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Hatching a Plan for Germany to Stop Lionel Messi in the World Cup Final
Published: July 12, 2014
The European regulars of the competition have been dubbed comfortable favourites ahead of the clash, but nobody expects them to win the trophy without first tackling the most obvious obstacle: How do you stop Lionel Messi?
Low has proved himself to be quite the tactical genius throughout this tournament. He has often picked very effective substitutes throughout tricky games and altered his formation entirely to see off France and Brazil comfortably, but what Messi offers is a completely different problem.
1. Close down Javier Mascherano
If we were to take a look at the Squawka graphic above, which shows Javier Mascherano's passing throughout the semi-final clash with Holland, we should be able to denote just how Messi tends to receive his service of the ball.
Aside from the numerous passes from right to left and back again, Mascherano actually focused a large proportion of his passes forward through the middle of the park or out to the right wing. These are the passes to Messi and exactly what Germany have to cut out in the final.
Fortunately for the European giants, they've deployed such a tactic before.
Against Brazil, we saw Low's front line and midfielder Sami Khedira close down from very high up the pitch to put pressure on the Brazilian back line and their defensive midfielders. In turn, this led to a number of turnovers in possession and directly to a few of Germany's seven goals on the night.
Against Argentina we'll need to see the same again, specifically from the towering Real Madrid midfielder, to ensure that Mascherano isn't given the tim...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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