ATWC : GROUP E

The group, the schedule, the stadiums, the squads, the games (please click on the pictures for a better view).

THE GAMES

DAY 1 :

GERMANY - JAPAN at Estadio do Morumbi, São Paulo (capacity 66.700)

GERMANY - JAPAN : 3 - 1

A pleasant game between two countries that knew several exchanges in their history, and a winning German team in the end. The Mannschaft never flinched and was more efficient in front of the goals. Thanks to a certain Müller Gerd who netted twice (out of five great chances). Japan had deployed their full force, though.

GOALS (Matthaüs, Honda, G. Müller, G. Müller)

25' : Matthaüs with a traumtor (!), opens the score for Germany.

36' : Nakamura crosses the ball to Okazaki... it's not cleared well enough by Förster... Kagawa follows and passes it to Honda who arrived from the right... goal Japan !

74' : Breitner finds G. Müller in the penalty area for one of his rare incursions and the centre forward transforms this gift in a goal in no time.

78' : G. Müller, assisted by Netzer with a long ball that landed in Müller's feet. And that's a brace for Müller in less than 5 minutes !

Yellow cards : Lahm (44'), Ihara (50'), Honda (61'), Breitner (70').

Man of the Match : although Bernd Schuster gave an impressive performance the trophy for the man of the match landed in... Gerd Müller's hands, he who was the scorer of two goals !

RATINGS :

Germany :

Maïer 5,5 - Lahm 5 - Förster 5 - Beckenbauer 5,5 - Breitner 5,5 - Schuster 7 - Netzer 5,5 - Matthaüs 6 - Seeler 5 (Klinsmann) - G. Müller 7 - Rummenigge 5 (Overath). Tot. : 62.

Japan :

Kawagushi 4 - Uchida 6,5 - Nakazawa 4 - Ihara 4,5 - Nagatomo 5 - Nakata 5 - Hasebe 4,5 (Inamoto)- Honda 5,5 (Doan) - S. Nakamura 5,5 - Kagawa 5,5 - Okazaki 4,5 (Takahara). Tot. : 54,5.

On the bench, Kazu Miura was very disappointed as he was not used at all, here, in Sao Paulo where he started his career. A similar feeling was felt by Okudera, who was the first ever from his country to play in the 1. Bundesliga.

USSR - SOUTH AFRICA at Estadio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre (capacity 50.800)

USSR - SOUTH AFRICA : 3 - 0

The South Africa team played some real good football but the former-USSR trident shown no mercy as the rest of the team perfectly did his job. Yashin only had a couple of saves to do, including a real fantastic one, on a superb shoot by Moshoeu.

GOALS (Blokhin, Streltsov, Shevchenko)

38' : Demyanenko to Blokhin who takes the inside left channel to beat everybody on its way before to beat the goalkeeper.

60' : Streltsov is there to recover a cleared shot from Blokhin. He turns a bit and blast a terrific low strike ! It's in, and well.

69' : Shevchenko, assisted by Streltsov.

Yellow cards : Radebe (11'), Motaung (26'), Fortune (70').

Man of the Match : Eduard Streltsov left a big impression for his first match ever in a World Cup. Scorer, passer, he seems to have it all ! The crowd certainly will remember for a long time the backheel passes challenge he had with John Moshoeu. An already cult moment of this FYT All-Time World Cup !

RATINGS :

USSR :

Yashin 6 - Chesternev 5,5 - Khurtsilava 6 - Kaladze 5 - Beszonov 5,5 - Voronin 5,5 - Netto 5 (Buryak 71') - Demyanenko 6 - Streltsov 7 (V. Ivanov 81') - Shevchenko 5,5 - Blokhin 6,5. Tot. : 63,5.

South Africa :

Khune 3,5 - A. Mokoena 3,5 - Fish 5 - Radebe 4,5 - Motaung 4 (Nyathi 75') - Khumalo 5 - Sibaya 5 - Fortune 5 (Bartlett 75') - Moshoeu 5 - Pienaar 4,5 (Masinga 78') - McCarthy 5. Tot. : 50.

