Germany vs Spain: Who will Stop Mesut Ozil?

With Germany facing Spain in the second semi final of the ongoing World Cup 2010, Mesut Ozil is now gearing up to produce another display of mesmerizing football today (7 July) in Durban.

Spain has a lot of reasons to be worried about this 21-year-old attacking midfielder. He has been instrumental behind Germany’s excellent attacking style of football which saw off England and Argentina in the previous two matches.

In 5 matches, Ozil scored 1 goal, but set up many for the likes of Thomas Muller and Miroslav Klose, both of whom scored 4 goals each so far in the tournament. He has an uncanny ability of breaking into opposition defense and creating scoring opportunities. He is now one of the candidates to become the best player of the tournament and win the Golden Ball award.

So, it is understandable that Mesut Ozil possesses considerable amount of threat for Spain. Now, the question is who would stop this Werder Bremen youngster.

Two Spanish center backs Gerard Piqué and Carles Puyol would have to be at their best to stop Mesut Ozil. There is no doubt, Puyol and Piqué are among the best central defenders of the tournament and they have successfully handled the players like Cristiano Ronaldo so far in the tournament. They form a solid back line for Spain and Ozil could face it tougher to break the Spanish defense.

Defensive midfielder Sergio Busquets also has a big role to play here. He must be at his best to intercept Ozil’s passes and nullify his link up game.

Overall, Spain has some talented defensive minded players who could stop Ozil, but it would be interesting to see how the experienced Carles Puyol deals with youthful exuberance of Mesut Ozil.