I Wasn't at all suprised that England beat Germany in Munich. I had predicted it, but the margin of their victory surprised everybody. Not many teams lose 5-1 at home any more. It tends to be only the minnows; but look at Malta, they only lost 3-2 to the Czech Republic who reached the final of Euro'96, and that was away.

But England looked the bettter team on paper before they took the field in Munich and once they went ahead, Germany had no weapons with which to fight back. they did no know how to find a way through the English midfield. I was impressed by the way England pressurised the game. Germany had no answer to the pressure of Owen and Heskey in attack or when they dropped back went out wide.

The England midfield, particularly Steven Gerrard, screened the ball very well. Germany were reduced to sending long balls up to Carsten Jancker, and that is not their game. They could not read the knockdows, England were much better at that.

However all these things only explain why Germany lost, they do not explain the huge scoreline against them. I believe from watching the replays that the German keeper was to blame. "Whats his name again? Kahn something? isnt he supposed to be the best keeper in europe? let me tell you if thats true then you better shove all your money onto Argentina to win the world cup, because if the rest of Europes keepers are no better than him, then no European team will even make it past the first round!

Kahn really was atrocious, at least three and i have a suspition it was 4 goals were his fault. His pathetic attempts at narrowing the angle and increasing his size in the goal usually resulted in him collapsing pathetically into the ground in front of the attacker who simply knocked it passed him. If you dont believe me watch the match again. That happened three times. The fourth time, the ball was struck too his right, kahn seemed wait until the ball had passed him before moving a muscle an
d lamely dived to his right, then acted all suprised when he found the ball in the back of the net instead of in his arms. Every player has a bad day but this was just unbelieveable, it wouldnt suprise me if he had been bribed to lose.

Anyway Sven Goran Eriksson has done a good job. His players have shown good qualities and togetherness. So where does that leave Germany? In a play-off against the Ukraine i suspect, but they will win that, i dont doubt it.