i've been enjoying myself alot writing here once again, and with germany beaten by spain, i woke up feeling rather moody.
matters aren't helped by idiotic posts on facebook damning the german players, just days, hours after praising them so effusively.
the germans didn't play badly - they were simply playing against better and more experienced players. xavi, iniesta and alonso must surely be 3 of the finest midfielders of their generation, and alonso, arguably the best deep lying playmaker at the moment.
check out their ages too, xavi is 30, alonso, 28 and iniesta is the youngest at 26.
of the german midfield trio, schweinsteiger is the oldest at 25, khedira, 23 and ozil, 21.
that's a combined 15 additional years of experience, and that showed.
furthermore, with iniesta coming in on the left, the german midfield constantly found themselves in a 4 v 3 situation in the center, and with the players of spains calibre, the germans are always bound to struggle possession wise.
but the key thing to note is that even then, spain didn't pose germany too much trouble and mertesacker deserves an honorable mention for denying spain and getting a crucial foot in whenever the final ball was played time and time again. the germans had a game plan, and they stuck to it, the hustled, and whenever they won possession, they looked to break, and although spain moved the ball better, it was an even first-half. it might even have been a german advantage had the referee given a foul on ozil after he was brought down in the box.
in the end, it was from a set-piece, a lapse in concentration that caused germany dear.
the germans tried to respond, kroos came on, actually before the goal to fight fire with fire. so now there were 4 german midfielders in the center of the park and lahm was to cover the entire right flank and provide width, and it is no coincidence that the germans were that little bit better in possession with lahm getting down the line well and putting in crosses. but alas, it wasn't to be.
the germans fought valiantly, and to deride them as chokers is plain unfair (and not to mention foolish), and ask any football fan worth his salt, they would concur that it was a close and tense game, with 2 good teams battling for supremacy, with the better team just nicking it because of a lapse in concentration, and 0-1 is perhaps the fairest result. but football isn't a fair game. 0-0 and then penalties isn't entirely unfair to spain too, because for all their possession, they failed to break down the germans, and even 1-0, had the foul on ozil been given, is a pretty reasonable result in my books.
but this is a very young german side, and their best is yet to come.