True that! Seven Bayern players, four of them homegrown, absolutely delighted. I often wonder what a Bavarian national team would look like and how it would do at a World Cup....
Credit to German football. They laid out a plan and executed it with brutal efficiency. German football is like a well oiled machine.
Yes, it`s good at the moment. It was our time shine. But I`d say for the not too distant future, Spain is still ahead of us in terms of talent. They just missed the opportunity to freshen up their team in the last two years IMO. I was critical of Loew before and after the Algeria match and still believe we were set up wrong and got very lucky to progress. After that though he was spot on and there has to go credit to him. He said yesterday that he will almost certainly carry on as coach for at least two years. I think however, we should still look for a new impulse by a new manager. At least after the Euros. We should make sure that we don`t make the same mistake as the Spanish did.
I agree it is important to know when to shake things up even when there has been a long period of success. A fresh approach can spark that hunger again that maybe the Spanish lacked after winning three successive tournaments.
The scary thing is that Gotze and Muller are only squad players for Bayern are they not? Playing well for your club and even better for your country, that's a rarity these days but not for the Germans. How good will Draxler and Krammer be when Euro 2016 comes about? Would be interesting to see how Germany would do aginst Belgium in that tournament wouldn't it.
With the exception of Lahm and Neuer everyone at Bayern is a squad player in a way. Now with Kroos gone, I`d say Goetze will get more playing time, but he has to up his game. He wasn`t that great at this World Cup either by his standard. Mueller and Robben will share the spot in right offensive midfield IMO. It remains to be seen what the story with Ribery will be this season. There were signs of a bit of a decline. Good possible that it was just his back though.
Fair play to the Germans who were great throughout and a superb winner from Gotze. Its incredible watching them getting into goal scoring positions and rather than going for glory will pass to a team mate for an easier finish. Its so meticulous and selfless, a true team in every sense of the word. You'd have to fancy them for the Euros really. France had their time, Spain had theirs and now it looks like Germany are going to have theirs.
I don't know what its like in the Premier league but at Watford the sponsors always give MOTM who scores or assists a goal even if the defence and goalie have played a blinder. As for the Germans - they've got players on the bench who'd get into most International and club sides - that's how strong they are.
People writing off Spain already are fools, they are still the best team man for man and have the best young talents coming through, they will be back no doubt.
A lot depends on who their manager will be and who will be thier main CF. Torress and Costa are no good for Spain, so it's down to either Llorente or Negredo I guess
I think one of their problems this time around was trying to incorporate a centre forward when it just didn't suit the balance of the team, particularly a target-man type like Costa who only seemed to confuse their normal system of playing, because you need to play directly to him for him to have an effect. In the past they have done very well even without a striker on the field; they wouldn't score a lot of goals, but would be very comfortable in how they played and kept a lot of clean sheets. Spain need to go back to basics, get rid of Xavi and few of their other older stars and let the younger talent like Koke and Isco come through, and only play an out and out striker if he is one that can easily slide into how they play and link up with the midfield.
Apparently the average age of this German team is younger than England's. So whilst we're supposedly building for the future, the Germans are resoundingly winning a World Cup on South American soil with a younger squad. We are so far behind the other big European teams it's just absolutely mind-boggling.
Whilst Goetze scored the goal that won them the world cup, MOTM? Absolute joke that is, one of either Mascherano, Boateng, Schwiensteiger deserved that award. Argentina, rued those glorious opportunities that they squandered, Higuain one on one, Messi that put just wide, Palacio in extra time. There was times when watching the game, it just seemed that Argentina had options to attack players running into space, but they decided to pass it back. But overall, Messi made a horrible decision with that free kick, I don't know what made him have that idea so far out, to go for goal, he wasn't ever going to beat Neuer, I'd personally crossed the ball into the box in hope that someone got there head to it. Poor decisions. Germany overall definetly deserved the World Cup, they have been probably the best team over the course of the world cup, I think they'll be frightening in the next world cup, there big stars will be at there peaks.
