Semifinals

I guess I wasn't in the mood to write a blog entry after the phenomenal 4-0 victory over Argentina on Saturday. And I was exhausted. I just about managed to get back home without falling off my bike. I had been sitting at the public viewing area 3 hours before the match even started and it was too hot for my liking. But I really wanted and needed a place in the shadow to survive the match.

Anyways... after we had basically blown Argentina off the pitch one of the teams headed for the cup the football Spain played against Paraguay seemed so bad. All of a sudden it seemed like no national Team in the world would be able to beat Germany. Even I felt the excitement and thought that Spain was only one of two beatable opponents on our way to the cup.
But it took me only one day for a reality check.
After the victory over England everybody knew that England had never really put up a fight after the not given goal. In my opinion that match could have taken a completely different turn if the goal had been given. England would not have given themselves up like that.
Against Argentina we saw an even better Team of German players. They successfully kept one of the worlds best strikers away from their goal. That was the main reason why Germany managed to overrun Argentina like that, because their defensive abilities are medium and below. So far their strong strikers and midfielders were able to compensate that but without their abilities Argentina was vulnerable.
Now Spain is a completely different story. I agree that so far they haven't proven themselves to be the most dangerous and strongest Team attackwise. They did score but without showing a convincing concept.
It's their defensive abilities I'm worried about. I believe that Spain is quite capable of thwarting our attackers for a lot longer than 3 minutes. I really doubt we are going to get a lot of chances in front of their goal and they after a superb goalkeeper named Iker Cassillias. With us needing a lot of chances to score one goal I see the Spain Team with an advantage. They have in David Villa a striker who has yet to fail scoring when given the chance and without Thomas Müller I am afraid our attack department will be greatly diminshed. In my opinion neither Trochowski nor Kroos will be able to compensate his loss.

I really hope to be proven wrong but I'm afraid that we will see a match where one goal will decide the match as it did 2 years ago when we lost against Spain in the finale of the European Championship. Do I think of revenge for the lost finale?
No but I would love to prove to Spain that we are better now than we were back then.
It will take lots of running, lot's of power and the never-giving-up team spirit which I believe our players all have in them.

It's going to be a tough one but I believe in you :-)

Oh and if Netherlands does not beat Uruguay I will be in deeeeep shit betting wise ;-)