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| Germany's Thomas Müller jumps in celebration between team-mate Mats Hummels and the USA's Jermaine Jones after his goal. Photograph: Tony Gentile/Reuters |
Both
Germany and the United States reached the last 16 as a result of this scoreline
and the one in Brasilia, with a goal by Thomas Müller doing enough to allay
suspicions that the Germans in charge of the two sides had colluded to produce
a mutually satisfactory result.
A dreary
draw looked on the cards for a while and both sides ended the first half
appearing content just to see out time, but Germany woke up and began to look a
bit more like their old selves after the interval. Not to the extent of trashing
the USA’s goal difference – which might have given Portugal the encouragement
they needed – but Müller’s goal reflected German superiority and enabled them
to finish top of Group G with seven points.
Pharrell
Williams’ song Happy played out at the end, as it has at all World Cup
stadiums, but on this occasion everyone present was happy, especially when the
giants screens confirmed – though naturally the participants knew already – the
Portugal result and the final group table.
“We were
aware on the bench of the score in the other game,” the USA coach, Jürgen
Klinsmann, said. “We were still going in the 90th minute, you could see we had
a very strong commitment to trying to get a point, but we are through anyway.
To come through that group is a huge achievement.”
Initially
Germany did most of the attacking, with Jérôme Boateng having more fun in
Brazil than his brother and enjoying a rampaging role down the right wing. His
first cross almost produced a goal in the second minute, Müller attempting an
acrobatic volley but not quite pulling it off, then his next was missed
completely by Omar Gonzalez with a wild swipe in front of his own goal that had
it connected could have gone anywhere. Gonzalez made amends shortly afterwards
with a good block to prevent Müller reaching another Boateng cross, but it was
clear that DaMarcus Beasley and Graham Zusi on the USA left were in danger of
being overrun.
That led to
a little complacency in the Germany defence, for when the USA shifted the ball
to the left midway through the first half Boateng was caught out of position,
and Zusi had more time than he expected to shoot from just inside the area. He
should have at least managed a shot on target, rather than one that cleared the
bar, though like Beasley’s delightful dribble down the left moments later it
was a sign that the USA were growing in confidence.
After quite
a promising start the game had slowed down by the half-hour mark, becoming a
tame midfield struggle with neither side showing much attacking adventure. One
Mesut Özil shot apart, routinely saved by Tim Howard, Germany had barely
managed a direct threat to the USA goal and their opponents also appeared to
have run out of surprises.
While that
was no more than anyone had been predicting, with a draw enabling both sides to
progress, it was poor fare to set before spectators who had braved floods,
inadequate public transport and traffic gridlock in Recife city centre to reach
the Arena Pernambuco.
The sight
of so many Uncle Sams, Statues of Liberty and Captain Americas traipsing the
last few miles of dual-carriageway hard-shoulder like bedraggled refugees
should make Fifa question their criteria for stadium allocation (it won’t). The
World Cup organisers cannot be blamed for the pouring rain, but if a venue with
a stadium an inconvenient 30km from the city centre has to be selected then
decent transport links and ease of access are surely the minimum 21st-century
requirement. Even on dry, non-match days some journeys between city centre and
stadium were taking more than two hours.
Germany
sent on Miroslav Klose for the second half to try and liven things up only to
see the next chance, from another Boateng cross, fall to Özil. The Arsenal
player was in a good position in front of goal but heading is not his strongest
suit and though Gonzalez could not reach the ball his challenge was enough to
put the midfielder off. Klose would have liked that chance.
While he
did find himself free from Bastian Schweinsteiger’s cross moments later he
could not quite climb quite high enough to direct his header downwards.
At least
Germany had begun the second half more urgently, with the USA struggling to get
beyond halfway for the first 10 minutes, and they deservedly made pressure
count at a corner just before the hour. Per Mertesacker produced a header from
Özil’s cross that Howard did extremely well to reach, let alone beat out, only
for his clearance to find an unmarked Müller waiting on the edge of the area to
thump a shot unstoppably past the goalkeeper for his fourth goal of the
tournament.
He is
already only one goal short of the total that won him the Golden Boot in South
Africa, and he could become the first player to retain it. Klose, the winner in
2006, is still waiting for the goal he needs to become the World Cup’s record
scorer, and although this was the type of game where he must have fancied his
chances of getting it, there were no further heroics, except in defence. While
the last 20 minutes were as low key as World Cup games get, Klose was
responsible for a fantastic block to deny Alejandro Bedoya an equaliser in
stoppage time.
“That was
the USA’s first real chance of the game,” Joachim Löw said. “It shows how much
we dominated the match when we didn’t give the opponent a chance to score until
the very last moment.”
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Fans
celebrate qualification to the round of 16 at a WorldCup viewing
party in
Hermosa Beach, California (Twitter)
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Related Articles:
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Obama
watches the game on Air Force One. Kind of his office. Photograph:
Mandel
Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
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