Euro 2008 Qualifiers: 45 Minutes of Embarrassment, 45 Minutes of Goals
By: Jan | June 2nd, 2007
First Half: I guess most people expected one goal at least every ten minutes. Instead they got one meagre goal in the 44th minute by Kuranyi, very little creativity, an underperforming Miroslav Klose like we are used to by now, Jens Lehmann almost gifting San Marino the lead (and escaping a red card btw) and Marcell Jansen trying to unsuccessfully con his way to a penalty. That’s a little collection of the first half lowlights. A bit too much for the 44.000 fans in the stadium in Nuremberg who sent their team into the halftime break whistling and booing. Germany predictably completely dominated possession. San Marino predictably had all their men in the penalty area. Germany predictably had lots of chances. San Marino’s goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini pulled off some good saves. You could still expect to see a bit more against a team made up of third division rate players.
Second Half: The second half and probably the whole match can be reduced to 15 minutes. Between the 52nd and 67th minute Germany scored five goals and San Marino’s Davide Simoncini (Aldo Simoncini’s twin brother) was sent off the pitch after receiving his second yellow card. After that Germany still pressed forward but wasn’t really concentrated and ambitious enough to net any more goals. Final score 6:0.
Comments: It was supposed to be 90 minutes of therapy for Miroslav Klose. An opportunity to score goals and regain self-confidence. He played the whole 90 minutes but couldn’t add his name to the score sheet. Kuranyi/Gomez looks like the ideal strike duo at the moment but Jogi Löw once again reassured that Klose will also play against Slovakia. Germany is now leading the table with 16 points followed by the Czech Republic (who only managed a draw against Wales today) with 14 points and Ireland with 13 points. Germany still has one game to play and could move 5 points clear on Wednesday.
Goals: 1:0 Kuranyi (45.), 2:0 Jansen (52.), 3:0 Frings (54./penalty), 4:0 Gomez (63.), 5:0 Gomez (65.), 6:0 Fritz (67.)
Category: National Team
Tags: Aldo Simoncini, Clemens Fritz, Czech Republic, Davide Simoncini, Euro 2008, Germany, Ireland, Jens Lehmann, Jogi Löw, Kevin Kuranyi, Marcell Jansen, Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose, National Team, San Marino, Torsten Frings, WalesSubscribe
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Comments
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My friend was commenting that Miro looked physically unwell- whatever happened to that mystery illness he had a few months back?
Posted from
United States
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Not looking well: hmmm, I actually didn’t pay much attention to that. Although there hasn’t been any talks recently about his fitness/health.
That mystery illness: I think doctors diagnosed something and he was treated with something. That’s as vague as it gets
but it’s as much as I can remember as well. Miro told Jogi Löw that he generally felt exhausted for some time during the second half of the season. In the end he has been playing a lot of matches since last years World Cup so there could be some truth to that. Yet, I still don’t think that it’s only health and fitness issues that keep him from scoring.Posted from
Germany -
Yeah. He hasn’t much looked like himself lately, whether that’s health issues or personal issues or what I have no idea (especially with my not-that-great German skills). But that was an interesting observation from my friend…
Posted from
United States -
There were rumours that Miroslav Klose has/had marital problems which people on Werder Bremen fan boards brought up to explain his goal drought and why he is so desperately trying to move to Munich. Those have been vigorously denied by Werder officials though.
BTW: Check out the following video capped from Dutch television when Bremen played Alkmaar in the UEFA Cup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acpc3_4dXSU
To be more precise only inspect both Klose goals closely. After scoring he makes the sign of a cross which he always does but then quickly ads a little gesture. You can only see it for a few seconds each time. I didn’t find a better video demonstrating it. He started doing that somewhere late in 2006. Reporters were curious and asked him what it means but he only mentioned that “whom it may concern would understand”. Could mean nothing and be completely unrelated. I just thought I throw it into the puzzle as well.;)
Posted from
Germany -
I’d heard something like that, but I couldn’t find any information other than the Werder officials saying that nothing was going on, which struck me as a little odd. Curioser and curiouser. And he cut his hair, which is worth mentioning as well. All very confusing, and a bit distressing as I’m a fan of his and don’t like seeing him go through a stretch like this (or going to Bayern, for that matter).
Posted from
United States
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