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Not content with slotting 4 past Australia and the Poms, Germany have officially become the entertainers of South Africa. We can ridicule Joachim Loew's sense of couture and gastronomic appreciation of his own nasal debris, but the bloke is winning through intelligent tactics and great execution of these tactics by his young and expressive team.
Argentina never recovered from the initial set piece, where Thomas 'ball boy' Mueller headed home. They kept persisting through the middle, where their biggest strengths were, and Germany kept the flanks, where they plundered, especially down the left, where all their goals came. Podolski, Mueller and the Feldmanesque Mesut Ozil tore strips off the fancied South Americans, with Bastian Schweinsteiger showing none of the nervousness that Maradona taunted him with 24 hours earlier. For all of the German anxiety about losing Ballack, they had the pig climber all along. The other piece of the German success came through nullifying Messi, not by crudely marking and fouling him out of the game, but by limiting his supply to receiving the ball in the back two thirds of the park. Once they had gone down 2-0, Messi and his suppliers had lost their heads and with no coach to reform matters, the game was up.
Germany have been far from the dour, collective and cold monolith they are stereotyped as. Rather, they play as a team but allow those with individual strengths to express when needed.
As for Argentina and Diego, well pretty much enough has been said. To the AFA goes the blame for players left behind and for the paucity of tactics employed by the man they employed. Diego can play the sympathy card but no one is listening, especially in Buenos Aires.
The sidebar was the constant and unsettling image of a celebratory Angela Merkel with a rather interested Berlusconi behind her as she high-fived anyone who would reciprocate. Unsettling...
GERMANY 4
ARGENTINA 0
GP
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