No more chances for fine tuning, Germany has to deliver the finished product v dangerous Slovaks
by Martin Wohlfahrt
The group stage is completed. No more draws, no more math or wild guessing games as to who will stay and who will have to go home.
The German Mannschaft finished first in its group. They played the usual German style, expected from a team that has tournament experience and aims to be in “for the long haul”. A careful start with minor adjustments from game to game which resulted in two wins, one draw and them not conceding any goals whatsoever. Now in the knock out phase I’m confident we’ll see the German machine change up a gear – and in case of Mesut Oezil hopefully two.
The biggest question for Germany is will defender Jerome Boateng overcome the calf muscle problem and be fit in time for the game. He is one of the National team’s players who definitely stood out in this tournament so far and would surely be missed. He did not practice with the team on Friday.
If Boateng does not regain fitness in time, Benedikt Howedes or Shkodran Mustafi will likely partner Mats Hummels in the defense. The other option national coach Joachim Loew has, would be to fall back on a 3-5-2 style formation. But he seems to be set on a Khedira-Kroos-Özil triangle in front of a 4-man defensive line which makes that option rather unlikely.
The man Germany has to watch in the midfield is Marek Hamsik, the Slovak’s very agile creative control center. Slovakia will most likely focus on their defensive work, which is their strong suit. They showed that when they frustrated a constantly attacking English team, achieving a goalless draw in their group game against them.
That is bad news for Germany’s Mario Goetze who was not much of a threat in the past games since he did tend to get stuck in the opponent’s defensive lines. He seems not to be in shape for being teamed up against somebody like Martin Skrtel in the Slovakian defense and we might not see him in the starting eleven. Instead Loew might go with Sebastian Schweinsteiger if his present form will allow for it.
Germany’s approach during the group phase was the step–by-step fine tuning of the team. In the opening game against the Ukraine the defense was vulnerable and disorganized. That improved significantly in the following game. But in the second game the forwards were not able to create enough real goal opportunities, neither through flanking nor box-focused combination play.
That was not the problem in the Northern Ireland game. In that game, it was the turning chances into goals part that was lacking. It should have been 3 maybe 4 to nothing win against Northern Ireland. Wasting so many opportunities can easily come back and bite you in the behind in a game against a more skilled opponent.
Which brings us to the last burning question. Will Thomas Mueller finally get his ‘goal mojo’ back? So far during the tournament he ran, he worked, he tried on the left wing and on the right. But he never actually scored. Who knows, maybe this Sunday it’s finally “Mueller time”.
