Semi Final 2 - Germany vs Spain

I couldn't understand why so many people wrote them off. In particular on here was edward l who posted in about four different threads about whether the Netherlands could handle Germany before the semi's had even been played!!!

I suspect he's a Tory.

shell-shocked Germans to get bashed by Uruguay with Forlan getting 3 to nab Golden Boot
I'm hopeful

Spain to win. I like the passing. With someone smart to partner Villa upfront it'd be carnage.

You make it sound like a bad thing.

Though to be honest, the way Torres is playing atm, if Pedro had passed to him, the ball may well have ended up somewehere in the Indian ocean.

^ The boxhead has a point.

Good luck to Spain, it was won in the mid field.  Before the comp I rated Spain, then along came the spectacular German wins against England and Argentina.  As I said this morning, no space for the Germans = no goals.

To the defence of everyone who did write off Spain before this game (myself included), they were not very convincing in many of their games prior to this one. Germany on the other hand had dominated decent opposition. However Spain knew how to play them and deserved the result. Full credit to them.

Should be a great final - I can't pick it! What is the octopus saying?

It's hard when every team you play parks the bus.

Hmm, I kind of disagree. The scores were largely misleading I believe. There was nothing unconvincing, for example, about Spain's win over Portugal other than the fact the Spanish didn't score more than once. Conversely, I wouldn't describe Germans as dominant against the Argies for example, but more like methodical and efficient. I mean, they had 5 good chances to score in that game, and put away 4. Great finishing, but that kind of strike rate at that level doesn't happen often.

Looking at those two games for example, Spain had more chances and more control of the game overall, but the scoreline wasn't anywhere near as emphatic. There's very few teams in the world (in fact, right now, probably only Brazil minus some of the donkeys Dunga had taken to SA) that can play with Spain on equal terms, and that's why they were the favourites before the tournament started, that's why they should have been the favourites last night, and that's why they're favourites to win on Monday morning.el grapadura2010-07-09 10:25:43

A negative about Spain for me is their inability to put away more of their chances. Seven goals in six games for a dominant team is not so good.

I went to Spain v Hondorus and watching them cemented me backing them in the tournie. And that was with Torres being dog sht.

That's about the only thing not going for them at this tournament. They've been below par at times in the final third. It's a shame because it can detract from their brilliant play.

Sure Germany's results have been blow outs, but you don't score four goals in a game on three occasions by accident. Spain on the other hand have been good, but haven't put away their chances, as their single goal wins suggest. Without Villa's finishing Spain may not be in the final.

No-one said that it was an accident. Just that there's more to football than final scorelines.

Germany did gave too much respect to Spain and gave too space in the midfield by not pressuring the first touch and really defaulted to parking the bus. They lack courage and the confidence to cut that space down (pressing), preferring to organise their midfield line rather than to go more man to man as Paraguay (edit:not Portugal) and Chile had done.

As it is, by the time they had the ball, they were too knacked to start an effective counterattack. When they got the ball, it was from anticipation and pressing the first touch, if they were man on man in the midfield, they would not have to try anticipate as much but still limit the passing options because it would have made the Spanish players uncomfortable on the ball and make mistakes and lead to more counterattacks which was Germany's best weapon and they would be fresher.

But they allowed the Spanish time on the ball and since the Spanish are masters of the pass, it allow to work away for an opening by dragging the Germans away from their line. I can understand parking the bus a bit on the first half to keep the scoreline at a minimum, but the tactics should have changed in the second (half) as the Spanish players had too much time to play their game.

I would have been quite confident for the German central defensive line to hold well to allow the German defensive midfield as bit more man to man pressing then back a game of cat and mouse for the Germans to break the Spanish tempo and risk going through to the space behind Spain's high defensive line for some decent counterattack.

Of course with Spain's quality possession game, it was always hard for counterattacks if you sit back and wait. But I would have thought that man to man pressing would break that up and have more chances to intercept and counterattack.

Would it make a difference (i.e press man to man)? Well I felt that it might have as it should have rock and make the Spanish player feel more threaten in their game and disturb their passing movements. Would it be more risky? Yes, but then without about at least 40% possession, you can't be competitive enough to score. Having to drop to 30% possession, is asking for greater trouble as the other team has time to embark different avenues while getting tired mentally marking spaces and keeping formation lines rather than marking men.

Anyway, it was ironic that it came from the deep header goal from a corner rather than from an on-field play. The Germans looked tired to go through and challenge the header. You can't really sit back on corners, it is usually a must go for the challenge situation.

It was a lonely time for Klose up front sadly.

In many ways, Paraguay (edit:not Portugal) and Chile handle Spain better and produce better counterattacks and I felt that if Germany had taken a leaf out of their book, they could have allow themselves to play their counterattacks more strongly and might have hurt Spain even better than Chile or Paraguay (edit:not Portugal) , since they have a better unit of attackers for the counterattacks. So I can't say that Spain has stepped up as it was rather more like the Germans had a step down in the game. Whereas I could say that the Netherlands had a step up in their game against Uruguay, being pressed and it would be a good lead in to the final game against Spain. If a couple of Dutch players from that semi-final game, step up to their known potential and take the odd risk for the counterattack whilst maintaining their possession game through Sneijder, then we really have an exciting final to look forward to and it wouldn't be one-sided either.

Anyway, well done Spain. Quality, experience as an unit and passing skills have really set them on top as the much better team.AllWhitebelievr2010-07-10 03:09:42

^ hmmm, can you expand on this?

Disagree here - Portugal were awful against Spain, and only had their keeper and Spanish bumbling to thank for not losing that 4-0. Really struggled to put meaningful counter-attacks together, or hold possession in anu way other than Ronaldo attempts to run through most of the Spanish team in the first half, and hoofing it long to Almeida while he was on.

The best half anyone played against Spain was Paraguay in the first - superbly pressed all the Spanish lines even in the Spanish half, didn't allow Spain any passing rhythm in the middle of the park, and played a good transition game getting the ball to Valdez whose pace troubled the Spanish defenders, although they didn't really manage any great opportunities out of it (but got a couple of decent half-chances). Were absolutely knackered to continue doing this in the second half, and Spain bossed the game from that point (the Paraguay penalty notwithstanding).

Chile managed to do similarly well in the first 20 of their game, but lost it after conceding and later going a man down, and second half was just two teams sitting ona result both were happy with, so not really relevant in the overall scheme of things.el grapadura2010-07-09 15:02:57

AWB, if you don't learn to summarize, and fast, I'll do something rash.

interesting people are talking about spain's awesomeness when all that happened was that puyol timed a great run and no one picked him up paulm2010-07-09 23:50:40

The bus had been showing signs of falling to pieces well before the goal. No way they were going to hold out for the 90, were in way too much trouble by the 60 minute mark really.

Actually I meant Paraguay not Portugal. Got my teams the wrong way round.

Agree Portugal was awful in the main. But I meant to mainly refer to Paraguay's first half and Chile's first 20 minutes, in which the tactics was implemented well. Germany is much more fit and robust than Paraguay and Chile and should have been able to take them on. I can only think that Netherlands will not back down after seeing Germany's tactical mistake.

Depends. What are you going to do? Go back to school?? It's the school holidays.

Ok point taken, I will edit in some highlighters on main points and self correct on a few things like change Portugal with Paraguay.

You just tend to ramble about nothing a lot. Much like i do,but at least i keep it short and boring