Germany vs United States - 2002 World Cup

Home: World Cup 2002: Korea-Japan Finals: Knockout Stage: Match Report

Friday, June 21st

Ollie Kahn't Be Beaten

The Americans might call it soccer but they've already proved that they know what football's really about.

America showed a lot of early movement up front to earn the the first corner of the match. Then Germany started to impose themselves on the game a little more and troubled the American defence.

With 17 minutes gone, America showed their pace on the break as Landon Donovan forced Oliver Kahn - earning his 50th international cap - to finger tip the shot wide of his right-hand post, for a corner.

With half an hour played, America have proved to be the better side and Landon Donovan could have put the United States ahead, if he didn't hesitate and allow Ollie Kahn to close the angle.

With another amazing stop in the 35th minute, Oliver Kahn is turning out to be the man of the match; as the rest of the German defence fail to contain the American attacks.

1:0
Michael Ballack relieved some of the pressure by rising above Tony Sanneh; to head under the helpless Brad Friedel, in the 39th minute.

Two minutes before half-time, Miroslav Klose almost doubled the score when he headed against the right post.

Half-time: Germany 1 - United States 0

Team USA split the German defence again straight after the restart.... Then Germany had another stroke of luck when they stopped the ball on the line in a goalmouth scramble.

America seemed to be playing with an extra man as they passed the ball around with ease, made use of both flanks and forced Oliver Kahn into an aggressive diving punch.... to clear the ball from danger.

The teams started to lose their nerve in the last half an hour and Hugh Dallas had to make a number of bookings to keep the game in order (he even booked Oliver Neuville instead of Jens Jeremies - which FIFA eventually overturned).

Then Neuville and Klose both had chances for Germany but chose to go it alone and wasted them.

The Americans can hold their heads up high with this display..... where for much of the game they were undoubtedly the better team.

Final Score:
Germany 1 - United States 0

Man of the Match:
Oliver Kahn - The last man in the German defence worked hard during his 50th international appearance; with a magnificent display of goalkeeping, against a very threatening America side.

Yellow Cards:
Eddie Lewis (40 mins)
Eddie Pope (41 mins)
Sebastian Kehl (66 mins)
Jens Jeremies (68 mins)
Landon Donovan (68 mins)
Pablo Mastroeni (69 mins)
Greg Berhalter (70 mins)

The Teams

Germany:
1 Oliver Kahn; 15 Sebastian Kehl, 2 Thomas Linke, 21 Christoph Metzelder, 6 Christian Ziege; 13 Michael Ballack, 22 Torsten Frings, 8 Dietmar Hamann, 19 Bernd Schneider (16 Jens Jeremies - 60 mins); 11 Miroslav Klose (20 Oliver Bierhoff - 88 mins), 7 Oliver Neuville (17 Marco Bode - 79 mins).

United States:
1 Brad Friedel; 3 Greg Berhalter, 2 Frankie Hejduk (13 Cobi Jones - 65 mins), 4 Pablo Mastroeni (8 Earnie Stewart - 80 mins), 23 Eddie Pope, 22 Tony Sanneh; 21 Landon Donovan, 7 Eddie Lewis, 5 John O'Brien, 10 Claudio Reyna; 20 Brian McBride (11 Clint Mathis - 58 mins).

Referee: Hugh Dallas