Gryzemuis on 9/7/2014 at 12:50
Was I the only one who didn't like the game yesterday ? Who thought it was a disgrace ?
When you play a game, you want to win. It's your duty. When you play professionally, you are even more obliged to try to win. When you play at the worldcup, your main goal is winning. When you play in the semi-final, you will do anything it takes to win. I get all of that.
But why do it like this ? Like a frigging Obersturmbannführer fighting in another Blitzkrieg ?
When they were 3-0 ahead, they could have taken it a little easier. After all, the Worldcup is the largest "football fest" in the world. Not much fest last night. The Brazilians were the host. They paid a few billions to the FIFA to make it happen. I read everywhere that the Brazilian crowd is so friendly and welcoming. They were gonna be devastated when Brazil was gonna lose. Why make it even worse ? Did you see how those Germans kept going and going ? With tight faces and foam around their mouths. Cheering at every goal as if they won the worldcup already. When Brazil scored 7-1, their goalie Neuer almost got into a rage attack. What was he hoping for ? 10-0 ? 20-0 ?
I've watched a lot of Basketball recently. When a team has a big lead halfway the game, say 60-25, then the winning team puts their best players on the bench. So the game finishes 90-60 or so. Not 130-50. There's many reasons to do that. But I guess one of them is to help your opponent keep face. That's polite. The Germans yesterday reminded me nothing of politeness.
What did Brazil ever do to Germany that they deserved such an execution ?
N'Al on 9/7/2014 at 14:13
Why didn't the Dutch stop at 3:1 when they were spanking Spain!?
I'm just glad you managed to get your Nazi comparisons in before the final games this week. Germany playing in a World Cup just wouldn't be the same without those, am I right?
Tomi on 9/7/2014 at 14:42
Hmm. I have a feeling that you're not a big fan of Germany? I really wanted Germany to win, but I didn't like the game as much as I thought I would. The end result was a shock for everyone of course, and I too felt a bit uncomfortable at times watching Brazil get butchered, but Germany simply were so much better. It didn't help that Brazil seemed to give up after the 3-0 goal too. I agree with you that respecting your opponent is an important part of the game, but I don't think that the Germans were disrespectful towards Brazil at all.
So what were the Germans supposed to do then? Start playing "nice" at 3-0 ahead? No way, that's a very dangerous game - just ask any AC Milan fan out there! One goal for Brazil and they would have been back in the game, and you don't want to take any risks in a World Cup semi-final. 5-0 up at half time seems comfortable enough though, and in all fairness, the Germans did take their foot off the pedal for the second half! The Germans subbed off some of their better players (I guess that they would have changed even more players, but you can only make three substitutions...) and were clearly avoiding injuries and bookings, and while Brazil did have their chances at the beginning of the second half, they still failed to score until the very last minute. If the Germans had just started fiddling around in the midfield and killed the game, I think that would have been disrespectful, not to mention very boring too. Germany still have Sunday's final ahead of them too, so carrying on playing somewhat "normally" was good practice and match preparation for them too. These guys will be full of confidence, and it'll be a massive boost for them (unless they get too carried away).
Speaking of the Brazilian crowd, they really annoyed me last night! I'm not the biggest fan of Fred because of his occasional diving antics, but the way how only he was booed by his own countrymen was really ugly and very sad - that was the only disgraceful thing in yesterday's match. Fuck these "fans". Fred hasn't exactly been a great success in this tournament, but it's not his fault that Brazil lost yesterday and that the manager lets him play, yet he seemed to be the scapegoat. I wish that he had scored a goal in the end.
As for the celebrations, I honestly think that the Germans kept it very classy. Just watch the highlights again and you'll see that the celebrations are hardly over the top or anything after 4-0. But you have to remember that there are young players who are in their first World Cup (Schürrle for example), so of course scoring a goal in the semi-final is a huge thing for them. Still, the celebrations were mostly just polite handclapping in front of the German fans, nothing too wild or outrageous. The post-match celebrations (on the pitch at least) were rather tame as well, they walked around the pitch clapping their hands, shaking hands with other players, and comforting the Brazilians - you know, the ordinary stuff, but again they kept it very classy, in my opinion. About Neuer's outburst after Brazil's goal, well I think it's an understandable reaction for a winning goalkeeper - no goalkeeper wants to fail and lose the "clean sheet", even if it's for a consolation goal.
It was a heartbreaking match for the Brazilians, and it was sad to see all those fans in tears, but all they can do now is to forget this game and prepare for the next big match on Saturday.
Gryzemuis on 9/7/2014 at 15:07
I've got no problems with Germans in general. When the Worldcup started, I didn't care if the Germans would do well or not. Just like I thought about other teams. Let the best team win.
