hmm...i see Germany winning this. Although it will be a stern test for France, they've done really well so far albeit against less than stellar opposition. If they can beat Germany that should give them enough confidence to go all the way....should be a good game for a neutral like meself

France is going to not just send us packing, they'll humiliate and destroy us.
The only silver lining is, that this might actually, and finally, cost Löw his job.

On the other hand - we are finally back to playing sufficiently bad again that we actually might make it through...

BTW, kicker.de says that Shkodran Mustafi is out injured for the rest of the world cup: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/wm/startseite/607206/artikel_fuer-mustafi-ist-die-wm-vorbei.html

Not sure who would be suitable at RB now between Mertesacker, Hummels, Lahm and Miroslav Klose

People must never watch WCs if they don't realize that the 1/8 round games have laways been tough for top teams because it's the first elimination game.  Just a FYi, Spain won all their elimination round games only 1-0 in 2010 and Paraguay should have beat them in the quarters.  Anyhow...

50/50 game.  France will play free since the pressure of a result is gone...  the goal was to reach the quarters in this WC.  Every round now is bonus for us.  As a result, i expect us to come out swinging.

i don't see a favored team here.  Both are talented and will go at each other.  Should be a very good game.

first big match in elimination round.....
should be a very open and attacking match...
interestingly both faced african teams in 1/16 and struggled to win. so would not be surprised if we see some tactical change as well....
i personally would support france......

If Germany played like they did today, they'll lose.

What is Low thinking?

Neuer is such a brave keeper, has the biggest balls of many But its so risky at times if he doesn tpull his moves off. Lucky mostly works....

I think France surprised many in that they play good football and overall strong in all areas so far, all without Ribery. But Germany still just better.

Rooting for France. But this is an unbelievably tough one to call. Two heavyweights going at it.

I'm just hoping should Colombia go through they'd face a favorable match up in the semis. And I think they would match up better against France than Germany. Not that either are a stroll in the park

Well, France have a slight advantage with 1 day more rest and not having played extra time. On the other hand, the way our guys "rested" during the first half against Algeria, they shouldn't complain too much...

Mustafi is out of the WC with a torn harmstring.

Hummels is expected to return.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Neuer has got more than enough balls for the rest of them and then some

True!

rwo power wrote:Well, the problem is - we only have one Manuel Neuer. I'm not sure that suffices against France if Löw sets up the defense and midfield as dubiously as today.

I would love to be invited into Löws brain before he punches out the line up just to observe the "process" how he comes up with what ever he comes up with...

Someone really needs to take a stick and beat him slightly on the back head while repeatedly saying words like: think, Jogi - think!

seriously - I do not want to see a win by france - yet - I have a very, very bad gut feeling about this may be the only possible outcome...

It's 50/50.... whoever thinks one team is or should be favored over the other isn't seeing things straight. In fact, every game going forward is 50/50. The last dominating team i saw in WC was Italy in 1982 once they got out of the group with Argentina and Brazil. They just destroyed the semis and final. It won't happen again.

VivaStPauli wrote:France is going to not just send us packing, they'll humiliate and destroy us.
The only silver lining is, that this might actually, and finally, cost Löw his job.

I think you're going a bit too far, of course France has a chance to win (France 47% - Germany 53%) but it's impossible that France humiliates Germany and the opposite is also true (it would be a huge surprise otherwise), both teams are among teams that impressed so far (except the 1/8th final where all favourites were in trouble).

farfan wrote:

Zealous wrote:More like clash of the unconvincing teams.

Wonder who will flop more Benzema or Muller.

you and  GIL

not a single comment about france or benzema since the start of the world cup .

after one borderline tough game, you're out of your caves

stick to making excuses for why your idol flopped in yet another major tournament instead of bashing players who are actually delivering for their teams.

Relax I was wumming with that comment.

Benzema and Muller have had great tournaments so far, I have no issues saying that lol

When did we impress? When we hammered Chokugal, the nation that never could?

Our tactics have failed utterly every time they were tested, and Löw refuses to change.

We immediately regained our composure, our calm, our threat in attack, and our flexibility, when Löw was forced to revert back to the 4-2-3-1 that we play well, maybe play better than anyone else. It's a system that allows us to use the flanks, overload the center, outplay defences or cross over them.

Yet our coach insists on using Mustafi and Höwedes, both utterly lost as make-belief fullbacks, instead of using the much better suited players he has available. He could for example have used Mustafi as CB and left Boateng at RB, who has done very well so far.
He could have shifted Höwedes, who is actually an excellent CB, to the center of defence and put Durm or Großkreutz at LB - there's a myriad of options, all of them better than playing Höwedes and Mustafi on the wings.

It could all be so easy. Mertesacker and Hummels at the center, Lahm on the right, Durm/Boateng/Großkreutz at LB, Schweinsteiger and Khedira as DMs/CMs, and... Well that about settles it.
Everything we got up front is top notch, I don't care if Özil or Kroos are at CAM, I don't care if Schürrle or Götze are LM, and I don't care whether Müller or Klose spearhead.

