Germany Take Argentina To School
They somehow always get it right. Whether it's playing tactical mind games with their opponents, bottling up their defense to frustrate their opponents, or simply exploding in the final third of the pitch to annihilate them. They somehow always get it right - the Germans that is.
Their 4-1 victory against England in the second round, though undermined by me for obvious reasons, was no doubt a strong show. But lo-and-behold, what they did to Argentina on Saturday just made logical sense. It had to be.
Even if that was against an opposition who up untill now, had displayed a stunning precision in every aspect of their game. Coached by the 'Little Man' himself, Argentina boasted of almost everything - well not everything. It was the last piece in the puzzle - something even Diego Maradona himself proved insufficient to substitute - Joachim Lw.
From the very start of the game, it was evident that Lw had an upper hand over Maradona's side, namely in the defensive department. The first goal came inside the first 3 minutes when Lukas Podolski was tripped on the left wing. Bastian Schweinsteiger's curling ball in to the box was delicately flicked in by Thomas Muller's head and the Argentine defence was left staring at each other.
If they were struggling to find an explanation to such an early start to the debacle, perhaps they could watch the replays of the goal and spot how their entire defence was disorganised in three separate lines, between which the Germans snuck in and out to throw them off until the sucker punch came in the form of the goal itself.
Unlike the English, the Argentines did not collapse immediately, and actually did play some football of their own. Carols Tevez, Maxi Rodriguez, Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, all trying their best to break through the German defence; which incidentally should be nicknamed the Berlin Wall for their last two performances alone.
There was actually a moment of unrest in the German back four when Messi ripped through them to find Tevez who unselfishly cut it back for Nicolas Otamendi to stick it in the net. They had overseen a trick though, which had cost them dearly at the start of the game already. The German back-line was solid and they held their line to perfection, playing all four Argentina players offside.
That is what it all comes down to perhaps. Lw's tactical brilliance lays in him retaining the golden basics of world football. They kept it tight at the back throughout, frustrating the players whom many tipped to re-create their coach's legacy from 1986, and just to clarify, that doesn't mean they were expected to punch footballs past keepers but you know - the other legacy of actually winning the World Cup.
Germany were defensively top notch throughout the game, closing out every attack by swiftly closing down the players with possession in the final third of the pitch. So much so, that Lionel Messi had to constantly track back to the halfway line to get a decent touch of the ball and get some time and space to do something with it. The Argentine defence's lack of organisation (at least compared to the Germans anyway) allowed their opponents to pile on more pressure as even a misplaced pass seemed to work well for the Germans; falling for them as the second ball, which they utilised better than their opponents did.
Argentina cannot be accused of playing as individuals. They tried to pass at every opportunity possible, but when there are two or even three German players charging down your throat, it is a bit hard to pick out an accurate pass and execute it.
The next three goals were to merely put some icing on the cake and terrorise their next opponents. The game itself was won the moment the Argentine defence let Muller through to head past Sergio Romero in the third minute.
It was inevitable in the second half that Germany would score again, not because they kept attacking but vice versa. The more Argentina attacked the German goal, the more frustrated they were to get as they found no way past them.
The proof of that is in the fact that by the 60th minute, the Argentines started shooting from distance rather than working the ball between themselves to break open the defence - something they had based their game on in this World Cup so far and wowed everyone along the way.
The rest was easy. The more Argentina attacked the more frustrated they got. Their defence lost a little more concentration in their desperation and first Podolski found a way past the their backline to set up Miroslav Klose, then Schweinsteiger assisted Arne Friedrich for his first ever international goal, and finally another German break killed off the game as Mesut zil's chipped pass allowed Klose to grab his second of the game.
Perhaps it is the fact that Joachim Lw had started his coaching career as a player-coach at FC Winterthur and then FC Frauenfeld all those years ago before moving on to bigger and better things.
His ability to get through to his players better than anyone else right now could be down to the fact that when he started his coaching career, he was still one of the lads himself. That kind of experience is seriously undermined nowadays but could well be serving them right now as a master-stroke.
How else would you explain the Argentina defence being in so many pieces the moment they came up against a quality opposition. Bear in mind, this was also the first time they have gone behind in this tournament. Somehow the players couldn't quite pick up whatever their coach (whom pretty much every player in the squad must have idolised while growing up) must have said to them.
Were they star struck? Unlikely. Were they complacent? Possibly. Coming in to the tournament, the hype was all about Lionel Messi, the man hailed as the next Maradona by the man himself, was going to reproduce Mexico' 86 all over again.
Well there was no 'Hand of God', no wonder goal or even a goal of any kind for that matter, and there certainly won't be a killer through ball to another forward in the final the way Maradona set up Burruchaga in '86 to kill Germany off.
The Germans are beginning to bring a whole new meaning to the saying - 'attack is the best form of defence' - by simply reversing it.
1 Comment – Post a comment
Tyezer
Commented 71 months ago - 6th July 2010 - 11:59am
So well said, great article! 4-0 is pretty extreme at this stage in the Cup, I recon they're gonna win. Gutted that Ghana went out on Friday too- exciting game though!