World Cup 2010 – Germany v Spain Bigger than Final

Now here’s where things get interesting…..

Spain has gone out of its way to downplay the rematch of the 2008 European Championship title game in Wednesday night’s World Cup semifinal, refusing to even acknowledge the grudge match factor.

Spain is doing its best to avoid turning tonight’s match into a rematch of the 2008 European Championship final; they won’t even recognise the possibility of it being a grudge match. However Germany’s Lukas Podolski sees things differently, “We want revenge for 2008, When you are in a final you want to win. We still think about that defeat, and it still hurts. We want to reach the final and we’ll do all we can to achieve that.”

Two years ago when Spain won the match 1 – 0 against Germany it also ended 44 years of Spain not having won a title, however, Germany is a very different team now in both age and attitude.

They now have some younger players on the team such as Mesut Oezil, Sami Khedira and Thomas Mueller who are really brining speed and sharpness to the side. The team is young, the average age being under 25; however, they are playing with a discipline and chemistry which seams mature beyond their years and their play a pleasure to watch.

The way they space themselves across the midfield is impressive to say the least, and their passing appears almost entirely effortless. Their defence appears to be almost unbreakable, whenever Argentina got close to a goal in the quarter final, Messi or Tevez would find themselves surrounded by a group of defenders and forced into turning around or making a bad shot. And we have seen that the Germans are impressive on the attack.

Their coach Joachim Loew said, “In 2008, my team may not have been as consistent. We were fluctuating a little bit in terms of the quality, and might not have had the quality at all positions compared to the team we have today. The players we have now are incredibly skilled technically and tactically. Our flow is clearly superior to what we had in 2008.”

Germany have managed so far to make both England and Argentina look like amateurs in their knockout matches, they have a combined score of 8 – 1 which comfortably takes them through to their third straight World Cup semi final. Klose looks like his old self, and since scoring two goals against Argentina he has joined Gerd Muelle at second place on the all time scoring list.

The Germans are also showing a nice amount of confidence, before their game against Argentina they accused the Argentineans of having no respect.  Their player Podolski said, “Self-confidence is always a good thing. If you are self-confident, you can play much more strongly. We were very convincing in our win against England, and we had a lot of pressure there, too.”

However, Spain should not be discounted. They have only lost two games since November 2006. Their player David Villa has scored five goals this tournament which ties him with the Netherlands’ Wesley Sneijder for most scored in the tournament, and the defence has not allowed a single goal through in the knockout stage.

The team aren’t playing with quite the same flair as they did in Euro 2008, it was shocked by the Swizz during the group stage and it took a very late goal from Villa to beat Paraguay 1- 0 in the quarter finals after both teams had penalty kicks saved. However, the main point is that Spain is still winning.

Spain will be pleased to have their player Cesc Fabregas. On Monday night’s practice a ball hit Fabregas on the exact spot where he broke his leg last March, but tests have shown that there are no bone injuries and the coach Vicente del Bosque has confirmed his availability for the game.

Spains Andres Iniesta said, “I don’t think there are favorites at this stage. What they say about us, we can also say the same thing about them. You can say they are a great team, a team that has players of a very, very high level. For that, it will be a well-deserved semifinal.”

The winners will face the Netherlands in Sunday night’s final after their 3 - 2 victory over Uruguay last night.