This ! I always want that the team that i support would be a bit symphatetic and bound to do occasional errors but also have some flair and drama in it. Germany ,nevertheless how brilliant they are have none of those. Never liked them and never will. Always support Finland(of course) and England ,althought they probably wont win anything during my lifetime.....
Only got in from playing golf at 9:30 last night so didn't see game although I was checking the beeb web site......had to look at the score 3 or 4 times to take in what was happening.....truly astonishing...... Sad in a way for Brazil but they played ugly football, Scholari has a lot to answer for.....what must their past greats have been thinking not only watching last night but previous matches as well.......when you think back to the way they used to play, they never had great goal keepers but they had the style of play that would always out score the opposition and compare it to what we have seen this time around, it's the polar opposite......this will take some getting over for them.....
What you are describing there Oslo, is QPR last season albeit with more human error and misplaced passes. The match last night will be talked about for the next 50+ years as one of THE peformances of world football, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fast counter-attacking football - like Bayern before Pep stank the place out - and much more character than the defensive, boring tiki-taka.
Fair enough mate, its all in the eye of the beholder. I just find the 'machine', 'clinical', 'efficient' cliches a tad....err cliched. Schurrle's last goal was not the product of a team lacking imagination or being unprepared to take risks - not just the finish, but the pass to him as well. Likewise Kroos' finish for his first goal would have been praised to the skies if Neymar or Messi had scored it. Their post match comments (and Scolari and Cesar's) very interesting - after the first goal they could sense that Brazil had gone into some kind of blackout, and just took advantage. It's not their fault the Brazilians stood like statues and allowed them to pass around them. Good news for us is that all those Brazilians playing in the Prem may have post traumatic stress disorder next season......
I didn't see it that way, Tooting. To me the game was more about the pathetic ineptitude of the Brazilians than the brilliance of the Germans. Most sides in the competition would have beaten Brazil on last night's performance, albeit not as comprehensively as Germany did.
Was it apologies but this is about a mindset IMO. We still cling to that result and Germany quickly rebuilt and have again regained their place along with France in world football ... England have not and won't until people think different. I love England but not the mindset and the declining culture ... I harp on about it but it's all linked Col Having played in France and a few Germany matches it's easier for me to understand this as it was a total shock at the time. Their is a focus and discipline about work,sport and team ethics that has to be instilled into a person at a younger age. I am sure any reader on here could identify just by looking around their own work place in the UK ... we don't take real responsibility for our tasks in the way the main European community leaders do and sport and recreation highlights this IMO. We cannot decide much without theory and words today in the UK and lack the committed focus that is required for any success in life. We don't lack passion for sure but that again is just noise and theory compared to application. I do not loath my country at all but I do loath the mindset and narrow minded approach of England knows best .. it doesn't. Last night's result was a breath of fresh air and a finger up to the media who try and control all our experience of what is just entertainment. On the way to work today listening to Talk Sport we have it all again ... opinions and an attempt to take ownership and authority about football with useless waffle. It was exactly the shock the media needed IMO. Experts? none of us are experts never on something that is fundamentally simple ... the initial mindset and culture has to be in place in the first place combine that with a sharp focus and application you get close to the answer everyone seems to be looking for. The slagging of Brazil is a band wagon IMO against a average football team who simply got found out by a mindset that was focussed in a completely natural way. The scoreline could of been whatever but the meaning of what happened is far deeper IMO. Neymar is just a player and no where near the player people think he is IMO Silva the same yet it was the very people that put them down as great players who have egg on their chops today. I have harped on about Harold and our QPR playing poor football all season but again I have thanked him on here for getting one thing right .... keeping the ball ... that one single rule was the first lesson I learnt playing the game abroad and it's very simple ... The other team cannot score without it and England will forever dream on and talk about success until they combat this one fact ... add to that running off the ball and awareness when you haven't got it are simple keys to the modern game ... Hail Karl Henry a mistake most make on here as they can't see it. My opinions are just that... no better, no worse but I do believe I see an insight to simple things that make things work ... that does not make me loath my country ... i don't ! I simply can no longer understand the mindset of people who have to bring back past results? for what purpose? So we won a war once or twice and a lucky world cup and the odd game yet England remains clueless to focus required to apply change and sustain new standards
Andy Gray today claimed German is the new model of World Football ... bet the twat doesn't eat his words when Spain or France bounce back in two years Germany had 12 shots and scored 7 but that is only the scoreline ... yes that matters but it's half the story. Germany are not a machine, not kraftwerk robots just simply a focussed team who took their chances against a very poor Brazil team who forgot the basics
I don't get the snubs on Germany either. They basically play the best Northern European style football (European league, more temperate/colder Northern climate). This is exactly how England should be trying to play - quick, technically good, physically strong. The flair is something I always love and welcome but how many flair players do we actually see (or have seen) in an England top or even worldwide? For England, Rooney had the potential but has most of the flamboyance drilled out of him to be a more rounded player (at his and our cost). I'd guess you'd have to go back to Beardsley, Barnes, Gazza etc to find an England team that had genuine flair players in where they didn't wilt under the pressure, and when the flair does fail, what do you need - the rounded qualities mentioned above (workrate, technique etc) that are usually also lacking as England fail. Even Spain during their successes - you could argue that it was the product of having technique and mentality drilled into them - sounds like a German cliche almost. Further afield, there are flamboyant players but they usually need a "team" to support them. Perhaps this wasn't the case but I think more rigorous match analysis and preparation have meant that flair can be partly negated. This is probably also the cause for the less inspiring Brazil performances - proficient tactics at the expense of style (plus a lack of the normal set of 4-5 world class players). Basically, appreciate football in all it's qualities - workrate, technique and team-play do make good viewing. Flair is rarer and definitely worth soaking up when you can though.... (I'm sure's there a point in there somewhere)
One thing that was noticeable was the German's unselfishness, how many times did players in with achance of scoring square the ball to let someone in a better position score? It was a total team performance. A star team will always beat a team of stars...
It was a very accomplished performance but not a once in a lifetime moment. On another day it would have "only" been 3 or 4. It should be remembered for the Brazil meltdown (a la France 98) when they don't believe they can cut it without their star player.
The whole praying thing just proved how mentally weak they are. Of course that showed up in the game too when they were 3-0 down and Luis thought he'd try dribbling 80 yards but lost it after about 10. Also the 60k neymar masks weren't exactly a good idea. They don't want to be reminded they've lost their best player everywhere they look. Fred, I just can't get over that Brazil don't have a better cf than him, he is utterly cack and lazy too.
