{"id":26362,"date":"2014-06-20T16:08:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T16:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=26362"},"modified":"2014-06-20T16:08:38","modified_gmt":"2014-06-20T16:08:38","slug":"gotze-its-important-we-play-our-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=26362","title":{"rendered":"Gotze: It\u2019s important we play our way"},"content":{"rendered":"

With his total alertness, readiness to receive the ball and capacity for daring strokes of genius at any moment, it is immediately clear that Mario Gotze is in his element at the 2014 FIFA World Cup\u2122.<\/p>\n

The German technician, already revered as a once-in-a-lifetime talent back in his homeland, now looks likely to make his breakthrough on football\u2019s biggest international stage.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the three-time world champions\u2019 4-0 opening match victory against Portugal, the 22-year-old proved himself to be a lethal attacking force capable of consistently wrongfooting his opponents.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Gotze is as cool and considered off the pitch as he is creative on it, making him the perfect embodiment of the new spirit in Joachim Low\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important for us to take those three points [against Portugal], but that was all,\u201d Gotze said to\u00a0FIFA.com<\/strong>. \u201cOur performance shouldn\u2019t be overstated, as there were some things that simply went well for us.<\/p>\n

In some situations we were just lucky. It won\u2019t be easy given that Ghana now need three points no matter what. It\u2019ll be a very tough game, but we can be confident about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Joachim Low, Gotze is also an compelling option for the starting line-up against the physically imposing west Africans. \u201cWhen things get tight, [Mario] is a player who can perform well against big defenders,\u201d Low said following his side’s opening game.<\/p>\n

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As the son of an information technology professor, Gotze\u2019s watchword is rationality, but he also thrives on spontaneity when it comes to posing a threat in front of an goal. Nevertheless, there are many occasions when this pacy player, often praised for his instinct, favours a considered step-by-step approach.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe don\u2019t have many matches at this tournament, so we\u2019re trying to go into each one of them with a high level of concentration,\u201d he said. “In these conditions it\u2019s important to play rationally, stay focused and play football our way.\u201d<\/div>\n
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His approach appears to have been validated after Germany sealed another 4-0 FIFA World Cup opening match win, much like they did four years ago against Australia in South Africa. Besides, there is nothing boring about\u00a0Die Mannschaft<\/em>\u2019s new attacking style.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s really important that we cover every area of the pitch and always pick the right moment to move forward. Each of us knows what we have to do out there,\u201d Gotze said.<\/p>\n

The conviction in his face as he talks is as clear to see as the tentative grin that then appears. It is clear that he has no problems playing football under the gaze of the entire world in Brazil, and right now he is enjoying every minute of it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: FIFA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With his total alertness, readiness to receive the ball and capacity for daring strokes of genius at any moment, it is immediately clear that Mario Gotze is in his element at the 2014 FIFA World Cup\u2122. The German technician, already revered as a once-in-a-lifetime talent back in his homeland, now looks likely to make his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":26363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-26362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}