I have no idea what it’s going to take. Germany keep winning, as practically everyone expects, but I’m still not sold. Another clean sheet, but I’m still not buying it. Sweden looked more inept offensively (and defensively), particularly Henrik Larsson, than I expected, but is it them or Germany? I still don’t believe Germany has anything in the back. Maybe I just don’t want to see.
It turned out to be an easy 2-0 win for the Fatherland after the two goals in about 10 minutes by Lukas Podolski.
An inexplicable red card, putting Sweden a man down didn’t help. Larsson missing a penalty didn’t help. Sweden not bothering to mark anyone didn’t help. It might have helped a bit if Ibrahimovic, Ljungberg, Mellberg–or anyone but the keeper would have bothered to get off the bus today.
Germany was the better team all day and deserved the win. There’s no doubting what they can do offensively. Can they stop Argentina? I haven’t thought they’d be able to stop a single team yet, but they keep managing.
Germany was less impressive than the result but like you say, a win is a win and Germany is piling them up at the right time.
One point that I think Americans might enjoy, the German coach Jurgen Klinsmann is a 41 year old former German World Cup hero who lives in California. He has adopted unconventional methods such as team building and uses a sports shrink to keep his players ready for the high pressure. All of these facts led the German press to crucify him unmercifully. Now that his methods are yielding results, traditionalists in Germany are hedging their bets and jumping on the bandwagon, but secretly hoping Klinsmann falls on his face.
So if Germany wins this thing, in a strange way it could provoke a sort of cultural change in Germany where the old ways of doing things still rule in sports and also in business and government.
Here is a Klinsmann’s website which is worth a look
http://www.klinsmann.us/