Like the French a day before, the Germans got a bit of a scare yesterday when they trailed the Mexicans by a goal for much of the second half at the Mosson Stadium in Montpellier. In fact, they were lucky not to go further behind. But, unlike the hosts, they avoided the lottery of the golden goal and wrapped up their place in the last eight by stepping up their game in an bad tempered match. It may not have been pretty, or even convincing, but German, oh yeah, it was that all right.
Berti Vogts' side now take on the winners of this afternoon's clash between Romania and Croatia in a quarterfinal which the German manager may, if he still believes they can go all the way, see as another opportunity to get things right on the field. He'll certainly know that they're not quite there yet. The play from wide positions is still disappointing and the tendency of his three-man defence to get caught out of position may be fatal to their aspirations. So far, the draw has made even this, rather disappointing hand, a winning one. However, it will get tougher from here on in.
Still, there were some pluses yesterday, most notably the goals which Jurgen Klinsmann and Oliver Bierhoff put away when the pressure was mounting. Klinsmann was fortunate to get his chance on 75 minutes after Raul Lara made a mess of taking down a Dietmar Hamann cross. Bierhoff's, on the other hand, was a cracking effort. The Serie A's top scorer showed how it's done with the head, turning Michael Tarnat's angled ball into the top right corner from a dozen yards leaving the impressive Jorge Campos with no chance of making the save.
The Mexican had previously kept his side in the game but it was Andreas Kopke at the other end who had the heavier workload as Francisco Palencia, Jesus Arrellano, whose shot was pushed on to the post, and Luis Hernandez were allowed through to go one-on-one with the Marseille player.
The ease with which the Mexicans seemed able to win possession in midfield and move forward through the centre was particularly surprising and, after Hernandez had weaved his way past Markus Babbel, Tarnat and Christian Worns to score the opener in the 48th minute, Arrellano's effort a quarter of an hour later really should have been number two.
Lothar Matthaus again played in fits and starts and the loss, during the pre-match warm-up, of Jurgen Kohler seemed to upset the German defence. Far more pressing, though, were the problems in midfield where, until the arrival of Andy Moller just before the hour, the Germans seemed to lack someone who could take control and push the team forward.
However, Moller's first contribution appeared to promise only further frustration when the 30year-old Borussia Dortmund player sent the ball low and well to the left of a crowded penalty area for another Mexican goal kick. For all that, though, Moller and company kept their heads. The Mexicans had replaced Palencia with Jesus Arellano, a more defensive midfielder, shortly after taking the lead and this immediately took some of the heat off the German back three. With their opponents prepared to surrender more and more ground in front of their own area, players like Hamann, Tarnat and Christian Ziege had more time to weigh-up their options.
"Even when we were 1-0 down I never thought we would lose the game," said Klinsmann. "And once I got the goal that took us level we were the ones who knew we could win this match."
Fortunately for him and his team-mates, the Mexicans, as they demonstrated in their own press conference afterwards, appeared to see their defeat as being equally inevitable even if Hernandez went very close to pulling them level as the game moved into injury time. Whether it's the Romanians or the Croatians, the opposition should be tougher on Saturday, but then we have yet to see just what the European champions are really capable of.