That's a lot to practice to master the backheel technique like Streltsov does

McCarthy tried a lot, but he hasn't done any damage to the Reds

DAY 2

GERMANY - USSR at Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (capacity 73.000) 

GERMANY - USSR : 1 - 1

Looks like the deal was to add 1 point more to their totals for each of the two teams. Both teams could have make it 2-1 though (in spite of the German domination at midfield) : with Blokhin and... Müller.

GOALS (G. Müller, Khurtsilava ifk).

50' : Yashin can't block a shoot send by Matthaüs... and Müller is there to score a tap-in. All of Yashin's previous work in this game is destroyed, here.

65' : Demyanenko at the indirect free-kick, slightly on the left... he drags the ball to Khurtsilava who bangs a 22 meters shoot in the nets of Maïer, powerless.

Yellow cards : Kohler 17', Netto 55', Sammer 86'.

Man of the Match : Matthaüs stood out at midfield... until Sammer came in after half-time, and shined as well. The former East-German international player replaced Netzer, who completely missed his match, o nthe other hand. On the former-Soviet side, Khurtsilava was imposing on defense (except once, with a careless mistake, like his partners, not just him) and the Georgian scored an impressive goal, so impressive that it will never be forgotten.

RATINGS

Germany :

Maïer 5 - Lahm 5,5 - Kohler 5,5 - Beckenbauer 5,5 - Breitner 5,5 - Schuster 7 (Brehme 80') - Netzer 4 (Sammer 46', 6) - Matthaüs 7 - Seeler 5 (Klinsmann 68') - G. Müller 5,5 - Rummenigge 5. Tot. : 61,5.

USSR :

Yashin 5 - Chesternev 5 - Khurtsilava 6,5 - Kaladze 5,5 - Beszonov 4,5 - Voronin 4 - Netto 5 (Buryak 80') - Demyanenko 5 - Streltsov 5 (V. Ivanov 80') - Shevchenko 4 (Chislenko 70') - Blokhin 5,5. Tot. : 55.

Neuer still doesn't accept to be the goalie number 2 and that shows. He was so nervous, on the bench, from the first to the last minute.

Looks like Kohler was imposed by Beckenbauer in the 11 instead of Förster, who's been, it is true, average in the first game. That's what the rumor is, in any case.

JAPAN - SOUTH AFRICA at Arena Corinthians, São Paulo, Brazil (capacity 48.900)

JAPAN - SOUTH AFRICA : 1 - 0

The Nipo-brasileiros community, present in high numbers in the Arena Corinthians, may have been an advantage for the Japan national team.

Japan also completely change their central defense partnership plus their defensive midfielder (but no change were made to all the rest of the team). It was a very ambitious eleven once again, but the score is only 1-0. That's still 3 points earned though, so it paid off !

 

GOALS (Honda)

39' : Honda, with a cracker !

Yellow cards : Nyathi 27', Nakata 60'.

Man of the Match : Keisuke Honda. He is the scorer of the two Japanese goals in the tournament, so far.

RATINGS

Japan :

Kawaguchi 6 - Uchida 6 - Tomiyasu 5,5 - Yoshida 6 - Nagatomo 5,5 - Nakata 5,5 - Y. Endo 6 (W. Endo 72') - Honda 7 (Inamoto 78') - S. Nakamura 5 (Ono 81') - Kagawa 5,5 - Okazaki 5. Tot. : 63.

South Africa :

Khune 4,5 - A. Mokoena 5 - Fish 6 - Radebe 5 - Nyathi 5 - Pienaar 5 (Bartlett 80') - Khumalo 5 - Sibaya 5 - Fortune 5 - Moshoeu 4,5 (Masinga 69') - McCarthy 5. Tot. : 55.

Kawaguchi : no errors to report

Keisuke Honda : what a blast !