Did Kroos give Germany the jump-start it needed?
It was another lacklustre showing.
Another performance so out of character from what everyone expects. Germany is supposed to be reigning World Champions, one of the favourites to win it all this year, but for two games now have played with a perplexing lack of ruthlessness so unbecoming of the German team we’ve come to expect.
For 94 minutes, it looked as if Germany was staring down the barrel of its first group stage exit since 1938. Losing to Sweden would have been instant elimination. Drawing would have meant they had a fighting chance if results elsewhere went their way.
It just so happened that Toni Kroos had other ideas, curling a free kick into the top corner with seconds left on the clock; a moment of shear brilliance, saving their blushes and saving a nation from going into meltdown. It provides Germany with a lifeline. An opportunity to go away and regroup, and try to come up with a reason as to why they’re playing at such an underwhelming level.
This will not be an easy task, however. For one, they are struggling to put the ball in the back of the net and this cautiousness in front of goal is causing most of Germany’s problems. They’ve had majority possession in both their games so far, which should be no surprise with Kroos running the show from midfield, but they have really struggled to create clear cut chances, and have been bizarrely open at the back to counterattacks.
This was exploited with such perplexing ease against Mexico when Herving Lozano caused untold damage down Germany’s left side for most of the game. Their backline certainly doesn’t look nearly as strong as it did four years ago, and they’re definitely missing Phillip Lahm’s presence and experience in that back 4.
But their problems are teamwide, and Timo Werner is clearly struggling with the responsibility of leading the line for the Germans. The 22 year old is a talented forward who many pegged to have a breakout tournament, but he’s so far struggled to impose himself on games. He does most of his damage with space to either run at, or behind, the opposition backline but because Germany play such a possession based style, he has found that space increasingly difficult to exploit.
He was moved to a wider position in the second half of their game to accommodate Mario Gomez and immediately had more success, helping set up Marco Reus’ equalizer so it will be interesting to see how he’s deployed for the third game.
Germany’s lack of incisiveness in the final third makes it that much more confusing why Leroy Sane was left at home. The 22year-old winger had an excellent season at Manchester City and would have injected some necessary pace and ingenuity to a team that has looked short of ideas on more than one occasion.
With Kroos’ 95th minute moment of magic, Germany, at least, has fate in its own hands again. A win against South Korea and they will progress to the knockout stages. Draw or lose, and things get far more complicated. They will then be reliant on Mexico beating Sweden, a tricky thing to rely on considering
Sweden’s robust defence. With no team guaranteed to qualify yet, the final round of games in Group F should be a fascinating affair, laden with caution and tension.
Both matches play simultaneously on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
As for Germany, one suspects that if they do manage to claw their way out of the group stages, then the best time to knock them out of the competition will have passed by.
The ruthless efficiency is bound to show up eventually, and with a lot of the team carried on from the 2014 squad, most of them have real experience progressing through the knockout rounds.
But above all, this squad is just too talented to keep playing so poorly, and the further on this competition progresses, the more likely they are to get things together; at the detriment to every other contending team. This squad aren’t as strong as the 2014 version, but there’s still excellence all over the pitch and it’s only a matter of time they figure it out.
We might look back at Sweden’s failure to hold out on Saturday as the turning point for Germany’s eventual run to the final.
Let’s wait and see if they can get out of the group stages first.
David Lewis is a sportswriter from Manchester, U.K., with a focus on international and European club soccer.