Welcome to the Goal.com 50! In this special series, Goal.com editors worldwide vote for the top 50 players of 2009-10. We count down to the announcement of the winner on August 10th with profiles of each and every player who made it into the top 50...
There has never really been any doubt surrounding the capabilities of arguably the best full-back of his generation, but this season has been a true testament to what Bayern Munich and Germany stalwart Philipp Lahm can achieve – and why he has played almost every minute of every game for both club and country.
While goals were scarce for Lahm domestically, scoring only one as he left most of the trigger-pulling down the flank to Arjen Robben, 12 assists for his domestic campaign is nothing to be sneezed at. Internationally, the 26-year-old bagged only one as well, however it may have proved to be one of the most important goals of his career – but we'll get to that later.
Swapped from left to right since Louis van Gaal took over at the Allianz Arena in July 2009, many were unsure of Lahm's new role as he had proved time and again that scoring goals cutting in from the left was something he could do with ease.
However, his partnership with Robben has been one of a productive nature, rather than one of flair, ushering Bayern to a domestic double and the Champions League final.
Performances for his club saw Germany coach Joachim Loew turn to Lahm after an injury sustained by Michael Ballack meant he was without a captain. Donning the armband for the first time in Die Mannschaft's final friendly before World Cup 2010, the pressure was on. Especially as former team-mate and former Germany captain Oliver Kahn expressed his unease with handing the captaincy to such a young player.
And things didn't seem to be going his way as, after just 15 minutes, an attempted clearance against Bosnia and Herzegovina ended up in the German net after a deflection from Edin Dzeko sent it goalwards. It was the new German captain who had attempted to clear the ball.
Picking himself up after half-time, Lahm took matters into his own hands. Cutting in as he has done so many times in the past - although this time from the right - Lahm picked up the ball and drove an unstoppable shot from outside the box straight into the top left corner of his opponents' goal.
Lifted by their new skipper's example, Germany went on to win 3-1 and, more importantly, gained the confidence they needed to go on and perform so well as they did in South Africa.
Lahm made history in his opening game at the World Cup as he became the youngest player to ever captain Germany at the World Cup finals.
Heading up one of the youngest teams of the tournament, the little full-back steered his side to the semi-finals and an eventual third place finish, putting the cherry on top of an already impeccable season and sending out a warning to everyone to prepare themselves for this up-and-coming dangerous German side.
No comments:
Post a Comment