I watched my first Worldcup final, Germany versus the Netherlands. Germany won. Thanks Hölzenbein. So am I biased for or against Germany ? In general I like Germans. But not last night.
The 5:1 against Spain was different. Spain scored the first goal. The punishment only started with 3-1 in the 64th minute. Not after 20 minutes. Spain was not organizing the Worldcup. And most important, Spain beat the Netherlands in the last Worldcup final. There was something of a revenge. But yes, I thought it was a bit exaggerated how the Dutch celebrated the 4-1 and 5-1.
I agree with most of what you say, Tomi. Except maybe that I didn't think they kept it classy. I didn't think Neuer's reaction was classy, no matter what.
Anyway, I was just expressing my surprise that nobody seemed to share my view. Not the Dutch reporter on TV, not the German reporter. Not websites. They all seemed to think it was an "amazing" game. I felt only vicarious shame. (Not sure that's the right word. I had to look it up, and that's the best I could find. German word is Fremdschämen, Spanish vergüenza ajena, Dutch plaatsvervangende schaamte).
Anyway, the good thing is: if the Netherlands make it into the finals, we will have 200 million Brazilians rooting for us. Just so they can root against the Germans.
N'Al on 9/7/2014 at 15:36
Yes, well, if Argentina win tonight those 200 million Brazilians will be rooting for Germany, cause they sure as hell ain't gonna be rooting for Argentina! ;)
Tomi on 9/7/2014 at 15:52
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
Anyway, I was just expressing my surprise that nobody seemed to share my view. Not the Dutch reporter on TV, not the German reporter. Not websites. They all seemed to think it was an "amazing" game. I felt only vicarious shame.
I don't think that it was an
amazing game. It was practically over in less than thirty minutes, and for the rest of the match the Germans dominated the pitch, whereas the Brazilians looked like they wanted to be as far away from it as possible and had given up already.
From a competitive point of view Brazil vs Germany was the worst match of the tournament, but it was also probably the biggest World Cup upset of all time. If the Germans had started playing nice when they were winning by three goals, and the match had ended 3-1 or something, it'd still be a disaster for the Brazil fans who thought that they'd win the cup, but this time next year most other people wouldn't even remember the scoreline anymore. Now, with this totally unbelievable scoreline, this match will surely become one of the real World Cup classics, a game that football fans all over the world will
never forget. For the Brazilians it's of course a sad chapter in the history of the World Cup, one that they'd love to forget, but they've got their fair share of nice success stories as well, so I don't feel
too sorry for them. And I bet that the Brazilians will be really fired up next time they meet Germany, so that's why I find stories like this quite fascinating. :)
nickie on 9/7/2014 at 16:27
I think any team would be a damn fool if it stepped back at 3-0 against Brazil. I was supporting the Netherlands but dislike Robben's antics so if they do get through to the final (and I support them over Argentina) I hope he will restrain himself.
SubJeff on 9/7/2014 at 19:46
I kind of get what Gryz is saying. It's the host team and you've already caned them at 5-0. The last 2 goals were entirely superfluous I'll bet if you ask the German team now they'd say "Yeah, that was probably a bit OTT".
N'Al on 9/7/2014 at 20:21
Nevertheless, even accepting that this is true (and that is very much debatable) what is - without a shadow of a doubt - OTT is likening the German team to "Obersturmbannführer" on a "Blitzkrieg" "foaming at their mouths".
Yeah, yeah, I know this sort of stuff is often said in jest, as a joke, and personally I do think it's quite funny most of the time. From the way his post is written, though, I think it's pretty clear that Gryzemuis believes this shit he writes. Quite sad, really.
And his reasons as to why the Netherlands - Spain match is supposedly so much different don't hold much water, either.
Tomi on 9/7/2014 at 20:31
Yeah, I also kind of get what Gryz is saying, but to me it looked like Germany weren't really pushing forward at full steam on the second half anyway. However, they were still dominating the game, so what do you do when you get a chance to score? Do you pass the ball back or deliberately blast the shot wide so that you don't hurt the opponent's feelings? Nah, of course you try to score a goal for your team if you get a chance to do so, dicking around would just be a bit offensive. The Brazilians can only blame themselves for the loss, and the players will need to take a good look in the mirror before their next game.
Bastian Schweinsteiger issued an apology to the Brazilians today, saying that he didn't expect such an "ugly" result. While that may sound quite sportsmanlike and everything, is it really such a polite thing to do? Isn't that almost like saying "sorry that your team sucks so much and we scored so many goals, but we could have scored even more if we had really tried"? I wonder if they also apologised to the Saudi Arabians when they beat them 8-0 in the 2002 World Cup.
