Friendly: Switzerland 0 - 4 Germany

[Oliver_Kahn]

The repeat has just started, Germany's XI was:

........................Lehmann
Lahm....Westerman...Mertesacker....Jansen
...............Ballack.......Hitzlsperger
.......Fritz.............................Schweini
..................Gomez......Klose

[Oliver_Kahn]

First goal by Klose:

Ballack recovered the ball in midfield, passed to Klose, he hold up the ball then passed to Schweini, he sent a through ball to Mario Gomez, who dribbled past one defender on the right side of the penalty box and sent in a low cross to the far post, Benaglio came out but missed the ball and Klose just tapped it in.

[Oliver_Kahn]

First half is over. Germany were decent, Gomez was the best player I thought, followed by Jansen and Ballack.

Switzerland did well, created some chances. They actually had more of the ball, Germany just protected their lead.

[Oliver_Kahn]

57th minute, first sub: Klose off for Podolski

[Oliver_Kahn]

60th minute, 2-0 Germany.

Fritz recovered the ball in midfield and passed to Gomez, who scored with a nice left footed strike from the outside of the box. Good goal

[Oliver_Kahn]

67th minute, 3-0 Germany.

Podolski recovered possession in midfield and sent a great through ball to Gomez, who scored by tipping the ball with right foot. Class finish


Germany is the most effective team in the world atm.

[Oliver_Kahn]

Second sub by Germany, Arne Friedrich on for Fritz

Third substitution, Kuranyi on for Gomez.

Fourth sub, Rolfes on for Jansen.


Friedrich played RB and Lahm at RM, Rolfes with Ballack in the center and Hitz playing at LB. Sounds weird I know, but it's true.

Last sub, Troche on at the 87th minute for Lahm.

[Oliver_Kahn]

88th minute, 4-0 Germany.

Great through ball by Kuranyi, Podolski with a great dribble in front of Benaglio, then took a defender out of the way and scored with open net. Great goal

[Oliver_Kahn]

Good win for Germany, they had 6 chances and scored 4 goals, you can't ask for much more than that.
Switzerland played well, they didn't deserve to get beaten so badly, I'd say 2-1 would be the right score. But like Gary Lineker says, it's 11 vs 11 and at the end Germany wins.


Some notes on each player:

Lehmann was good actually, made no real mistakes and pulled one great save and dominated all the crosses.

Westermann is shit, got owned so many times and almost scored an own goal. This guy looks like the German version of an out of form Van Buyten.
Mertesacker may be 1.98m, but he loses way too many duels in the air, it looked quite easy to anticipate him, the Swiss players did it quite often.

Jansen was top class, always driving the team forward with his runs down the flank. Was very solid in defence as well. He picked up a knock though, hope it isn't too serious.
Lahm didn't go forward as much and his crossing wasn't too good, but he cut out most of the attacks, had just one great run when he took the ball to the penalty box, then passed to Gomez who missed. Played RM for the last 20 minutes.

Hitz's passing was a bit off, but his tackling was superb, he covered for Ballack really well. And his long range shots are class.
Ballack did well, the midfield with him is just another thing, I hate the guy but he is fucking class. Was unlucky not to score a goal.

Schweini was lazy when he had to track back as always, but going forward he did well. Fritz was ok going forward, but his main role was to cut out the counterattacks of Switzerland, which he did quite well. Also made an assist.

Gomez was very active, always trying open spaces in the Swiss defence. Made an assist and scored 2 goals, you can't ask for much more than that. Missed a great chance but still, man of the match for me.
Klose was a bit quiet, scored the goal but that was pretty much it.

Podolski did well, had a great chance on the 62nd minute, but Benaglio pulled an amazing save, made the assist for the 3rd goal and scored the 4th.

Kuranyi was ok, made an assist and worked well up front.

Troche, Rolfes and Friedrich were pretty much unnoticed.

[Oliver_Kahn]

The goals:
Video 0-4 Switzerland vs. Germany | Goals - Switzerland, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera, Podolski - Dailymotion Share Your Videos

[Vargas_4]

Klose scored but mostly out of luck. He still isn't in "form".

Good game by Podolski. I liked his movement a lot when he came on. Great pass to Gomez to complete his brace. Missed a chance previously but made up for it in the end.

Gomez was great. Good brace.

[Vargas_4]

German national team trainer Joachim Löw was left pleased with his side’s 4-0 win over Switzerland, which was a great improvement on their previous showing against Austria.

In their last warm-up game before the final 23 man squad is announced in May, Germany romped to a 4-0 win over Switzerland in their 800th international.

A double from Mario Gomez and one each from Bayern Munich strikers Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski downed the Swiss at the St. Jakob Park.

“I am happy in the main part with our performance” Löw said. “We were very concentrated right from the start and were well organised” he added.

“We played more intensively and more aggressively than we did against Austria, and we got a few answers to a few open questions.

“For some players it was a qualification game for the finals. Heiko Westermann played really well tonight. It was a very convincing performance from him.”

Two goal-hero Mario Gomez also admitted the improvement in performance was pleasing.

“It was an enjoyable evening. The last game wasn’t so convincing but tonight we showed the will and the competitiveness and were rewarded for that.”

***

Goal.com - Germany - Löw Pleased With Improved Performance

[Trim]

Definately a good game from Germany. Easy taken win.

Everyone witnessed the attack possibilities of Germany, the other teams have to be afraid from our attack.

Gomez is a top class striker, the guy absolutely deserves to be a starter, more than anyone else at the moment. Such an efficient striker, 2 clear chances, 2 goals. He doesn't miss (like Kuranyi).

Didn't like Klose much yesterday, he was quite passive, got that lucky goal though, hehe.

Podolski was really good yesterday, proving everytime he deserves his chances at Bayern (and Germany) always.

Dangerous in the very first minute he got in with that shot, was so unfortunate not to score that.
Assisted to Gomez for the 3-0 goal, what a smart, brilliant pass that was.
Also scored a good goal himself, so calm in the zone in between 2-3 Swiss players.

Kuranyi wasn't bad for how much he played, assisted on the last goal. He can't be a starter, but he's surely useful as a sub.

[Dragoen]

Germany is back :]

This game made me hopeful for the EC again. MoTM for sure Gomez, Mertesacker was also really good just like Lehman und Lahm. Podolski might turn out as the super sub at the ec or he will replace Schweinsteiger als LM because Schweinsteiger was by far the worst player on the field again.