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| FOOTBALL CAREER OF JURGEN KLINSMANN | |
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KLINSMANN in 1994 WORLD CUP
National Team Career | WC 94 | Euro 96
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The Golden Bomber was left alone in the front as Germany aged As Germany had won the 1990 World Cup, it was qualified into the final round of the USA 1994 World Cup directly without the need to play the qualifying round. In order to find out the best players and prepare the team for the 1994 World Cup, Germany had played a number of international friendly matches since the end of the 1992 European Championship. Klinsmann featured for Germany in 19 of these friendly matches and scored 10 goals. It seemed Klinsmann had regained his good form. Although Klinsmann was in good form, Germany was troubled by the problem of aging and lack of talented young players. For the front line, as Voller had announced his retirement from internatoinal soccer and Riedle was lack of form due to injury, Klinsmann became Germany's only reliable striker. Without the support of teammate in front line, it was very difficult for Klinsmann to score. To solve this problem, Berti Vogts (Germany's coach) decided to recall Voller to play in the 1994 World Cup. Yet, Vogts also decided to reserve Voller as the "secret weapon".
Forwards called up by Vogts into Germany's 1994 World Cup squad
Germany's 22-men 1994 World Cup squad
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Aged Germany won the group stage with difficulty In the 1994 World Cup, Germany was allocated to Group C together with Bolivia, South Korea and Spain. Except for Spain, the other two teams in Group C were relatively weak and so Germany should be able to qualify into the Round-of-16 without much difficulty. In the first group match (which was also the openning match of the 1994 World Cup), Germany's opponent was Bolivia. Due to the packed defence of Bolivia, Germany could only score the winning goal in the 61th minute by Klinsmann.
Germany 1 - 0 Bolivia (Group C match)
In the second group match, Germany had to play with Spain who was at that time strong in defence. Germany conceded one goal in the 14th minute but was able to pull one back by Klinsmann in the beginning of the second half. Klinsmann headed the equalizer from Hassler's set piece. This game ended 1-1. Klinsmann started this game as lone striker as neither Riedle nor Voller was included in the starting lineup.
Germany 1 - 1 Spain (Group C match)
In the last group match, Germany's opponent was South Korea who at that time was still a developing team. Germany was able to dominate the first half as expected. Klinsmann's performance was spectacular as he scored 2 goals and produced 1 assist. In the 12th minute, Klinsmann received Hassler's low cross, turned around for 180 degrees and striked a volley into the net. Then in the 20th minute, Klinsmann's shot was denied by the post but Riedle followed up to make the score 2-0. In teh 37th minute, Klinsmann scored his second goal from a cross. However, when the game went into the 2nd half, South Korea took back the control of the game as German players were feeling tired under the hot weather. As a result, South Korea striked 2 goals back. Germany was lucky enough not to concede the third so that they could maintain their 3-2 lead under the end.
Germany 3 - 2 South Korea (Group C match)
After 3 group matches, Germany got 7 points and won the group leader. Although Germany's performance was not very stable in the group stage, Klinsmann's performance was superb as he scored 4 of the 5 group stage goals for Germany. |
Klinsmann scoring his 1st goal against South Korea 
Klinsmann celebrating for his 1st goal against South Korea �@�@
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Duel between the Golden Bomber and the Best Goalkeeper So the game came to the playoff stage. Germany's first barrier to the world champion was Belgium who had won 2 games and lost 1 game in Group F. The major threat from Belgium did not come from the Belgian forward but from the Belgian goalkeeper, Michel Preud'homme, who was regarded as the best goalkeeper of the 1994 World Cup and was eventually awarded the Yashin Award for the Best Goalkeeper of the tournament. Preudhomme had only conceded 1 goal in the last 3 games. In order to beat the best goalkeeper, Vogts decided to give up Riedle and put Voller in the starting lineup to pair up with Klinsmann. This was proven to be a correct decision as Voller scored 2 goals in the first half. Besides, in the 11th minute, Voller created a chance for Klinsmann who scored by a powerful low drive. As a result of the superb performance by the German striking partners, Germany led Belgium by 3-1 in the first half. However, Germany lost their energy again in the second half thereby allowing Belgium to regain control. Luckily, Belgium could not make use of this advantage and only managed to score a consolation goal in the last minute. Finally, the game ended in 3-2.
Germany 3 -2 Belgium (Round-of-16 match)
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Matthaus (left), Voller (middle) and Klinsmann (right) celebrating for Germany's 1st goal against Belgium |
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Defeat by the giant killer Germany's second barrier on the road to the world champion was Bulgaria. Bulgaria was definitely the underdog of this quarter-finals match because before the 1994 World Cup, Bulgaria had not won any match in the final round of previous World Cup. Moreover, Bulgaria did not have any superstar in the team except Hristo Stoichkov who was a talented forward and famous for his left-feet freekicks. Thus, Germany was confident that they could beat Bulgaria to reach the semi-finals. However, Bulgaria proved the Germans were too optimistic because Voller (who featured in the starting lineup again) and Klinsmann failed to score any goal in the first half due to Bulgaria's tough defence. As the game moved to the second half, Germany managed to open the scoreline by a penalty. In the 47th minute, Klinsmann was fouled by Bulgaria's Letchkov in the box and the penalty was converted into goal by Matthaus. As Bulgaria was now one goal behind, they could not defence anymore and their only hope lied in attack. Just a moment later, Germany could have widened the lead but Germany's goal was ruled offside. Once again, German players' stamina dropped in the second half and Bulgaria was able to make use of this advantage to pull 2 goals back. Stoichkov first scored an equalizer in the 75th minutes from a freekick and then Letchkov, who found himself marked only by Hassler inside the box, made it 2-1 by a header 3 minutes later. Klinsmann's journey in the 1994 World Cup was ended by Bulgaria in 3 minutes.
Bulgaria 2 - 1 Germany (Quarter-finals match)
The end of the 1994 World Cup At last, Brazil defeated Italy in the World Cup Final and won the 1994 World Cup. Bulgaria on the other hand lost to Sweden in the third place playoff. Moreover, Bulgaria's Stoichkov and Russia's Oleg Salenko shared the honor of the tournament's topscorer with 6 goals. Although Germany could not perform as best as 4 years ago and exited the tournament earlier than expected, Klinsmann's performance was the best among his 3 World Cup experience. He played 5 games and scored 5 goals, more importantly, with great quality (eg the first goal against South Korea and the goal against Belgium). He was obviously one of the, if not the, best striker in this tournament. After the 1994 World Cup, Klinsmann left AS Monaco to join Tottenham Hotspur in England. (Source: Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation) |
Klinsmann |
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