CC 2017--Day Nine Recap

Your “Syndicate Hangover” is proudly presented by “Renegade: Hammer & Sickle Imperial Stout”

Meh. It’s still probably better than your local “Hipster IPA”

Day 9: Recap

Record—

Spread: 4-10

Straight up: 6-3-5

Hot Girl Standings

Country	Tally	Games Played
Chile	39	4
Russia	28	3 (finished)
Mexico	28	4 (finished)*
Germany	16	4
Cameroon	15	3 (finished)
Portugal	9	4 (finished)*
Australia	4	3 (finished)
New Zealand	1	3 (finished)

Gracias, El-Tri. Sincere gratitude remains in order for your dogged resilience. Whew! When Henrichs and later Werner sprung Goretzka for those lethal first-time finishes in the 6^th and 8^th, We all feared the worst. Were we all about to witness a brutal dismantling like 2014’s “7-1 Brazilian Bloodbath”, or 2016’s “7-0 Mexican Massacre”? Mercifully not. The Aztecs keep up the pressure until the very end, never showing so much as a hint of capitulation. Great play from them. It could have been much closer were it not for some unfortunate luck. Bravo, Jugadoras! Muy bien!

Had the fixture ended in Genocidal Carnage it wouldn’t have done the sport much good. If the German “Prospect Squad” can pick apart a passionate group of talented veterans easier than Project Tower Lock, what are we watching football for? Of course I’m proud of my Jungs and ALWAYS cheer for them to win by the highest margin possible. That notwithstanding, neither the players nor the fans cannot show any signs of “quit”, even in the face of the seemingly most insurmountable of leads. The Beautiful Game is buttressed chiefly by the rapacious passion of the leaders both on the pitch and in the stands.

Your friendly bookie took some extra time to review the tapes again. He’s overjoyed to report that there wasn’t any discernable surrender on the Mexican Front throughout. If anything, Draxler and Rüdiger may have been guilty of some cynical dives down the stretch.

Animos, Mexiko…particularly YOU, 132-M!

; ) ; )

 LINEUP—Deutschland—Match One (4-5-1) 

Sandro Wagner

Julian Draxler             Julian Brandt

Lars Stindl

Leon Goretzka       Sebastian Rudy

J. Hector  S. Mustafi  A. Rüdiger J. Kimmich

Bernd Leno

 LINEUP—Deutschland—Match Two (3-4-2-1) 

Lars Stindl

Julian Draxler               Leon Goretzka

Jonas Hector                          Joshua Kimmich

Emré Can        Sebastian Rudy

Niklas Süle   S. Mustafi   M. Ginter

Marc André ter Stegen

 LINEUP—Deutschland—Match Three (3-4-2-1) 

Timo Werner

Julian Draxler          Kerem Demirbay

Marvin Plattenhardt  Joshua Kimmich

Emré Can      Sebastian Rudy

Niklas Süle Antonio Rüdiger Mattias Ginter

Marc André ter Stegen

 LINEUP—Deutschland—Match Four (3-4-2-1) 

Timo Werner

Julian Draxler          Lars Stindl

Jonas Hector                Benjamin Henrichs

Sebastian Rudy  Leon Goretzka

A. Rüdiger  M. Ginter  J. Kimmich

Marc André ter Stegen

Impossible to argue with the effectiveness of this arrangement. I was initially surprised to see Kimmich assigned to a more traditional center-back position. Your friendly bookie’s curiosity lasted all of six minutes. Henrichs can be every bit as deadly roaming up the flanks. Stindl appears to have been used as a full decoy. Draxler less so, but those two drew the defenders in so that either Goretzka or Rudy could sneak in to unleash long-range efforts.

