Football World Cup Semi Finals starts: Germany vs Brazil

Football World cup nearing completion as Semi Finals starts today. The first semi finals will be between the Giants of Football Brazil and Germany at Belo Horizonte today at 15:00 HRS Local time (1:30 AM IST).

Other semi finals will be played on 9^th where 2010 finalist Netherlands will face 1990 Finalist Argentina at Sao Paulo at 15:00 HRS Local time (1:30 AM IST). This year semi finals 2 European heavy weights will battle against the 2 American Giants. So in my opinion the semi final is going to be a cracker of a contest with European teams having the advantage. The below table indicates the teams and its records in the semifinals.

Country	Played (Semis)	Won (semis)	Lost (semis)	Winner (finals)	Runner (Finals)	3rd Place	4th Place
Argentina	4	4	0	2	2	-	-
Brazil	10	7	3	5	2	2	1
Germany	12	7	5	3	4	4	1
Netherlands	4	3	1	-	3	-	1

Going by the statistics of all teams Argentina holds the record of reaching the finals whenever it reached last 4. Next comes Netherlands with 75% record followed by Brazil with 70% record. Germany Stands last with 55% conversion from semi finals to finals but again No team has appeared in 12 semi finals and 4 times in a row other than Germany. If Germany or Brazil Wins today then it will become a new record of 8 final appearances, Currently Germany and Brazil are tied at 7 each. So fans will hope for all out win by their team. On the other hand with Argentina being the only team to have won all the matches in the tournament will try to continue the run in this round too, But its Netherlands who lost 2010 to Spain will make sure the match will be hard fought and they would like to brush away the 2010 defeat and make it possible this time.

Brazil vs Germany Head to Head

Played: 9

Germany Win: 2

Brazil Win: 5

Draw: 2

Brazil vs Germany Head to Head (Before unification)

Played: 20

Germany Win: 3

Brazil Win: 11

Draw: 6

This will be the second time Germany will be facing Brazil in the world cup. The previous one was in the 2002 world cup finals where Brazil beat Germany 2-0. This Time Germany seems to be in full energy in order to break the jinx and proceed to finals. It has been 24 years since Germany last won the world cup, 18 years since last Euro win. On the other hand Brazil which is playing at home will try to win the cup to make things look easy. Even though the head to head tells Brazil advantage, still the Germans look really ripe and ready to pounce on the weakness of the opponent. With No suspension or injury scare in the German camp, Joechim Low will put the best possible line up against the Brazil. On the other hand Brazil coach is looking worried as they will miss the services of their best defender thiago silva who will miss the match due to suspension and Neymar who has been injured. Brazil team will have to cope without their two stars in the crunch stage of the world cup. This gives a psychological advantage for the Germans against the Brazilians.

Possible Line up

Germany: (4-2-3-1)

Neur; Lahm – boating – hummels – howedes; Schweinsteiger – kroos; Ozil – Gotze – Podolski; Mueller

Lahm likely to feature as centre back like in france game. Also podolski could make it back and Mueller will play as forward.

Brazil: (4-3-3)

Cesar; Alves – Marcelo – luiz – maicon; Gustavo – Fernandinho – paulinho; hulk – Oscar – fred

Alves will replace thiago silva and Gustavo will be back as well that is the most likely order in Brazil team.

On the paper Germany looks threatening and on the field as well. In the Defense the Brazil looks good but the mid field battle might take Brazil out the game. The same happened with France too. The Midfield in Germany will be manned by Schweinsteiger assisted by Kroos and Ozil which Brazil might find difficult to stop. Brazilian Subs have so far had not impact but German Sub Schurrle and Klose have made their part big making their team winning when it was required. So far Brazil was hell bent on the services of Neymar and with Neymar out of the world cup Brazil will have to find a way to annul the effect of neymar and stop the Germans from scoring.

Trivia

• Germany or Brazil whoever wins will appear in the finals for record 8^th time.
• Klose is one goal away from creating a new world cup goal record.
• This semi finals mark German’s 13^th semi finals again a record.
• Mueller is 2 goals away from current golden boot race tally of 6 goals.
• Apart from klose, no one plays for both teams who where part of 2002 finals.

Hoping for a Germany win...

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Venkats

twitter: @vnktabi