Germany's Power

6/24/2006: Germany 2 – Sweden 1

I usually don’t like using military analogies but how else to describe the German onslaught on the Swedish goal in the first game of the second round ? So let us just say that the German attack was relentless in both quantity and quality; a more vulgar way of putting that is that the Germans kicked Sweden’s ass. Had it not been for the stellar play of Swedish goalkeeper Isaksson, this would have easiy been a 5-0 rout. As it was, this game was as unbalanced as any in this tournament and the Germans were never in any trouble of continuing their World Cup run.

What impressed me the most was how Germany employed the entire field and used various formations in approaching the opposing goal. As organized as the German attack would become later in this game, the first goal was a result of Miroslav Klose creating chaos in the Dutch defense. A blocked shot fell to Podolski, who kicked into a wide open net to open the scoring barely 5 minutes into the game. The second goal also was created by more of Klose’s endeavors running at Swedish defenders. On this play, Klose dribbled to his left in close quarters, taking 3 defenders with him in the process before slipping the ball back to against the grain. Podolski then struck the pass with the inside of his foot and placed the ball perfectly into the corner past a diving Isaksson.

While Klose and Podolski are the two target men up front, Germany’s captain Michael Ballack also had what appeared to be at least 10 shots, many of them dangerous blasts right at goal which required saves by Isaksson. Also having free range were Fringgs, Schweinsteiger, and Schneider, who hit the post late in the game.

In the second half, with Sweden’s attack geared mostly for their two targetmen Larssen and Ibrahimovic. As effective as this has been for the Swedes, the attack appeared primitive compared to the complex German game. Nevertheless, the German’s brought Larssen down in the 55th minute on the Swede’s best approach play in the game. Larssen, just like Mexico’s Omar Bravo in their game against Portugal, tried to rip a hole in the net and hit the ball way too hard, sending it into the stands instead.

The Swedes hadn’t beaten Germany in a major competition since 1958 and that streak was never in doubt in this game. So dominant were the Germans that not even had Sweden pulled a goal back would it have mattered.

Germany will now face Argentina in what should be an epic quarterfinal game that is more worthy of a final. It will be interesting to see how Argentina recover from their hard fought and emotional win against Mexico because I can assure you the Germans will be very fresh, fresh from their shellacking of the Swede’s that is.