The art of the thrashing
Everyone says that international football isn’t like it used to be, that we can’t expect to rock up and beat these smaller nations 7-0 any more. And perhaps that’s right. But somehow Germany still have that knack. And we don’t.
Here are some results, all 21st century:
2007: beat San Marino 7-0
2006: beat San Marino 13-0
2006: beat Luxembourg 7-0
2004: beat Malta 7-0
2002: beat Saudi Arabia 8-0
2002: beat Austria 6-2
2002: beat Kuwait 7-0
2002 (good year, this): beat Israel 7-1
2000: beat Liechtenstein 8-2
There were some hiccups over these years, but that’s a lot of thrashings handed out there. How can this be? Someone should study these people and see what they do differently.
While they’re at it, figure out why they are so good at PK’s. I heard a stat from the last WC that they have converted something like 21-22 straight PK’s in WC play. That’s impressive.
I watched a bit of the first half of the germany lichtenstein game and to their credit, Lichtenstein were actually trying to play a little football.