Andre knows all about Germans’ great expectations
ANDRE SCHURRLE is too young to be weighed down too much by the burden.
His first World Cup has gone well and his status in world football is being elevated every time he comes on and makes an impact — so, whatever happens now, the Chelsea player should have fond memories of 2014.
Yet, even at the age of 23 he is aware of the sense of unfulfilled expectations.
While the rest of the world is allowing itself to be overwhelmed by the consistency of the German national team reaching its fourth consecutive World Cup semi-final, the feeling in Schurrle’s homeland is different. They are dwelling on what more could be achieved, the feeling being this generation of players have been in gestation for some time now.
In reality, it is about time they won something.
‘We have this feeling,’ said Schurrle after the 1-0 win against France. ‘We all feel we have a big chance to win the World Cup.
‘In the last few years, we have come close in tournaments but now we want to win it.’
Per Mertesacker, the Arsenal centre-half who was dropped before the game against the French, expresses the same view.
‘We finished the last two World Cups in third place and that is really consistent,’ he said Mertesacker.
‘What we now need in Germany is a title as well.’
Before the game against France in the Maracana, Germany manager Joachim Low hung up a signed Germany shirt from the 1954 team in the dressing room. On Friday, as they prepared to take on France, Low wanted to remind his players it was 60 years to the day that German had won their first World Cup.
That victory was dubbed the ‘Miracle of Berne’ — but it laid the foundations of the post-war successes of German football.
Since then, there have been World Cup wins in 1974 and 1990, along with European Championship triumphs in 1972,
’80 and ’96.
The long gap between trophies is beginning to nag the Germans. ‘It’s quite a performance if you are constantly in semi-final,’ said Low. But he added: ‘Now, we will try to
CONFIDENT: make the next step.’ This is the German generation that won the European Under-21 Championships in 2009. In the final, their team included Manuel Neuer, Benedikt Howedes, Mats Hummels, Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil, all of whom started against France.
Brazil will be without Neymar and Thiago Silva for Tuesday’s semi-final and it now looks, with their creative spark gone, only power and determination will get them over the line to the final.
For Germany, the opportunities are suddenly opening up.