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SBI World Cup Man of the Match: Toni Kroos

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By RYAN TOLMICH

It was one of the more emphatic statements in recent memory. With four goals in six minutes on their way to a 7-1 destruction of host nation Brazil, Germany put forth one of the most dominating performances ever seen on the World Cup Stage.

Toni Kroos, like virtually all of his German teammates, dismantled the Brazilian defense through the game’s first thirty minutes. Kroos kicked off the German goal bonanza in the game’s 11th minute by assisting a Thomas Muller finish that turned out to be merely just the first snowball of a German goalscoring avalanche.

Following a record-breaking Miroslav Klose finish in the 23rd minute, he 24-year-old added to the Brazilian misery just a minute later by slamming home a Phillip Lahm cross to push the lead to three. Just two minutes later, Kroos made it four by firing into a wide open Brazilian net via a Sami Kehdira assist. Three more German goals followed, but the additional punishment was little more than a formality after Kroos’ first half explosion all but ended Brazil’s World Cup participation.

Although virtually every German participant put forth a performance worthy of recognition, it was Kroos whose play broke the Brazilian spirit, as the Bayern Munich midfielder beat out Lahm, Kehdira, Muller and Andre Schurrle for Man of the Match honors.

What did you think of Kroos’ performance? Who stood out to you in Germany’s 7-1 demolition of Germany?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Kroos played good, but not man of the match good. The MOTM was Basti Schweinsteiger. I never saw him play so good. He controlled the defense and the offense.

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  2. MOM was German team. Team performance that saw them unselfishly passing goals into the net. Second should be Klinsmann since The Gulati USA fanboys are giving Klinsmann credit for this victory eight years after he rebuilt the German team from nothing

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    • agreed with this sarcastic remark-Klinsmann is clearly responsible for this result because he convinced Toni Kroos’s parents to give soccer a try versus his preferred baseball, Ozil was set to apprentice for bratwurst-making, Khedira was never going to get chance under the old German set-up where strong, big midfielders were often ignored and Klose was a non-name forward in the 4th division…

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  3. Where’s the official MLS Tweet taking credit for this match?

    “Major League Soccer Goalie Julio Cesar allows 7 goals in World Cup semi-final meltdown!! #GrowingTheGame”

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    • That’s funny.

      But to be serious, how many of those would Nuer or Howard (or Ochoa or Navas), have saved?

      Cesar maybe could have done better on the first goal, and he should have held Klose’s first shot, but anyone in his position would have let in at least three in that game.

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  4. I was worried, Brazil will be tough, then in the 10th minute I sat back. Okay, my team will win this game.

    All I have to say is a question. How did an 18 year old kid, who has only played 2 minutes as a professional, who has only played 4th division soccer ever get picked to the 30, much make the 23 and actually go to Brazil? Please, how did this happen.

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      • I have seen you trolling all the pages with this same dumb question. Get over it. Green wasn’t taken in place of Donovan. So just stop this dumb question.

      • Sorry. You troll. You post same question multiple times. You annoying and secretly in love with Green.

      • Sorry, I commented with not enough thought. Okay CO, I understand somewhat. Yes, you right, I have posed this question a couple times before and you can call it trolling, or whatever you want.

        Maybe I should let you know, sometimes I use sarcasm. But here is the real me, I am a Germany fan 2nd, and loved the game. Can’t wait to play Argentina (even though I have many many Dutch friends) in the finals.

        My comment re: J. Green is only a little dig at all those who doubt him, who say he is not a good player.

  5. I’m a huge fan of David Luiz but I’m afraid his weaknesses were shown tonight being paired with Dante and not Thiago Silva. Too often does Luiz make those marauding midfield runs knowing full well Dante isn’t a CB with enough pace to cover for the both of them. It seemed like all the goals happened when Luiz was in the midfield trying to break a play up.

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    • I’m personally in shock, flabbergasted, whatever your Ian Darke adjective, about Brazil’s game-plan.

      I figured Scolari would take Neymar’s absence – and Thiago Silva’s absence – as an excuse to park the bus and break Brazil’s beloved 4-3-3 in favor of something more…defensive, you know, so as to not get overrun by Germany’s 47 midfielders. You play an offensive-minded 4-3-3 against what often looks like a 4-6-0 and you’re going to get overrun in midfield, and then your three forwards are going to get stranded up the field…and that’s exactly what happened.

      The Germans are overwhelming in midfield…their weaknesses (so far) had been a lack of finishing (on account of, you know, not having brought a striker aside from Klose) and their outside back spots. Trying to punch with the Germans between the boxes is suicide, but Brazil tried it, attacking with that old jogo bonito verve…and duly got cut up by the best collection of open-field players ever put on the field in recent memory. I was shaking my head even before the first goal went in.

      And then, of course, they never adjusted…not that there was really time to adjust, considering they leaked five goals before the 30-minute mark and at that point it no longer mattered.

      Lordy. Arrogance as an art form. Brazil: the Reality Fairy arriveth, and the woman is seriously p*ssed at ya.

      THAT is bad tactics and poor personnel management. Especially since they had guys like Willian watching from the bench as the carnage ensued.

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      • Uh…yeah. Did you COUNT the number of Germans in the box those first few goals, as compared to the number of guys wearing yellow jerseys? In more than a few instances, you’d see three defenders frantically trying to hold off four or five Germans…because one of their outside backs had gotten forward, turned it over, and Brazil’s (three) mids didn’t seem particularly inclined to track back either.

        That has a way of not ending well.

  6. Come on – we all know the man of the match was David Luiz. He was at least indirectly responsible for most of Germany’s goals.

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  7. Sure why not? Actually would’ve thrown an honorable mention to Ian Darke, who identified at least 275 different ways to paraphrase the same statement regarding the shocking nature of the scoreline during the course of the last hour.

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    • Actually, that’s not easy to do without using obscenity. Try posting your comment five more times, saying the same thing with new words. And really, what else was there to say after the 25th minute except wtf, etc?

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