Germany Beats Slovakia
June 7, 2007
Thomas Hitzlsperger's said he was delighted his goal late in the first half sealed a 2-1 win over Slovakia on Wednesday. The VfB Stuttgart midfielder's well-placed header two minutes from the break was his first goal since last September, when he netted in Germany's 13-0 slaughter of San Marino.
The win at Hamburg's AOL Arena takes Germany to 19 points at the top of group D, five points clear of the Czech Republic in second. It leaves German coach Joachim Löw's side in pole position to qualify for next June's European Championships in Austria and Switzerland.
Hitzlsperger uses head
Hitzlsperger, whose midfield dominance played a big part in Stuttgart being crowned Bundesliga champions last season, said it was unusual for him to score with a header.
"I am usually not one to score with my head, I have only headed two goals before, but I am just pleased to get the winning goal," said Hitzlsperger. "Now we will celebrate a little bit, everybody is glad we have a vacation for the summer."
Germany resume their qualifying campaign against Wales in September, and Hitzlsperger added: "We had some great games and big victories last year and we have some reasons to celebrate, but the job is not yet over."
Team earned a vacation
Löw was pleased his tired side ground out the win in their 11th international game of the season.
"We showed some good soccer nous, we just lacked the freshness," he said. "But the players worked hard and threw everything they had at the Slovakian defense. If you think about what the team has achieved this year, it's enough to be satisfied with the performances and take some pride."
Germany took the lead after 10 minutes when it looked as though Werder Bremen's Miroslav Klose had finally silenced his domestic press detractors by breaking his goal drought.
Klose under pressure
Klose, who turns 29 on Saturday, faced some stinging criticism after failing to score in Germany's 6-0 Euro 2008 win over San Marino last weekend and the top scorer at last year's World Cup is under pressure to keep his place.
After German defender Marcell Jansen slid his pass through the visitors' defense, Klose looked to have put his side 1-0 up but replays showed it was Slovakian defender Jan Durica who stabbed the ball home.
Slovakia pulled level less than 10 minutes later when Germany's Christoph Metzelder tried to clear the danger after a superb run from Matej Krajcik, but only suceeded in putting the ball past his own goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.
Hitzlsperger then gave Germany back the lead just two minutes before the break with a header which turned out to be the game winner.
Germany came out firing after the break, and captain Bernd Schneider will miss Germany's next Euro 2008 game in Wales this September after picking up another yellow card for a loose tackle.
The home side kept up the pressure on the Slovakian defense and 21-year-old hot-shot striker Mario Gomez came on midway through the second half, but he failed to repeat last Saturday's trick of scoring twice as he did in the win over San Marino.