Having beaten Portugal and Ghana between them in the opening round of games, and got a point against the Europeans and Africans in the second, a draw would be enough to take both teams through. Thankfully the suggestion of an agreement between the German coaches akin to the 1982 game between West Germany and Austria didn’t come to pass, with both teams looking for the win. Joachim Low brought back newly-fit Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski at the expense of Sami Khedira and Mario Gotze, while Jurgen Klinsmann replaced Alejandro Bedoya with Brad Davis. The game was played to the familiar pattern we have come to expect from these two teams so far. The United States’ problems in retaining the ball was highlighted further by the fact that this Germany side is clearly influenced by the tiki taka style of Pep Guardiola, treating possession as an endgame in itself. The US mainly looked to attack quickly when they finally won it back from the Germans, with full-back Fabian Johnson once again proving an excellent outlet on the right, taking advantage of Benedikt Howedes still looking out of his depth away from the centre. Nevertheless, it was Germany who had the […]
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