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Germans are craving fresh glory to help cure recent ills
JUST two years ago, Germany was celebrating the country’s first World Cup win since East and West came together in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall. As Euro 2016 approaches, however, Joachim Loew’s stuttering team are badly in need of another trophy to reunify a fractured footballing nation.
At national team level, there has been precious little to shout about since Mario Gotze’s stoppage-time goal beat Argentina 1-0 in the Maracana on July 13, 2014 as the Germans became the first European team to win the World Cup in South America.
The world champions were unimpressive in topping qualifying Group D, which featured Scotland. In the last eight months, Loew’s side has beaten only Georgia, Hungary and a weakened Italy. Ireland, Slovakia, Poland, USA, England and France — on the night of the Paris attacks last November — have all left the Germans in their wake.
And during the nation’s worst run of results in 16 years, many of the jewels of the much-lauded DFB youth development programme that produced such gems as Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Andre Schurrle, Julian Draxler and Gotze himself have been either treading water or are in decline.
Off the park, meanwhile, Germany is still scarred by the corruption scandal that engulfed the DFB over the hosting of the 2006 World Cup, forcing German FA president Wolfgang Niersbach to step down last season.
And the feelgood factor surrounding the Bundesliga — everyone’s favourite league just three years ago when it supplied both Champions League finalists, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund — has given way to the dullness of a Munich monopoly.
A competition that had five different winners in 10 years, Bayern have now been crowned champions four years in a row. Last season Dortmund enjoyed the best campaign in the club’s history and still could not come close to toppling the Bavarian powerhouse.
With Pep Guardiola heading for Manchester City, following former Dortmund sparring partner and now Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp to England, suddenly German football is no longer the envy of the world.
Taking Spain’s Euro crown to add to their World Cup winning status would truly be a panacea for all of Germany’s ills. And while there is mounting pressure on the second favourites — behind hosts France — Loew insists the real Germany are ready to stand up at Euro 2016.
‘I expected some difficulties (after the World Cup),’ he admitted. ‘It’s nothing unusual. Every team has to go through a period like that. Some players retired, some suffered injuries and some players had to go through an emotional downturn. But we are all very much looking forward to kick-off in France. Our team is ambitious and hungry.
‘We know we have a very good team and we know we can perform on a high level. But at the same time we know we are not unbeatable. But, as world champions, everybody expects us to win the title in France. And we want to do that.’
Having reached the semi-final or final of the last five tournaments, it would be unimaginable if Germany were unable to navigate their way through Group C featuring Poland, Ukraine and Northern Ireland. But they will need to be wary given that the Poles finally ended their winless record against their close neighbours at the 19th time of asking when they met in qualifying.
Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland, meanwhile, are, incredibly, the form team of the tournament and deserve respect for being unbeaten in their last 12 games.
Ukraine have talented players like Taras Stepanenko and Andriy Yarmolenko but there is bad blood in their dressing room. The pair are currently not speaking after Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Stepanenko was blatantly kicked by Yarmolenko for kissing his club’s badge and staging a provocative goal celebration in front of Dynamo Kiev fans in a domestic derby match last month.
In Manuel Neuer, Germany can still call upon the best goalkeeper in the world but they are suspect at full-back after the retirement of Philipp Lahm and up front after all-time World Cup leading scorer Miroslav Klose finally hung up his record-breaking boots.
An injury to Borussia Dortmund attacker Marco Reus has meant a recall after two years for Mario Gomez, an old fashioned No 9 who finished as leading scorer in the Turkish league with Besiktas.
But 26-year-old Thomas Muller will shoulder the goals burden. He heads to France on the back of his most prolific season yet for Bayern Munich and should end up his nation’s top scorer.
In midfield, injuries to Manchester City-bound Ilkay Gundogan, who was ruled out of the squad for France, and current worries over veteran Bastian Schweinsteiger’s fitness and form, could mean 20-year-old Julian Weigl may be given the chance to impress after a sensational breakthrough season in the Bundesliga with Dortmund.
‘People always want more but it’s difficult,’ said striker Lukas Podolski of the pressure for his side to win and follow on from their World Cup triumph. ‘Everyone wants to beat the world champions, everyone will defend well against us and everyone will fight. Our target will be to break down teams like Ukraine and Northern Ireland. They don’t want to play like France or Spain — they want to defend.’
A side with a history of coming good at tournament time, Loew needs to get his players back up to top form and into tournament mode if they are to end Spain’s eight-year reign as kings of the continent and appease the fans at home.
‘Having success at the Euros in France is very important to Germany,’ general manager Oliver Bierhoff, whose golden goal won Euro 96 for the Germans at Wembley, told Kicker.
‘It would be very important for the country, and what the fans crave if we could all go back to talking about football again.’