July 1, 2010
World Cup 2010 - Germany defeats England by 4-1 and moves to the Quarterfinals
By Stephen Lars
Germany defeated the English team 4-1 this past weekend, in what has been up to this point one of the more exciting games in the World Cup South Africa 2010.
With this win, the German team has made it to the World Cup quarterfinals.
The match between Germans and British is considered among the classic matches in European football because of the great performances and the history these two teams have made in previous tournaments. Not to disappoint their fans, both teams made quite en effort to make it into the next round, shooting after every chance they had.
The Germans were quite cautious after kickoff, while England kept on pushing plays in the sides, yet looking a bit too anxious and messy on their tactics. Neither team was really willing to take too many risks by moving their lines forward and moving into the other team’s area.
The first half had a couple of good plays that kept on with the excitement of the game. Germany seemed to be able to penetrate the English defense with certain ease. England, on the other hand, could not really break down the German midfield and were making some of the same mistakes that had given them so much trouble in the first three games.
The Germans took advantage of the lack of concentration from the British squad and went on to fully attack the English defenders. 20 minutes into the first half, it was the talented Miroslav Klose that opened up the scoring after he intercepted a pass from the keeper Manuel Neuer. Klose then went on to take the ball from defeder Matthew Upson and finally took advantage of David James’ (the English keeper) poor standing to take a clear shot on goal.
The Germans stayed in control of most every single aspect of the game. 32 minutes into the game, the British defenders once again gave in to the speed of Lukas Podolski. He had an easy shot and added the second goal for the Germans.
England, now down by two goals, gave it one last chance at redemption. They kept moving their men forward. Phillip Lahm, the German captain had to go into overdrive to stop Frank Lampard from scoring the first goal by the English, yet when the ball bounced off Upson took a good header to bring his team closer with a 2-1 deficit.
England had the chance to draw with little over 5 minutes of play in the first half. And then referee Jorge Larrionda made on of the most mistaken calls in his career and perhaps the World Cup when he did not count Lampard’s phenomenal header as a goal, despite the ball being some 80cm inside the goal line. This was it for the English team, who couldn’t really recover from the steal.
Once in the second half, once again England went all out and pushed into the German defense. But key players were not at their best. This is where players like Wayne Rooney should have come in shinning with their talent. But he was nowhere to be seen close to the ball in this match, or matter of fact, the tournament.
Germany took advantage of the many risks that the English were taking to draw the game. Thomas Muller had not much trouble taking a great shot at goal to make it 3-1 after 67 minutes of play.
Only three minutes later, Muller once again made a great play from the side to finish off the English team with the final and definitive 4-1. Now the Germans will face Argentina this Saturday July the 3rd.
About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on regular 2010 South Africa World Cup news, sports news and the sportsbetting industry for many exceptional sports web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.