2014 Brazil Fifa World Cup: The best form of defence is.......?

How often do you hear that practice makes perfect? In truth, it makes permanent. Attack is the best form of attack and defence is the best form of defence. Nothing less and nothing more. Never ever confuse the two.

There was clearly plenty to do in Brazil on that fateful night when Brazil lost a record 7-1 to Germany, starting at the stadium as this busy man proves.

 

This is how it happened in pictures; Marcelo entirely forgot he was a defender as soon as the 4^th minute after a Brazilian scoring chance, as seen here with the ball out of play. He was too far up the pitch and had the ball thrown over him.

So advanced were Brazil that Dante sprinted back to cover the damage done on that gap attack by Germany. David Luiz managed to invest in a successful tackle on Miroslav Klose.

After five minutes Brazil were so far forward that there was no one around an under-pressure Fernandinho to receive a pass other than five Germans. He gave the ball away.

There was total lack of protection for defence as seen here. Three Germans were completely free in the middle after four minutes.

Brazil were caught on the break and gave their opponents a ridiculous amount of space after just eight minutes. Hulk and Marcelo provided Germany with an attacking corridor on that flank, as the former never defended and the later played off-position.

 

The ultimate defensive chaos was highlighted in the seventh minute as the entire Brazil team desperately ran backwards after a neat but unremarkable Sami Khedira turn in the centre circle.

The left-back area was completely exposed as everyone else ran towards Julio Cesar and looking over their shoulders in blind panic in the 9^th minute. Germany players were in twos and sometimes in threes. This made them receive the ball and suddenly outnumber the Brazilians at that point, which was always around the edge of the penalty area. Brazil conceded a corner shortly afterwards, then sloppy marking allowed Thomas Muller to score the game’s first goal.

Klose made it 2-0 twelve minutes later. It took 108 seconds for another goal to make it 3-0. Thereafter, the hosts lost rhythm and concentration, becoming ever more vulnerable and clueless. Germany made it 4-0 just 50 seconds after making it 3-0.

There was something frighteningly predatory and calculated about that goal, Toni Kroos and Samir Khedira trading passes again and again, all the time reducing the percentage chance that a goal wasn’t about to happen. The midfield trio were clearly instructed to stay tight to each other as shown by the blue triangle, and very importantly, for the some of the half, the central defenders stayed where defenders are supposed to be, as seen pointed by the red arrows.

Cesar shoulders some blame for  pushing the ball back to Klose to get a second bite of the cherry. He was beaten at the near post by and André Schürrle. 

Phil Scolari did not change anything until the second half, swapping Bernard and Hulk on the right and left wings, meaning Marcelo had a more disciplined wide player in front of him who was not going to give the ball away every time he got it.

 

David Luiz passed the ball horribly wrong. He made one absolutely brilliant 70-yard cross field pass in the early stages of the game, but all this seemed to do was give Luiz false confidence. Later, Luiz even managed to make five yard passes difficult for his team-mates, as seen here.

Without the centre back, Thiago Silva, telling his team-mates to wise up and stop being disorganised, the defence and midfield completely fell apart, and the strikers, and the goalkeeper. It was a disastrous calamity where a footballing super power tumbled like a deck of cards. A catastrophe; a team that lacked leadership and one that failed to look beyond the first goal. Their body language was that of frightened boys and they coiled into their shells and stayed retracted the entire match.
 
(Special thanks to T. Gibbs)

Germany whitewashes Portugal 4-0 in 2014 Fifa World Cup

Portugal started the match very strongly putting the Germans on the back foot with their passing and creative play in midfield. Germany did well to absorb the pressure and stay composed. As Portugal found spaces in midfield and defence as they fought for and won the ball upfront. All the Germans could afford were counter-attacks as there were gaps on the right and left channels as the wingbacks got sucked into action.

Quick inter-passing on the right caught the Portuguese napping as their defence stretched to the limit and a desperate attempt to deal with the attack resulted in a very soft penalty awarded to Germany. Muller tucked the ball neatly into the left corner of the net.

If that goal was a fortunate gift, the second was almost a part of a ‘score one, get one free’ promotion. A similar counter-attack after a patient and composed football by Portugal, Germany sent a long ball to the right, played a cutback, took a deflected shot that went out for a corner. With the attention of three defenders, Mark Hummels rose majestically to powerfully head a Toni Kroos corner-kick past the goalkeeper.

Until then man-of-the-match, Pepe received a simple ball at the back and fended off Muller’s challenge, brushing his face with a stray arm. Muller theatrically fell, attracting Pepe’s wrath who confronted him while still seated and head-butted him. The referee took exception to that behaviour and sent the Real Madrid defender off.

It became a little too easy for the Germans as they cut through the outnumbered opposition like hot knife through butter. They enjoyed the better exchanges on the right, lobbed the ball over the centre to the left. Failure to pick the second ball became detrimental as that ball was centred to the penalty spot and the defender half-cleared the ball to Muller in a tight spot. Muller gladly doubled his goal tally with a hard and low shot.

Portugal had lost a man through injury, made a forced substitution as damage control for the sending off. They lost probably their second best player in Contrao through another injury. They tried to stay compact as Germany tried to stretch them further. To their credit, they created half-chances occasionally and chased every ball.

Poor ball handling by the goalkeeper gifted Muller with his hat-trick. The initial error of his poor clearance presented a good chance that the Germans squandered. The follow up attack came from midfield as the ball was fed to the right, crossed into the 12-yard box. The goalkeeper went down for it but only parried it to the feet of the German striker who directed the ball over the line.

Germany ran down the clock in energy-saving mode as the Portuguese hoped for a face-saver, employing a 1-4-3-2. They were pretty much pleased to deal with the pedestrian pace of the match in the second half.  Neur had to deal with a closing remark by Cristiano Ronaldo whose last minute free kick stung his palms to bring to an end a miserable occasion for Portugal.