international friendly: germany vs argentina...
If you remember this post, you'll know that last night I attended the international friendly between Germany and Argentina in Munich.
My uncle picked me up at about half past four, and we drove to a Park&Ride on the outskirts of Munich. From there, we took the subway to the city centre and had a very yummy dinner at Maredo, one of the many steak house chains. I had haunch steak with grilled vegetables and a special spicy tomato sauce that tasted just wonderful. Nom nom nom. :D
After dinner, we went to the stadium via subway, which by then was very cramped and hot. Ugh.
In front of the stadium, a guy was selling Argentina hats and scarves for 2€ each. Naturally, I couldn't resist and bought myself an Argentina scarf. It says "Argentina" on the one side and "Vamos Argentina" on the other. I think it's very neat, and I wore it proudly for the entire match. XD
Whilst queuing to get inside the stadium, some guy turned towards me, pointed at my Argentina scarf, and asked "Argentina?" I sensed a golden opportunity and, in the following little chat, pretended to be from Argentina. It was hilarious! I was talking in broken German, with bits of Spanish thrown in, and the guy believed every word I said. XDD SO MUCH FUN! I told him that I was living in Argentina and had travelled to Germany only for the match, and he promptly turned to his friend and said, "Dude, look at those Argentine fans, they're AWESOME!" XDDD He said he liked Messi a lot, and I said that he's good for Barcelona but not so good for the national team, and that Gonzalo Higuaín is better. I'm sure the guy remembered my words when Gonza scored later, mwhihihihi... XD
When I had found my seat after ages of queuing, the teams were warming up already.
Well, technically, Argentina had just finished warming up on the other side of the pitch.
Germany's team was still at it.
I sat on the lower terrace but rather high up, so my photos didn't turn out that great, but I hope you'll enjoy them nevertheless.
And now, without further ado:
Germany - Argentina
03.03.2010, Allianz Arena, Munich.
Germany: Adler - Boateng, Mertesacker, Tasci, Lahm - Ballack, Schweinsteiger (Khedira 76') - T. Müller (Kroos 67'), Özil (Cacau 67'), Podolski - Klose (Gómez 46')
Argentina: Romero - Otamendi, Demichelis (Burdisso 57'), Samuel, Heinze (Rodríguez 47') - Mascherano - Gutiérrez, Verón (Bolatti 90+2'), Di María - Messi, Higuaín (Tévez 62')
Goals: 1-0 Higuaín (45', Di María)
Bookings: Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Cacau - Demichelis, Samuel, Messi
Referee: Martin Atkinson (England)
Spectators: 65,152
Chances: 1-4
Corners: 7-0
The last time these two countries met was in the quarterfinal of the World Cup 2006, when Germany beat Argentina after a very dramatic penalty shoot-out that had some nasty consequences for players like Torsten Frings, Leandro Cufré and Maxi Rodríguez. Since then, the squads have changed a lot. Of the 28 players who were involved in that quarterfinal, six Germans and only three Argentines played in last night's match.
The thing I don't understand is that everyone in Germany who has made a name of himself in the football business is praising Jogi Löw for the good job he's doing with the national team, and they all keep insisting that there's no better national team coach. How, then, do they explain the fact that Germany hasn't played a convincing match in ages? That they've been either lucky to scrape past defeats against strong teams or had the advantage that their opponents were utterly hopeless? That they keep underperforming when there's nothing at stake? That they don't play as a team for most of their games? That they keep playing in the same formation even when there's a shortage in certain positions, or players don't live up to what's expected from them? That there's double standards with every call-up? That the principle of performance and effort is valid for some players but not for others? That some players apparently deserve to be part the starting line-up just because they are or were involved with a certain Southern German club, or because they've somehow merited the status of untouchables because of performances in the past, even when their current performances don't reflect the past ones in the least?
On the other hand, you have a team that only just managed to qualify for South Africa, a team that's become the private playground of Diego Maradona, who admittedly was one of the best footballers this world has ever seen but at the same time has one of the worst, insufferable characters and, in my opinion, is the least suitable for the job as national team coach I can imagine. He doesn't give the impression that he knows how to coach a national team (or any team, in fact), he can't keep track of his players, is blockheaded and stubborn, made strange decisions (like the one not to call up a rightback for the qualifier in Bolivia), dropped key players on mere whims or kept refusing to call up new talents (like the best Argentine goalscorer of the Spanish league), called up players who were injured or had to play important matches for their clubs at the same time, doesn't know a thing about timing and team spirit (for instance, he has called up 102 players so far), failed to integrate Lionel Messi into his squad, and, in short, missed no opportunity to make a fool of himself.
