Germans play mind games with Argentina. World Cup Notes..

Search

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
75,154
Tokens
JOHANNESBURG — There's no better way to spice up an off day at the World Cup than with good old-fashioned trash talk.

Germany's players spent both rest days this week sending strong words the way of Argentina, their opponent in Saturday's quarterfinals. The latest came from captain Philipp Lahm, who accused Diego Maradona's team of being too aggressive and perhaps even bent on mayhem.
Lahm's comments Thursday followed similar remarks a day earlier by Bastian Schweinsteiger, who said Argentina showed no respect for opponents or referees.

"We have to concentrate on our own game. They are temperamental, we'll see how they deal with defeat on Saturday," Lahm said. "They are impulsive, temperamental and they don't know how to lose."

Assistant coach Oliver Bierhoff chimed in, adding he had played with many Argentines and found them "friendly, warmhearted people."

"But on the pitch they are different. They become aggressive and provocative. We should keep a cool head and concentrate on our own game," the former striker said.

Referring to a post-match fight in 2006 after Germany won a shootout against Argentina in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, Bierhoff said, "emotions run high after a game, but we should put it behind us."

Argentina isn't exactly keeping quiet, either, with Maradona mocking Bastian Schweinsteiger, who began the war of words on Wednesday. Maradona said nerves must be getting to the German midfielder.

Maradona also said his players were looking forward to "revenge."

Aside from Germany eliminating Argentina on penalty kicks four years ago, when players and team officials exchanged punches and kicks afterward, Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in the 1990 World Cup final — avenging Argentina's 3-2 victory in the '86 title game. Back then, Maradona was leading the Albiceleste as a player.

"The important thing is that we answer on the field," Argentine defender Martin Demichelis said. "The best answer is during the game.

"Maybe because we beat them on March 3 (in an exhibition game) they respect us a little more."
Doesn't sound like it.

Lahm dismissed Maradona's suggestion the Germans were nervous.

"We are tense but not nervous," Lahm said. "We are looking forward to the game."

The World Cup resumes Friday with the Netherlands playing Brazil in Port Elizabeth and Uruguay meeting Ghana, Africa's last hope at the first World Cup to be played on the continent.
Brazil coach Dunga may have a hard time selecting his midfielders against the Netherlands because of injuries and a suspension. Kaka and Gilberto Silva are set to start at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, but a suspension to Ramires and injuries to Elano, Felipe Melo and Julio Baptista leave the coach with few options for the other two midfield positions.

"Brazil doesn't depend on just three players but a whole collective," Dunga said. "The entire team is important and if they all play up to expectations we're going to get the results we're looking for."
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is sticking by Fernando Torres despite the striker's poor performance so far. Torres has struggled in South Africa since returning from knee surgery in April. Although Fernando Llorente played well after replacing Torres in the 1-0 win over Portugal, Del Bosque says "our striker is Fernando."
Spain plays Paraguay at Ellis Park on Saturday.
FIFA still is considering what action to take against Nigeria, whose president, Goodluck Jonathan, ordered the team to sit out international competition for two years as punishment playing so poorly in the World Cup. FIFA rules demand that national federations be independent of the government, so Nigeria faces a suspension by the world soccer governing body.

Javier Aguirre quit as Mexico coach, three days after the national team was knocked out of the World Cup 3-1 by Argentina — the fifth straight time Mexico has been eliminated in the second round.
"I'm the person responsible," said Aguirre, adding that he'd made a commitment to reach the quarterfinals.

World Cup chief organizer Danny Jordaan said paid attendance is already at 2.69 million people, giving him hope the 3 million mark will be surpassed.

Associated Press
"The signs are there," Jordaan said. "The South African fans have been superb."
 

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
75,154
Tokens
World Cup stories for Thursday, July 1. The supervisor is John Affleck.
SOC--WCUP-WOMEN'S GAME


JOHANNESBURG - Memo to politicians everywhere: keep your hands off sports. Nigeria's president and French lawmakers are taking names and demanding answers after their teams were booted out of the World Cup. Shouldn't they be ending poverty or reducing unemployment instead?

JOHANNESBURG - Soccer players are such nice fellows, they'll give opponents the shirts off their backs. No, really. Watch the end of any World Cup match, and you'll see players exchanging their sweaty, stinky, game-worn jerseys in a time-honored tradition, one of several that sets soccer apart from any other sport.

GERMANY-ARGENTINA FEUD
ERASMIA, South Africa - You're a bunch of sore losers. Oh, yeah? Well, you're just nervous about having to play us. Germany and Argentina are heating up the World Cup with a little bit of trash talking ahead of their quarterfinal match Saturday in Cape Town.

