Mikey Stafford reports for TheScore.ie from Recife.
JURGEN KLINSMANN’S VERY identity is on the line in Recife today.
Not his national identity, which sits conveniently somewhere between his native Germany and his adopted home of the United States, but how he is viewed as a football manager.
The former Germany and Bayern Munich coach has taken his United States team to the verge of life beyond the group of death. A draw will be enough for Klinsmann’s side to advance to the last 16 but a win will go a long way to repairing the damage done to his reputation by a disastrous nine months in charge of Bayern Munich back in 2008-09.
German captain Philipp Lahm claimed in his autobiography that the 1990 World Cup winner is no more than a motivational fitness coach.
“It was up to the players to come together before a match and discuss how we were going to play,” said Lahm of the former Tottenham striker’s spell at the Allianz Arena, which only served to convince more observers that Klinsmann’s assistant was the mastermind behind die nationalmannschaft‘s impressive re-imagining as entertaining semi-finalists at the 2006 World Cup on home soil.
Klinsmann’s number two succeeded him as national coach and at Arena Pernambuco today Joachim Löw will look to further enhance his own reputation by defeating Klinsmann’s side, who have been one of the early stars of a tournament that has been stuffed with surprise packages.
Not that Löw is without critics.
Germany’s failure to hold on to a 1-0 lead against Ghana saw them sucked into a frantic bout of counter-attacking that could have resulted in defeat to the Africans but for the intervention of substitute striker Miroslav Klose.
The Germany coach must get credit for the substitution, but after the game one of his players said that the manner in which they allowed the game become an end-to-end affair was “not clever”.
Credit to Lahm, he tells it like it is, even when it was his stray pass that led to the Asamoah Gyan goal that gave Ghana a 2-1 lead.
Löw will endeavour to avoid a second half like that endured in Fortaleza as Klinsmann’s system of surging full-backs and solid but adventurous midfielders is purpose-built for the counter-attack. An irritable Germany coach placed the onus back on his players.
“There are many situations where there are individual decisions that are not very good. When we had set-pieces they all went to the front, they all attacked and did not defend,” he said of the end game against Ghana.
The injury to Jozy Altidore and advancement of Clint Dempsey up the field as striker has seen Klinsmann settle on a very effective midfield quintet of Alejandro Bedoya, Kyle Beckerman, Jermaine Jones, Michael Bradley and Graham Zusi.
Bradley is the only one of the five you would categorise as a creative player but as a unit they caused Portugal all manner of problems in their 2-2 draw. Germany cannot allow their midfield five to become as fractured as they did against Ghana and if Löw’s mildly condescending tone this afternoon was anything to go by, he is worried about the obvious physical attributes of the team selected by his good friend ‘Klinsi’.
“Americans do attack, their marking and tactics have improved. They have a compact game. They do not give you enough time to pass ball. They are quick, fast,” said the Germany coach, who suggested the summer calendar adopted by the MLS — from which Klinsmann drew five of his starters against Portugal — gave Klinsmann an advantage.
We saw in both games they are well prepared, very fit. They might have had an advantage that their league doesn’t last 11 months. Jürgen had his team ready in January. They have been working together since then. This is an advantage, this is why they are in such good physical condition.”
How Klinsmann would love to deliver a tactical masterclass today to silence the doubters. Even his good friend and former assistant is putting the United States’ success in Brazil to date down to physical conditioning rather than his style of play.
The United States coach was relaxed when the issue of his tactical acumen was raised this afternoon.
“I hope by now I know a little bit about tactics,” said Klinsmann. “I think we have made tremendous progress in the last three years. We have prepared for this World Cup in a very detailed way. We are confident, we did our homework and I think some people might be a little bit surprised by our results so far, but we are not.”
The class and advantage lies unquestionably on the German side but Klinsmann vowed his team would be aggressive and approach the game as “a battle”.
A draw would suffice and even a defeat may see the United States through to the second round. They may have to rely on the latter, but Klinsmann channelled the American in him and struck an optimistic note.
“I personally have nothing to prove. I enjoy my work with the United States tremendously, I enjoyed my job with Germany also. I enjoyed my time with Bayern Munich, which was a very turbulent year. That is just part of the job.”
Probable Teams:
United States (4-2-3-1): Tim Howard; Fabian Johnson, Geoff Cameron, Matt Besler, Demarcus Beasley; Alejandro Bedoya, Kyle Beckerman; Jermaine Jones, Michael Bradley, Graham Zusi; Clint Dempsey.
Germany (4-2-3-1): Manuel Neuer; Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, Per Mertesacker, Benedikt Howedes; Philipp Lahm, Sami Khedira; Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos, Mario Gotze; Thomas Muller.
Referee: Ravshav Irmatov (Uzbekistan)
Kick-off: 1pm (4pm GMT), Arena Pernambuco, Recife.
