Saturday, 16 June 2018

Game 10: Federal Republic of Germany v United Mexican States

United Mexican States. I had a nice chuckle at this, but I'm afraid that is probably the only smiles Mexico will get today.


Shirt badge/Association crest

Germany (National Eleven). Defending Champions. Perfect qualification with a 10-0 record, 43 goals scored, 4 conceded. Germany are the epitome of consistency in world football. The last 4 world cups have ended with Germany 2nd (2002), 3rd (2006), 3rd (2010) and Champions (2014). Even in the Euros they were 2nd in 2008 and lost the semifinal in 2012 and 2016. You can't really get much more consistently good.

A team packed full of stars Ozil, Boateng, Neuer, Reus, Gomez, Muller, Kroos, Draxler etc. This is a side that sent a "b-team" to the Confederations Cup and won it. Arguably the favourites of the tournament, Germany will have all the pressure of "expecting to win" with every game they play.

Shirt badge/Association crest

Mexico (The Tricolor) easily qualified top of CONCACAF, 5 points ahead of Costa Rica. They are no easy beats and even when their team doesn't have "star players", they always manage to compete on the world stage. Last world cup Mexico came 2nd in their group to Brazil having held Brazil to a 0-0. Having qualified for every World Cup since 1994 and made it out of the group EVERY TIME, Mexico have high standards to live up to.

Mexico play with pace and flair with speedy forwards and wingers. Led by their nations top goal scorer Chicharito and the dos Santos brothers in the midfield, Mexico can pose problems, especially for teams with immobile backlines. They are an extremely experienced team with 4 players earning more than 100 international caps and the majority of the team sitting on more than 50.

Image result for joachim low

As much as I like to watch mexico and their style of play, Germany are simply Germany. Although Muller and Ozil are not at their peak, they have too many stars all around the park not to win every game in this group. Germany 2-0.

No comments:

Post a Comment