EU--GERMANY-WORLD CUP PATRIOTISM

BERLIN - Immigrants are rallying around Germany's diverse football team that includes players with roots in Turkey, Ghana, Poland, Tunisia, and other countries. But 65 years after the end of World War II, some Germans are still adamantly against any expression of national pride and feel uneasy about cheering "Deutschland, Deutschland'' during a World Cup match.

JOHANNESBURG - Though elated that the World Cup has come to his homeland, South African soccer great Jomo Somo can't help but look back to his glory days in the apartheid era and wonder what might have been. Once a teammate of Pele's with the New York Cosmos, Sono never got the chance to play for his country. By National Writer David Crary.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...80.ap.ap.world.cup.digest.0586/#ixzz0sWQkkrWz
 

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
75,154
Tokens
Argentina has edge over Germany..

masch-298.jpg


Argentina's Javier Mascherano (left) will be tasked with shutting down German playmaker Mesut Ozil.

To hear some of the praise lavished on Germany following its second-round victory over England, you'd think it was a reincarnation of Franz Beckenbauer's total footballing side of the early seventies.

It's not. Or at least it's not yet, for the strength of its youth sides suggests the next decade may be a very bright one for German football. All that can be said with any certainty about this side, though, is that it is very good at picking off teams who play too high against them, as Australia did in losing 4-0, and as England did in losing 4-1 last Sunday. Serbia and Ghana defended deeper, and the result was two far tighter games.

Argentina defend deep as a matter of course, and are rather more potent than either Ghana or Serbia going forward. Manager Diego Maradona will surely maintain that solid, deep back four and retain Nicolas Otamendi as a more defensive right back rather than having Jonas Gutierez operate as what the coach has called a "half-and-half" position, covering the right flank. Germany's forwards are very good at exploiting space, but Argentina won't give them space. Its back four focuses almost exclusively on defending; Maradona's side is not reliant, as England and Australia are, on attacking fullbacks.

Germany's Miroslav Klose may threaten in the air, particularly if he can isolate Martin DeMichelis, whose vulnerability to the high ball was exposed by his compatriot Diego Milito in the Champions League final. However, there is a lack of guile about Lukas Podolski and Thomas Muller: Podolski, as Jogi Low has himself said, is best at running in straight lines, while Muller for all the impact he's had in this tournament, is yet to beat a fullback one-on-one. In short, you'd expect a back four of Otamendi, DiMichelis, Nicolas Burdisso and Gabriel Heinze to handle Muller, Klose and Podolski relatively comfortably.

What, then, of Mesut Ozil, who occupies the central creative position in Germany's 4-2-3-1? He is, without question, a player of sublime gifts, a superb technician who also has the vision to select the right pass at the right time. He troubled England and Australia by operating between his opponent's defensive and midfield lines, finding angles for passes that neither England nor Australia were able to counter.

Give him space and he will pick a team apart. The problem against Argentina, though, is that sitting in just the space he likes to operate will be Javier Mascherano, arguably the best defensive anchor in the modern game. Ozil may get the better of him on occasions, as he ultimately got the better of Anthony Annan to score the winner against Ghana, but he will not have the sort of freedom he relished against England.

That leaves Argentina's two carrileros, the up-and-down midfielders who flank Mascherano, up against Germany's two holders, Sami Khedira and Bastian Schweinsteiger, and again Argentina seems to have a slight advantage in that position. In Maxi Rodriguez and Angel Di Maria, Maradona has two hard-working players who can also pull wide and create; even if they aren't able to match the German pairing for energy, they should be able to make up for it with their movement. And if Di Maria does start to drift left, threatening to unleash the crossing ability that proved so devastating at Benfica last season, then Germany really is in trouble.

Perhaps Phillip Lahm, pushing on from right-back can begin to pick him up, but that negates Lahm as an attacking force, which in turn makes Muller more predictable. If one of the two holders is forced out of a central area to cover, then what Ottmar Hitzfeld, Switzerland's German coach, calls the red zone is suddenly flashing with warning lights, because Lionel Messi is free. Or if not free then at least facing only two or three opponents, which amounts to pretty much the same thing.

