World Cup: Super Germany trounced Uruguay 3-2 to grab the bronze
Germany Flag
Desperate Germany put a strong spirit fighting like Trojans in a show of class in the bid to grap a third place in the on-gong World Cup
The nation took took bronze for the fourth time at the FIFA World Cup™ after beating Uruguay 3-2 in one of the most entertaining and energy-sapping play-off for the third place.
Sami Khedira got the winning goal with eight minutes remaining as Joachim Low’s side repeated their success in this same match four years ago.
There was no shortage of goals as the rain came teeming down in Port Elizabeth with both sides eager to conclude impressive campaigns on a winning note.
Thomas Muller and Edinson Cavani traded first half efforts before Diego Forlan and Marcell Jansen did likewise within ten minutes of the restart. Yet it was Germany who came out on top and, in the process, South Africa 2010′s leading scorers reached the 16-goal mark, surpassing their total at Italy 1990, albeit falling one short of their tally in 1970, when they also pipped Uruguay to the bronze medal.
For two of the scorers, Muller and Forlan, their strikes took them to five for the tournament, level with David Villa and Wesley Sneijder at the top of the adidas Golden Boot standings. Forlan will rue the injury-time free-kick against the crossbar that denied him a sixth goal, while Miroslav Klose’s absence with a back injury left him rooted on five too.
Both teams featured changed lineups after their semi-final losses. Germany coach Joachim Low went for a wholly new forward line from that which began against Spain with starting roles for the trio of Muller, Cacau and Jansen. Further back Dennis Aogo came in for Philipp Lahm and goalkeeper Hans-Jorg Butt for Manuel Neuer. As for Uruguay, they welcomed back captain Diego Lugano from injury together with Jorge Fucile and Luis Suarez, both suspended for last Tuesday’s defeat by the Netherlands.
Muller made his mark early with his fifth goal in South Africa. The 20-year-old had already had one effort ruled out for offside when he fired Low’s side ahead in the 19th minute. Bastian Schweinsteiger sent in a shot from 30 yards that goalkeeper Diego Muslera, seemingly deceived by the swerve and dip, parried straight to Muller who had an easy task to score. A German breakthrough was hardly a surprise given by that stage they had also seen Arne Friedrich head a Mesut Ozil corner against the crossbar yet Oscar Tabarez’s side soon responded.
Uruguay threatened in the 25th minute when Per Mertesacker got a block on Forlan’s far-post header. Four minutes later, though, they had their equaliser from a swift counter. Diego Perez dispossessed Schweinsteiger just inside the Celeste half with a powerful challenge and fed Suarez who played in Cavani down the inside left-channel. The Palermo striker took one touch before prodding a low finish into the bottom corner. Suarez should then have put Uruguay ahead three minutes before the break when Forlan picked out his diagonal run but bearing down on Butt’s goal from the right, he arrowed his shot wide of the far post.
Futher changes went begging moments after the restart when Butt saved at Cavani’s feet and then got a hand to Suarez’s shot on the follow-up. Butt was left helpless when Forlan made it 2-1 after 51 minutes, however. The Atletico Madrid striker connected acrobatically with Egidio Arevalo’s cross on the edge of the box, sending the ball into the rain-sodden turf and back up past Butt. Yet the lead lasted only five minutes before Muslera missed Jerome Boateng’s deep cross and Jansen headed home.
The game was now wide open as both teams chased a third goal. Butt kept out a flying strike from Suarez and came out to save at the feet of Forlan. At the other end Muslera beat away a shot from Germany substitute Stefan Kiessling, who missed two other inviting chances. The winning goal, when it came, followed an Ozil corner. The ball bounced off Friedrich and then Lugano before rising fortuitously to Khedira who headed home.
Flag-of-uruguay
Germany, so fufilled
Joachim Low hailed Germany’s spirit after they came from behind to defeat Uruguay 3-2 in a thrilling game on Saturday and secure third place at the World Cup™.
“In the second half, when we were forced to dig deep, we saw the mental strength the team had to resist and then snatch victory,” said the Germany coach. “I’m pleased with that, the team deserves it. Altogether, what we’ve achieved, we never would have expected it eight or nine months ago.”
Germany claimed victory thanks to Sami Khedira’s 82nd-minute header, after strikes from Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan had seen Uruguay hit back from a goal down following Thomas Mueller’s opener.
The three-time champions were hit by a series of injuries to key players, including captain Michael Ballack, on the eve of the World Cup but responded with some thrilling performances despite the inexperience in their ranks. Low’s young players defeated England 4-1 in the last 16 and thrashed Argentina 4-0 in the quarter-finals before finally meeting their match in a 1-0 semi-final defeat by Spain.
Central midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger was one of the stars of the tournament and he believes the country has a rich footballing future to look forward to. “I’m very proud to play in this team,” said the Bayern Munich player. “We have to look to the future, we can still achieve lots of things.”
Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez lauded his side’s performance at the World Cup but said they had been undone by individual errors against Germany. The meeting in Port Elizabeth was a re-match of the 1970 third-place match, which Germany won 1-0, after Tabarez had guided his team to the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in 40 years.
“The match was contested by two teams who really wanted to finish in third place, by two teams who gave everything,” said Tabarez. “We made one mistake too many, but we showed that we were capable. We showed that we could compete with any team in the world.”
Uruguay have been the surprise package of the World Cup, qualifying from a difficult group that also included France, Mexico and hosts South Africa before defeating South Korea and Ghana to reach the last four. They were beaten 3-2 by the Netherlands in the semi-finals but Tabarez said his squad would take great heart from their African endeavours.
“Uruguay have been one of the surprises of the tournament and we still don’t realise what’s happened back home,” he said. “I received an email on Friday from a lady I didn’t know who said, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you for having changed the image of our country’. I’m surprised, it’s the beauty of sport and the serious work we’ve accomplished.”
Share on bebo- Blog this!
- Bookmark on Delicious
- Digg this post
- Share on dzone
- Recommend on Facebook
- Share on FriendFeed
- Buzz it up
- Share on linkagogo
- Share on Linkedin
- Mixx it up
- Share via MySpace
- Share on netvibes
- Share on nuJIJ
- Share on Orkut
- Share on Posterous
- share via Reddit
- Share this on sphinn
- Share with Stumblers
- Share on technorati
- Tumblr it
- Tweet about it
- Share on xing
- Buzz it up
- Subscribe to the comments on this post
- Print for later
- Bookmark in Browser
- Tell a friend
Related Posts
Short URL: http://www.emnnews.com/?p=4604
Posted by 
