Pulsating final

 The irony is that Messi had two chances and he messed both. And I am not having a bash at him by any means. I am a big fan.

A great player. My own read is they had him dribbling from too far out. Away from the penalty area the defenders could take a chance and he was dispossessed a few times. Palacio was the real villain he was clear but chested the ball too far and then blew the touch. Then he was beaten for pace on the right touchline leading up to Gotze's goal. In effect his chance was very similar to Gotze.

 And let we not forget that they have obviously marked  him well. On a side-note.The first time ever that a sub scored a WC winning goal, according to Gary Lineker in the BBC studio.

 The Argie who missed the first half opportunity after being played onside by the German ......... eina, that's going to haunt him forevermore .

Ceradyne Mozart

It was the first time that a sub was responsible for the kick across the goal to a sub who scored the goal as well.
Now lets put that into perspective insofar as Mozart and your harping on experience is concerned - ultimately experience are only of importance if it is accompanied by proven performances.  
Now onto the Commonwealth games and  RC.  
Experience is a wonderful thing - last year we went to SriLanka with a team consisting of experienced players and were send packing badly by the SriLankans.   This year we send a team with some  inexperienced players and beat them in the ODI series - no Graeme Smith to name one specific player.  Kallis went along this year as well  and messed up badly in all three innings played.
In the meantime we started with De Kock - who in the last 6 ODI's he played in scored 4 centuries.   Every time he made good runs - we won the game - because he scored at an acceptable RPO rate.   Despite Mozart's dislike of the player - he performed exceptionally well and that is the end of the story.
Bluntly put - experience without adequate performance in any team sport is a liability - not an asset.   

Bluntly put, experience is what usually guarantees adequate performance.  

 Bluntly put - experience does not necessarily lead to adequate performance.  That is why it is also necessary to monitor performance of experienced players carefully and take measures if their performances plummet.    

 


Jirre tog ou Maaikie. Did you actually watched that game? Yes, for sure it was a brilliant brilliant piece of individuality that saw the ball in the back of the net but that was in extra time. Right at that moment the game was still  in the balance and let me  say this: Lionel Messi had an unbelievable  poor night and he knew it. You could see it in his body language. He missed two (IIRC) sitters and that last free kick that he took was the icing on the cake. It was way over the goals, almost as if he was trying not to get it anywhere near the net. You could clearly see the disappointment, even when he received the player of the series trophy and his runner-up medal. I am a big fan of Messi and have never seen him so deflated ever.

Apart from Messi, you cannot count out the role of the German goal keeper Manuel Neuer. He is not reckoned to be the best goalkeeper in the world for nothing and he put in some brilliant saves last night.

The main thing though is that you are missing the boat completely about the experience issue. There were a number of other key figures in that German victory that can never ever be discarded. The midfielders Thomas Muller and Bastian Schweinsteiger were massive. They are 24 and 29 years old. None of them  youngsters in football terms. They are also very experienced as well.

Muller (24) has already represented Germany 56 times after having represented then at u/16, u/19, u/20 and u/21 levels. That is one hell of a lot of experience.

The same goes for Schwiensteiger, with a 108 caps for Germany. Lahm, their captain has 113 caps. Per Mertesacker, the defender, who came on in the last minutes has 100+ caps. The midfielders, Thomas Kroos has 51 caps and Metzul Ozil has 62. All those mentioned were key players in last night's performance.


performance. 

clevermike

Status: Hall Of Fame
Posts: 11717 RE: Pulsating final
July 14, 2014, 05:36:16  Bluntly put - experience does not necessarily lead to adequate performance.  That is why it is also necessary to monitor performance of experienced players carefully and take measures if their performances plummet.
No, my friend, you are missing the boat massively. That German team has shed-loads of experienced quality players and that was what won them the game and the tournament. Compared to Germany, Argentina are in fact very inexperienced. You can go check that for yourself. They were relying heavily on Messi and it was always on the card that if Messi did not fire on all cylinders, and a few more, they were going to have an uphill battle.

Ceradyne
You missed the boat completely - I have said nothing about experienced players - other than to say that experienced players must be selected with due regard to performance.  The Germans did just that and I have no problem with it.  
My problem is the selection of Springboks based on experience without any regard to performance requirements and the need to evaluate the performance of experienced players carefully so as to ensure that they maintain the required standards.   

 Stick to the topic.This has fuck all to do with rugby or the Springboks.

You are actually trying to bullshit yourself  out of another hole................ again.

Watch at what stage, of this thread, you made the following remark:


"Now lets put that into perspective insofar as Mozart and your harping on experience is concerned - ultimately experience are only of importance if it is accompanied by proven performances."

Admit it, drol. You never realised how experienced this German side is, and you just accepted that they were a young side. Why did I know to check up on their experience? Because, unlike you, I do follow a bit of football. I am an Arsenal supporter and am a registered member. I have not renewed my paid membership for last season but will probably do it again for the next season because I want to go watch a few games again. That just by the way. I know a bit about the experience of teh key players because there are a few of them playing for Arsenal. Metzul Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski were members of the WC squad who playes for Arsenal. In addition, they have another young German, Serge Gnabry. In addition there are talks that Sami Khedira could also be on his way to the Gunners.

If you want to see experience being used in squads you need look no further than football. A season or two ago Arsenal found themselves in a spot of bother. They were in danger of not reaching a  spot in the EUFA CL for the first time  in 13 or 14 years, and they had to find a  way to get wins under the belt in the late stages of the EPL. They were on a loosing streak and a few of their players were not available for some international competition, and they desperately needed a win.

Old stalwart, Thierry Henry was available on loan during the MLS off-season and he brought him  in on loan. He immediately brought a calmness into the squad and stability on the field. He was picked on the bench for the first game, and FA cup game. Even before he came on, you could  spot a difference in the team but still  they couldn't break through. The moment that he came on, you knew that something was going to happen. He wasn't on for five minutes when Alex Song from just to the righthand side of  the field and outside of  the penalty box received  the ball and Henry came in from his familiar left hand side of the pitch and Song spotted him. The next moment Song lifted the ball  over the defenders onto Henry's left foot and he sent the ball to the back of the net to score the only goal of the match. The clip is on YouTube. Fact is that it was a master stroke of Wenger to bring Henry in to get their campaign back on track and Arsenal are yet to miss  out on a spot in the CL. Experience,  my friend, experience.

Much more competitive match than I expected. Props to a very good Argentine defense that recognized Germany's real threat was in the short passing game at the edge of the box and were playing back to fill all those lanes. Its not surprising the winning goal had to come from a cross. Don't know why Argentina didn't exploit Hummels more at left back. I would have had Messi working him all game. The first 15 minutes they seemed to get good matchups and then went away from it with Messi playing further back as the game progressed. ESPN USA commentators thought he looked tired.
Di Maria would have made a huge athletic difference imo especially with a Ger man defense not afraid to press up.

When you have a two cylinder engine....losing a cylinder is unfortunate.