And yet, the Argentine team dominated the German one for the entire match last night. At some point they even circulated the ball as if it was a training match, and the German players stood around helplessly, incapable of getting the ball back. If you call this the work of someone who's the best man for the job as Germany's national team coach, then you must be mad.
Of course, Argentina didn't really play brilliantly either. Messi was mostly invisible or unlucky, the back four seemed a bit shaky, and the left side didn't see much action. Every Argentine attack started on the right side, mostly with Gutiérrez winning an important challenge and getting the ball forward quickly. Gutiérrez was, in my opinion, the best man on the pitch last night. His tackles were excellent, he made a great effort, and he was there whenever things got dangerous in the back. Romero, Mascherano, Verón and Higuaín performed very well, too. The others not so much, but still better than the entire German squad.
It almost seemed as if Adler had only waited for Löw to announce him as Germany's new #1 so he can stop making an effort. Mertesacker and Tasci never gave me the impression of a solid, reliable defense. Ballack only became visible when he committed fouls, as if he wanted to say, "Look here, this is what Frings usually does, so get him back into the squad so I can focus on scoring goals!" Özil and Podolski were completely invisible. Schweinsteiger once again managed to deliver only bad corner kicks or shots on goal that went completely wide. Thomas Müller had a nice start but then somehow disappeared. One must admit, though, that this wasn't really an ideal match for a good debut either. Klose and later Gómez and Cacau were never there when it mattered. Some people said after the match that this will give Jogi Löw a lot of reasons to make excuses or give explanations, but I don't think these are even needed. It's evident that things aren't going well, so if he wants to keep his job after the World Cup is over, he better put aside his private opinions, his double standards and his damned pride, and call up some players who really bring this team forward.
Ahem, apologies for the rant. Let's have some photos!
They actually had a little band for the national anthems. :D Also, it might not be such a surprise that I sang along to the Argentine anthem. They even played a bit of the part that has lyrics. ;)
The match is about to begin!
Unfortunately there was a net in front of me so all the pictures I took of the penalty area and around show that stupid net.
One of the rare occasions when I got a good view on an Argentine player. They never got a corner kick, so I don't have many good pictures like this one.
Gutiérrez is doing a rather gay pose here. XD
Maradona mostly stayed inside his little box whereas Jogi Löw kept leaving his own.
Higuaín shows us his butt. XD
Ballack complains. He did that a lot.
No, I didn't censor Schweinsteiger here, this is just a rope that holds the net.
Mario Gómez warming up.
A second later Gonzalo Higuaín made his run towards the German goal, ran past René Adler and scored the 1-0.
Everyone was happy, including me, which is why this pic is so blurry. Unfortunately I was too slow to take a pic of the moment when everyone was glomping Gonzalo after the goal. ;)
Half-time!
During the half-time break, players like Sami Khedira kicked some balls.
The Argentine team was fashionably late, as usual.
Here they are!
Gratuitous goalkeeper bum shot. XD
The second half is about to start.
A couple of minutes later, something happened to Heinze and he had to be replaced. I have no clue what really happened, all I saw was him sitting down on the pitch and not moving until he knew that he was going to get replaced.
No clue what Ballack is doing there, but Higuaín is definitely making plans with Sergio Romero. ;)
"You'll call me, right?" - "Yeah, I will. Now go and score another goal." (That didn't happen, obviously.)
Look! It's the Tévez! XD
Funnily enough Sergio Romero has never done much for me, but now that I saw him play, I think otherwise. Damn, he's hot. ;)
Hello, Micho!
One of Germany's billion corner kicks, delivered by Bastian Schweinsteiger without a result.
Shortly after, Micho was hit in the face by Ballack's knee and had to be replaced. According to this article he broke his jugal bone and his upper jaw and had to be operated immediately. He'll be out for three weeks. :(
He's a tough player and doesn't fake pain, so the fact that he didn't get up again after the collision with Ballack was worrying me greatly. I'm glad now that it was "just" a facial injury and that he didn't damage any interior organs.
