Germany asserted their might in the face of Sweden as they outplayed, outgunned, and outscored their opponents 2-0. My predictions were slightly off as Germany was supposed to win 2-0 against Sweden.
Sweden clamped down on Miroslav Klose, the leading goal scorer of the group stage tournament, enroute to fueling both plays to set the stage for Lukas Podolski to shine in their game. On the first goal Miroslav Klose fired a shot at the goal that saw Isaksson deflecting the ball which bounced back toward Podolski’s line firing the ball behind the net as Sweden’s goalkeeper was still lying on the field.
Eight minutes later Miroslav Klose drew Sweden defenders towards that him and made a return pass to Lukas from the edge of the box for Germany’s second goal.
The fans were wild and Sweden was fighting and attacking to redeem the two goals they gave up only to see their hopes disappear when top defender Teddy Lucic was given his second yellow card on the 35th minute of the game.
There was no stopping Germany from there on when they dominated the Sweden getting so many possessions and shots at the goal. Had it not been for Isaksson’s excellent goalkeeping prowers the score could have been larger than 4 especially when Ballack had fired a number of shot that could have gone in a second earlier.
The Sweden team managed to inch their way to scoring opportunities. The first one came on the 40th minute when he turned Ibrahimovic’s shot around the post. The second one was a penalty shot taken by Larsson on the 53rd mark when he was fouled in the box only to see his shot way above it’s target.
Probably it was pressure playing against the host nation. Probably it was being down 2-0. Probably it was losing their defender. Probably he was up against one of the best goalies in the tournament. For what it’s worth Germany was the better team than Sweden.
The player of the game was award to Miroslav Klose because of his involvement in both of Germany’s goals. He was the focal point of Sweden’s defense knowing how dangerous the man could be; instead of firing shot after shot, Miroslav kept making the passes necessary for his teamates to have open looks to the goal.
[tags]FIFA World Cup, World Cup, FIFA World Cup 2006, Germany, Sweden, Results[/tags]
