Theresa-Flickr
RECIFE, BRAZIL–The battle cries echoed in the stadium between two rivals, as Germany and the United States walked onto the soccer field before the war begins. On this battle field there were many obstacles for the players to overcome this defeat; such as, the rain and a slippery field but no matter what it took, the two rivals were going to play their hearts out.
The United States (U.S.) is known as the team of heart and gets the job done; where as Germany is known as the machine with powerful players. However the time is NOW and the U.S. team needed to beat the 7th world finest team known as Germany.
The U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, decided to start with the 4-5-1 line up for this game against Germany. The advantage for this line up, is that it is known to be a very defensive formation because there is only one player in the front and five in the middle. This works best if the U.S is needing to defend against a team that is much faster and more aggressive in attacking. Not many coaches use this line up to start a game because according to soccer maniak, “A 4-5-1 formation in soccer is usually used if the team needs to draw a 0:0 score or has the lead in a match and wants to keep it.” This gives you an idea of what coach Jurgen was strategically thinking before he stared the game.
Where as German coach Joahchim Low, decided to start with 4-3-3 line up for the game against the U.S. This line up is very popular in the World Cup and is common to use because it forces the players to be very aggressive and attack at all times. This formation requires the players to communicate and most of their attacks come from the outside players; such as, Jerome Boateng, Benedikt Howedes, Bastian Schweinseiger, and Toni Kroos. The forward players also play a big role during the game because their job is be in the penalty box as much as possible to score as many goals as they can.
These aggressive attacks were seen very quickly with Germany’s team when the whistle blew and the score was 0-0. The U.S. team defended their hearts out in the first half; the players that stopped many goal attempts were Michael Bradley and Omar Gonzalez. However in the second half the U.S. was not so lucky because at the 53 minute mark, Thomas Muller, a forward from the German team, did his struck first blood pass the U.S. goal keeper Tim Howard. This goal put Germany in the lead 1-0 and put the U.S. at a disadvantage. This meant that they either needed to score a goal and tie the game or hope that the Portugal and Ghana game was not a high scoring game that would gain them more points than the U.S. After looking at both line ups you quickly realize which team was in it to win.
Even though the U.S. advanced to round 16, they are going to have to believe in themselves as much as we believe in them to win. They are going to have to communicate, manage their time, recognize danger from their opponents, continue play with heart and play defensively to win against Belgium if NOT then are going to come home. We believe…the time is NOW!!!
Araceli Mendoza is a Writer for Couch Rider Report. Follow us on Facebook.
