itsbeautifuloutside

USA v Germany

Recife, 26th June 2014

Match Report

Played in pouring rain, both teams went into this final game knowing a draw would be good enough. The Germans would probably still have qualified with a defeat.

USA kicked off and were immediately sitting back, a dangerous game to play, in fact it was nearly 20 minutes into the game before USA had anything resembling an attack, but that attack did inspire them to start to have the odd move forward, the Germans still having most of the play without creating any real chances.

USA were just looking for breaks, from an excitement point of view this game really needed an early goal.

Half time - USA 0 Germany 0

Podolski came off for Klose, at the start of the half. Klose was looking for a goal to become all time World Cup top scorer.

USA were once again being forced back and after 54 minutes Germany at last got a well deserved goal. From a corner, Tim Howard made a fantastic save from Qzil. Unfortunately for him the ball falls to Muller on the edge of the area, who puts a unstoppable shot into the corner of the goal.

USA 0 Germany 1

As the game restarted, news came in that Ghana had equalised against Portugal, meaning as things stood, USA would still qualify. I don't know if the news got to the USA players, but they continued sitting back, rather than push on for a goal.

Then news came through Portugal were now winning, could this new inspire USA to push forward and make a game of this? Nah they knew thier goal difference was far superior to Portugal's, Germany could have taken their keeper off for an outfield player and USA still wouldn't have scored.

Final score - USA 0 Germany 1

Not as good a game as the other Group G games have been, but that won't worry either of these teams, they are both through to the last 16.

sotonian