Naturally, it’s doubtful that Löw could have predicted just how hungry Goretzka would be to lace first-time thrashers on target. That part wasn’t necessarily in the script. The placement of Henrichs in Kimmich’s spot, however, was quite deliberate. Whether Henrich was meant to be feeding Draxler, Werner, Rudy, or Goretzka he was given a high-profile audition in the critical German Role of “Roving Right Fullback”. Talk about passing with flying colors ; )

Yes, yes. I know. The German Nationalmannschaft once more boasts an “Embarrassment of Riches”. Before getting to the grades, I’d like to politely remind everyone that my country’s team once more boasts an “Embarrassment of Diversity”. We’ve delivered the tournament’s most ethnically diverse team…again. ; ) Before you sneer at the “Era of German Dominance” consider for a moment that this “Era” isn’t really perpetuated by ethnic Germans. ; ) We’re even better than the French or English at fielding a team of Immigrants. That’s how we roll these days. ; )

A long-term project that I’ve much interest in concerns a more comprehensive portrait of how footballers from Immigrant Backgrounds have re-shaped European Football in the Modern Age. Hell, I could spend an entire month discussing the ones who have played for the German Nationalmannschaft alone. For now, here’s a list of heritages from this Summer’s “Prospect Squad”

- Bernd Leno  (Russia)

   - Shkodran Mustafi (Turkey)

   - Kerem Demirbay (Turkey)

   - Emré Can  (Turkey)

   - Amin Younes (Lebanon)

   - Benjamin Henrichs (Ghana)

 - Antonio Rüdiger (Sierra Leone)

In a semi-interesting side note, I was almost positive that Leon Goretzka was every bit as Polish as Mirsolav Klose, Tim Borowski or Lucas Podolski. Evidently not. He’s as Bochum as it gets!

 GRADES—Deutschland (Match One) 

Joshua Kimmich	A+
Timo Werner	A+
Julian Draxler	A
Leon Goretzka	A
Sebastian Rudy	A
Lars Stindl	A
Julian Brandt	A-
Antonio Rüdiger	B+
Niklas Süle	B
Jonas Hector	B
Bernd Leno	B
Sandro Wagner	B-
Shkodran Mustafi	C
Emre Can	D

 GRADES—Deutschland (Match Two) 

Marc Andre ter Stegen	A+
Joshua Kimmich	A
Emré Can	A
Sebastian Rudy	A
Leon Goretzka	A
Lars Stindl	A-
Matthias Ginter	B+
Emre Can	B+
Julian Draxler	B
Jonas Hector	B
Niklas Süle	C+
Shkodran Mustafi	F

 GRADES—Deutschland (Match Three) 

Benjamin Henrichs	A+
Amin Younes	A+
Kerem Demirbay	A+
Timo Werner	A+
Marvin Plattenhardt	A
Emré Can	A
Julian Draxler	A
Joshua Kimmich	A
Matthias Ginter	A
Marc Andre ter Stegen	B+
Julian Brandt	B
Niklas Süle	B
Sebastian Rudy	B-
Antonio Rüdiger	B-

 GRADES—Deutschland (Match Four) 

Leon Goretzka	A+
Amin Younes	A+
Timo Werner	A
Jonas Hector	A
Matthias Ginter	A
Benjamin Henrichs	A
Marc André ter Stegen	A
Julian Braxler	A-
Emré Can	A-
Sebastian Rudy	B+
Joshua Kimmich	B+
Larts Stindl	B+
Julian Brandt	B
Antonio Rüdiger	C+

With only the “Goodbyes and Championship Pick” section left to write, we find ourselves at the end of “Football Talk”. This constitutes our final chance to make personnel speculations.

Your friendly bookie possesses no “Crystal Ball”. I cannot predict with any accuracy how the upcoming Club Season will unfold. Form patches can be as mercurial as a menopausal woman’s mood. Injuries are impossible to predict. The multi-billion-dollar transfer market could render all of this conjecture moot with a few unanticipated strokes of an exorbitantly expensive “Mont Blanc” pen.

It still might prove fun to assign “Tournament Grades” and take a few blind stabs at the look of next Summer’s Roster.

