So Germany’s 2010 World Cup is off to a near perfect start. I couldn’t be happier. Unlike some of the other big teams, they showed no troubles in making a strong opening statement (referring to less than stellar performances from the likes of Argentina, Holland, France, Italy, England…Of course Brazil and Spain have yet to play). True, Cahill’s straight red card was a bit brutal but I don’t think the score-line would have changed much with him in the whole game. Germany were pretty solid in back, they were full of good, sharp passing and movement throughout and fun to watch (equally important, no one really played poorly). And Polodski's opener, please!
I have to confess that despite his talent, I’m still having trouble with Cacau’s presence on the team. I’m not a fan of countries “adopting” these Brazilians who opt to play for foreign teams because they’ll never get to play for Brazil. Especially Germany, I can see San Marino doing this, but Germany, come on. And before you go there, these “naturalized” foreign born players are entirely different than those players who have foreign heritage but that basically grew up in Germany (or whatever country) since their childhood (like Klose, Podolski, Ozil and, well…basically half of the team)…Again, this is totally different.
Speaking of Klose and Podolski, it’s huge that they got their goals considering their Bundesliga combined goal tally was something like…three. Seriously…and they’re starting a World Cup. I wouldn’t even want to compare, say, Argentina’s top striker's goal tally (OK, its’ 84. That’s 34 for Messi, 27 for Higuain and 23 for Tevez…106 if you add in Milito’s 22 off the bench…that’s sick). And it’s comforting to know Germany can still take it up a notch by not missing as many opportunities: Ozil once again did brilliantly to get in front of goal but failed to finish. Klose had a couple missed chances too. It’s only the first game, I can’t get too excited yet.
All this brings up a good question: Is Germany better off without Ballack?
On the one hand, no. Absolutely not. He’s the captain, he’s a leader, he has loads of experience and despite being a bit past his prime, in watching him towards the end of his Chelsea season, he was superb with his reading of the game and one-touch, perfect ball distribution. I’ve always said, while soccer is not about stats, if you tracked the guy who gave the ball to the guy who provided the assist, Ballack would be high on that list…the assist to the assist. And Germany doesn’t have that Lampard/Gerrard dilemma, each of their midfielders has a clear role. While Sami Khedira did well, I don’t for a second believe he can do anything Ballack cannot.
On the other hand, well, there’s that number 13 thing going on…
Everyone knows his always-a-bridesmaid story: At Leverkusen, he scored an own-goal that essentially cost them the Bundesliga title one year (a title they've still never won), he was second place in the Champions League TWICE, with Leverkusen and Chelsea, he missed the 2002 World Cup final against Brazil with a yellow card suspension (I will forever wonder the outcome had he played…Germany of course lost 2:0 but had more possession and shots on target, and Ballack was on fire that tournament…), with him as Germany’s captain, they narrowly missed the 2006 World Cup final with a last minute extra time defeat to Italy (another huge “what-if”), in Euro ‘08 he was again on the runner’s up stand. And now, he gets this injury on his LAST competitive game before the World Cup.
Ultimately I’d take him back in two seconds -- but without him out, I’m just saying…
- may be its because ballack is the kind of guy who would rather spend 20 min at the top of the box setting up his own shot rather give the ball up to an open teammate, which was hard for him to do at Chelsea with soooo many top talent teammates and injury riddled appearance record, and not the #13 that is the root of his "one of the top 100 players of all time not to win a world cup" persona, (right behind everyone who ever played for Holland!)
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