World Cup: Group F: Germany vs. Sweden, 6/23/2018

[Live in the Now]

A must-win for Germany, I simply can't see them losing.

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[Sabresfansince1980]

If Mexico beat S Korea and Germany draw Sweden, it's basically over for them. Mexico and Sweden can simply play kick ball in the 3rd match and advance regardless of what Germany does with S Korea. They could call it "the disgrace of Yekaterinburg" just for the irony. It would be well deserved as a consequence for the light warm-up jog that Kroos took getting back on the Lozano goal. Watch a replay if you want to see a supposedly world-class player put forth a recreation league level effort at preventing a scoring chance.

Anyway, I suspect Germany will be better and squeak by a determined Sweden by 1-0 or maybe 2-0 if Sweden open themselves up late trying to draw.

 

[cgf]

Let’s see if Jogi starts Khedira n Draxler again, or if he’s done sabotaging the NT for now...

 

[Eisen]

Let’s see if Jogi starts Khedira n Draxler again, or if he’s done sabotaging the NT for now...

Sometimes I wonder if he's doing it on purpose to hide how good Germany can be.

 

[cgf]

Sometimes I wonder if he's doing it on purpose to hide how good Germany can be.

Your theory might have legs. He did start Merte for the first 4 games in 2014 for no other possible reason...

 

[Bon Esprit]

Neuer was late to the press conference (45mins I read). He said the dalay was due to 'hot discussions' at a team meetimg. At least the team lives it seems.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Neuer was late to the press conference (45mins I read). He said the dalay was due to 'hot discussions' at a team meetimg. At least the team lives it seems.

I can't wait for the serial in Sport Bild detailing all the events within Team Germany's camp after the embarrassing early exit.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Neuer was late to the press conference (45mins I read). He said the dalay was due to 'hot discussions' at a team meetimg. At least the team lives it seems.

This would seem to confirm my notions of significant discord on the team. I've wondered how much the team is bonding or meshing with the newer players.

I really wish the games were reversed and Germany could face Korea first and get in sync a bit more before facing a bigger test in Sweden.

Something was off even before the game started against Mexico. Detected way more tension than is typical for Germany.

Could it be that some of the young Bundesliga stars weren't listening so much to elders. I wonder about that. Simply conjecture.

 

[cgf]

Neuer was late to the press conference (45mins I read). He said the dalay was due to 'hot discussions' at a team meetimg. At least the team lives it seems.

Great news!

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Who knows if it really had anything to do with the performance on Sunday, but the general tension and negative vibes around the team mostly go back to one particular photo taken about a month ago. The opening game would have been a great chance to overcome that by winning convincingly...but the loss has only added more heat.

 

[Bon Esprit]

Here's a link from kicker in German
Neuer lässt atmosphärische Probleme durchklingen
He also said that there are two camps. One is the WC 14 camp and the other is the CONFED camp. He says it's no problem, but personally think that is exactly the problem. Old vs. young. This two camp crap happened to the Dutch and IIRC also to the French.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Germany comes out angry and scores early.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Here's a link from kicker in German
Neuer lässt atmosphärische Probleme durchklingen
He also said that there are two camps. One is the WC 14 camp and the other is the CONFED camp. He says it's no problem, but personally think that is exactly the problem. Old vs. young. This two camp crap happened to the Dutch and IIRC also to the French.

From what I can see he explicitly denies that there's two camps: ""Diese Zweiteilung gibt es nicht, es gibt auch keine Spaltung. Wir sind eine Mannschaft." ("There is no division in two, there's no split. We're one team.")

Of course, we can speculate about the truth and certainly many comments made by players hint at some drama behind closed doors..

 

[Drivesaitl]

Who knows if it really had anything to do with the performance on Sunday, but the general tension and negative vibes around the team mostly go back to one particular photo taken about a month ago. The opening game would have been a great chance to overcome that by winning convincingly...but the loss has only added more heat.

Would you be able to expand on this here? I'm not aware of the reference but interested.

thanks

 

[Bon Esprit]

From what I can see he explicitly denies that there's two camps: ""Diese Zweiteilung gibt es nicht, es gibt auch keine Spaltung. Wir sind eine Mannschaft." ("There is no division in two, there's no split. We're one team.")

Of course, we can speculate about the truth and certainly many comments made by players hint at some drama behind closed doors..

Right, sorry, I read it sloppy. I read "meinte" but he said "verneinte" wich means the opposite.

Truth is I need glasses badly. Really true.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Would you be able to expand on this here? I'm not aware of the reference but interested.

thanks

I don't want to go into politics here, but google 'Ozil Erdogan' and you should find what you seek.

 

[cgf]

Who knows if it really had anything to do with the performance on Sunday, but the general tension and negative vibes around the team mostly go back to one particular photo taken about a month ago. The opening game would have been a great chance to overcome that by winning convincingly...but the loss has only added more heat.

Agreed, the only reason Sami was so useless & Toni was so lazy was because of how strong their feelings about Erdogan are...couldn't be Jogi's obvious mistakes that we joked about him actually making beforehand...

 

[Drivesaitl]

I don't want to go into politics here, but google 'Ozil Erdogan' and you should find what you seek.

Thanks, I'm in Canada so not news we get here. I sensed it was some controversy thus how I worded the request. Got it, again thanks.

I see more of a potential generational conflict but who knows. The tabloids hopefully don't get more material to work with.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Agreed, the only reason Sami was so useless & Toni was so lazy was because of how strong their feelings about Erdogan are...couldn't be Jogi's obvious mistakes that we joked about him actually making beforehand...

It's pretty naive to believe that something which is in the news every day and discussed in almost every interview, press conference etc. over the course of a few weeks can be easily ignored inside a team's camp. Even if you're not the concerned player, it's there and it affects you. Based on previous tournaments, it's pretty obvious that people in the camp, i.e. players, coaches etc., know exactly what the tabloids and talk shows in Germany say.

Who knows what it does to the mood and relationships in the camp? It certainly wouldn't be the first time in human history that a controversy like that works as a buzzkill. Whether this affects games or not, who knows, but it definitely affects the vibe around the team in general as the atmosphere in the fan base and media always affects that.

 

[cgf]

It's pretty naive to believe that something which is in the news every day and discussed in almost every interview, press conference etc. over the course of a few weeks can be easily ignored inside a team's camp. Even if you're not the concerned player, it's there and it affects you. Based on previous tournaments, it's pretty obvious that people in the camp, i.e. players, coaches etc., know exactly what the tabloids and talk shows in Germany say.

Who knows what it does to the mood and relationships in the camp? It certainly wouldn't be the first time in human history that a controversy like that works as a buzzkill. Whether this affects games or not, who knows, but it definitely affects the vibe around the team in general as the atmosphere in the fan base and media always affects that.

That type of nuisance can grate on a team or bring them together. So even if that is dividing them, that's still on the core for being too complacent to use it as fuel to unite them against the press.

Either way I didn't see issues with them not getting on, I saw issues with complacency from Kroos & Müller, age with Khedira, sucking from Draxler, & terrible tactical failure from Löw

 

[Drivesaitl]

It's pretty naive to believe that something which is in the news every day and discussed in almost every interview, press conference etc. over the course of a few weeks can be easily ignored inside a team's camp. Even if you're not the concerned player, it's there and it affects you. Based on previous tournaments, it's pretty obvious that people in the camp, i.e. players, coaches etc., know exactly what the tabloids and talk shows in Germany say.

Who knows what it does to the mood and relationships in the camp? It certainly wouldn't be the first time in human history that a controversy like that works as a buzzkill. Whether this affects games or not, who knows, but it definitely affects the vibe around the team in general as the atmosphere in the fan base and media always affects that.

To the degree where something off registered with me the moment the players were on the pitch, during anthem, pregame etc. Something was evidently wrong. It interesting that even as a viewer in Edmonton with no news of all this that even on an observer level it was evident something was wrong with the team and tension, worry, concern all detected. No smiles, no enthusiasm, I'd earlier mused no fun. The team not showing any sign of this being fun, which German sides typically do. Even from the bench nonstop tension.

The fun is gone. Replaced with what you mention instead of the beautiful game. So unfortunate. It appears we have some of the answers.

 

[cgf]

Listening to today’s presser with the NT as I drive through Nebraska, and hearing Thomas Müller’s german always makes me feel better about how out of practice my own german has gotten

Cause at least I sound more like Bierhoff than that guy

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

I wouldn't ever want to sound like Bierhoff. Dude is devoid of personality and speaks like someone who has gone to too many corporate communications seminars.

 

[cgf]

Fair enough I meant that in the sense of actually speaking “grammatically correct” high german & minimizing my accent, but you’re not wrong at all lol.

PS has Marco Reus ever completed a sentence without saying “umm”?

 

[Fvital92]

I know it won't happen but I can't help it, Sweden 1 x 0 Germnay.