Woeful Mannschaft stumbles

Ballack and Co. are clueless what to do next

What kind of *&$^#%@ tactic is Loewe putting out? Where was the team geist? This is possibly one of the worst Deutschland matches that I had ever watched. First touch was poor, passing was bad, off the ball is horrendous and defending was just awful. First of all, questions must be asked for the choice of the first eleven, particularly in the attacking department. Podolski on the wing, Schweinsteiger left out and Mario Gomez upfront sums up the the type of "attack" that would be "effective" against Croatia. Just because that sort of first eleven formation worked against Poland, it doesn't mean it will work against a better team like Croatia. And the German victory against Poland was partly contributed by the fact that the the Poles put up suicidal tactics of pushing their defensive line so upfront.

I can't believe that Loewe can't see that Mario Gomez is just not fit to be upfront. Yes, his domestic form is superb but international footie is a different story. Already in the Poland match there are ominous signs that he's gonna draw blanks. Most of the off-ball runs that he made were wrongly timed and he wasn't of any threat to either the Poland or Croatian defence. With no support from his partner, Klose is similiarly useless and can't do much upfront. Podolski's talent and goal poaching skills were not being utilised properly. Of course, his domestic form ain't as good as Gomez but he has proven more than enough that he's a different player altogether at the international level. Oh gosh, I would even rather gamble Kuranyi in than play Gomez upfront.

The midfield looked extremely lethargic and uninspirational. They were predictable and for some reason or so, captain Ballack was far from the form he was at Poland. They kept losing the ball just as quickly as they had won it. I was horrified to see Loewe putting Schweinsteiger to replace Gomez only at the 65th minute. One could see that there was an improvement in the German attack when Schweini plays on the left wing and Podolski was reverted back to his original role. The attack also became more organised for the first time during the match. It is only proper and vital that Lahm and Schweinsteiger link up together on the left too as they both have a strong understanding based on experiences in club and World Cup. Schweini provided the spark for the zombified Germans to press forward. The impact was evident with Schweini barely missing from a tight angle shot and he later inspired the Podolski goal which gave some form of hope in the last few minutes. Alas, too late is too late. I'm just surprised that Odonkor was subbed into the field earlier than Kuranyi and Schweini when he was meant to be an impact player and not a tactical one to be placed so early in the game.

To add insult to the bad tactics, there was a card frenzy at the dying minutes of the match. Schweini apparently got frustrated and reacted to one of the Croats by pushing him to the ground. The referee saw the incident and pulled out an immediate red out of his pocket. Lahm and Lehmann rushed to the referee in protest and both of them got a yellow card for that too. Now the Germans are in trouble with one of their vital attacking players out on a suspension from the decisive Austria match.

Salutations to Croatia for a passionate game of football where they played as a team and outwitted the Germans in almost every department. The bubbly and animated nature of the manager rubs onto the players and that gave them the spirit to move forward. This was the same Croatia team that beat England 3-2 in Wembley. Looks like the Germans would have to ensure that they get the three points from their Anschluss buddies if they wanna reach the quarter finals.

Btw, what's up with the Polish politicians nowadays? First, Podolski is being threatened to have his Polish passport withdrawn (very strange since Poldi himself said that he didn't even own one) Now the Polish PM feels like "killing" Howard Webb the referee, spawning threats from the British Polska community against the poor Brit ref. Seriously, let's leave politics out of football yea?