USA V Germany World Cup 2014

USA V Germany Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Beers: Group G of Beer World Cup: http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-group-g/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? Samuel Adams V Löwenbräu. Who will quench the thirst, set the mood, get me in the right spirit? Click on picture for a preview of the beers.

Get the beer result after, much after!

Lowenbrau V Samuel Adams: 1-1. Score draw. Löwenbräu with its quality assured brew is a lovely smooth beer that is perfect to watch the football with. Full of natural flavours, crisp and clear and fully balanced with its taste going down very very easy. A lovely looking beer as well, nice colour and good head, very alluring. Löwenbräu was really easy to enjoy. A good pure Deutsche lager. Refreshing. But how would it do up against an American craft beer classic, Samuel Adams. SA also looks great, good colour, good frothy head, a nice pour. The look of a real beer. In taste SM had more flavouring going on, hops and malts balanced out, and a hint of caramel standing out, a good aftertaste that is enjoyable. Delicious. The two beers are slightly different, one a good session beer, the other a beer to sit back and take in all the flavours and aromas. I really don’t want to separate them here so I think a score draw is a very fair result for two cracking beers. Click on links below for full beer information and reviews

PreGame:

USA: In what should be an intriguing tie, Joachim Low gets a chance to get one over his former manager Jurgen Klinsmann. The two were coach and assistant coach of the German team who performed so well in 2006, surprising everyone with their attacked minded approach in that World Cup. It will be interesting to see who gets the bragging rights after this tie.

Against Portugal, the USA were a little susceptible to quick breaks, and on a few occasions they had to rely on their top goalkeeper to bail them out. Tim Howard once again showed us his world class goalkeeping ability. He is one of the USA’s best players of this World Cup. He pulled off some amazing saves and I still don’t know how he managed to save the Portuguese shot where he was heading one way yet his frailing arms pushed the ball over the other side of the bar. A save that in the end proved very beneficial for his team.

At the other end the USA have scored some well taken goals, and they are a team that will play until the 90 minute. Possibly that’s why they gave it away so easily against Portugal. Bradley could have played it to the corner flag but tried to play it around midfield and then lost the ball and Portugal equalised. Could that come back to haunt them tonight? Six points are a lot better to stomach than 4.

But I shouldn’t take anything away from TEAM USA. They played with a lot of heart in their two games so far and they have a strong collective spirit molded by their manager, that creates a very decent exciting team to watch.

A draw between Germany and USA will see both through, while Portugal must beat Ghana to have any chance of progressing. Portugal are relying on a German win and must also achieve a five or six-goal swing if they are to pip the USA to second place and reach the last 16.

The elephant in the room is the World Cup of 1982, when Germany co opted Austria to play out a dour shot free result that meant both teams went through at the expense of Algeria. Wonder how this is reported in Germany but the similarities are staggering. So all the money is on a draw for tonight, but surely it cant be THAT obvious!

Germany got a huge awakening in the last game against Ghana. Just as they scored and had thoughts of easily making the second round in style Ghana hit them with two sucker punches and had them on the ropes for the last twenty minutes of the game. In a very entertaining game, possibly game of the competition so far, Germany at times looked ragged and out of sorts. For a while memories of Letchkov and Bulgaria came to mind as the Germans struggled to hold back the tide of Ghanaian attackers. Luckily for the Germans, Ghana missed more chances than they created, and so tonight you would imagine that order will be restored.

A draw is good enough for the German team but you would like to think that they will finish the group with a bang, especially since they have nothing to lose by trying to win it. It would be a small miracle if their big goal difference of plus 4 was clawed back. They can attack with impunity tonight.

Could we see double records broken in these two sets of games from this Group? A Gyan to score in the other game and be top all time African scorer and Klose to get the goal he needs to become the record goalscorer at World Cup finals. I can see a history making couple of hours on the horizon.

A more detailed review on USA here and on Germany here

A pretty dour game in all honesty but to be fair to both teams the game was played under horrendous conditions, with a torrential downpour causing havoc on the surface of the pitch, and making a good game seem impossible.

The Germans started off the game on fire, immediately disproving pregame theories of tactical plans for a draw between both German coaches. Germany on both wings were zipping in the crosses, and putting the USA in all sorts of intense pressure early on. Jerome Boateng was especially effective on the right wing, sending in at least half a dozen low crosses into the penalty box. Howard and, particularly Gonzalez in central defence, did just enough to hold out.

Thought Schweinsteiger made a real difference today for the German team. He provides a strong midfield steel to the team, and get things moving along. Lahm was also much better today, I guess he plays better when Schweinsteiger is playing along side him.

The first half fizzled out in the end, and the second half wasn’t much better. Thomas Muller eventually got on the score sheet, getting his fourth goal of the tournament. Getting a simple enough goal after Howard could only push Mertesacker’s header onto his path. Thought Howard could have done a little better here, but the ball might have been slippy with the weather. It is worth noting that Muller is now only six goals behind the all time World Cup goal scoring record. If he continues with the way he is going, he should get that record eventually sooner rather than later, remembering he is only 24!

As for the USA they offered very little, and had no chances at all in the game. Disappointing stuff from the Americans, especially from their captain Dempsey who had a very quiet game. The sad fact was that Neuer, in the German goals, hadn’t a shot to save all game. They will have to improve dramatically if they want to beat Belgium and progress into the last eight.

Germany topped the group and go on to play Algeria, a repeat of the infamous 1982 game, where the Algerians shocked the footballing world by beating Germany 2-1, one of the biggest all time shocks in World Cup history.

Music to get you in the mood

Bruce Springsteen V Haddaway