Friday morning, at 11:00 AM Eastern, the first quarterfinal in the World Cup will take place. Germany and Argentina, from Berlin, and it promises to be a cracker.
Argentina looked impressive after dismantling Serbia and Montenegro, but since then they have sputtered. After a lackluster scoreless draw in a game with the Netherlands that mattered little, they struggled, but eventually overcame Mexico in extra-time, thanks to an outrageous winner from Maxi Rodriguez in the 98th minute.
Now the Argentines face their biggest challenge in the form of the host nation. Germany has been hands-down the most impressive team in this tournament. They have played four games, and won them all comfortably. After conceding two goals in their opener, the Germans have outscored opponents 6-0 in the last three games.
The reason for the Germans success is the tempo at which they play. It is similar to the style the 2002 hosts South Korea played at, only the Germans are technically superior, which could spell trouble for their South American opponents.
Argentina faced a similar high-octane approach in their last game against Mexico. For the first six minutes, Mexico played the equivalent of a full-court press, which paid dividends in the form of a sixth-minute goal. But once Mexico scored, they took their foot off the gas.
By contrast, the Germans will not let a goal stifle their tempo. Argentina must be prepared to face 90 minutes of fierce, attacking soccer in the most hostile of environments. And considering they are coming off an exhausting extra-time win in their previous game, this could play a significant role.
Certainly, Argentina has the players to deal with such a lethal adversary. Riquelme will have to be at his best to dictate tempo, and their forwards (Hernan Crespo, Javier Saviola, Carlos Tevez, and Lionel Messi) all have the ability to get in behind the suspect German central defenders (Christoph Metzelder and Per Mertesacker) for a one-on-one situations with German goalkeeper Jens Lehman.
Their Argentine defense will also have to play without error. Gabriel Heinze and Lionel Scaloni both suffered lapses in the last game, but they managed to concede just one goal. This time, I guarantee their mistakes will be punished by the tournament's best front line in Germany's Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose.
This game will provide an interesting test for Germany. So far, they have not faced anyone nearly as good as Argentina. Germany won't dominate possession as they have in previous games, but they will still control a majority of it, and playing counter attacking soccer is not what Argentina does best.
Argentina has also caught a bad break in that they are playing the host nation when they are in peak form. Throw in the fact that Germany are well rested and Argentina will be carrying heavy legs, and it all adds up to Germany's second straight World Cup semifinal.
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