The medical team sure did take ages to get him off the pitch. Poor Micho. :(
Gonzalo was replaced with Tévez in the second half so he could catch a flight back to Madrid and join his club for the training session this morning.
Romero didn't have that much to do, so he posed for me. ;)
Another rather useless Schweinsteiger corner.
Now Kroos is taking one, but the result wasn't any better.
Mascherano is in the process of being fouled.
Then the match was over and Argentina's players were very happy and affectionate with each other. ;) (Not that I can blame them. XD)
Both teams quickly left the pitch.
I stayed for a little while after the match was over, and I'm glad I did because awesome things happened.
Firstly, I took this picture of the crazy Argentine fans celebrating:
Then, I watched another group of Argentine fans unfold a huge banner which had been put up above me during the match:
One of the guys who put up the banner had caught my eye during the match already because he did loads of funny stuff. Whenever the German fans were chanting, he made gestures as if he was their maestro, and once they stopped, he put his hand to his ear as if to say he can't hear anything. XD He also had a very loud trumpet with him, and wore an afro wig. XD So after they had posed with the banner, I approached him and asked if I could take a photo of him wearing his wig and holding up his Argentine flag. He said yes, but first he wanted to take a photo of me wearing the wig, and I got him to give me the flag for the pic as well. XD It was so much fun! Afterwards I took a photo of him:
I then decided to put my knowledge of Spanish to a test and had a little conversation with him. He eagerly replied in English, but I kept asking him stuff in Spanish. Apparently he lives in Argentina, near Buenos Aires (not sure if the place is Entre Ríos, but it sounded like that), and that he came here for the match. I wished him a good trip home, and then we said goodbye. My uncle was standing a couple of metres away from me and seemed quite amused about the encounter. XD
It took us a while to get back to the Park&Ride because the subway station was overcrowded and had to be closed for a couple of minutes, and we also had to wait for over half an hour in the queue to get into a train. When we finally got to the car, I was so exhausted from everything that I slept through most of the 1-hour-trip home. But the exhaustion was all worth it. The match itself might not have been that great, but the overall experience was awesome, and I had lots of fun.
My uncle picked me up at about half past four, and we drove to a Park&Ride on the outskirts of Munich. From there, we took the subway to the city centre and had a very yummy dinner at Maredo, one of the many steak house chains. I had haunch steak with grilled vegetables and a special spicy tomato sauce that tasted just wonderful. Nom nom nom. :D
After dinner, we went to the stadium via subway, which by then was very cramped and hot. Ugh.
In front of the stadium, a guy was selling Argentina hats and scarves for 2€ each. Naturally, I couldn't resist and bought myself an Argentina scarf. It says "Argentina" on the one side and "Vamos Argentina" on the other. I think it's very neat, and I wore it proudly for the entire match. XD
Whilst queuing to get inside the stadium, some guy turned towards me, pointed at my Argentina scarf, and asked "Argentina?" I sensed a golden opportunity and, in the following little chat, pretended to be from Argentina. It was hilarious! I was talking in broken German, with bits of Spanish thrown in, and the guy believed every word I said. XDD SO MUCH FUN! I told him that I was living in Argentina and had travelled to Germany only for the match, and he promptly turned to his friend and said, "Dude, look at those Argentine fans, they're AWESOME!" XDDD He said he liked Messi a lot, and I said that he's good for Barcelona but not so good for the national team, and that Gonzalo Higuaín is better. I'm sure the guy remembered my words when Gonza scored later, mwhihihihi... XD
When I had found my seat after ages of queuing, the teams were warming up already.
Well, technically, Argentina had just finished warming up on the other side of the pitch.
Germany's team was still at it.
I sat on the lower terrace but rather high up, so my photos didn't turn out that great, but I hope you'll enjoy them nevertheless.
And now, without further ado:
Germany - Argentina
03.03.2010, Allianz Arena, Munich.
