You may remember Germany – Argentina from 2006, the latter stages of which were notable for two things: Jens Lehmann’s cheat sheet – we miss you, Jens – and “the afters”. Those afters involved footballer fights (slapping, purse slinging, etc.) and lots of Argentines with hurt feelings.
You may also remember halftime of Argentina – Mexico of, oh, last week, in which a number of players from both sides found themselves in a mid-game scrap. So that’s two scuffles in Argentina’s last two knockout games, which is a pretty impressive record.
Germany, meanwhile, have begun throwing the insults, starting with Bastian Schweinsteiger and adding Captain Lahm today. Anyone care to bet on making it three for three come Saturday?
Bastian Schweinsteiger:
“It starts before the match. You see how they gesticulate, how they try to influence the referee. That is not part of the game. That is a lack of respect. They are like that. We should not be provoked by them.“This behaviour shows their character and mentality. I hope the referee will pick up the feeling of who is provoking whom. We saw that again in their match against Mexico.”
Alex Ferguson just fired a bottle of Bordeaux, paper bag and all, through his television at such blatant hypocrisy.
Phil Lahm:
“We know South Americans are impulsive and temperamental and cannot lose. We’ll see on Saturday how they’ll lose and how they’ll behave after a defeat.”
Everything was rolling along nicely under Bastian until Philipp entered the fray. There is this rule in sports, and it’s one of the few rules which transcends sporting boundaries, that you simply must always heed:
You never, ever guarantee victory. Ever. The sporting gods do not take kindly to such proclamations, and are getting ready with a Carlos Tevez goal from 12 nautical miles beyond the last defender, which will nevertheless still be given. A strange thing, the likes of which we’ve never seen before…
Predictably, Diego Maradona then evened the balance:
“I’m not worried about what they say about the penalties, the kicks. We’re going to go and beat them in their half. We don’t have time to think about Schweinsteiger. The players are thinking about going onto the pitch, in getting their revenge.”
The football gods are now confused as to which team requires punishment, and are spinning themselves into a tizzy, brewing up the perfect storm of retribution. At this point a mystery, but probably worthy ducking underneath a doorway just in case.
However, one thing we can sleep soundly on is this: they will fight.
A review/preview of Germany – Argentina:
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