By Walter Broeckx
Despite my personal boycott of the world cup I did watch the semi finals. Not that I intended to do so from the start. But I did record the Brazil-Germany match on my hard disk just in case that we might see strange referee decisions.
But instead of watching from the first minute my wife and I went to visit my son and daughter in law at their apartment to have a look at their preparations for the arrival of their new kitten. The game was already underway when we left their home and as they don’t live that far from us it was around 25 minutes after kick off time that we came home. I thought to myself: well lets have a look and see how the match is going.
When I turned on my TV I heard the commentator just scream: Kroos, Oh dear and when the images came up I saw the German players celebrating a goal. As during the close ups and replays the score at the top of the screen wasn’t on I didn’t know what the actual score was. When the reporter then said something like : 0-4 I thought he was joking but no then the score came on the top of the screen and I must admit I had to sit down.
I then started the match from the start again on my recorder and so I had the chance to see what probably was one of the best performances ever by any team. The Germans were playing football from another planet it seemed. The way they completely ripped the Brazilians open was amazing to see. It also shows that most teams are vulnerable when they lose their best players. Brazil losing Silva and Neymar for such a match clearly was too much.
Germany had no such injuries and could pick the team they wanted. But the big difference in my opinion is that Germany is much more a team than Brazil. Brazil are 11 individuals and some of them are great but they don’t work together as a team. The Germans do and of course they are helped by the fact that they have 9 players of one team in their Manschafft.
And some of their players are really gifted. Of course we know Özil. People asking me to react to the ridiculous article that was published and then taken back at a newspaper I will not even mention. Let me tell you I will ignore that article. First and for all because I couldn’t read it as it was taken down already when I saw the link and secondly they are not worth our time. Untold has praised Özil in the past and we will continue to do so.
But it seems that they can change players without losing quality at all. And they do this all the time with only a 36 years old striker who has hardly played in the league last season. The theory that you need a big lump up front as a striker has long been buried by Spain in the last competition and the Germans are confirming this. The top scorer from Germany is not a striker but a midfielder. It proves that players who are smart and intelligent and who can make good use of space are much better than putting a giant up front who can head in a few balls from time to time but who is useless when the ball is played in to his feet.
Germany scored 17 goals in total in this tournament. That is much more than the combined goals scored by England over the last 4 tournaments I have been told. And that without a real centre forward. Amazing? No not really if you have seen how football has evolved in the last 15-20 years. A trend that still some don’t really get and they call for that big centre forward keeps on coming from some quarters. If you want to play medieval football that is fine. If you want to play modern football size doesn’t matter.
After the demonstration from Germany I thought I would have a look at the second semi final. And probably the contrast never has been more visible. The Germans have their way of playing as a team and play their game no matter who they face. Based on movement, control and keeping the ball moving all the time. It doesn’t matter who they play, they do it their way.
The Dutch and the Argentines chose another approach. The master genius tactical approach. Changing the team and the system to stop the other team’s most dangerous player. And by doing so they derailed themselves. Both did. And what I got to see must have been the most boring 120 minutes ever on a football field.
Can you imagine next season MU playing Chelsea? Master tactician Louis Van Gaal against master tactician Jose Mourinho. This will be the most boring 90 minutes ever in the PL played. For those who suffer from insomnia I can already tell you now that you should record that match, keep it on your hard disk and when you can’t sleep look at it and you will fall asleep within the first half hour.
The way Argentina and the Dutch were holding each other off and never really got going was terrible to see. The only thing that kept me up was the fact that I wanted to know how it would end. After these semi finals FIFA should declare that both Holland and Argentina are disqualified and sent home. And that Germany is declared world champions as they at least play the game and are giving football a good name.
So I am hoping that Germany will win the tournament for football’s sake. And for the fact that we will then have 3 world champions in our team. Arsenal is the 3rd team in the German squad behind Bayern Munich and Borrussia Dortumnd by the way. Bayern Munich with 9 players; Dortmund with 4 and Arsenal with 3 players. Which is nice for them and for Arsenal of course. And after seeing them play I sure wouldn’t mind Wenger getting another German in our team this summer. No matter who, they all are rather good.
So let us hope that Germany wins it this Sunday and that playing football in the right way is being rewarded. Go Mesut, Go Per, Go Lukas!
- It’s not about who we sign, but about how they play as a team. Of course.
- How Arsenal and Man U will both try and do the impossible
- Training has started and guess who is fit?
- Is it a bird, is it a plane, is Sanchez heading for Italy after all?
- Arsenal must not be allowed to repeat the mistakes they made with M’Vila.
- Transfer catastrophe. It’s that déjà vu thing all over again
- World cup refereeing on a low level
I to have turned my back on this WC due to the corruption of Fufa. I have only looked at a game for a short time when curiosity got the better of me.
