1. Germany is always prepared. Some teams complained before the tournament that Adidas let the German players practice and play with the new ball. The real question is not why Germany did it, but why the other nations didn’t. I can’t believe Adidas would say no to such request from the English or French federations.
Germany is always prepared. If there is a decision about a Sudden Death Goal rule, you can be assure that Germany will score the first sudden death goal in a final of an important tournament . If there is a new rule about an automatic red card for a certain kind of foul, you can be assure that Germany won’t commit such foul. I am sure they have special training for that. This is why Germany is willing to give up some quality in the local league: so the national team will be prepared come World Cup time.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi5QG533Osw[/youtube]
2. The Germans are always learning, but they always maintain their nucleus. The German national team is not much different from firms like Mercedes or Siemens – it has an excellent product and it maintains its level of the productivity by tracking and spying after what is working for the competition. Germans embrace what they like and then paint it in black – red-golden. What I mean is that no matter what happens, what additions and change are being made, Germany will always keep its atom.
When Sami Khedira, the young midfielder who made Germans forget about Michael Ballack, was asked about the flair the immigrants players brought to the national team with their ball handling skills, Khedira replied that it is nice that they can treat the fans with his ball control as long as it is not hurting the German virtues: ambition, rigor and discipline.
The latest two goals of Germany against England are typical German goals, counter attacks that were practiced over and over in training: the ball is being kicked to the left side, picked by one of Germany’s fastest wingers who dribbles it forward and waits for the waves of strikers in order to make the perfect pass for the goal.
But the second goal is also a tell. Watch it on YouTube. It reveals how the coaching staff adopted the methods of Barcelona, the most successful team in the world in the last couple of years. Three German players are making an isosceles triangle on one side of the midfield. Moeller is in the back and in the middle. He passes the ball and start moving forward, after two more passes Moeller gets the back. There is no one between him and the goal.
3. But the most revealing way to understand the continuing success of Germany in international tournaments, is by looking at the two blocs that crashed before and during the World Cup. The former Communist bloc collapsed completely as Croatia, the Czech Republic and Russia didn’t even make it to the tournament. Serbia collapsed. Slovakia enjoyed an easy draw and went down the first time it faced a serious foe. No one really expects anything from Hungary and Romania anymore. The collapse of communism took the national pride from these teams, the feeling they were playing for something bigger than just football. The only thing bigger that players from former communist countries are playing for is for bigger contracts. That is where their loyalty lies now.
The second crash involved Europe’s leading industrial nations. France failed because its biggest stars are playing abroad and everyone there hates each other. Italy and England collapsed because they sold their local leagues to billionaires with huge egos who want their desires to be fulfilled right away. Such structures don’t allow space and time to raise and foster young players from within the club. Instead, these teams invest their fortunes on players in the free market. That’s why we see the same players leading England to failure after failure. When the lineup of Inter Milan doesn’t include one local players, then Italy finds itself without fresh blood in the national team, and out of the tournament earlier than usual.
German ownership rules do not allow this madness, which makes the German league the most popular and competitive league in Europe. A league where young players are given the opportunity to play for the first team as a natural process of their advancement from the youth groups of this team. Germany, the world champion in the under 21 age group, gives its youngsters a chance to get their mileage on the highest level, to play crucial games in front of huge crowd, sometimes even a hostile crowd. Moreover, a young German will never feel that his team will prefer a foreign player over him, almost the opposite. It is a bit funny to write this about football in 2010, but young German players are actually playing for the flag and the national team’s uniform, they are playing to give back for the investment and trust in them. None of them are staring at other leagues–after Ballack’s injury, Germany was left as the only contender where all its players are playing in the local league.
Look at Bastian Schweinsteiger. Two years ago, in the European Championship, he was one of Germany’s stars as the team advanced to the final. Then he got lost in Bayern Munich’s crowded midfield only to reappear again now as the emotional leader of the team. Miroslav Klose blossoms every time he smells an international tournament. So is Podolski. Arne Friedrich is the leader of the defense after a season where his team allowed more than three goals per game.
It is possible to explain the German success with cliches like “Germany is Germany” or “it’s build for international tournaments”, but if one is looking for the content under the surface of these worn slogans, the truth is quite clear: Germany is the last European patriotic team.