Germany: Adler - Boateng, Mertesacker, Tasci, Lahm - Ballack, Schweinsteiger (Khedira 76') - T. Müller (Kroos 67'), Özil (Cacau 67'), Podolski - Klose (Gómez 46')
Argentina: Romero - Otamendi, Demichelis (Burdisso 57'), Samuel, Heinze (Rodríguez 47') - Mascherano - Gutiérrez, Verón (Bolatti 90+2'), Di María - Messi, Higuaín (Tévez 62')
Goals: 1-0 Higuaín (45', Di María)
Bookings: Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Cacau - Demichelis, Samuel, Messi
Referee: Martin Atkinson (England)
Spectators: 65,152
Chances: 1-4
Corners: 7-0
The last time these two countries met was in the quarterfinal of the World Cup 2006, when Germany beat Argentina after a very dramatic penalty shoot-out that had some nasty consequences for players like Torsten Frings, Leandro Cufré and Maxi Rodríguez. Since then, the squads have changed a lot. Of the 28 players who were involved in that quarterfinal, six Germans and only three Argentines played in last night's match.
The thing I don't understand is that everyone in Germany who has made a name of himself in the football business is praising Jogi Löw for the good job he's doing with the national team, and they all keep insisting that there's no better national team coach. How, then, do they explain the fact that Germany hasn't played a convincing match in ages? That they've been either lucky to scrape past defeats against strong teams or had the advantage that their opponents were utterly hopeless? That they keep underperforming when there's nothing at stake? That they don't play as a team for most of their games? That they keep playing in the same formation even when there's a shortage in certain positions, or players don't live up to what's expected from them? That there's double standards with every call-up? That the principle of performance and effort is valid for some players but not for others? That some players apparently deserve to be part the starting line-up just because they are or were involved with a certain Southern German club, or because they've somehow merited the status of untouchables because of performances in the past, even when their current performances don't reflect the past ones in the least?
On the other hand, you have a team that only just managed to qualify for South Africa, a team that's become the private playground of Diego Maradona, who admittedly was one of the best footballers this world has ever seen but at the same time has one of the worst, insufferable characters and, in my opinion, is the least suitable for the job as national team coach I can imagine. He doesn't give the impression that he knows how to coach a national team (or any team, in fact), he can't keep track of his players, is blockheaded and stubborn, made strange decisions (like the one not to call up a rightback for the qualifier in Bolivia), dropped key players on mere whims or kept refusing to call up new talents (like the best Argentine goalscorer of the Spanish league), called up players who were injured or had to play important matches for their clubs at the same time, doesn't know a thing about timing and team spirit (for instance, he has called up 102 players so far), failed to integrate Lionel Messi into his squad, and, in short, missed no opportunity to make a fool of himself.
And yet, the Argentine team dominated the German one for the entire match last night. At some point they even circulated the ball as if it was a training match, and the German players stood around helplessly, incapable of getting the ball back. If you call this the work of someone who's the best man for the job as Germany's national team coach, then you must be mad.
Of course, Argentina didn't really play brilliantly either. Messi was mostly invisible or unlucky, the back four seemed a bit shaky, and the left side didn't see much action. Every Argentine attack started on the right side, mostly with Gutiérrez winning an important challenge and getting the ball forward quickly. Gutiérrez was, in my opinion, the best man on the pitch last night. His tackles were excellent, he made a great effort, and he was there whenever things got dangerous in the back. Romero, Mascherano, Verón and Higuaín performed very well, too. The others not so much, but still better than the entire German squad.
It almost seemed as if Adler had only waited for Löw to announce him as Germany's new #1 so he can stop making an effort. Mertesacker and Tasci never gave me the impression of a solid, reliable defense. Ballack only became visible when he committed fouls, as if he wanted to say, "Look here, this is what Frings usually does, so get him back into the squad so I can focus on scoring goals!" Özil and Podolski were completely invisible. Schweinsteiger once again managed to deliver only bad corner kicks or shots on goal that went completely wide. Thomas Müller had a nice start but then somehow disappeared. One must admit, though, that this wasn't really an ideal match for a good debut either. Klose and later Gómez and Cacau were never there when it mattered. Some people said after the match that this will give Jogi Löw a lot of reasons to make excuses or give explanations, but I don't think these are even needed. It's evident that things aren't going well, so if he wants to keep his job after the World Cup is over, he better put aside his private opinions, his double standards and his damned pride, and call up some players who really bring this team forward.
Ahem, apologies for the rant. Let's have some photos!
