Only positive words al around Germany. I do hope that Löw will find any hole in the German strategy-if there is any.

Sometime a team can't see the fault itself or the team they are playing against. Until they meet a team in which the coach have seen the hole in their strategy

Happened to Sweden many years ago, they had played some matches before they had to leave for World Cup. They had won every game and the press was like "This is the best team Sweden ever have sent to a World Cup" a.s.o
Until they met Denmark in a last test match
Denmark beat Sweden 6-0

Markus

@mapuc:

anything can happen, as you saw today.

I'm comfortable with the brains-trust of the German team, their preparations for their opposition thus far has been exemplary.
Methodical. i think that the key to Germany performing well in the final is that they not get carried away by this Euphoria of beating Brazil.
Joachim Löw doesn't strike me as the type of coach to let his players get too carried away with this win.
Of course there is such a thing as overconfidence.


I am also comfortable in knowing they won't let that get to them, ie becoming lax, thinking they are invincible etc etc.

They have a very good team mentality, all the while staying grounded.

But, as you say, anything can happen.

Lets not loose ground under our feet. Brazil was weak, and probably was overestimated before the tournament. All that (hysterical?) emotion, all that tears and crying and more emotions,k and then national pride, and tears and - guess what - more emotion. Just listen to the interview by the Brazilian goalie afterwards, I thought that honey would start dripping out of my TV set any moment. I mean emotions are all nice and well, but I think the Brazilians have bathed and wallowed in them, and in tears, and sentiments and national pride and - wait - didn't I just say that...

This must have shifted the focus of players, and it must have been a mortgage for the players - too much is just too much. Even if it is tears and wallowing emotions.

One must also ask whether Brazilian football maybe indeed has changed, and players do not have the individual class anymore that once set them lightyears apart. Southamerican football has become more European in the past 6-8 years, no doubt. One already saw the shift in the last cup win of Brazil. And with the huge ammount of internationalization in football, national specialities in playing styles and skills become less obvious. That is also the reason why "football dwarf nations" can become so stubbornly uncooperative in getting just cleansed off the table anymore.

But that is their problem, not ours. :03: German football had to dramatically change as well, over the past 12 years or so. It started to do so when the era of French dominance started. It became playful, and enjoyable, just not effective and not including the traditional German fighting and team spirit. This now has been added again. The result was the performance of this night.

I feel not necessarily triumph over the Brazilian fans, why should I. But I love to see seeing the Brazilian team getting filleted. Their constant crying - and the hype about how fantastic they are - and their physical brutality in past games on several occasions really killed a nerve of mine. But the fans of theirs - lets remind of the fact that the German players are incredibly popular and well-liked in Brazil. No need to mock the Brazilian fans.

Found this funny post on Facebook

1-0: Samba has come to Germany!
2-0: Who turned off the sound from 61,000 Brazilian fans at the stadium?
3-0: Neymar wrote on Twitter that he's ready, as a substitute, with a broken vertebra
4-0: The national sport in Brazil is now handball.
5-0: A whole world is in shock and are concerned if Brazil even enters the field in the 2nd half.
6-0: The Brazilian coach requests FIFA to accept 11 exceptional substitutions!
7-0: The supporters get their money back in order to avoid disturbances after the game. Players pay of their own pocket.
7-1: Brazil is allowed to play a Bronze medal match against Argentina or Holland to avoid history's greatest humiliation

Markus

I laughed about a German tV comment in first half, it was something like this:

"Of course the Brazilians had taken into account that there were chances of 50:50 that Brazil would loose to the Germans - but nobody thought about a 0:5."

I think I shall harvest some of the twitter comments I've seen and post them here:

Well played Germany, now we just have to hope that Argentina falls over as well tonight so that we can get the classic rivalry match. That will be something worth watching, if only to read Hunters drunken rage/celebration on Steam. :03::haha:

@Skybird:

Goes to show how out of form Mesut Özil is.
Missed a sitter in the 89th minute.
If he was on song, he would have buried that.
I think, in fact i'm pretty certain, any of the other German players would have scored.
I agree with you, why does Jogy persist with him?

What was remarkable was that Manuel Neuer and Bastian Scheweinsteiger were furious with Mesut Ozil for not defending in midfield. When Brazil scored their goal in the 90th.

Well done Germany I hope Argentina do the same to the cheating diving clog wearers tonight so that the nice bookie pays me 80 quid :D

A great tribute from the Brazil team to Neymar. He couldn't play so the rest of the players decided not to either.