I just want to go back to the working system, that won every single game it was tested in, except when Löw started f******g with it (like putting Kroos on the wing in 2012), except for the one time when our still green team got undone by Spain in 2010.
Other than that, the system has never truly failed.

Yet Löw abandons it, for no reason but his wanton f*ckery and batshit mental drive to fix what isn't broken.

World Cup my arse, we'll go down in flames against France, unless we abandon that bullshit 4-3-3, not because it's a bad formation, but because it doesn't suit the players we have as well as a 4-2-3-1 does.

All is lost, anyway, if Löw keeps putting the most drowsy-eyed f*ckups in the back four.

Bloody well should've quite after the 2012 tactical snafu, we should be coached by Hitzfeld or Heynckes by now...

Ich habe fertig.

Honestly this German team has done nothing to prove that they have the pedigree to win a major tournament. Using Lowe as a scapegoat is easy (and valid tbh) but there comes a certain point when all the players have to step up and show that they have what it takes.

Depending on how Germany end this tournament this will be the chokingest German team of all time.

I don't believe in the Germany as mentally weak meme, to be honest. I think it's about 50% tactics, 25% bad luck, and 25% the fact that sometimes the other team is just better.

VivaStPauli wrote:I don't believe in the Germany as mentally weak meme, to be honest. I think it's about 50% tactics, 25% bad luck, and 25% the fact that sometimes the other team is just better.

Maybe but come on now you can't convince me the Italian mugging at the last Euros wasn't a choke job. You had a German fan crying before half time lol

Whether it's accurate or not this idea that this German team can't get it done is definitely there considering their habit of falling at the last hurdle.

Well maybe my view on our 'choking' is tempered by my view that we sucked in 2006 and 2008 and basically overachieved with how far we actually got, the one loss that really stuck with me is the 2012 one, where Löw took all the width out of our formation for no apparent reason.

Then he pushed the back four far up the pitch, and well... We got undone by a pacey run, and a long ball. That shit wouldn't fly against a deeper 4-2-3-1 using all the width and lurking for counters.

VivaStPauli wrote:Well maybe my view on our 'choking' is tempered by my view that we sucked in 2006 and 2008 and basically overachieved with how far we actually got, the one loss that really stuck with me is the 2012 one, where Löw took all the width out of our formation for no apparent reason.

Then he pushed the back four far up the pitch, and well... We got undone by a pacey run, and a long ball. That shit wouldn't fly against a deeper 4-2-3-1 using all the width and lurking for counters.

More or less agree but that's not how people will choose to remember it. Also let's not sell this German team short, they are stacked with talent and are an elite team but they need to win something to justify that.

This is 80 % Germany, 20 % France realistically.

VivaStPauli wrote:
We immediately regained our composure, our calm, our threat in attack, and our flexibility, when Löw was forced to revert back to the 4-2-3-1 that we play well, maybe play better than anyone else. It's a system that allows us to use the flanks, overload the center, outplay defences or cross over them.

Yet our coach insists on using Mustafi and Höwedes, both utterly lost as make-belief fullbacks, instead of using the much better suited players he has available. He could for example have used Mustafi as CB and left Boateng at RB, who has done very well so far.
He could have shifted Höwedes, who is actually an excellent CB, to the center of defence and put Durm or Großkreutz at LB - there's a myriad of options, all of them better than playing Höwedes and Mustafi on the wings.

It could all be so easy. Mertesacker and Hummels at the center, Lahm on the right, Durm/Boateng/Großkreutz at LB, Schweinsteiger and Khedira as DMs/CMs, and... Well that about settles it.
Everything we got up front is top notch, I don't care if Özil or Kroos are at CAM, I don't care if Schürrle or Götze are LM, and I don't care whether Müller or Klose spearhead.

Yep, exactly.



Höwedes is a decent CB, Mustafi is surely not a bad player either. But what Löw does there at the full back positions is just inexplicable.
Makes no sense at all, and what's more we have had CLEARLY VISIBLE and identifiable problems in all of the games because of it.

And then Mertesacker has to listen to the reporters questioning 'defensive problems' after he fought for 120 minutes, but Löw gets smiled at by Kathrin, the embedded mouthpiece.

The undeserved deference with which Löw contines to be treated is really remarkable, and deserving of an own thread someday.

Germany desperately nee to revert to the 4231 with some more direct players. Podolski hopefully will be back so I would start him on the left, Muller on the right, Klose in the middle, and Gotze as the CAM. Ozil has been horrid as of late and is only starting because hes a "big name". Drop him and play this lineup:


If the team has a problem creating chances, bring Ozil, Kroos, and Schurrle on. If the team is getting torn apart defensively, bring Boateng on. Bur this should be th normal starting XI for the time being at least.

France were far worse than Germany yesterday but apparently Germany are the only ones underperforming. Figures.

As long a Loew plays that fraud Lahm in his natural position, the Germans should be fine. I think it's well and truly established that's he's definitely no midfielder now. His positional sense is awful, he has zero vision and he slows down the play far too much.

2-0 Germany.