Germany beats Uruguay in third place game
A goal from Sami Khedira, at 82 minutes, gave Germany a third place berth in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with a 3-2 victory over Uruguay, giving Paul the Octopus another correct prediction, his seventh in a row.
The “Mannschaft” started the game with a lead, but were overtaken by the “Celestes”, only to recover again, winning the third place game of a World Cup for the fourth time (1934, 1970, 2006, 2010), with Uruguay’s Forlan and Germany’s Muller contributing to the result and are now tied with Spaniard Villa and Dutchman Sneijder as top scorers (five goals).
Although they failed to win a forth title (1954, 1974 and 1990) Germany won its ninth meeting in 10 games against Uruguay who was also a WC winner in 1930 and 1950 and had already been defeated by the Germans in another match for third place, in México 1970.
Both the Uruguayan coach Oscar Tabarez, as well as Germany’s, Joachim Low, introduced various changes into their squads, with the return after suspension of Suarez and Fucile for the “Celestes”.
The “Mannschaft”, who had some limitations, were unable to start with striker Klose due to a back injury, just when he was so close to equaling or beating the Brazilian Ronaldo’s record of 15 goals in World Cups. Goalkeeper Butt replaced Neuer, while Lahm and Podolski were also replaced by Aogo and Jansen.
The Germans repeated the third place in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, winning that game 3-1 against Portugal. The Germans had more initiative in the opening minutes and Friedrich headed against the bar from a corner kick, taken by Ozil before Muller opened the score.
A powerful swerving shot by Schweinsteiger from about 30 meters was blocked but not collected by goalkeeper Muslera, with Muller the Bayern Munich striker, quick to react and scored to put Germany up 1-0.
However, a stolen ball from midfield allowed Perez Suarez to pass to Cavani Palermo who wrapped the cross successfully, in the 28th minute, to tie the game 1-1.
In the second half, Uruguay pressured the German defence and after some insistence Arevalo Rios crossed to Forlan, who from a frontal position volleyed for his fifth goal of the tournament, giving Uruguay a 2-1 lead at 51 minutes.
But only five minutes later, German defender Marcell Jansen tied the game 2-2 with a header after goalkeeper Fernando Muslera misjudged a cross, his second fatal mistake of the match.
When both teams were showing signs of minor physical exhaustion and everything seemed to be heading for extra time, a series of rebounds from a corner kick, saw the ball being headed by Khedira, giving Germany a 3-2 lead that they held until the final.
Uruguay were left with a bitter taste in their mouths when Forlan hit the crossbar from a free kick in the dying seconds of the match.
