Day Twenty Three Wrap Up.

A DECISION HAS BEEN MADE!  Or, rather, two decisions were not made.  That's what I call good refereeing.

The truth of the matter is this:  Germany choked.  Watching the talking heads on ESPN's post game show, former German coach (and hopefully future American coach) Jurgen Klinsmann said it best.  I paraphrase:

"Germany gave Spain too much respect.  They let what happened in the Euro 2008 final dominate their thoughts.  All the confidence they'd built went out the window.  It was a sad thing to see."

Boy, was it.

I'm sure a lot of soccer pundits will point to the (ridiculously unfair) absence of Thomas Mueller as one of the reasons Germany had no bite to their attack, but I don't think that was the case.  Mueller isn't good enough (Good enough, yet.  He's 20.) to have made that significant of a drop in form for the whole team.  So, what was it, then?

This year's Germany has oft been credited as the "Least German Team Ever," meaning that they were creative attackers, had flair, were more than just a bunch of stiff white guys working the ball down into the corner for the cross.  I'd agree with that.  Unfortunately, while the whole of Germany thought this flamboyance would be their saving grace, it turned into their downfall.

Against Spain, Germany needed that old Germanness back, that GerMEANness, if you will.  PUN!  They didn't tackle enough, they didn't FOUL enough.  Spain had these long, uninterrupted periods of possession during which the Germans played solid team defense, but really, they didn't punish Xavi or Villa, they didn't convince any of the Spanish players that if they held onto the ball for too long, it was going to HURT.

I understand that Germany fancied itself as a counter-attacking team, which is fine, but in order to counter attack, you have to DISPOSSESS your opponent.  Germany RARELY won the ball from Spain in the midfield.  Maybe twice.  If you're planning on counter-attacking, the farther you are up the field when you get the ball, the more lightning-style your offense is going to be.  If you're trying to counter out of your own eighteen, your chances of success are severely diminished.

Now, let's talk controversy.

Towards the end of the first half, Mesut Ozil made Germany's best run of the half, bursting into Spain's box (innuendo?) before his left heel was clipped by Sergio Ramos.  Germany screamed for the penalty, but Viktor Kassai, the Hungarian referee, waved play on.  In no uncertain terms, let me say that THIS WAS THE RIGHT CALL.  It's too big of a game for the outcome to be decided my incidental, minor contact.  Did Ramos touch him?  Yes.  Was it in the box?  Yes.  Did it interrupt the attack?  Maybe.  There just wasn't enough contact there for me to think it warranted blowing the whistle, ESPECIALLY in a World Cup semi-final.

In a tournament where (rightly) we've heard a lot of complaining about the officiating, Kassai did a pretty great job in this game.  He got pretty much all of his calls right.  To wit, in the second half, when Luka Podolski clattered into Sergio Ramos as he went for a cross in Germany's box, Kassai held his ground and refused to give Spain a penalty on a call that was just as soft as Ozil's claim.  [Insert trite reference about karma here].

I think that, in the end, Spain deserved to win this game.  Carlos Puyol's goal was a classic Puyol goal.  Not to play the soothsayer, but I kind of saw it coming.  I had a feeling that Spain would win on a goal from one of their defenders, and while I thought it would be Pique (aka Chewbacca) who put in the winner, I wasn't far off.

However, I would be remiss if I didn't FINALLY mention the true psychic in this tournament:  Paul the Octopus.  I won't waste a lot of prose on this glorious cephalopod (octopi are cephalopods, right?), but we should all definitely pay homage to the fact that he's now predicted all six of Germany's games correctly.  I'll be interested to see if his handlers let him make a call on the final, as the game won't involve Alemania, but he'll surely have something to say about the 3rd place match up.  If you're a betting man, I'm not going to recommend that you follow his advice, but I wouldn't hold it against you if you do.

Finally, let me remind you that Miroslav Klose is one goal away from tying Ronaldo (aka Fat Ronaldo aka Realnaldo) for the all-time record of goals scored at the World Cup finals.  Let's all join hands and pray together that he doesn't.  If Uruguay can keep him from scoring in the Consolation Game, I will buy them all some hair care products.  Or a beer.  Or both.

Give me a few days to decide who I want to win on Saturday and Sunday.  You'll be hearing from me.

-ZGS

PS:  I am in FREAKING LOVE with Joachim Loew's super-gay sweater-suit-combo.  I hope that he never takes it off.