Germany - South Africa 2:0 (1:0)



Match Number: 	821
Date:		05-September-2009
Location:	Leverkusen
Competition:	Friendly

GERMANY:
Adler
Lahm, Friedrich, Tasci (46. Westermann), Schäfer, Ballack (80. Gentner), Rolfes ( 73. Khedira)
Schweinsteiger (84. Trochowski), Özil, Marin (46. Podolski)
Gomez (46. Klose)

SOUTH AFRICA:
Fernandez
Gaxa, Fransman (60. Tshabalala), Mokoena, Masilela
Pienaar (83. Henyekane), Mhlongo), Dikgacoi, Gould (60. Khenyeza)
Parker, Mphela (83. van Heerden)

Scoring: 	 
1:0 Gomez (35.)
2:0 Özil (77.)
	
Referee:	Claudio Circhetta (Switzerland)

Attendance:	29,569
Germany ho-hum...

A break week for the top two divisions, as FIFA had all the international squads going in either Wuorld Cup qualifiers or friendlies. Germany opened with a friendly match against South Africa, winning 2-0. It was hardly a gala peformance, as South Africa generally was able to frustrate the German game with well organized defense. For Germany, the most significant aspect was the debut of young Werder Bremen playmaker, Mesut Özil, who had an excellent debut as a starter. The young Turkish-German was probably the best player on the pitch, along with a sharp German GK, Rene Adler. Özil was invloved in both goals, and in general looked like he belonged out there. For a while, it looked as though Germany was just getting old, but recently there has been a lot of excellent young talent breaking through in the Bundesliga and national squad, which bodes well for the future of the squad. The main question seems to be whether coach Joachim Löw is up to the task. (I doubt it)

Mario Gomez scored on a tap-in, which was probably offsides. Özil finished off the guests with a nice shot after a clever combination. The South Africans created a few decent chances themselves, but young GK Rene Adler, playing in front of his home Leverksuen crowd, gave an impressive performance.

One thing that was kind of lame is that Germany played in their red uniforms, which looks completely crap. Maybe they're trying to fool the opponent that they're Spain, or perhaps lull them into a false sense of security by pretending they're ultra-crap, like Belgium (who were happily getting pounded 5-0 by Spain). C'mon, Deutschland is white jersey, black shorts, verdammt noch mal. It's bad enough that the clubs prostitute themselves with changing jersies all the time to extract yet another euro from the fans.


Abseits Guide to German Soccer