Match Review & Highlights: Germany 4 – England 1

This one had everything: goals, shoddy defending from both sides, controversial refereeing and then some more goals. A fitting rivalry game, even if the balance is mostly on one side.

The talk going out is two fold: Germany is awfully good and the linesman was awfully bad. With the goal 2-0, England scored two goals in rapid succession, only one wasn’t given. In an act almost too lathered with irony to believe, Frank Lampard’s strike crossed the line – just as Geoff Hurst’s maybe, kinda, sorta didn’t against Germany in ‘66 – but bounced back out and no goal was given. It was a clear goal, one which would’ve made it 2-2, but it simply wasn’t.

Fortunately Germany were simply that much better over the course of the game and deserved their win.

The game was pretty cautious for awhile, as to be expected, until the England defense had its first collapse of the day and allowed Miroslav Klose to break free on a goal kick and put it past David James out of what should have been nothing.

Germany 1-0 England
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And then the inevitable happened: Lukas Podolski got the second. There’s something about Klose and Podolski, the two Polish-born strikers, that once they get into the German shirt they simply go bananas. This one was a bit less of a defensive shambles and more an indication of how silky smooth this young German team can be – and how good Podolski can be as well. A tremendous finish from the tightest of angles.

Germany 2-0 England
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Two goals, twelve minutes. It would be an eternity compared to England’s “two goals”.

The first, and technically only, came from Matthew Upson, who enjoyed some questionable German defense in kind.

Germany 2-1 England
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Then came the controversy. Less than one minute later, Frank Lampard rattled the bar, and it bounced down, and it went well past the line, but the linesman was so far away he couldn’t see and no goal was given, with England then heading into the half down a goal rather than even.

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But it wouldn’t alter their game in the negative. In fact they came out brightly for the second half, as though nothing had happened, but simply couldn’t get near putting another one in the net. Germany could, and it was once again the young guns doing the damage, with Bastian Schweinsteiger eventually finding an entirely free Thomas Muller on the break. David James probably could’ve saved it, but it was not to be.

Germany 3-1 England
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He certainly couldn’t stop Germany’s fourth, and Muller’s second, not long after. A brilliant swung ball for Mesut Ozil to run onto was hit out of the German defense and Mesut, who was once again magnificent, ran it into the box and found Muller for an easy tap-in. The game was over and England were out.

Germany 4-1 England
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It’s England’s worst ever World Cup defeat and one which poses one question: would the goal have mattered? An eternal debate will rage, but with a defense like that, it’s hard to imagine Germany wouldn’t have found the third and fourth anyway. One team was simply better than the other, and the deserved team goes through.

Where to rank the Germans? We may know soon enough: they’ll play the winner of Argentina v Mexico, with the world expecting Argentina to roll to a nice victory. If Germany can beat Messi & Co., their glittering future may be now.