Part two of our rattle through the weekend’s pre-World Cup friendlies sees us cover wins for Germany and England.
We also look back on Switzerland 1-1 Australia, plus draws for Qatar and South Africa.
You can find Opta data from four of these friendlies (Opta didn’t cover the behind-closed-doors South Africa game) in our Members Area, via the links below:
USA 1-2 GERMANY
- Goals: Robinson | Havertz, Sane
- Assists: Kimmich, Havertz
- Both sides went almost full strength for this Stateside contest.
- Whilst USA lost the match, they edged possession (53%-47%), created more xG, and had more attempts on goal (16-12). They didn’t carve out any Opta-defined ‘big chances’, though.
- The apps have this as a back four but it could also be viewed as a hybrid back five, with Dest at right wing-back/right midfield.
- Richards is still recovering but is expected to come in for the suspect M Robinson when fit, with the backline (Freeman, Ream, A Robinson) otherwise set to remain unchanged when the World Cup begins.
- Tillman and Adams played in midfield, although the former isn’t a guaranteed starter at all.
- Pulisic started on the left and played for around an hour, while McKennie played an attacking midfield role, with Balogun ahead of them.
- A Robinson scored a thunderbolt from range and also made three key passes. Dest was poor on the opposite side.
- Pulisic had three attempts but failed to make an impact on the game, with Balogun matching him for shots.
- For Germany, Baumann started in goal, but Neuer was on the bench after recovering from injury.
- Brown started ahead of Raum again. The latter was reduced to half an hour off the bench and got booked, so he can’t be trusted as an asset now.
- Schlotterbeck, Tah and Kimmich made up the rest of the defence, as we’d expect, with Pavlovic and Nmecha in front of them. This is arguably an area in which Germany are weak, although both have had good seasons.
- Germany named their strongest (on paper) attack, with Sane on the right after Karl was injured. The German fans, as ever, aren’t happy with Sane, although he did score here and rack up a game-high four shots. Musiala and Wirtz were quieter.
- Havertz played up front. He scored with his one effort of the game, assisted, made three key passes and was arguably the player of the match. Undav‘s injury from the last friendly clearly wasn’t that bad, as he featured off the bench.
- Outside of Neuer, this looked like their starting XI in Round 1.
- Kimmich played an hour, claimed an assist from a free-kick, was again on corners and created three chances.
- Germany again showed an inconsistent performance, which is why many are concerned about them going into the World Cup, but USA are no mugs and were at home.
ENGLAND 1-0 NEW ZEALAND
- Goal: Kane
- Assist: Spence
- This was England’s first friendly since the loss to Japan in March.
- They were completely in charge of this one, with 75% possession and 23 shots on goal to the Kiwis’ three.
- To score just once and create just two big chances against the lowest-ranked World Cup nation may be a concern for some fans but this low-key match seemed to be more about fitness, as Thomas Tuchel fielded different XIs in each half. Some players who featured (eg Ngumoha) aren’t even in the World Cup squad.
- The two England teams were: Pickford (Trafford 46′), Spence (Livramento 46′), Guéhi (Konsa 46′), Stones (Burn 46′), Quansah (James 46’), Mainoo (O’Reilly 46′), Henderson (Bellingham 46′), Rashford (Gordon 46′), Rogers (Anderson 46′), Watkins (Ngumoha 46′), Kane (Toney 46′).
- The Arsenal contingent were absent after the Champions League final, while we interestingly saw O’Reilly in central midfield and Watkins on the right wing. Needs must, perhaps, with the likes of Rice, Saka and Madueke absent.
- Spence bagged an assist from left-back, while a bright Rashford caught the eye with five key passes and two attempts on goal. Might he have the edge over Gordon now? Rogers hit two key passes and two shots but Bellingham impressed when he came on and may have laid down a marker for the ’10’ role.
- This was England’s first summer friendly and a mixed bag in terms of the line-up, with plenty of adjusting and experimenting, so we can’t take too much from this game. Tuchel has already promised to hand out “more minutes” against Costa Rica on Wednesday.
- Goalkeeper Crocombe started this one ahead of Poulsen for New Zealand, which throws doubt over who will start in the World Cup.
- Regulars Cacace, Boxall, Surman, Payne, Stamenic, Bell, Just, Singh and Wood started, so the only outfield outlier was Garbett, who got the nod ahead of Randall on the wing. The latter came on in the second half.
- This was a very strong XI for New Zealand, then, and whilst it was a loss with little goal threat posed, they’ll see this as a bounce back after being embarrassed by Haiti.
SWITZERLAND 1-1 AUSTRALIA
- Goals: Ndoye | Yengi
- Assists: Xhaka | Metcalfe
- Switzerland dominated possession 63%-37%, had more big chances (3-1), registered more shots (9-5) and took more corners (7-2).
- Kobel returned in goal for the Swiss after his illness.
- On paper, it looked like a back three for Switzerland, with Elvedi, Akanji and Rodriguez at centre-back. The latter appears to be the riskiest in terms of starts. However, Widmer seemed to be more of a right-back (rather than wing-back), with Ndoye more of a winger (rather than wing-back).
- Xhaka, Freuler and Aebischer all played in midfield, with Manzambi and Amdouni in attack. Embolo is now sorted and at camp again after his recent paperwork issues but wasn’t in the squad. Okafor and Zakaria also featured off the bench.
- Elvedi impressed, while Ndoye caught the eye: he scored, had four attempts and actually missed two big chances, so could have had a hat-trick. Xhaka also provided an assist. No Embolo for sure affected them, while there was a lot of chopping and changing in the game, but Xhaka expressed a lot of disappointment at the performance after full-time.
- Australia were dominated in most metrics but still got the draw.
- It was the standard back-three formation for the Socceroos but goalkeeper Ryan didn’t start and the two wing-backs (Bos and Italiano) and centre-half Burgess only featured off the bench. And in midfield, back-up Okon-Engstler started ahead of Irvine.
- It was nice to see the exciting Irankunda start (he hit the woodwork, too), something that regulars Metcalfe and Toure didn’t do. Metcalfe, of course, came on to assist, replacing Volpato behind striker Toure.
- It was a decent draw for Australia, considering they didn’t start a lot of key players.
QATAR 0-0 El Salvador
- It’s one win in the last 10 for Qatar, so things are becoming a bit worrying for them coming into the World Cup. We could be about to see a repeat of 2022 from them.
- They did edge possession (52%-48%) but had the same number of big chances (three), fewer shots on goal (8-11), and just one shot on target. Remember, they were playing an El Salvador side ranked 100th in the world.
- Barsham wasn’t in goal but it was the same outfield team as in the game against Ireland.
- Not one of Qatar’s starters registered more than one shot but key man Afif did carve out three key passes.
SOUTH AFRICA 1-1 Jamaica
- Goal: Appollis
- So secretive were the circumstances of this game that there was even some confusion about the score! Some outlets reported a 1-0 win for South Africa but the match actually finished 1-1.
- Unsurprisingly, there was no data for this game.
- South Africa appear to be going a little differently and playing their matches behind closed doors. They have been criticised heavily for doing this, but they continue to go under the radar from the media, which is what they want.
- Possible penalty and set-piece taker Appollis, a snip at $4.9m, scored; it’s just a shame he’s a forward in the game.
