By Sphiwe Hlongane
Vincente del Bosque’s men stayed true to themselves and the beautiful game, I still don’t know why Germany decided to employ defensive tactics in that game instead of playing the free flowing attacking game that they have been dishing out in this tournament. Their approach denied us a better spectacle, no wonder the football Gods turned a blind eye of them, I’m sure they are tired of the defensive football style that is chasing the supporters away from the stadiums. To tell the truth, I was secretly rooting for the Spanish team in that game, for one simple selfish reason, Germany disposed of one team that played the most flamboyant and adventurous football in this tournament, I was hoping that if Argentina progressed further in this world cup and probably win it, it would have been a victory for beautiful football.
Before the game started, I thought Germany will come out firing, but instead they decided to build the great Berlin wall around their box, boy was it hard to crack, Spain employed all the available armor to break it down, all to no avail until one short man with a big heart decided to climb over that tough wall to score with a perfect header from a corner kick mid way through the second half, that man was Carlos Puyol, what a header, what a goal, a great moment indeed.
Germany let themselves down, when they beat England in the round of 16 and Maradona’s Argentina in the quarters, scoring a whopping eight goals in the two matches, they proved that they can give as much as they get, they showed that they can play the flowing attacking football and still be organized defensively, they are a good young side capable of playing entertaining football, but somehow they shot themselves in the foot when they decided to play defensively against the deadly attacking prowess of the Spanish team, for once, entertaining, free flowing attacking football triumphed over negative defensive tactics.
I hope the Orange machine ( Nertherlands ) learnt a lesson from this game. The warning sign is there for them and it reads: PLAY DEFENSIVELY AT YOUR OWN RISK: they will have to come out firing on Sunday, we want an open game full of attacking play and goals. Otherwise the football gods will frown upon them and they will lose.
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