Can Germany Prove the Doubters Wrong?

As far as pre-World Cup preparation goes, there are not many nations to have suffered as much as the Germans. In the lead up to the South African festivities, Joachim Loew’s provisional 27-man squad was whittled down to 24 purely by injuries. Captain and talisman Michael Ballack was famously the first to go in the FA Cup final. A few days later, one of his potential replacements, Christian Traesch bit the dust, too, in a warm-up game in South Tirol. Then it was the turn of the versatile Heiko Westermann, another candidate for what the Germans call the ‘No.6’ position, struck down in a friendly against Hungary.

With the provisional squad now down to 24, Loew only had to drop one player (Hoffenheim right-back Andreas Beck) before naming his final squad. Privately, Loew may have been a little thankful that so many important decisions were taken out of his hands. But, for a national team that places so much emphasis on pre-tournament preparation, it was hardly ideal, especially taking into account that the number one goalkeeper Rene Adler,  and yet another defensive midfielder Simon Rolfes, were ruled out through injury during the course of the Bundesliga season.

These injury problems left a number of unanswered questions. Who would be the new no.1 goalkeeper? Who would take the captain’s armband? Who would replace Ballack in midfield? Loew’s answer was to turn to youth. Manuel Neuer (24) has been anointed as 1^st choice keeper. Sami Khedira (23) will take up residence in central midfield and Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger (26, 25) will be captain and vice-captain respectively.

The new leaders

In keeping with this theme of youth, Lahm is Germany’s youngest ever captain, and he’ll be captaining Germany’s youngest World Cup squad since 1934. The quality coming out of Germany’s youth ranks has been mentioned before on this site,  and is surely not in question. However, a turn towards youth is a turn away from experience, and there certainly does seem relatively little in this squad. 13 members of the squad will be playing their first ever tournament and 12 of the 23-man party have less than 10 caps to their names.

Questions also remain over Germany’s starting line-up, with left-back, right-wing and centre-forward spots still uncertain. In the last friendly (a convincing 3-1 win at home to Bosnia) they were occupied by Holger Badstuber, Piotr Trochowski and Miro Klose. With the latter two out of form, there has been a strong clamour for them to be replaced by Thomas Mueller and ‘Helmut’ Cacau. The likes of Klose and Podolski will have a lot of work to do to justify their places after poor domestic campaigns this season. At the other end of the pitch, senior centre-back Per Mertesacker has been suffering from frequent concentration lapses.

Doubts also persist over the balance of Loew’s final squad. If Khedira or Schweinsteiger get injured, the next apparent candidate for the ‘No. 6’ is Hamburg’s Dennis Aogo, a left-back by trade. And is there really any need to bring 6 forwards (Cacau, Klose, Podolski, Gomez, Kiessling, Mueller) to a 4-week tournament.

Generation X in goal for Germany

Of course, World Cup history has taught us that nobody proves doubters wrong quite like the Germans. They have got it down to a form of fine art. Their World Cup final victories in 1954 and 1974 came against highly fancied and world renowned sides: ‘The Magnificent Magyars’ of Puskas and Hidegkuti in 1954 and Michels’ and Cruyff’s masters of Total Football in 1974. In 2002 a relatively poor German team made it all the way to the final. Germany’s progress to the final in 1986 famously had coach Franz Beckenbauer in fits of laughter: ‘can you believe we got to the final with these players??’

Perhaps it is this sense of history that has given the ‘Nationalmannschaft’ belief this time around.

Both manager and captain are bullish despite the apparent problems. The increasingly influential Lahm claims this is the best ever national squad he has worked with. Whilst Loew, who needs a good tournament to strengthen his future position, has been talking of ‘not just beating teams with traditional German virtues like running and battling. We want to dominate and outplay our opponents.’ This attitude was certainly reflected in Germany’s victorious performance against Bosnia.

Whether such confidence is misplaced or not remains to be seen but, if history has taught us anything, it is not to bet against the Germans.