Ever since Mario Gomez joined Bayern Munich in 2009 from Stuttgart in a German record transfer fee, he has been a big time goal scorer for the German side. Gomez led the Bundesliga with 28 goals during the 2010-2011 season and was second in the German league with 26 goals this past year. His 54 combined goals in two consecutive seasons were the most in the league since Karl-Heinz Rummenigge scored a combined 55 goals over the 1979-1980 and 1980-1981 seasons.
Despite all of Gomez's success with his club in the Bundesliga, he had struggled with the German National Team to find the back of the net in major competitions. His failures to score in big time games, including in the Champions League Final last month against Chelsea, had left many wondering if Gomez was unable to come through in major tournaments.
In Euro 2008, Gomez was put in the starting XI for all three of Germany's games during the group stage and he was unable to ever find the back of the net. In fact, Gomez almost cost Germany a trip to the knockout stage after he failed to score a wide open goal against Austria with their goalie way out of position. After that miss, Gomez failed to see the field for the rest of the tournament except for a brief spell in the team's 1-0 finals loss to Spain.
Granted that Gomez didn't get any extended minutes on the field with Germany during the biggest tournament in international football, he still failed to score in 4 substitute appearances during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Once again another major tournament went by without Gomez showing his goal scoring ability and presence up front.
With Gomez's poor international goal scoring past, many German fans hoped that manager Joachim Löw would start Miroslav Klose as the lone forward in Germany's 4-2-3-1 formation against Portugal. Despite the fact that Gomez scored 41 goals in all competitions for Bayern during the season, Klose, who is second in Germany's all-time international scoring with 63 goals only behind Gerd Müller's 68 national team goals, seemed to be the favorite for the striker role with Thomas Müller along the right side and Lukas Podolski along the left side.
However, Low went with Gomez in his starting XI, but as the minutes rolled along and the game remained tied without a goal, the calls for Klose to replace Gomez grew louder and louder. The more possession that Germany had in the attacking third without truly testing Portuguese keeper Rui Patricio, put more and more pressure on Low to bring on Klose.
After being frustrated by Portugal's stingy defending for well over an hour, Gomez was finally able to break out of his international goal scoring slump in the 72nd minute. His goal scoring header, which came off of a deflected cross from midfield teammate Sami Khedira, not only silenced all of the Portuguese fans in the stadium in Lviv, but also quieted all of the doubters who began to lose faith in Gomez's ability to score with the national team.
Gomez's first goal in a major international tournament couldn't have come at a better time, as Germany looked like they lacked the creative genius needed to break down a back line with the likes of Pepe and Fábio Coentrão. His finish was world class, and a quintessential Mario Gomez goal, as he used his large body frame and 6'2'' height to lift up over Portuguese defender Joao Pereira for the headed finish.
Gomez's brilliant headed goal sealed the 1-0 win for Germany over Portugal.
Gomez's goal puts Germany in the driver's seat to win the group of death, but things are far from being set in stone. The Germans will take on a Netherlands side in four days that will be desperate to get a victory to crawl their way back into the top of the group. Following that match, Germany will have a fixture against a tough and impressive Denmark side that proved it deserves its number 9 FIFA World Rankings after it notched a 1-0 win over Holland in its opening match.
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