Luiz Gustavo and even more so Toni Kroos inject something almost balletic into the grand worldwide sport of soccer - moving gracefully, even sprinting suavely, passing the ball around the pitch, at times knotting the legs of Naples midfielders and back four, at the very least helping to tire the opponent out by skilful ball circulation and immediately relocating their own selves, scooting as it were, all in synch with proven "senior" players like Schweinsteiger and Lahm - who are in and of themselves always creative and stable going forward or on defense. To tell you the truth - damn! - I really have not seen Toni Kroos go down needlessly or sloppily ever since I started watching him in a junior national German team almost two years ago - like Lahm, he will not dive, his inner ethos won't allow it. Can one venture to say that Kroos thus has the makings of Giggs or Raul, and will never be sent off, ever? His body motions are full of grace--not unlike Gustavo, who mirrors his teammate's slicing dolphin elegance, though in Gustavo's eyes you can for the moment still see the calculations and youthful inexperience still "impressing him" in his moves, quite proud, and rightly so, to be a newly nominated member of the Selecao in Brazil and wearing the red of Bayern München. Not so Kroos. His quarterbacking/playmaking skills, dangerously volleyed, mid-range and set-piece shots combined by his elegance is a sheer joy to watch, for Joachim Löw's national squad and for Munich.
What now to make of the curious blend of physical height, dribbling and passing skills of the center backs (van Buyten, Badstuber and Badstuber's equally young fellow international Jerome Boateng as the redwoods) and full back Philip Lahm in his inimicable, less towering play? Last night in the Champions League match, there seemed to be a slowly encroaching wave of offensive power originating in well-timed and none-too-soft passes whether turf-hugging or airborne, emanating from any one of them. Like variegated Neptune spear thrusts, they executed what one player, Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels, often must do alone - getting a creative crease-slicing pass down to his midfielder or striker teammates. But there's more - they all showed they can move downfield themselves, Lahm in his creative, dodging/dribbbling drives from side to center, van Buyten, well past the holding midfielder area, beyond the halfway line, eyes toward the goal, creating opportunities, not only on corner kick headers - and, one must add, not in the way Guy Demel always, yes, always used to for Hamburg, going almost to the goal line before a predictable cross, but with a pass just before the 18-yard-box which poses a real threat of Gomez, Ribery Kroos nailing a goal - while allowing him to play defense and not scoot back behind a counter-attack. And Boateng has been drilled in Manchester or with Joachim Löw to stop doing long, inaccurate passes, but instead far less frequent and shorter passes which are 5 times better. He has evolved into a formidable player - still a bit of a hothead - from 2 years ago to where he is now - stabilizing the defense of Germany's best team and adding a potent, swift-footed and well-considered passing game to his powerful physique. A tremendously sage move by Bayern München higher-ups.
If the rumor is true that Boateng would tell his U-20 German international teammates to open a window using streetwise hoodlum talk: "Fenster auf, Opfer" (open the window, victim) - now the Bundesliga and CL opponents will have to figure out how to get the better of him or they'll be victims, too while onlookers can claim having looked on as willing victims in their admiration.
