Day 17 (June 24th)

Germany verses Sweden – wow. The rest of the group arrives in Munich for the day. It will be interesting to see the split at the stadium. Sweden fans have had a strong presence so far and were some of the loudest at the games so far (in a good way). However, you would expect the crowd to be mostly for the home team.
Back to the stadium in Munich where it all began – fitting to begin the cup and then begin the second round here. It really is a nice stadium. Germany was there in droves as expected. There was a corner dedicated for the Sweden fans, but they were rarely heard as Germany jumped out to any early lead.
The Germans played there best game yet and as Phil said, they looked like Men verses Boys. The Swedes got a back break on the soft red ejection, especially since the first yellow didn’t seem to be a foul, much less a card. But down a man and the entire crowd behind them, Germany dominated the play.
The Sweden goal keeper played an exceptional game, otherwise the score would’ve been much worse.
Back to Marienplatz after the game to watch the Argentina/Mexico game. This was the match up that we didn’t really want. Mexico should’ve played better, won there group, these could’ve both gotten through. But now only one of them would. Mexico played their best line-up and their best game by far. The Paulander im Tal was packed as we kept having to chase people out from in from of us. It was funny to see all of the Germans pulling for Mexico – they are all afraid of the Argentina match-up. Ivan was sporting Mexico and I had Argentina, though we both were torn on which team to really cheer for. Numerous Germans approached Ivan and wish Mexico best of luck throughout the game – funny.
Well, this game didn’t disappoint as it was a pretty even match with the control, pressure and chances changing back and forth. In general, the referee was much different from the earlier rounds and let a great deal of hard play go on, and Argentina got lucky to only receive a yellow for a very hard foul at the top of the box. In the extra time, Tevez’s goal was an excellent aerial play and a great shot to decide such a close match. The Germans were very disappointed.