They actually had a little band for the national anthems. :D Also, it might not be such a surprise that I sang along to the Argentine anthem. They even played a bit of the part that has lyrics. ;)
The match is about to begin!
Unfortunately there was a net in front of me so all the pictures I took of the penalty area and around show that stupid net.
One of the rare occasions when I got a good view on an Argentine player. They never got a corner kick, so I don't have many good pictures like this one.
Gutiérrez is doing a rather gay pose here. XD
Maradona mostly stayed inside his little box whereas Jogi Löw kept leaving his own.
Higuaín shows us his butt. XD
Ballack complains. He did that a lot.
No, I didn't censor Schweinsteiger here, this is just a rope that holds the net.
Mario Gómez warming up.
A second later Gonzalo Higuaín made his run towards the German goal, ran past René Adler and scored the 1-0.
Everyone was happy, including me, which is why this pic is so blurry. Unfortunately I was too slow to take a pic of the moment when everyone was glomping Gonzalo after the goal. ;)
Half-time!
During the half-time break, players like Sami Khedira kicked some balls.
The Argentine team was fashionably late, as usual.
Here they are!
Gratuitous goalkeeper bum shot. XD
The second half is about to start.
A couple of minutes later, something happened to Heinze and he had to be replaced. I have no clue what really happened, all I saw was him sitting down on the pitch and not moving until he knew that he was going to get replaced.
No clue what Ballack is doing there, but Higuaín is definitely making plans with Sergio Romero. ;)
"You'll call me, right?" - "Yeah, I will. Now go and score another goal." (That didn't happen, obviously.)
Look! It's the Tévez! XD
Funnily enough Sergio Romero has never done much for me, but now that I saw him play, I think otherwise. Damn, he's hot. ;)
Hello, Micho!
One of Germany's billion corner kicks, delivered by Bastian Schweinsteiger without a result.
Shortly after, Micho was hit in the face by Ballack's knee and had to be replaced. According to this article he broke his jugal bone and his upper jaw and had to be operated immediately. He'll be out for three weeks. :(
He's a tough player and doesn't fake pain, so the fact that he didn't get up again after the collision with Ballack was worrying me greatly. I'm glad now that it was "just" a facial injury and that he didn't damage any interior organs.
The medical team sure did take ages to get him off the pitch. Poor Micho. :(
Gonzalo was replaced with Tévez in the second half so he could catch a flight back to Madrid and join his club for the training session this morning.
Romero didn't have that much to do, so he posed for me. ;)
Another rather useless Schweinsteiger corner.
Now Kroos is taking one, but the result wasn't any better.
Mascherano is in the process of being fouled.
Then the match was over and Argentina's players were very happy and affectionate with each other. ;) (Not that I can blame them. XD)
Both teams quickly left the pitch.
I stayed for a little while after the match was over, and I'm glad I did because awesome things happened.
Firstly, I took this picture of the crazy Argentine fans celebrating:
Then, I watched another group of Argentine fans unfold a huge banner which had been put up above me during the match:
One of the guys who put up the banner had caught my eye during the match already because he did loads of funny stuff. Whenever the German fans were chanting, he made gestures as if he was their maestro, and once they stopped, he put his hand to his ear as if to say he can't hear anything. XD He also had a very loud trumpet with him, and wore an afro wig. XD So after they had posed with the banner, I approached him and asked if I could take a photo of him wearing his wig and holding up his Argentine flag. He said yes, but first he wanted to take a photo of me wearing the wig, and I got him to give me the flag for the pic as well. XD It was so much fun! Afterwards I took a photo of him:
I then decided to put my knowledge of Spanish to a test and had a little conversation with him. He eagerly replied in English, but I kept asking him stuff in Spanish. Apparently he lives in Argentina, near Buenos Aires (not sure if the place is Entre Ríos, but it sounded like that), and that he came here for the match. I wished him a good trip home, and then we said goodbye. My uncle was standing a couple of metres away from me and seemed quite amused about the encounter. XD
It took us a while to get back to the Park&Ride because the subway station was overcrowded and had to be closed for a couple of minutes, and we also had to wait for over half an hour in the queue to get into a train. When we finally got to the car, I was so exhausted from everything that I slept through most of the 1-hour-trip home. But the exhaustion was all worth it. The match itself might not have been that great, but the overall experience was awesome, and I had lots of fun.