Holy blitzkrieg Batman!

So there is scoring in this sport?

:haha:

What a game, seriously!

Some basic reflections on the state of things in Brazilian football.

http://www.welt.de/sport/fussball/wm...-passiert.html

Bad technical education of the players, bad tactical training, lacking psychological training and mental stamina, the author says, corrupt national football association, no good trainers of Braziliuan origin. Maybe the magic of Brazilian football simply has faded over the years - and until yesterday just nobody noticed.

Nevertheless they already talk about their sixth title in 2018. Just a delay, that's what happened. Really?

Add "loss of sense for reality" to the list above.

Missed the match because of work committments but couldn't believe the updates coming through on the iPhone at the time.

Got home and watched the game +1 hour after real time and must say it was definitely a one horse race.

Hopefully the Dutch will see off the Argentinians and create an all European final in South America...more history in the making.

Not all doom and gloom now Sky, looking at your early thread comments/predictions :)

I have read through all it this night, and I do not take back one word. At the time of typing things, I think I gave realistic and correct descriptions of state of things. I also here and there pointed at what needs to change - and that were things they changed and improved indeed. So I admit I see little reason to regret what I said, and what I said all in all was constructive, and right.

Before the tournament, things were indeed like I described them. The defence was shaky for sure, the last matches before the tournament were desillusionizing, Klose seems to be dangerous still but is not playing all match long still, Lahm has changed positions, weak players identified still are weak and meanwhile all got traded out of the starting lineup (except Özil).

What was gloom and doom in my predictions? If these things would not have been changed, which I demanded, then the Germans would have died a beautiful death meanwhile for sure. Or a less beautiful one. Algeria was no nice game, US was close, it was a reasonable playing for the demanded result, but no beauty of a match either. You may have noted that I metaphorically scratched items off my criticism list one by one, since they changed them. As a consequence of their corrections, they now are the favourites. Something that they were not before the tournament. The only item still on my list is that Özil gets replaced, he even played bad against Brazil, and even took fire from his colleagues during the match for his performance. And a problem could rise regarding Hummels, who got not exchanged to save him, but because he has growing problems i his knee, currently in intense treatment. It is hoped, but is not certain, that he will be able to play on Sunday. If he cannot, the best card to neutralise Holland' unpredictable ace, Robben, or Argentina's Messi, would be out, which is a handicap for Germany and opens a certain hole in the defence again. We have seen the effect of Hummels missing in the early match.

Heck, even Löw himself seems to have changed for the positive, no longer stubbornly and unflexibly sticking to plan A and if that fails, not doing anything, but now he is listening to criticism form our media, and is adapting his tactic and lineup. Löw is one of the biggest German surprises to me in this tournament, he showed to be able to move beyond his shadow.

No, Jim, I do not think I have been that much off reality. And regarding yesterday, I say the same what I said after Portugal: those matches were against teams that set up no real challenge, but collapsed in major parts all by themselves. On Sunday, Germany is favourite now, no matter whom they will meet. But both Argentina and Holland could deliver the lucky punch to Germany. And then yesterday's 7:1 becomes meaningless again immediately. It was not only German strength yesterday: it was plenty of Brazilian weakness as well, like Portugal.

The Netherlands probably know Germany better then the Argentinians, so I expect them to be able to set up the tougher fight. But if they beat Argentia, I would win the bet I had with you, Jim :O:, and before the tournament I saw them as one of the top favourites anyway, so they have my blessings.

For the last time during this cup, however...

Maybe in your eyes.
And i'm not speaking from bias here, but you talk to any football professional, be it player, media, critic, etc, Germany is always, regarded as one of the favourites at major tournaments.
No denying that, no matter how many 'shortcomings' or 'holes' they may have or have not in your eyes,
I agree with a lot of what you say, but take it for what it is:
We are in, and regardless of the finer details of their shortcomings, in big tournaments they have an unrivalled record for consistency and placing in finals games.

Be it EURO or WC.

Did you think the team was better in 2010? When they routed England and Argentina, but died that death, which wasn't beautiful?
I think the current team is much better, and there are reasons for that which i won't re-hash.

You say they played poorly against mediocre opposition.

Mediocre on the day maybe, but, rather than being critical of the shortcomings in those games, look at the positives. To come away from those mediocre performances with a win still takes something which is not mediocre.

My point is you labor on the negatives of the Mannschaft.
A win is a win.
A representation in a WC Final is a win.

That's all that matters.
So far.