let’s face it. the germans will win this worldcup. sad as it is, of the remaining teams in the tournament, they have the strongest team. by far! the only team that could have beaten them were brazil. on a good day … ok, on a very good day.
but while everybody and their vuvuzela-hating dog seems to rave how the germans play a much more attractive football than in previous years, i just don’t see it that way. and i really really tried to be open to see the beauty in their game. yes, there is more technical ability in the team. yes, they actually win games instead of just relying on their unbelievable luck – as most previous german squads did… but no, they don’t play a beautiful football. and here are my top 5 reasons:
emotionless
football is all about emotions. it is fascinating to watch a team or individual players struggle with their emotions, to see how they might start to doubt in their abilities, then suddenly find confidence again and flare up with great exuberance. these emotional ups and downs are what make football fun to watch. almost all teams you’ll ever watch seem prone to emotional flare ups. not so the germans.
the germans seem extremely rational in their approach to football. let’s assume that there is no way that they don’t actually experience these emotions, the doubt, the fear, the nervousness, since these are part and parcel of human nature, isn’t it almost eerie how they somehow never seem to show them? they must have somehow found a way to push emotions aside. as a result they play more like emotionless robots. as we have seen time and time again this is very effective, but it is definitely not a lot fun to watch.
take the example of klose. this past season he hardly ever played for his club. every other player in this position would be insecure, or at least experience some doubts. not so klose. he just slams in goal after goal after goal. and even his goal celebration seems almost mechanical, no real joy there, just a little squirt of “jetzt aber”.
shock and awe
this well known military tactic seems to be what the germans use to win their games. watch any german game and you will notice that the first 10 to 15 minutes they play extremely aggressive football. germans just steamroll their opponents at the start of the game, they commit most of their fouls in the first 15 minutes. every player, including their strikers, rushes toward the opponents ball carrier, often two three players gang up for this and often they are just barely keeping it civil enough not be bookable offenses. they take that risk, because it helps them achieve what they want, which is to intimidate their opponent. they don’t try to impress with their skill, as brazilians or other teams do, but to put the living fear into the other team.
as a result german teams are feared, not respected. this type of behavior can be compared to that of schoolyard bullies. very often even the referees seem to get intimidated by it. when the spanish referee gave klose a red card for this type of bullying, the german team put in a lot of effort to criticize him after the game. the media intimidation seems to have worked. again they get away with much too much at the start of every game, with the referees turning a blind eye to their excessive aggressiveness.
physicality over technique
i love to watch football for the skill, the fast paced tricks and gems, the touches of genius, the surprising twists and turns. very little of that can be seen in the german game. while it is true that there is a little more skill in team, with özil and – at times – with schweinsteiger, most of what makes them win is still their physical dominance. it’s fast, it’s aggressive, and most of all it is very very very physical. but it lacks the fun factor.
everyone in germany is raving about the multikulti truppe, how all these players from different cultural backgrounds were integrated, how they have players with turkish, tunesian, polish, spanish, whatnot roots. but just check out their player with roots in ghana and tunesia. they look very very german when it comes to technical skills, playing the typical german “hauruck” fussball. of all these players with roots in different cultures only özil seems to have kept some flare and creativity. isn’t this strange? it almost looks as if they made a conscious effort to play in such a way. again, it might be effective, but it is not at all fun to watch.
no stars
football comes alive because of the stars. the messis, the ronaldos, the rooneys. you can like them, or not like them, but they add to football with their personalities, their stories, their style.
german teams generally don’t have stars. the only german star, ballack, was injured for the tournament. and some people wondered if the young team could cope with him missing out. strangely the team seems almost relieved by his absence.
there’s a german dictum, one of the so-called “deutsche tugenden” that have been cited many times before, the german virtues: “der star ist die mannschaft”, the star is the team. in theory i can maybe agree, but in practice, you need the stars to make football interesting to watch.
they use black magic
just kidding.
but seriously, something is not right. for instance, if you compare how argentina played in their previous games and then against germany, the difference seems almost unbelievable. argentina in their previous four games had created many great chances, and it was often only their opponents goalkeepers, who had to pull incredible stunts do deny them many more goals.
messi alone had at least 10 unbelievable shots denied by goal keepers, all of them were precise and placed in the corners. against germany every shot went straight towards the keeper. every single one! that is bizarre. and almost a little bit spooky. i mean, yes, the german play destructive football, they probably pressed messi harder than all the other teams. but how every single argentinian shot could go straight towards the keeper, not even forcing him to pull out one difficult save, that is more than a little bit weird. of course it is futile to argue the what if and could have beens, but if lampard’s goal would have been accepted, as it should have been, maybe we would have seen a different game.
another german dictum: “das glück erzwingen”. “to force one’s luck” would be my translation. for them this means fighting and fighting and fighting until luck finds you. ok, so far so good. but how can a german team at the same time force bad luck onto their opponents?
edit: looks like tom mallows of dangerhere.com agrees: It is still the same old Germany
Hello. Came across this and just felt like giving my thoughts.
I can understand how Germany’s play isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (possession and counter-attacking football as opposed to direct attacking), but your 5 reasons seem rather strange. Maybe you just weren’t watching out for it?
1. emotionless
Salto-miro (or that fantastic somersaults he did in the Argentina game) and his 3 fingered salute to his wife and two kids. Captain Philipp Lahm tearing after their 1-0 loss to Spain. Thomas Muller going mad every time he scores a goal (especially after the 3rd minute Argentina one). There are other teams who played without passion or desire (I am looking at you Enger-land), but Germany is definitely not one of them.
