.

The dominating factor for Spain was their midfield once again as it seemed to me that they stick to their positions very tightly this time. It gave the illusion of outnumbering the Germans where for every corner Schweini or Poldi spins, there will be at least 3 Spanish players chasing after him. The Spanish must have realised that for the past few games or so, the Germans benefited from large empty spaces and by overcrowding the midfield, they would have difficulties playing the through balls for their counter-attack or to create anything for that matter. With the Spanish not leaving their positions to close down players, the Germans were frustrated countless number of times whenever they want to get their ball forward. The receiving man at the front is probably marked by a bunch of red shirts or the ball who have been lost in the little space that they had. The Germans were not comfortable with playing at such tight quarters at all and they struggle to make anything out of it.

The outstanding player for me from Spain is Pedro who literally ran Mertesacker, Friedrich, Boateng and Lahm ragged as they tried to chase his silky moves. Although he was selfish towards the last few minutes of his play, his time with the ball had rattled the German composure and their mentality as he digs deep into their territory. Constant pressure is the style that Spain had adopted to keep Deutschland on the edge as they were not spared any chance to settle on the ball. Actually, I didn't expect Thomas Mueller's absence to be of such a problematic weight to Deutschland but given the run of events, that was the case. Piotr Trachowski clearly could not fit onto the giant shoes of Mueller in connecting Schweini, Poldi or Ozil to Klose and his presence was largely non existent there. What I felt is that Schweini, Poldi and Ozil had occassionally got into some great positions but they lack one person to connect the final pass to Klose. This left Klose stranded like a no-man's island in the middle and with him lacking the pace to sprint, he was never gonna be able to dribble past the Spanish wall. I thought that Tony Kroos made a better replacement than Trachowski himself. Mueller would obviously make a big difference because he was more adventurous in his runs and is willing to take the risk and most importantly, was the linking chain.

I would say that the German crime of the night was not their defending because I thought that they did well to disrupt several world-class Spanish attacking moves which ordinary teams would have easily succumbed. Their losing factor was their inability to fashion and materialise any sort of attacking chance for themselves. Instead, they rather sit out and were contented to wait for Spain to make a mistake for them to capitalise on. They were waiting for their counter-attacking chance. This was never gonna happen because the Spanish had kept it tight for the entire field with short passes. A defensive team can sit out and defend all day long but given the frequent rate in which Spain were attacking with their shots, the law of probability states that surely one stray attempt will go in and that was what happened with Puyol's header which was the most unglam finishing of all. Spain left it late, and the Germans in the end had little time to change the course of their fate. There is no way a team could win if it does not fashion chances on its own even with a good defence. It's basic - a win requires at least 1 goal and that was what the Germans failed to achieve at the end of the night.

Kudos to Spain, they deserve their final spot because they played better overall and no surprises there as many had expected that they had the quality to reach that far. It was already anticipated by many that Spain will be in the final but Holland certainly came as the surprise package after beating Brazil. For Deutschland, it will be a time of reflection for the young players and a time to pick themselves up in time for the 3rd place-off. It's yet another 3rd place attempt, always the case of so near yet so far. Time to finish whatever remains well. Whatever happens, this World Cup 2010 Deutschland team can look back in pride in that they were the side that pumped four goals each into Australia, England and Argentina. A decent campaign for the Germans overall, just the lack of gas to finish the final portion of the tournament. This I felt was a tragic end for such an exciting side with lots of potential. In any case, all the best for Deutschland as they chase the consolation prize of a 3rd place medal :)