Match Preview: Germany

So here we go again, time to step into the spotlight.

Speculations & The Magic Trio
As mentioned in a previous post, a lot of speculation was brought up as to who should be included in our starting eleven against Germany. And with Bilic keeping his cards still hidden, I guess there’s nothing more we can do except – speculate some more. Though it seems every Croatian news reporter assigned to this EURO is betting his kidney that Bilic will go for a 4-4-1-1 solution, bringing in Rakitic to fill in for Petric. Meaning our first eleven should look something like this:

So what’s this all about? Well for starters, we’d have our so called “magic trio” (Modric, Kranjcar, Rakitic) present on the pitch. As these three our labeled as most creative among the bunch, it’d be interesting to see how well they’d work with each other. One thing I’m not convinced though is the sudden tendency to push Kranjcar “in the hole” while placing Rakitic on the left of our midfield. In regards to what these 2 have been playing both in NT and their respective clubs, it’d make more sense to stick with Kranjcar on the left and Rakitic behind Olic.

I feel Rakitic’s mobility would be more beneficial then Kranjcar’s (perhaps superior to Rakitic’s) long shots and through passes. Rakitic just seems the kind of profile you’d place in the hole: not a midfielder nor a striker, capable of both scoring and assisting. And another thing that’s bugging me is, according to this lineup, our defense remains unchanged despite leaking all over the place against Austria. Though pushing Simunic to the left and Pranjic to midfield would cost either Rakitic or Kranjcar their spot, and that just opens up a whole new array of questions and possibilities.

It’s just that it seemed a no-brainer that Pranjic’s inclusion on LB wasn’t working, despite his apparent contribution to our offensive options. Petric? I guess he’s somewhat of a scapegoat, isn’t he? Despite suffering in form on a couple of occasions now, I always saw him as the one to be our main man upfront after losing Eduardo. But I guess Olic’s big game against Austria (which virtually cemented his place in first eleven) and both Rakitic & Klasnic knocking on the first team door had to take it’s toll eventually.

A reminder: As soon as Bilic confirms his lineup, I’ll make sure I update & post it here, so keep your eyes open.

* UPDATE *
Seems it’s official, we’re indeed going for a single striker 4-4-1-1 formation.

Optimist’s corner:
Impression-wise, we can only do better then we did against Austria. I think. No, make that – I hope so.
We always seem to do better against better opposition as well. And there’s always that 3:0 battering we gave Germans back in 1998 to look back on. Ah the glory days. *slap* Oh, that’s right. No worries, we’ll perform and get a great result today. We usually do this when one least expects us to anyway.

Pessimist’s corner:
We’re still waiting for a good display from our team this year, and who’s to say it’ll come today, against the ever persistent Germans of all the opposition. It seems as we have slowly degraded with both performance and results (Austria exception) lately, Germans seem to be picking their pace up. Also, we’ve come to depend greatly on a few individuals, and it’s always a gamble whether or not these players will step up to the occasion.

Our key players:
Modric has to pull the strings, 90 minutes or bust. He did a lot of running against Austria but rarely showed the kind of determination and confidence (in possession) he had displayed throughout the qualifiers. Srna was excellent against Austria and let’s hope we can see much of the same today.
His determination and initiative is something that’s extremely crucial to this team, even if it’s often overlooked. Kovac junior (that’s Robert) will have to step up as well, and show just what his years at Bundesliga have taught him. His massive experience is the foundation to pulling off a good result today.

This one goes way back:
to 1996, or 1998. We’ve played the Germans back in 1996 EURO and lost 2:1. You can read up on this defeat in a post a wrote way back titled “The History Of The World, part I”. Unfortunately, I still haven’t got around to concluding the post on our WC 1998 tourney, but feel free to click here and see the bits and pieces of how our last official match with Germany played out.

Live coverage – Last but not the least, you can follow the game’s live blog here.

And to quote the famous Monty Python line, it’s time to: