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Oh this is the kind of action we expect. The end-to-end stuff. Players in full throttle.
The lesson I have learnt in football this year, is that you can have quick strikers, powerful strikers, slow strikers, technically adept strikers, but the one thing that makes a striker good is the fact that he sticks it, and he sticks it in more often. Ask Mario Gomez. I never really fancied him when he burst onto the scene. When players are getting quicker by the day, when Walcott can run 100 meters before you got off the block, then what chance did a player like him really have. But he seems to pop up at the right occasions. You can twist and turn and nutmeg and outpace, but if you ain’t going to harm the net, it doesn’t really matter.
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Oh, and by the way, class can be permanent and form temporary. And it works both ways. From good to bad too. Ask Van Persie. If only he had taken the earlier chances. Mind you though, that was a great second goal.
The Germans were more composed, more with intent, and more precise. And that showed. Two great goals taken by Mario Gomez really opened the game up. My question still remains, why two holding midfielders for Netherlands? What exactly were the Oranje looking for? A draw? The changes at half-time certainly improved few aspects of the game, and Robben seems to be more over hyped than his real contributions. Van Persie seemed to come out of that if-I-touch-it’s-a-goal mentality he’s been carrying from his club. That goal was a scorcher like Gomez’ latter goal. Schweinsteiger was a piece of hard rock.
This certainly opens the group up. No one is really out of it. Even though a draw for Germany will do it, a loss could be devastating if Portugal wins. The margin of victory is going to matter.
There are too many permutations and combinations still present in this group. I started writing them down, but then decided against it. The implication tells me to expect the stuff of legends on the final group match day. And I don’t see Van Marwijk starting with his son-in-law. Or it could be his job.
