Germany - Poland

redspider

Germany 1-0 Poland

It was a good game for the neutral. Germany deserved to win it and eventually got the goal. A pity for the Poles who were plucky and stuck it out well, but in all honesty didnt create enough up front. Jelen had a couple of openings but failed to put in any good shots.

Germany played well I thought and are better with Ballack. His passing was excellent and he got up and down the pitch well. The chance that hit the bar twice was amazingly unlucky. Klose seemed to be a bit rusty with his heading as you would have expected him to put a couple of those away.

Germany are unlikely to win it or get to the final, but look likely to be a top-8 team.

redspider

20 Times 20 Times

Was sitting in the pub last night enjoying few pints of guinness when next of all during the game the guy at the table beside me was screaming , i was wondering what was going on and i asked him , he said that everygame so far in the world cup has had 10+ corners in it so the bookies were offering even money on 10+ corners and he had it backed for €2000

redspider

mike65 wrote:

Ballack was pants as was the whole midfield

KdjaC wrote:

Ballack was pants tho looked unfit

Little-Devil wrote:

I never liked ballack and dont rate that highly, everytime i see him play he does nothing. Tonight he was brutal, played a few good passes, but no forward runs and dont remember him having a shot on goal.

Guys, looks like we have interpreted the same game completely differently. I thought Ballack was good. He produced some excellent passes, kept coming deep looking for the ball and was up front in the box as many times as not. If that is a 'pants' player I want more players like that.

Little-Devil, if you cant remember Ballack's shot that hit the underside of the crossbar then I dont rate your observation skills very highly.

Like all games, people rate the same thing differently. I thought he was well above 'pants'. And whilst there is no way that I think Germany will win the thing, I think they are acquiting themselves well with the players that they have and I'd expect them to be in the final-8 .... and who knows, as the home team they could go further. Look at South Korea and Japan in the last world cup for evidence of that and indeed every WC since the year dot (ie: 1930). 'Weak' teams can go far.

redspider

redspider

Some stats on Ballack:

47 short passes, 27 long passes
3 shots, only 1 on target (the one that hit the crossbar
counts as a 'wide')
Only tackled twice

MP MinP GF PG A SOG S SP
1 90 0 0 0 1 3 47
LP CRS YC RC TC TS FC FS
27 3 1 0 4 2 2 4


A Assists
CRN Corner kicks
CRS Crosses
FBA Fast break attacks
FC Fouls committed
FRE Free kicks (shots on goal)
FS Fouls suffered
GA Goals against
GAA Goals against average
GF Goals for
GFA Goals for average
HDR Headers
LP Long passes
MinP Minutes played
MP Matches played
OFFS Offsides
PG Penalty kick goals
PS Penalty kick shots
RC Red Cards
S Shots
SOG Shots on goal
SP Short passes
SV Saves
SVC Corner kicks saved
SVF Free kicks saved
SVFB Fast break attacks saved
SVP Penalty kicks saved
TC Tackles committed
TS Tackles suffered
YC Yellow Cards



Also, if you go to the ratings on Skysports.co.uk, although I dont give these values much credence, the public votes have Ballack at 7.0, which is equal 2nd, behnd Lahm of the starting players (the subs have been given high ratings).

Some more stats:

Germany Assists  KeyPasses  	AccPasses  BadPasses  Tackles  Clearances Recoveries
  J Lehmann 	0 	0 	8 	8 	0 	0 	0
  C Metzelder 	0 	0 	34 	4 	7 	4 	3
  P Lahm 	0 	4 	57 	13 	5 	1 	2
  P Mertesack. 	0 	0 	39 	1 	4 	4 	2
  A Friedrich 	0 	1 	25 	7 	2 	0 	1
  B Schweins. 	0 	2 	34 	13 	1 	2 	1
  T Frings 	0 	2 	42 	14 	0 	2 	3
  B Schneider 	0 	3 	41 	12 	5 	0 	2
  M Ballack 	0 	1 	59 	23 	3 	1 	5
  L Podolski 	0 	1 	15 	6 	0 	0 	0
  M Klose 	0 	3 	9 	7 	2 	2 	2
  O Neuville 	0 	0 	3 	1 	0 	0 	0
  S Kehl 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
  D Odonkor 	1 	2 	8 	5 	1 	0 	0
  G Asamoah 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
  M Hanke 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
  R Huth 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
  T Borowski 	0 	0 	11 	2 	1 	0 	0

Granted, his passing accuracy was worse than Lahm but in many respects he is trying to do more than most of the other players. Many teams lack a playmaker, but in Germany's case with Ballack they have one.

redspider

eirebhoy

Little-Devil wrote:

I watched the the game on RTE2 and george hamilton thought Philip Lamb was germany's best player, i then turn to BBC and Alan Hansen thought Ballack was there best player, makes me laugh:). I never liked ballack and dont rate that highly, everytime i see him play he does nothing. Tonight he was brutal, played a few good passes, but no forward runs and dont remember him having a shot on goal. I think chelsea and have wasted a lot on money on a average player who is geting old

Ballack is everything Frank Lampard is plus he has all the attributes that I think Lampard could do with. He is a leader, he gets stuck in, he certainly won't go missing when his team aren't playing well... The amount of top class passes Ballack pulled off last night was incredible. He must have passed it out to the right of the pitch about 20 times and it always landed on someone's foot. If only Germany had better players on the right side they would have been setting up a lot more chances. Also, didn't he hit the bar?


In saying that, i don't know why Chelsea bought him as they won't drop Lampard.