Germany vs Argentina: Germany planned World Cup success to perfection

Photo by Times of India

RIO DE JANEIRO: Rio's morning after was quiet and tame. The sun had broken out early, and the city woke up to a strange Monday - of work, of a forgotten everyday grind and nursing a hangover of a just-finished World Cup. 
In the twittering of birds, the sound of the sidewalk sweeper's broom and the sporadic honks of the early bus service and airport taxis, a latecomer, on just being told that Germany had won the World Cup the evening before, screamed his lungs out and ran down the palm-fringed Rua Paiisandu in Flamengo here. All in all, it was like any other day here in Rio. 


At the same time, in Germany somewhere - Ruhr typically or Munich if you like - someone was switching off the main switches at a football factory, the well-oiled assembly lines squealing to a reluctant halt. But it was only to be a brief break: after stopping work to welcome their victorious Mannschaft home from Brazil, it would be back to work again - of producing home-bred footballers who would patiently work their way to another World Cup title in a few years time. 

In Rio's Maracana, the only stadium after the Azteca in Mexico City to host two finals, Germany showed how its tried and tested history always reaps rewards, of how having 66 per cent of homegrown players in your home league pays. The shrill Premiership could have done well to listen to the Germans and stopped splashing out the cash for foreign talent in regular positions of their clubs' teams. 

"There's too much money in English football, especially for the young kids," lamented 1990s star Chris Waddle to TOI after Germany's win on Sunday. 

Waddle belonged to a generation when England players meant something; also coincidentally, it was a time when German players meant everything. In 1990, Waddle and mates reached the semifinals, then got beaten by Germany who went on to beat Diego Maradona's Argentina to win the World Cup. Twenty four years later, the two finalists were at it again, with Germany again taking home the Cup. 

The story of Germany's harmonious multiculturalism is well known by now - Andre Schuerrle and Mario Goetze, who scored the winning goal off his pass, were the first players born in a unified Germany to appear in a final. 

Apart from them, five of this squad - Christoph Kramer, Shkodran Mustafi, Erik Durm, Julian Draxler and Matthias Ginter - were born after 1990 when West Germany won the Cup. 

This brings to the fore the point that Germany's triumph was the result of a 10-year planned investment in grassroots football - of identifying talent early and imparting the best possible training to them. 

In the past decade, Germany and Spain are the two countries which have invested heavily in youth and they are consecutive world champions. At 22 years and 39 days, Mario Goetze became the youngest scorer in a final after another German Wolfgang Weber (in 1966), who was a week younger. 

The youngest side in the semifinals at the last World Cup, Germany continued with their belief in youth. At 36, Miroslav Klose may have been the side's fast-moving dinosaur and the only survivor since Germany's last final in 2002, but there were 14 players in Joachim Loew's squad who were below 25 years of age. 

The next young squad, interestingly, was England with 10 under-25 players, and their cluelessness at this top level notwithstanding, it could augur well for the future. 

Loew, the fast-talking, soft-spoken manager, had surprisingly copped a lot of flak back home for his 'elusive tactical arrangements' and the team's uncertain performance against Algeria, after they had stormed through what was being considered as the Group of Death, comprising USA, Ghana and Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal. 

It didn't faze the man, nor did Sami Khedira's warm-up time calf muscle injury did. 

Looking back at his bench and the depth of it, he drafted in Christoph Kramer to help rein in Lionel Messi. When Kramer was injured, as Germany seemed rattled by the Argentine's refusal to back down, he sent in Schuerrle, an attacking player and a goal scoring supersub. It was a philosophy which continued from their opening game, a rout of a preening Portugal side. 

With 11 open play goals, Germany scored at least three more goals than any other team at the World Cup. And their total of 18 goals in this tournament was the most for a team in a single World Cup since Brazil in 2002. 

Then he had his old warhorses - Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Mesut Ozil. Schweinsteiger ran himself into the ground against Argentina, at one point even getting a few stitches below his eye, lying on the touchline. Ozil completed more passes in the final third (144) than any other player in the tournament, while Toni Kroos was second with 136. It was largely possible because Schweinsteiger had Lahm providing the cover for forays from midfield. 

In the end, as someone said, Brazil had Neymar, Argentina had Messi, Germany had a team. They also had a sweeper, who sometimes played as a goalkeeper. How could you ever beat such a combination? 

By Times Of India