Group F - Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea

[OverratedSanity]

Muller has one of the most punchable faces in existence

 

[vcs]

You just know Germany will score a late equalizing header from a corner or a setpiece after all these counterattacking opportunities wasted by Mexico.

 

[vcs]

Has Loew done anything disgusting yet?

 

[sledger]

Bloody hell that was close.

 

[vogue]

Well done Mexico. Good win there.

 

[sledger]

Great. That'll cement Mexico as everyone's second favourite team.

 

[morgieb]

What a performance from Mexico. Though Germany did do most of the attacking second half but choked it. Still...

 

[sledger]

Paying the price of still not being able to produce a proper centre forward tbh.

 

[harsh.ag]

Excellent game. Well played by both sides.

Germany so near, esp with that incredible shot which hit the outer post.

Mexico need to learn to capitalize on breaks, esp on the passing therein.

 

[Furball]

People actually think Löw is some elite manager.

I've been banging the 'Löw is a clown' drum for years.

Guy's record given the talent at his disposal over the last 10 years is pretty dreadful.

 

[Cabinet96]

Tbf clown is probably harsh. As is dreadful to describe his record. He's clearly a good man manager as all the players like him, and he's not had any disaster tournaments. But given the talent level in the squad his achievements aren't anything particularly special.

I think Werner is great but he might be better suited to playing in a front two like he does for Leipzig (obviously not going to happen with Germany). The bigger issue for Germany was the central midfield. Kroos is obviously an amazing deep playmaker but has to be carried quite a lot defensively. Khedira has never been as industrious a player as many seem to think, and he's now quite old with a long history of injuries. He and Kimmich were just bombing forward and then Kroos and the CBs would be left to deal with counters. If you look at the goal, Hummels feels he needs to win the ball ASAP, and when he gets beaten Boateng, Kroos and Özil are the three deepest players. Özil got criticism for his crap challenge but it's a structural disaster if you have him in that situation in the first place.

Would probably chuck Rudy in there. Pretty boring player but does the basics and could help solidify things a bit. The talent should be enough in the attack. It has the potential to be the best German attack of this generation with Reus finally fit and Werner's emergence. Just need to sort that defending transitions problem out.

 

[straw man]

Mexico looked exceptional I thought, well done them. Very quick and found a lot of holes in the German defense.

 

[Cow]

schadenfreude

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah Khedira is their worst midfielder, any of Gundogan Rudy or Goretzka would be better. Starting Draxler was pretty terrible too.

Their individual quality isn’t what it was. Lots of over-the-hill and out-of-form players in the squad. Their two properly in-form players are Reus and Sane and neither got picked, one was left home. Then they had the worst structure of any team bar Saudi Arabia. Doesn’t look good for Lowe.

 

[Burgey]

Can someone explain to me how he Korean fellas challenge just now was any different to the one which drew France’s penalty on Saturday night?

 

[Uppercut]

Can someone explain to me how he Korean fellas challenge just now was any different to the one which drew France’s penalty on Saturday night?

He gets far more of the ball and the contact on the player is more so part of the same movement. Gets given 1-2% of the time, maybe 20% outside the box. I reckon France get their one about half the time, possibly more without VAR because most refs won't see the contact on the ball.

 

[Uppercut]

This ref is even worse than the one in the Brazil game for letting crystal-clear cynical fouls go. Really works against teams like South Korea who try to dribble through midfield, and in favour of teams like Sweden who go long.

I'd have given Larsson a red for that stamp. Probably deliberate but even if it wasn't, he only ends up there in the process of a deliberate foul.

 

[Johnners]

This ref is even worse than the one in the Brazil game for letting crystal-clear cynical fouls go. Really works against teams like South Korea who try to dribble through midfield, and in favour of teams like Sweden who go long.

I'd have given Larsson a red for that stamp. Probably deliberate but even if it wasn't, he only ends up there in the process of a deliberate foul.

AWTA. So frustrating if it continues throughout the tournament

I thought it was deliberate.

 

[Spark]

He gets far more of the ball and the contact on the player is more so part of the same movement. Gets given 1-2% of the time, maybe 20% outside the box. I reckon France get their one about half the time, possibly more without VAR because most refs won't see the contact on the ball.

Technically isn't it the case that there's no actual mention of getting the ball in the rules? It's always been strange to me that people will argue that two essentially identically tackles have completely different results if one player misses the ball by 2cm and one barely grazes it.

 

[Uppercut]

Technically isn't it the case that there's no actual mention of getting the ball in the rules? It's always been strange to me that people will argue that two essentially identically tackles have completely different results if one player misses the ball by 2cm and one barely grazes it.

The written rules of football don't mention much of anything. The actual rules are 99% unwritten and some of the norms make zero sense. This is one of the most well-established and sensible ones, though.