It's not quite true to say that Argentina's basic tactic in this World Cup is to keep it tight and get the ball to Messi, just as it's not quite true to say its tactic in 1986 was to keep it tight and get the ball to Maradona, but it's not far off. Nobody since Maradona has been so adept at beating not just one defender but two or three, and what Germany cannot do is allow him to run at its two big, somewhat clumsy center backs, Per Mertesacker and Arne Friedrich. The danger, though, is if too much is invested in trying to counter Messi, then Carlos Tevez will benefit, as he did against Mexico. Against Mexico, Tevez played more centrally than in earlier games, but it seems probable he'll pull back right again and try to expose Jerome Boateng, assuming he carries on at left back.

Beyond the matchup of players, though, there is also an intriguing meeting of personality. Something that, for some reason, is never written about -- perhaps because it doesn't fit the conception of scheming Latins and industrious northern Europeans -- is that this German side, like many in the past, and like Louis van Gaal's Bayern Munich, has an unpleasant streak. Muller and Schweinsteiger, in particular, are feigners, and on at least two occasions against England, Germany stopped promising breaks by staying down after challenges only for its players to spring up as soon as the ball went out of play. Such things probably weren't a great influence on its victory over England, but if Germany attempts anything underhand against Argentina, it will find itself up against a side at least as accomplished in the dark arts, as Schweinsteiger has already admitted.

"The Argentinians provoke and are always whingeing to the referee to try and change his opinion. We shouldn't let ourselves be affected by their provocations," he said. "It starts before the match. You see their body language, how they gesticulate, how they try to influence the referee. That is not part of the game. That is a lack of respect.

They are like that. We should not be provoked by them. I hope the referee will pick this up."
For Schweinsteiger, who got Jeremy Toulalan sent off with gross over-reaction when playing for Bayern against Lyon in last season's Champions League to make such a claim is the height of hypocrisy, and there could be a real undertone of nastiness, particularly given the brawl that followed Germany's quarterfinal victory over Argentina four years ago.

Argentina has revenge very much on its mind and, if it comes down to an open contest, it should achieve it. If Germany can somehow neutralize both Messi and Tevez, though, and if Ozil can make the most of any opportunity Mascherano allows him, then Germany could just steal it.


Sports Illustrated
 

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2008
Messages
2,604
Tokens
For Schweinsteiger, who got Jeremy Toulalan sent off with gross over-reaction when playing for Bayern against Lyon in last season's Champions League to make such a claim is the height of hypocrisy

That's one of the funniest things I've read in quite a while: Toulalan was sent off for his 2nd yellow card in that game. It was a clear-cut foul worthy of a yellow card (well late and also no hesitation, risking an injury to Schweinsteiger) and especially with the way this game was officiated there was no question that this foul would draw a 2nd yellow card.

Other than that, I agree with the mismatch in favor of Argentina when it comes to their offense vs the German defense. Mertesacker is playing poorly so far, Boateng is also not that great and both inside defenders (Friedrich+Mertesacker) are rather slow and immobile, which should give Argentina some good opportunities thanks to Tevez, Messi and the rest of their fast paced attack.
But I fairly disagree on the rest: Both midfields probably will neutralize each other, don't see any advantage on either side. And yes, Germany has excelled when they got space, but the article makes Argentina sound like a defensive stronghold and imo they are far from that:
They started off vs Nigeria, who they dominated. But they allowed a lot of scoring opportunities to Nigeria and the Africans just couldn't convert any of them. After that, they dominated again vs Korea, but still Korea scored and the defense got exposed a couple of times. Greece was a rather solid effort defensively, but then again Greece is one of the worst teams (offensive-wise) you'll ever see at a world cup.
Their best opponent so far has been MEX and some may disagree, but until Tevez scored the 1st goal while being offsides, MEX was playing really good (might have even been the more dangerous team up to that point), had hit the cross-bar already, missed a couple of inches wide on another shot and without that gift by the linesman, this game plays out completely different (more similar to 2006 when they went to overtime). MEX also scored a goal later in the game and missed several more decent opportunities. And Mexico also is a team, that excells when they have room, so I actually don't see why GER should me at disadvantage here.
Imo the Argentinian defense has been very weak so far, they just had rather weak opponents who didn't completely expose that fact yet. Their goalie looked very weak vs Mexico and their inside defenders have been exposed several times and imo will be exposed again by the German offense.
There is a reason, why the line on over 2 goals for this game already went from -140 to -180...
 

Forum statistics

Threads
1,106,773
Messages
13,438,899
Members
99,339
Latest member
billcunninghamhomeloans
The RX is the sports betting industry's leading information portal for bonuses, picks, and sportsbook reviews. Find the best deals offered by a sportsbook in your state and browse our free picks section.FacebookTwitterInstagramContact Usforum@therx.com