Match date: 8 July 2014

The semi-finals of the World Cup featuring two of the most successful sides the competition has had.

The biggest headline coming into the match was the absence of Neymar. Scolari had played the Barcelona player in the number 10 role, but with him out, Scolari turned to Oscar in that role. Bernard came in and played in the wide areas, switching with Hulk throughout the match. The second big headline for Brazil was the fact that Thiago Silva was suspended, having picked up a yellow card against Colombia. Maicon kept his place over Dani Alves in the starting XI and Fred continued as the centre forward in a 4-2-3-1.

Joachim Löw selected the same XI that beat France 1-0 in the quarter finals, continuing with Schweinsteiger in the holding midfield role and Philipp Lahm at right back in a 4-1-4-¼-3-3.

Passing Patterns, Early Signs

During the opening stages of the match, Brazil were keeping the ball much better than Germany. The European side dropped behind the ball in a 4-1-4-1, which made it hard for Brazil to get into midfield with any real consistency. None of Müller, Özil, or Klose really put pressure on either David Luiz or Dante, instead opting to cut off the passing lanes, which meant that the two centre backs, and Luiz Gustavo, who dropped in alongside the two, saw plenty of the ball. Germany, prior to the first goal, looked somewhat sloppy in possession and found it hard to keep the ball and play into their midfielders. Below, you can see how quick Germany were to play into the attacking third, but how many misplaced passes were attempted into the middle third. Whereas Brazil kept the ball between Dante, David Luiz, and Luiz Gustavo, only to then try to hit a long diagonal to Hulk or Bernard in the wide areas after struggling to get the ball into the feet of Oscar and Fernandinho.

There were signs of Brazil’s impeding defensive problems, however, and it started with Marcelo. As Brazil were able to get on the ball often in the opening ten minutes of the match, Marcelo began to get up the field, which allowed the space behind him to open up. Rather than dropping in between the two centre backs, Gustavo was positioning himself to cover for Marcelo even when Brazil had the ball, only to move into the middle when Germany immediately won the ball meaning the space was open.

On two occasions prior to the first goal, a German player was able to find that space. The first was Müller making a run into that space when Klose received the ball, only for the now record goal scorer to lack the vision to pick him out and the next play into that space resulted in the corner for the opening goal. The wide areas became essential for Germany’s dominance.

Müller Outlet, Özil’s Final Third, Wide Areas Win

Just mentioned above was Marcelo looking to get forward at every opportunity when Brazil had the ball. It made little sense really as Lahm was capable of handling Bernard and Hulk, depending on who was on that side at the time, and Müller did his defensive work as expected. When Müller did stay further forward, Khedira was more than willing to slide over and cover. These two things, the space that Marcelo vacated and Khedira’s covering, allowed Müller to be Germany’s vertical outlet for most of the match. He was constantly available and while he has scored plenty of goals during this World Cup and his career thus far, the best aspect of his game is his ability to find and create space. Germany struggled to play the ball into Klose or through the midfield with Khedira and Kroos in the opening stages, so much of their play went into Müller.

You can see above that much of Germany’s play went down the right as they were able to exploit Marcelo’s advanced positioning. The second and third goal came from Germany playing down the right through Müller and Lahm and then Özil. Hulk and Bernard were swapping sides throughout and neither really showed any intention to drop and track the run of Lahm so, at times, it left Marcelo in 2v1 and 3v1 situations, and even then that was only when Marcelo was not out of position. The second and third goal came within about two minutes of one another, which gave Brazil little time to sort things out on the left, but it was far from the first time that Germany looked dangerous down that side.

Özil had an understated game with the performances of Khedira, Kroos, Klose, and Müller taking most of the plaudits, but the Arsenal playmaker kept the ball well in the final third. Germany looked to play quickly into Müller, Klose, and Özil and then it was really up to the three to keep the ball and allow the rest of the German side to get involved. They can play on the counter-attack, but are just as comfortable keeping possession of the ball in the opposition’s final third and Özil did well for Germany here. He kept it well, and most importantly, he drew Brazilian defenders towards him when he had the ball, allowing space to open up for others. He got one assist, setting up Khedira for this goal, but also played Lahm in for the third goal as he drifted to the right.

Kroos, Khedira

The German midfield had an excellent game. They were aided by the fact that Scolari continued with Fred as his centre forward, which allowed Germany to play a high line as Fred lacks the pace to get in behind. The high line allowed Germany to squeeze the game and allowed the midfield to press Brazil when they had the ball. Kroos and Khedira led the pressing and it was summed up nicely on Germany’s fourth goal. Fernandinho received a ball from Dante, laboured on the ball, and Kroos was able to take it off of him with ease. The Bayern Munich midfielder scored twice and assisted one and he really summed up the progression of German football over the last ten years with this performance; a combination of technical excellence and physicality.

Khedira had an excellent performance in midfield as well. He was always pushing forward beyond his marker, as he did against Matuidi in Germany’s 1-0 win over France, but he was even better against Brazil. He was able to get in between the lines and link play well and, like Müller and Özil, was able to attract Brazilian defenders which opened up space for Kroos to get into. The third goal was a good example of this as Kroos found himself unmarked at the top of the penalty area.

The Good and Bad of David Luiz

A game that showed the best and the worst of David Luiz. Starting with the best: He was the only player on Brazil that looked like creating anything. With Germany playing a high line and squeezing the midfield, it made it hard for the Brazilian defenders to find their midfielders. As noted in the first section of this analysis, much of the passing for Brazil was between the centre backs and Luiz Gustavo, who dropped between them. David Luiz, however, looked to get on the ball and get into midfield and whether or not you enjoy a defender being so adventurous with the ball, Luiz took on the responsibility to move the ball into midfield for Brazil on the dribble, beating Klose, and looked to make forward passes, opting to be more expansive than his defensive partner, Dante.

A game cannot end 7-1 without a central defender having a poor game, however, and David Luiz showed his worst qualities throughout the match. The first goal, he was cleverly blocked off by Germany, allowing Müller to get free. The second goal, he stepped tight to Özil, but just stood and watched as Müller laid the ball off for Klose and then watched Julio Cesar parry the ball back into Klose’s path. The fourth goal was very much the same as Kroos won the ball off of Fernandinho, Luiz showed little effort to work back in. The fifth goal as well, Luiz was lost in midfield, tried to win a tackle, but left his fellow defenders 3v3 at the back.

Overall, the whole of Brazil’s defense looked horrific. They struggled to control the space as they looked disorganised. They were incredibly open through the midfield and defense and allowed Germany to carve through them with simple, classy passes in and around the penalty area. There were many that said that Thiago Silva’s organisation was going to be the most important part of any run that Brazil went on and it became very clear that this was more important than anyone could have thought.

Conclusion

There was something of a Brazilian fight back in the second half (if you can call it that, despite being 5-0 at halftime) as Scolari brought on Paulinho and Ramires to add some energy into midfield, replacing Hulk and Fernandinho. The biggest change, however, came from Germany with Per Mertesacker coming on for Mats Hummels. With the Arsenal centre back’s introduction, it forced Germany to play a bit deeper, as Mertesacker is one of the slowest players at the World Cup, and this invited pressure from Brazil, who could have scored had it not been for Neuer.

Scolari looked incredibly naive in his tactics and looked like he failed to train his back four with the known absence of Thiago Silva. Neymar’s injury certainly didn’t help, but his absence wasn’t as noticeable.

It is hard to overlook Brazil’s incredibly poor performance in favour of Germany’s amazing performance, but you still felt like Germany could have put even more pressure on Brazil had they wanted to, but with the final coming, it seemed like they were content with a 5-0 lead at halftime.