Form

Before a inane montage featuring quotes juxaposing English and German authors (Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche versus Tennyson, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, a rubric of selection interesting in itself), the BBC showed a short clip of the abilities of the German squad and in particular mid-fielder Mesut Özil. The kind of play the Germans exhibited here favoured good passes ahead of the man, who sprints forward now having gained huge space, or incisive diagonal passes through opposition players as team mates run forward. Özil, as the pundit-bot remarks, has great intelligence, an ability to look up and pass and as Mark pointed out, compared to the England side, a refreshing lack of ego with regard to his need to shoot blindly from a distance and squander precious chances. It was precisely these kind of moves that enabled the two near identical German goals scored on the break as well as the second German goal - the first we can put down to, as the commentators noted, unbelievably weak Sunday league goalkeeping. In fact, substituting highlights of yesterday's game for the short clip they showed, it would be difficult to tell the difference. This is apart from adding several embarrassing minutes of Germany forming almost neat triangles and passing the ball about in a humiliating game of piggy in the middle. Indeed, the discipline of the German side, and its ability to stay in position (compare the first shot) and form these triangles where you always have passing options, people in space and support, was clear throughout the game. Compare this to England's bunching around one another.

Does anyone on the England squad actually watch their opposition's form?