What do I know, but I thought this game today was very lopsided in favor of Germany. Argentina clearly studied what happened to Brazil, and was dropping every guy they had back playing defense and covering lanes on the field. Soccer defense to me, is essentially a perpetual motion kickoff coverage, the field gets divided up,you got your running lanes and you got to "mark" your man in your lane. THey were bringing lines back 5 guys wide across the field. double stacked and were leaving nobody to attack the ball. Germany players were literally standing still with the ball at their feet and making passes when on offense. No pressure. But Germany couldn't do anythign to get past their stacked up D.
Argentina got some scoring chances on offense, and played some organized offense, but they were very conservative it seemd, and really, seemed to be coming off of Germany mistakes, rather than anything organized sustained they were doing in attacking. I think that had Germany been able to score a goal early, the game would have changed dramatically because it's the final, and Argentina clearly would have needed to start actually trying to generate some offense, but instead they sat back, with a specific game plan - to me, it looked like - here it comes - they were playing for a tie, not for the win. Wanting to get Germany to a shootout or something, or hopefully get a goal on a mistake and quick unorganized really, offensive play back, rather than playing to score goals and win outright.
Germany just kept attacking and attacking and eventually scored. They needed extra time to finally get a good enough play to break down the defense, and it was amazing, the ball never touched the ground on the entry to the shot to the goal. I guess if you play for a tie, with regulation play, and no OT and PK"s, it is a smart and effective thing to do, in this sport, if the matchup dictates that's the way to go. But in a championship final, there are no ties, so it's no surprise to me, that the team that kept an organized open field attack, eventually won, without going to PK"s. Had argentina been able to hold out until PK's, who knows - I think that was their plan.
It was a nice tournament to watch. I'll look forward to the next time the USA plays. And I tell you what, the German team isn't a bunch of floppers, and neither was the USA, and contrary to what was said to me before, it was crystal clear to me, that today, when they wanted to milk the refs late for injury time, it was in their favor - because they weren't a bunch of fakers of injury, and played with pain. Concussion rules need to be revisited, that German that played the first half - seen that before.
If soccer is ever going to become a 'mainstream' sport in the USA, that play acting in pain stuff just can't be a part of it.
So now, we're getting close to UCONN football.
I feel the same way ... McBride started it for me ... then Bocanegra, Dempsey, & EJ. Fulhamerica no more ...