The fufa god has well and truely punished me for this rebellious attitude of mine. I have look at some of about 8 ganes. The Brazil- German game apart I have seen 3 goals, and looked at 3 no score draws including Arg v Holland.
I saw the first German goal and decided I ‘had better things to do!’. I went clicking the remote, when I returned to the game I saw Bra 0 Ger 4 and concluded I was seeing things and that there was something wrong with my eyesight that may be I should look in to. Then the next goal was scored and what I thought was a ‘1’ became a ‘5’ only then did I realise that I had missed three goals.
Of course our ‘hind sight’ experts are all telling us that they have been saying all along that Brazil are rubbish, having spent the time before the game hyping them up as the best ever.
As you have described the free flowing movement of the German team in midfield and attack is what we have been seeing from Arsenal for many years.
Not till our English football masters acknowledge ball skills are better than thug football will England produce players capable of competing with the best players produced elsewhere.
agree, lets hope the Germans win this and do so in the attacking play they showed against Brazil. As for the AOB (Anti Ozil Brigade), they are an amazing team, who play him in just about every game. Can think of no higher praise than that. Hopefully there will be an Arsenal dividend if they do win, and come back fit and healthy of course. Maybe Ozil will score the winning goal, but they have such a team spirit, not sure they are too worried about who scores as long as they win
The FA could learn so much from their German counterparts, thats if they had the collective will and intelligence to learn anything….and of course the gumption to stand up to the Scudamore Premier League.
Why do the UK media reserve the term Master Tactician so often for negative managers and performances? Could be wrong, but dont recall any of them calling the German coaches Masters of tactics?
Mandy,
As it has progressed toward the final, fact is that compared to other leagues, so few Premiere League players have had significant impact on this WC. That absence. says a lot about the quality of players of Scuda-ever-more’$ greatest-in-the-world EPL wankfest vs. those from other “lesser” Leagues like the Bundesliga. This article breaks it down: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jul/07/brazil-2014-premier-league-world-cup
@Walter,
I must confess to extreme disappointment over this post. One of your worst in the history of our great Club.
You began with a fascinating story of a visit to inspect your son’s new kitten and then, after titivating (an English word) the interest of myriads (another English word) of Untold fans, you bore everyone rigid with a post about football. Not another word about the kitten. We know nothing about the breed, sex, colour, name or whether it is house-trained or not.
If your son and his charming wife live in an apartment, (perhaps the top floor) what facilities are there for the disposal of the contents of the kitten’s litter tray. Does your son make his wife dispose of the contents, on foot somewhere on the ground floor, every morning before serving him his breakfast in bed.
You see, Walter, all this vital info should have been covered in your post if only you had THOUGHT and got your priorities right.
You disappoint me, my friend. 😉
LOL Nicky, I feel down now for letting you down ;)I will try to make it up somehow with posting it all in a next article where I will try to stay away from football 🙂
Walter,
I’m considering starting an offshoot of Untold, known as MAKLAF*.
*More About Kittens, Less About Football. 🙂
I don’t quite agree with some of your points Walter. Neymar would probably have made very little difference to the outcome, which was caused by non-existent defending. Thiago might have made a difference, but probably not much, as the fullbacks and defensive midfielders were also atrocious. And anyway, a player can only blame themselves for picking up two yellow cards and missing out on a semi-final.
The funny thing is, Germany switched off in the second half, playing short corners, passing it around at the back aimlessly, etc. So the Brazilians were allowed a few chances to score, and I’m quite disappointed they did, spoiling a near-perfect match for Germany. But Schurrle came on and put some life back into the Germans, it looked like he really wanted his hat-trick.
One thing that irritates me, and is hardly ever mentioned, is that Germany were also without several key players. Mario Gomez is their best striker, but he wasn’t picked (maybe because of his injury problems), and they also left out Stefan Kiesling due to personal differences with Loew. Marco Reus was injured, and he had 16 goals and 13 assists in the Bundesliga (so a similar loss to Neymar for Brazil). They were also missing the Bender brothers, Holger Badstuber, Marcel Schmelzer their first choice LB (where the CB Hoewedes has been playing), Gundogan, and others.
So the idea that Brazil were disadvantaged because of missing players is nothing but a myth.
Very revealing article Bob!
Yes, Arsenal has been evolving their style of play by adding the toughness required , and this is how Germany play.
This is why i see Arsenal doing good things next season, who ever AW signs or does not sign. I hope he gets exactly the players he WANTS and does not have to settle for any of those he just needs.
Either England will take heed and start to embrace the modern football or the team will sink even lower, but luckily many of the PL teams have started to embrace the modern game already, so in a little time it will become normal in England too.
Hope the media and pundits realise this soon, AND stop attacking Arsenal.
http://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/4093/nigeria/2014/07/10/4949103/fifa-cannot-intimidate-nigeria-onigbinde?ICID=TP_HN_3 just what we all need to do about fifa.