Jürgen Lives To Fight Another Day
Posted by Pete in Bundesliga | 25 March 2006
So Jürgen has had a reprieve. Well, at least for now. After thrashing the US team 4-1 on Wednesday it seems all is well in the German camp. Nevertheless, the result doesn't tell the whole story. Firstly, the US were fielding what might be described as a B-team. McBride, Reyna, Donovan, Beasley, Onyewu, Lewis and O’Brien were all missing for various reasons and even the remaining players caused the Germans a few problems by adapting to their game plan and stifling any promising moves.
Even after the break and Schweinsteiger's freekick which gave them the lead, it wasn't until a flurry of goals with 20 minutes to go, that the Germans looked comfortable. So a win it might have been, but hardly convincing stuff. Columbia and Japan in May will probably prove to be sterner stuff, but by then it'll be too late to sack Klinsmann.
Still, most are satisfied for now. A German friend of mine still goes along that most German Nationalelf are appalling before a major championship, but nevertheless pull it together during the tournament and end up in the final. It's happened before people, it could easily happen again.
Other might point towards the fact that Germany are sitting at 22 in FIFA's world ranking (below Greece, Iran, etc.) and say that this is the sign of a long and steady decline. But seriously, Mexico are at number 7 and haven't done anything awe-inspiring for years now. After all as Lineker once said: "Football; it's a game of 22 men chasing ball and in the end the Germans always win".
Comments
The lack of goals in the first half had nothing to do with the US "adapting to their game plan and stifling any promising moves", it was entirely due to Klinsmann's experiment with a 3 striker setup.
After reverting to the traditional German 4-4-2 the Germans dominated the Americans (yes the entire second half, not just the last 20 minutes). Of course you're right in the fact that none of that would have been possible without the Americans having not had 6 of their starters on the field.
In addition Kahn showed flashes of brilliance (especially a beauty right hand reaction save) remeniceant of WC2002, but then looked old and out of the game (like the blooper goal that got the Americans on the board).
The German team is in a whole world of hurt...
