Tag Archives: Germany

Euro 2012 B2 – Netherlands 1-2 Germany – Match Analysis

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Lineups

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Match Analysis

Breakdown in Dutch midfield spotted by Schweinsteiger:

Much has been written about Holland’s use of two protective midfielders, not least of which in the game against Denmark. This safety-first approach by van Marwijk has to this point been most notable in the loss of attacking threat as the front four have an enormous burden of creativity to break down as many as twice the number of opponents in a set defence. However, against Germany it was a breakdown in the defensive aspect of this approach which caused the defeat.

Some background: teams play one protective midfielder to sit in front of the defence and pick up any opposition players looking to get into that dangerous area with time on the ball. However, that player may have to move out wide, to cover a fullback who had pushed forward, for example, or to prevent a two-on-one or three-on-two developing on the wings. Attacking teams can exploit this by deliberately drawing that protective midfielder out of the centre, then moving the ball into the space he has vacated.

The natural counter to this is two play two protective midfielders alongside each other, allowing one to join the play developing on the wings, while the other remains in situ to protect the area in front of the centrebacks. The tradeoff with this approach is obviously that it means one less attack-minded player on the pitch, but it is much more secure as opposition teams can’t dislodge both protective midfielders at once, by design.

In the context of this game, de Jong was often drawn out of the centre by Ozil, which was fine from a defensive standpoint as that would leave van Bommel in the protective role in the centre. However, van Bommel also began to wander out of this role whenever he saw an overload on the wing, particularly when Khedira was joining Ozil in wide areas. van Bommel’s job in these situations was to stay put, and both managers would have expected this, as that’s the entire point of playing two protective midfielders, but for whatever reason van Bommel started to drift. Schweinsteiger was very quick to notice this and join the attack from his more withdrawn role as a possession-maintaining option. When he burst forward into the space vacated by van Bommel, he showed exactly why this area of the pitch is so important to defend, as he slid in Gomez behind the defence twice for two assists.

This was not a deliberate ploy by Germany; they would have expected van Bommel to stay put, but Schweinsteiger was excellent in recognising the threat and taking advantage – particularly as he would have known that moving up to the edge of the area would have allowed Holland to break with all three German midfielders caught up the pitch if they won possession. It was a fantastic piece of adaptive play by Schweinsteiger and won Germany the game.

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When van Bommel vacated the area in front of the defence, Schweinsteiger moved up and assisted two goals

Willems weak link: In addition, Willems had a poor game – perhaps part of the reason van Bommel started moving out to the left as he recognised the difficulties the left back was having. In normal, non-van Bommel-assisted play, Germany were more of a threat down the right, getting to the byline more often and getting more crosses into the box from this wing.

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Germany able to get to the byline behind Willems and get more crosses in

Sneijder improves: After a poor game against Denmark by his standards (which he subsequently admitted was due to carrying a small injury), Sneijder started the first half where he left off, not quite connecting with van Persie and misplacing too many passes. However, again he improved in the second half after being moved to a more explicit left side role, driving infield more often to take shots at goal, and notionally grabbing an assist for van Persie’s goal (albeit Sneijder’s pass had little bearing on the chance, which was all of van Persie’s creation).

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Similar stats, but hugely different performances. Fewer passes around the centre circle and more driving in from the left to pass or shoot after half time

Conclusions

Germany take the lead in the group heading into the final game, as expected, but owe a huge debt to Schweinsteiger who showed excellent reading of the game and adaptability to create their two goals. Holland’s qualification is now out of their hands, thanks to van Bommel, whose abandonment of his post may have sealed his nation’s fate.

Euro 2012 B1 – Germany 1-0 Portugal – Match Analysis

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Lineups

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Match Analysis

The first half: I could write something about the first half but you already wasted 45 minutes of your life watching it, I won’t waste any more.

The second half: I could write something about the second half but you already wasted… etc, and so on. Oh, well I suppose I should write something…

One team team: I wrote yesterday how the Russian starting eleven featured no less than seven players from Zenit. Well, Low adopted the same approach, starting with seven Bayern players. Basing your international team around a domestic team is fine in theory, as the players should be used to each other, but if you are going to take this approach then perhaps you should base it on a domestic team which hadn’t just been soundly beaten by Dortmund in the league and cup final, and somehow managed to snatch penalty shoot-out defeat from the jaws of victory in the Champions League final? Just a thought.

Veloso vs Ozil: I tweeted prior to the game that Veloso would be important in this game, and his role was the most interesting of the night. He was tasked with being the central protective midfielder in open play, and to never let Ozil get too far out of his sight. Portugal’s game plan was to keep it tight and hope to nick a goal, and Veloso was important in this approach to keep Germany from playing through midfield, in much the same way that Hubschman should have been from the outset for the Czech Republic against Russia.

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Germany, and particularly Ozil, unable to play through the centre

Veloso was not perfect; he was guilty of diving in on Ozil on a couple of occasions, but in general it was a good performance.

Substitutions change games: Or in this case, threatened substitutions change games. Gomez was about to get the hook from Low when finally a cross was deflected to fall nicely between the Portuguese defenders and he was able to head it back across goal and open the scoring, in typical Gomez fashion. In a game featuring six shots on target, and only three of those taken from inside the penalty area, he wasn’t likely to be joined on the scoresheet.

Portugal plan B: If the Portuguese plan A was to give the better team the ball and hope they don’t score, plan B was more traditional – get the ball and try to score. It sounds simple but for some of these peripheral European nations it appears to be quite an outlandish concept. Bento removed Meireles for Varela to add more of a goal threat, and the Porto man had the best chance to equalise, but came up against a brick wall in the form of Neuer.

Conclusions

Not a game that will live long in the memory. Germany did what was required… eventually, while the last 20 minutes showed that Portugal could have made it a much more interesting game, had they desired.