Kazakhstan Vs Germany: A 3-0 Win Is Not Always Convincing

Germany beat Kazakhstan 3-0; however, the victory in Astana left a lot to be desired.

The Match

Kazakhstan defended very well during the first half, making Germany frustrated.

In the third minute of the second half, Miroslav Klose opened the scoring cleverly after Mesut Oezil found Lukas Podolski, who drew the keeper out of position.

Heinrich Schmidtgal of Rot Weiss Oberhausen gave the German defence a few scares, and the game was assured only when substitute Mario Gomez scored a goal past the 75th minute.

Lukas Podolski added a third to put the icing on the cake.

Observations and Thoughts

Manuel Neuer made great saves and was mostly proved correct when he decided to come out of his box, but he made a horrible error towards the end that the Kazakhs failed to punish; Neuer's trickery, though, was a great sight on the night.

Lukas Podolski provided two assists and scored a goal, yet gave an incomplete performance.

His goal came at a time when the Kazakhs did not wish to defend, as they were already down 2-0; he deserves credit for his assists and the goal, but a vintage Podolski would give a Kazakh defence more scares than that.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is needed—Sami Khedira's overall performance wasn't poor; however, in the opening minutes, he was over-run and lost the ball plenty of times. A better side would have easily punished his errors.

Toni Kroos looked good on the night and despite his preference to play in attacking midfield, he really has the potential to have a great career in defensive midfield.

This does sound strange, but the German side is a bit too reliant on the ever-green Miro Klose, who was the one who broke the deadlock against Belgium, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

During the 55 minutes that Klose spent on the field, he was the best player for Germany—he had to go off due to injury. Mario Gomez gave a good account of himself, but he is a long way from becoming Germany's "new Klose." Germany doesn't need one at the moment, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't have a reliable backup for the 32 year old.

The defence was caught out quite a few times.

Lahm started steadily but on one occasion failed to prevent Schmidtgal shooting from nearby. Neuer was on hand to deny the Kazakh. Holger Badstuber had some forgettable moments, but in all honesty, his long passes were very good ones.

Per Mertesacker was steady for most of the match, but also had moments he would like to forget—whether Heiko Westermann is Germany's answer to the left-back issue is still debatable.

Germany's friendly against Sweden is in November and the likes of Lewis Holtby and Kevin Grosskreutz will take over from Thomas Mueller and Mesut Oezil.

At the moment, Loew can be satisfied with 12 out of 12 points, but he knows that there are still holes to plug if Germany is to win Euro 2012.