Croatia - Germany

This match surprised me.  I started watching simply to gauge Germany as a possible title winner and I ended up horribly underwhelmed by their play.  Or did Croatia just make them look that way?  Irrelevant, really.  Germany did not have much of an answer for Croatia's patient, technical approach, which allowed them possession and chances to break down Germany time and again particularly down the left...or was it the right?  Guess it depends on which way you faced Jens Lehmann (who did not have the best of performances and justified Arsene Wenger's decision to employ Almunia most all season).  But I digress.  Niko Kovac (sorry, my keyboard can't make the little squiggly thing on the c) was superb for the Croats.  Darijo Srna looked dangerous right up until he was substituted so Croatia could add a holding midfield (not that I felt they needed another).  That new Spurs signing, Modric (can't recall his first name right now) looked very good indeed.  Have to hand it to Spurs, he looks to be a good signing).  For Germany, well, they just did not get it going for the most part.  There were flashes here and there, but Ballack had a crap match, Gomez continued to disappoint and together with Lehmann's sub-par performance, it just wasn't on for them.  Croatia is now in the driving seat for Group B.  If there is one slight criticism of Croatia it's that they do not pose anything like a physical presence when faced with imposing defenders like Germany have.  However, when they go through it is likely they will be up against the likes of Spain or Portugal and that isn't an issue with either of them.