2. shock and awe
It is quite strange that you claim Brazil played to impress with skill when they were the exponents of scaring their opponents into submission in this world cup (not the previous editions, mind). But North Korea didn’t back down, neither did Chile and finally the Dutch showed them up. Felipe Melo and Lucio out did Mark van Bommel in the Netherlands-Brazil game in terms of fouls. While Germany does press hard, even Spain have praised them for showing more respect and not fouling them as opposed to the way the Dutch did in the final. And if you were really following the German team, you would notice that in this world cup (with the exception of the Argentina game), they tend to start very slowly and be on the back heel for precisely the first 10-15 minutes, often resorting to last ditch blocks. This is not shock and awe, it is more being shocked and awed by the occasion before slowly settling in.
3. physicality over technique
While previous German sides do tend to value physicality alot, this side lacks it. Not because it is intended, but because injury has robbed them of their more physical players. With Ballack and Rolfes both out, they are left with Schweinsteiger, Khedira and Ozil in midfield. Schweinsteiger used to be more physical but has since mellowed, typified by the high number of fouls he suffered in all their matches as opposed to ones he gives out. Khedira does fit your bill of physicality over technique, but like you mentioned, Ozil is the direct opposite. As for the rest – Podolski and Muller both demonstrated slick passing and dribbling down the wings, Lahm has always used skill more than strength due to his size, and Friedriech is known for choosing short passing over long hacks (sometimes getting his defense into tangles as a result). Yes, there is physicality, but from each of their counter-attacks, it can be seen that slick passing is the reason why they won their games.
4. no stars
No well known ones yet, maybe. But the world cup is just as well known for making stars as showcasing ones already there. And while the ‘old guard’ has fallen flat, it is the individual brilliance of the young Germans that are the talk of all. Mesut Ozil is wanted by every major club. Sami Khedira has just secured a move to ‘galacticos’ Real Madrid. Bastian Schweinsteiger is labelled as the ‘most complete midfielder’. Philipp Lahm reiterates his case for the title of ‘best fullback in the world’. But most tellingly, the cries of foul when Thomas Muller got his 2nd yellow and how many were saying he could have spurred Germany to victory over Spain if not for that mistake.
It is true that Germany doesn’t have a single star – but that may be because (a little like Spain) they have a whole team filled with them.
5. they use black magic
Rumours of Podolski resorting to a traditional healer to find his scoring form may support that, but I have an alternate way of reasoning – they have a tactic genius for a manager. Germany has looked especially good in most of their games simply because they bring out their opponents’ worst flaws. Argentina looked good against the ‘smaller’ teams (shock and awe anyone?) but at the back of most people’s minds, we knew they had a week defense. Germany pressed the point and ripped them apart.
As for blocking out Messi, it was perhaps even simpler. Messi has many good points, but ball-winning isn’t one of them. In Barcelona, he had Xavi and Iniesta to constantly find him in space with defense splitting passes. Yet for all their sparkling forwards, Argentina lacked midfield creativity. As a result, if you control the midfield (as Germany did) Messi wouldn’t be given any chance to demonstrate his magic since the ball wouldn’t be getting to him. And in the occasional time when it did get to him, the packed midfield meant he had no where to go and no angles to create. When you can’t find your teammates, the best thing to do is to have a pop at goal, and in the central positions he was hassled into, Messi could only fire tamely at Neuer.
In fact, England’s better midfield (as opposed to Argentina’s) resulted in them actually scoring against Germany since the midfield battle was slightly more equal. But Germany won both games because they knew to expose the defensive frailties in the other teams.
All that said, I don’t mean to put down your article. I just think better reasons can be found for disliking this Germany, like:
1. A paper defense that Lahm at times almost single-handedly scotch-tapes together. On-the-line clearances against Australia and Ghana, last ditch blocks against Ghana and England… And when Lahm is off with illness in the last match, they immediately concede 2 easy goals. They can’t always score and hope.
2. A top-class XI but a slightly lacking squad since plenty of positions seem irreplaceable. As is mentioned above, their captain is a must-have, as is vice-captain Schweinsteiger. They have also look less sharp when Cacau replaced Klose (in the Ghana game), and Muller’s loss was devastating. I am not sure they can afford to lose Podolski, Ozil and Khedira either.
3. Wasteful in front of goal. 4-0, 4-1, 4-0 yes, but it should really have been 10-0, 8-1, 7-0. Klose especially (when he is chasing a goal-scoring record too!), but Podolski (in the Serbia game!), Ozil (in 1-on-1 situations) and even Muller (should have had a counter-attack hat-trick against England) have been the culprits.
4. Dodgy goal keeping. Neuer is young, and that ‘ghost goal’ acting was top class, but he is no Kahn. May grow to be a Lehmann, though.
5. ‘In-shock’ mentality after decision go against them. Youth may be the factor, but against Serbia they collapsed after the red card and took some time to recover. And again after England scored through Upson. They have improved by the semifinals though, since they didn’t breakdown against Spain (although they couldn’t break Spain down either).
So while I understand how you may not be won over, maybe you could reconsider your reasons? Or clarify them if I understood wrongly.
(btw, I am a German NT fan. But I still think they can improve.)
thank you for your impressive response. we disagree on every point, obviously ;p and we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
even i have to admit that the germans played a much more watchable football than ever before. it’s still mostly fast counter attacking football, which in and off itself i find lame, but it is executed really quite well. or am i just soooo happy, that they didn’t win against spain, that i feel generous?