Germany and its mediocre bunch of players
Finally the wait is over. The World Cup starts today. The first match sees hosts Germany take on minnows Costa Rica, but they will be without their captain Michael Ballack who is out injured.
This is a severe blow to the hosts who had been relying on Ballack in recent years to pull them through. And having qualified automatically to the finals, Germany have not had the advantage of testing their players in a competitive mode.
Their squad is inexperienced, young and suffers a shortage of talent. The only truly star quality players in the squad are Ballack, Miroslav Klose and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann and Oliver Kahn.
And of course there are some talented players to watch out - like Lukas Podolski, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Christophe Metzelder. As for the rest, in the words of a German football pundit, they are either not up to scratch or need a couple of years to mature.
In the past 18 months, they have tried 14 defenders without any improvement. To top it all, they are being coached by a novice who believes in an attacking philosophy. They were hammered 4-1 by Italy in March and more recently the defensive frailty showed again when they had to come back from two goals down to force a draw with Japan.
This prompted captain Ballack to openly criticise coach Jurgen Klinsmann, saying that the team had failed to solve the weaknesses of the past two years.
Given these circumstances, what are the chances of the hosts then? Will Costa Rica spring an upset at the opening game?
If they do, they will then join Senegal and Cameroon for beating the odds against far superior opponents. In 2002, a previously unknown Senegal gained a famous victory against the then defending champions France while Cameroon beat Argentina in the first match of the 1990 tournament.
Although football romantics would love for such a result, I don’t think that will be the case. I think the boisterous home crowd will be able to encourage a win for Germany, although it might not be an easy victory.
The recent performances of this German team have lowered the expectations but I think they will still top their group and at best will be knocked out at the semi-final stage.
Finally the wait is over. The World Cup starts today. The first match sees hosts Germany take on minnows Costa Rica, but they will be without their captain Michael Ballack who is out injured.
This is a severe blow to the hosts who had been relying on Ballack in recent years to pull them through. And having qualified automatically to the finals, Germany have not had the advantage of testing their players in a competitive mode.
Their squad is inexperienced, young and suffers a shortage of talent. The only truly star quality players in the squad are Ballack, Miroslav Klose and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann and Oliver Kahn.
And of course there are some talented players to watch out - like Lukas Podolski, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Christophe Metzelder. As for the rest, in the words of a German football pundit, they are either not up to scratch or need a couple of years to mature.
In the past 18 months, they have tried 14 defenders without any improvement. To top it all, they are being coached by a novice who believes in an attacking philosophy. They were hammered 4-1 by Italy in March and more recently the defensive frailty showed again when they had to come back from two goals down to force a draw with Japan.
This prompted captain Ballack to openly criticise coach Jurgen Klinsmann, saying that the team had failed to solve the weaknesses of the past two years.Given these circumstances, what are the chances of the hosts then? Will Costa Rica spring an upset at the opening game?
If they do, they will then join Senegal and Cameroon for beating the odds against far superior opponents. In 2002, a previously unknown Senegal gained a famous victory against the then defending champions France while Cameroon beat Argentina in the first match of the 1990 tournament.
Although football romantics would love for such a result, I don’t think that will be the case. I think the boisterous home crowd will be able to encourage a win for Germany, although it might not be an easy victory.
The recent performances of this German team have lowered the expectations but I think they will still top their group and at best will be knocked out at the semi-final stage.
posted by Kabilan K at
12:42 AM
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