 Let us “theorize” 

Player	Tournament Grade
Julian Draxler	A+
Marc Andre ter-stegen	A+
Joshua Kimmich	A+
Leon Goretzka	A+
Timo Werner	A+
Amin Younes	A+
Benjamin Henrichs	A+
Lars Stindl	A
Kerem Demirbay	A
Jonas Hector	A
Matthias Ginter	A
Marvin Plattenhardt	A
Sebastian Rudy	A
Julian Brandt	B+
Antonio Rüdiger	B-
Shkodran Mustafi	D
Antonio Rüdiger	C+
Niklas Süle	C
Emré Can	C
Sandro Wagner	D
Bernd Leno	D
Kevin Trapp	N/A

 LINEUP—Mexico—Match One (4-3-3) 

Raul Jimenez  Chicharito  Carlos Vela

Andres Guardado          Jonathan dos Santos

Hector Herrera

Miguel Layun                        Carlos Salcedo

Hector Moreno   Diego Reyes

Guillermo Ochoa

 LINEUP—Mexico—Match Two (3-4-3) 

Raul Jimenez

Oribe Peralta          Jürgen Damm

Javier Aquino                       Giovanni dos Santos

Marco Fabian Diego Reyes

O. Alanis   Nestor Arajuo Carlos Salcedo

Alfredo Talavera

 LINEUP—Mexico—Match Three (4-3-3) 

Carlos Vela      Chicharito     Hirving Lozano

Andres Guardado         Jonathan dos Santos

Hector Herrera

Miguel Layun                        Diego Reyes

Hector Moreno  Nestor Araujo

Guillermo Ochoa

 LINEUP—Mexico—Match Four (4-3-3) 

Raul Jimenez      Chicharito     Javier Aquino

Giovanni dos Santos         Jonathan dos Santos

Hector Herrera

Miguel Layun                        Oswaldo Alanis

Nestor Araujo   Hector Moreno

Guillermo Ochoa

Expected much more from Jimenez and Aquino up front. Guardado was clearly and obviously missed. Alanis….did everything he could. Switching Araujo and Moreno was the worst idea since those “No Hay Excusas” videos.

Osorio and his T-Shirts backfired.  

“Zero Excuses”?

Really?

“Zero Points”.

Sorry ;  (

 GRADES—Mexico (Match One) 

Carlos Vela	A+
Javier Hernandez	A+
Hector Moreno	A
Jonathan dos Santos	A
Raul Jimenez	A
Miguel Layun	A-
Giovanni dos Santos	B+
Diego Reyes	B
Guillermo Ochoa	B
Jonathan dos Santos	B
Nestor Araujo	B-
Hector Moreno	C+
Carlos Salcedo	C

 GRADES—Mexico (Match Two) 

Raul Jimenez	A+
Alfredo Talavera	A+
Javier Aquino	A+
Oribe Peralta	A
Jürgen Damm	A
Hector Moreno	A
Giovanni dos Santos	B+
Hector Herrera	B
Marco Fabian	B-
Rafael Marquez	B-
Diego Reyes	C+
Nestor Araujo	C
Oswaldo Alanis	C

 GRADES—Mexico (Match Three) 

Hirving Lozano	A+
Javier Aquino	A
Luis Reyes	A
Carlos Vela	A
Miguel Layun	A
Jonathan dos Santos	A
Javier Hernandez	A-
Guillermo Ochoa	B+
Hector Herrera	B
Andres Guardado	B-
Jonathan dos Santos	C+
Hector Moreno	C
Nestor Araujo	C

 GRADES—Mexico (Match Four) 

Raul Jimenez	A
Marco Fabian	A
Rafael Marquez	A
Giovanni dos Santos	B+
Javier Hernandez	B
Hirving Lozano	B
Jonathan dos Santos	B-
Hector Herrera	C+
Miguel Layun	C+
Hector Moreno	C
Oswaldo Alanis	C
Nestor Araujo	D
Guillermo Ochoa	D
Javier Aquino	D-

“Riffs of the Day”—Day Nine

Reader: I’ve made the adjustments to the “letter”. Please read them.   

Vicey: No one knows what we’re talking about. A Nameless and Numberless Syndicate Member has something special in store for all of us. Working together for a change, two ghostwriters will produce something worthwhile for the next generation. We will succeed. Just you watch ; )