
While Trinidad & Tobago will play for pride, having no potential for advancing to the next stage, Germany will be fighting to top the group in order to avoid a tussle with Brazil in the Round of 16.
As things stand the second place finisher of group F is scheduled to play Brazil on August 29th in Gwangyang, while the winner of group F will play the yet undetermined runner up of group E on the 30th in Cheonan. This, most likely, would be a far less threatening Belgium or even Tajikistan.
The German trainer, Heiko Herrlich, has been
quoted as saying it doesn't matter if they face Brazil now or later, but the incentive to top the group will be there. "We need to lay aside distractions to exit the group in a favorable position," commented German striker Sascha Bigalke, who scored the opening goal against Ghana on Thursday.
The German side will not be taking their final group game lightly. Herrlich pointed out that Trinidad was only down a single goal against Colombia and had a number of scoring opportunities entering the second half. Germany must maintain its concentration to avoid the pattern of their own previous matches against Colombia and Ghana where they ran up leads of 3:1 and 3:0, respectively, only to see their opponents answer with final scores of 3:3 and 3:2.
As for the junior Soca Warriors: They will be playing for pride and experience. In an
interview following the 0:5 defeat to Colombia, keeper Glenroy Samuel said, "Now all we can do is hope for a miracle. We can beat Germany, though. I'm satisfied with the way I personally played, but unfortunately that wasn't enough. In any case, it's all good experience for us here at this tournament."
The standings of Group F going into the final match are:
| Team | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
Colombia
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 4 |
| Germany | 2 | 1 | 1
| 0 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Ghana | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4
| 3 |
| Trinidad & Tobago | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
Follow the action along with the Soca Warriors supporters at
SocaWarriors.net on August 26 at 5:45 US Eastern time.