Hummels Criticizes Germany Tactics In Mexico Loss

That feeling when you beat the World Champions.

“It’s disappointing to have lost the first match”. Neither of those teams advanced from the group stage.

When the final whistle blew, Mexico midfielder Miguel Layun sank to his hands and knees on the turf and was embraced by his shirtless teammate Carlos Salcedo.

Green-clad fans, many with oversized sombreros as big as their hopes, filled the streets outside St. Basil’s Cathedral, packed the Metro and made the long walk into Luzhniki Stadium. “Mexico did well on the counter-attack, especially – they caught us several times”, he added.

Serbia’s win as well as Switzerland’s tie with Brazil (with an equalizer off a corner kick) were just the latest games to be decided by a set-piece after Uruguay-Egypt, Iran-Morocco, Portugal-Spain and Croatia-Nigeria.

“In the first half, we played very badly, we were not able to impose our usual way of playing, attacking and there were lots of counter attacks against us and we were very vulnerable”.

‘They all will qualify and the best of these top teams will come in the knockout, ‘ the Portuguese said. “And we’re going to prepare for the next match”, he said.

After Lozano’s goal, Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa pulled off a spectacular save to keep the score level, palming Toni Kroos’ shot onto the crossbar.

Both games were shown on Fox Sports 1 on Sunday while the earlier Costa Rica vs Serbia match aired on Fox proper as the company toggles its World Cup coverage between the two mutually owned outlets. “I’ve stated on many occasions that in the games with points at stake that seven or eight players, or even nine, players are always there and [against Germany] that was not the exception”.

Mexico on Sunday afternoon produced the biggest shock of World Cup so far as they thrashed reigning champions Germany in their Group F opener. Even though Germany outshot Mexico 25-12, had 61 percent possession and completed 519 passes to Mexico’s 224, El Tri was the most unsafe team for much of the night. “We need to see what caused this”.

Mexico had been enjoying the majority of the threat and created another when Gallardo produced a low cross that was hacked away by Germany.

“That chant is actually done in our tournament in Mexico so this has been around for a few years, so it’s controversial as to why they are mentioning now”, Chris Rodriguez said. He has tinkered with his lineups constantly.

Trying to fit so many individual superstars is a problem that has befallen France manager Didier Deschamps, but one would have assumed that Germany manager Jogi Low would have had his team figured out by now. As Rory Smith wrote in The New York Times, “For six months, Osorio had worked on a blueprint just for this game”. Only two teams prior, Italy in 1938 and Brazil in 1962 had managed to do it. “Teams develop and change, players finish their careers and you must bring in new players which makes it the most hard achievement”.