Germany’s 4-0 thrashing of Australia has undoubtedly raised awareness of their World Cup potential and in Fantasy terms brought a number of names to the fore.
Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski are familiar old favourites who duly grabbed headlines and strong Fantasy returns from the result. This is particularly true of Podolski who turned in 15 points in the McDonalds/FIFA game courtesy of his goal, 3 Attacking Bonus and a Defensive Bonus point. The striker has seen an immediate price rise in that game as a result.
However, as hinted in our Group Preview, the German squad has new young talent to consider. Mesut Özil and Thomas Muller caught the eye in midfield and while the latter translated his performance into Fantasy returns with 13 points in the McDonalds/FIFA game, Ozil’s showing produced just six points courtesy of an assist. His points tally might have kept him under the radar but clearly the performance was enough to attract investment – like Podolski, Ozil has enjoyed a quick-fire price rise…
Defensively both Philip Lahm and Per Mertesacker were the headline acts. While Mertesacker relied on 3 Defensive Bonus to boost his tally, Lahm demonstrated his prowess going forward with an assist and two Attacking Bonus. The stats also show he contributed 4 key passes which led to goal opportunities – clear indication of his importance to Low’s side in attacking terms. Overall a 13 point haul helped Lahm stand out and establish him as a key Fantasy target – another price rise looks on the cards here soon. Bizarrely Arne Friedrich showed up with 9 clearances in the match statistics and yet failed to gain a single Defensive Bonus point from this game.
The only danger with Germany’s multiple Fantasy assets is the chance that coach Joachim Low will get the opportunity to rest and rotate players for the final group game with Ghana. With a strong goal difference assured following the thrashing of Australia, should Ghana fail to overcome the Aussies in their next match then Germany would go into the final fixture with the Africans with the top spot almost assured.
