Germany v Serbia (and the Man Who Shall Not Be Named)

First of all, while this is a tough one to swallow I think that Germany did in fact play rather well given the circumstances. A lot of pundits are going to call Germany overhyped now, pointing to a weak Australian team. For me, there are actually quite a few positive things to take away from this defeat as the team proved again that they can play very domineering and attacking football. However, the first thirty minutes or so Germany was only the slightly better team against a well-organized Serbian defense. Yet, somehow the game as a whole was shaped mainly by the Spanish referee who was handing out more cards than a porn producer at a beauty pageant.

Blaming the ref is, of course, the cheapest excuse one can think of but in this case he really made the game all about himself, confusing all players with his rigid, yet also inconsistent standards (apparently he sent off eleven players in the 17 matches he officiated in La Liga this season). As to Klose's sending-off: neither card should have been given to begin with. Ironically, the one yellow Klose "deserved"wasn't given after he netted in a shot way after play had been stopped. It's downright impossible not to attribute the whole course of the game to the decisions of the referee, and that's not how the game's supposed to be played. But enough of that now, Germany had enough chances to tie, or even win the game despite the referee.

Right after the ridiculous second yellow for Klose, Serbia exploited a brief German state of shock and scored. Surprisingly, however, this goal led to Germany's strongest phase that lasted from around the 40th minute until 15 minutes into the second half when Podolki missed the penalty kick (what were the odds of Serbia playing handball in the box again?). During this period Serbia were thoroughly outplayed by 10 men. Khedira was unlucky to only hit the crossbar before the break, and Özil, in particular, orchestrated the attack with some beautiful passes (his substitution instead of Podolski remains inexplicable to me unless he was somehow injured).

Yet, missing the penalty seemed to take an emotional toll on the German team as they must have felt that all their efforts were ultimately fruitless. In addition, playing with ten men began to slow down and tire the entire team as well, and Serbia's counterattacks became increasingly dangerous. For the last 20 minutes or so, Serbia was closer to scoring a goal than Germany.

One of the main problems with young players is inconsistency. Müller and particularly Badstuber were clearly not up to the task today. Löw may have to consider keeping the young fullback on the bench against Ghana. Podolski wasted plenty of good chances but he was also very active and shouldn't be singled out for blame. Lahm, for example, had a very poor game, too. By the way, I "knew"Podolski would miss the penalty kick as his shot seemed off the whole day - I even said "oh no, not Poldi" or something to that effect.

Well, in terms of the situation in Group D this is now a gorgeous clusterfuck. If Australia can't deliver a major upset against Ghana tomorrow, Germany wil have to beat Ghana on Wednesday. Clearly, this is not going to be an easy task, but it could be a proper baptism by fire for a potentially great team. If they choke against Ghana they have no business advancing to the next round in the first place. Yet, I am strangely optimistic as I saw more class and determination in 20 minutes played with ten men today than in the demolition of Australia.